"There was a choppy start in his rookie year," he said. "And when I came in, we had some cleaning up to do, which delayed another year of adding talent and supporting. And then in terms of the game, I feel like he was making strides and improving. … It's really the timeline and how much runway you have. Because to get a guy up off the ground, you need to support him with as much talent as possible. And then that flips because it takes so much cap space."
Think people are misinterpreting Poles comment on timeline. What Poles is getting at is that Fields contract timeline was out of sink with the rebuild. He had a wasted year under Pace and Nagy. His 2nd year was the tear down and now his 3rd year he was improving.
However the issue is he hasnt improved enough to make it clear he is the franchise and now if you give him another year you will have to then make a decision on paying him 40-50m.
Williams by contrast is coming in at the end of the initial rebuild and they will have 3-4 years to evaluate him before having to pay him big money.
So I think Poles is admitting the Bears did Fields no favors. Not out of spite or because Fields wasnt Poles guy but simply by virture of how circumstances unfolded. Bears probably should have let Pace and Nagy stay if the goal was to develop Fields as once Poles came onboard and felt a tear down was necessary that made it an uphill battle for Fields.
