{"id":166504,"date":"2024-03-17T13:00:50","date_gmt":"2024-03-17T17:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=166504"},"modified":"2024-03-16T21:09:32","modified_gmt":"2024-03-17T01:09:32","slug":"zach-wilson-trade-justin-fields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/03\/17\/zach-wilson-trade-justin-fields\/","title":{"rendered":"Why The Justin Fields Trade Is Bad News For This Quarterback"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Bears just agreed to a trade that will send Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> for essentially nothing. After three up-and-down years with a subpar Bears roster, the best Chicago could get was a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft<\/a>. This is a paltry return for a quarterback who, at the very least, has proven he can be a decent bridge quarterback or a high-end backup. If this is what it costs to get Fields, then the New York Jets might not be able to trade Zach Wilson at all.<\/p>\n

Originally selected with the second-overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, the Zach Wilson Era has been an unmitigated disaster in New York. Taking over an admittedly flawed roster as a rookie, the BYU product finished his inaugural season completing 55.6% of his passes for 2,334 yards, nine touchdowns, and 11 interceptions. He followed this up with a disastrous 2022 campaign where the team benched him midway through the season. After acquiring Aaron Rodgers via trade<\/a>, the team had to turn back to Zach Wilson after the four-time MVP tore his Achilles in Week 1.<\/p>\n

Does Anyone Want Zach Wilson After Justin Fields Trade?<\/h2>\n

Historically speaking, even the worst first-round quarterbacks always get a second chance somewhere else, even if it is as a backup. The last first-round pick to not receive a second contract was Johnny Manziel, and he had a long, long list of reasons why he was completely unemployable. Sure, Paxton Lynch never made another 53-man roster after signing with a new team, but he had an opportunity to fight for a job. However, trying to find a trade partner for Zach Wilson is going to be difficult.<\/p>\n

Teams are not as optimistic as they used to be. In the past, organizations would hold on to hope that a flawed player with first-round draft capital could figure it out in a new environment. This is part of the reason the Carolina Panthers gave up a second-round pick for Sam Darnold just three years ago. However, that line of thinking is starting to die out, as evidenced by the meager return for Justin Fields and, to a lesser extent, Mac Jones<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zach Wilson has been worse than Fields and Jones, so it’s safe to wonder if anyone would trade anything for him. Even a conditional seventh-round pick swap seems like a stretch, considering a team would need to take on a portion of his $11.1 million cap hit. However, if he is released, someone is going to kick the tires on him and see what he can do.<\/p>\n

Possible Team Fits<\/h3>\n

New Orleans Saints<\/h4>\n

With Jameis Winston in Cleveland, the New Orleans Saints need a new backup quarterback. Derek Carr is nothing special, but he’s considerably better than the underwhelming duo of Nathan Peterman and Taysom Hill. The Saints have seven Day 3 draft picks, so they might be willing to trade a sixth-round pick for Zach Wilson and a seventh-rounder.<\/p>\n

San Francisco 49ers<\/h4>\n

Zach Wilson replaced Sam Darnold in New York, and he might do the same with a trade to the San Francisco 49ers. Darnold recently signed a contract to be Minnesota’s bridge quarterback, leaving a wide-open spot behind Brock Purdy on the 49ers depth chart. Wilson won’t need to be a superhero in this scheme, he’ll just need to hit the open targets that Shanahan’s system naturally produces.<\/p>\n

Kansas City Chiefs<\/h4>\n

Patrick Mahomes is the best quarterback in the world. Chris Oladokun and Ian Book are not. Historically speaking, the Chiefs prefer to have a veteran quarterback serving as insurance for Mahomes. However, with Blaine Gabbert still out there as a free agent, there is a chance that Kansas City is considering a new option at QB2. A Zach Wilson trade would give them a player with the physical tools to keep the playbook relatively unchanged in the event Mahomes has to miss a few weeks.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Sam Navarro – USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justin Fields could only net a conditional Day 3 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, so will any team want to trade for Zach Wilson?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":166511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,16,28,31],"tags":[7811,6990,7659,7201],"class_list":["post-166504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jets","category-chiefs","category-saints","category-49ers","tag-chiefs-featured","tag-justin-fields","tag-saints-featured","tag-zach-wilson"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}