As the Bears are weighing their options with Justin Fields and the No. 1 draft pick, the teams playing Sunday could point them to a decision.
The surest way for a team to give itself a chance at the Super Bowl on a regular basis is to find a star quarterback. There’s a long list of details to work out after that, but it all starts there.
The Chiefs have that in Patrick Mahomes, whom they drafted 10th in 2017 when the Bears went for Mitch Trubisky at No. 2, and quickly reached the point where success was defined — as it should be — by championships. In the big-money, incredibly competitive landscape of professional sports, no team should aim any lower.
The 49ers are still trying to determine if Brock Purdy is at that level. He doesn’t need to be as good as Mahomes — no one currently is — but teams like the Ravens with two-time MVP Lamar Jackson, the Bills with Josh Allen and a few others know they have someone who would give them a legitimate chance at taking down Mahomes.
“Since Patrick’s been here, it’s now become about Super Bowls,” said Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, the former Bears coach. “The last five or six years, it’s almost an expectation that you’ve gotta be in the Super Bowl or it’s a bust year … but that’s a good thing.”
Both teams playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday offer a potential roadmap for the Bears, who missed the playoffs for the third season in a row at 7-10 and are weighing whether to stick with Justin Fields or draft a new quarterback like USC’s Caleb Williams with the No. 1 pick.
The gap between Fields and Mahomes is as vast as the Mojave Desert, illustrated sharply by their matchup this season as Mahomes threw three touchdown passes and called it a day in the third quarter with a 41-0 lead while Fields threw for 99 yards.
He’s miles behind Purdy — fourth in MVP voting this season — as well, which pretty much nullifies any notion of the Bears trying to do what the 49ers did.
