The Chicago Bears ushered in a new era when they traded Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers, clearing the way for incoming rookie Caleb Williams (most likely).

General manager Ryan Poles met with the media for the first time since the Fields trade at the NFL owners meetings in Orlando, where he said there was “a lot to unpack” when it came to trading Fields, Alyssa Barbieri of USA Today's Bears Wire reports.

“There was a choppy start in his rookie year,” Poles said, via the Chicagco Sun-Times. “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.”

Poles also emphasized the importance of the timeline with having a rookie quarterback under contract, and it seems that played a huge role in the decision.

“It’s really the timeline and how much runway you have,” Poles said. “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.”

Poles went to Matt Eberflus’ house to call Fields together to inform him of the trade. Poles admitted trading Fields was “probably one of the harder things I’ve had to do” on a personal level.

“Having that conversation with my own son was hard,” Poles said. “His jersey’s up in his room.”

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