From the outside looking in, it definitely felt like the Chicago Bears were having Justin Fields audition for his job last season. But before their campaign en route to trading the 2023 No. 1 overall draft pick even began, GM Ryan Poles was forthright about his bright third-year signal caller’s situation.

According to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, the Bears and Poles never told Fields he was their long-term starting quarterback. But they never had to because actions speak louder than words.

Last April, after indirectly affirming with Fields that they’d like to see him grow, the Bears showed their young quarterback their 2022 draft board. I don’t know about you, but I probably wouldn’t be showing someone I had no intention of keeping around my future plans, let alone discussing my team-building process.

More from Sports Illustrated:

“I [Poles] brought Justin in the draft room and I showed him our board in April and how I thought it was gonna play out, because I knew the media was going to be asking me about not drafting a receiver,” Poles says. “I explained to him how I use the value on the board to drive those decisions. I showed him how it was going to fall, because I wanted him to hear it from me before it happened. That’s important for me because I don’t want the guy to question whether or not I am trying to get him better.

“I want him [Fields] to know that I’m building a football team and how I’m doing it.”

Poles has seemingly only backed up his words since that fateful moment. While Fields was busy tearing up the league as an electric playmaker in the fall, the GM traded for big-body receiver Chase Claypool. Then, when the Bears traded the top pick in the 2023 NFL draft, Poles insisted that the Carolina Panthers include elite wideout D.J. Moore so Fields could really take the next step. That’s because, all of a sudden, he had one of the league’s best receiving corps on paper.

Now, to everyone inside and outside of the Bears’ building, it’s abundantly clear Fields is Chicago’s future. But it looks like that was always the case for Poles, who has let his unsubtle gestures and deals let Fields know how he feels about his prospects as NFL quarterback.

Fields can be special, the natural leader of a perennial championship contender … if he gets the support from a proactive GM.