After the Chicago Bears traded Justin Fields over a week ago, the consensus is that they will choose USC quarterback Caleb Williams with the first pick of the NFL Draft this coming April. They sent a small village of personnel to visit Williams before USC’s Pro Day.
General manager Ryan Poles has been talking nonstop about how much he loves Williams and his abilities so unless he is a genius at trolling it appears 99 percent sure that Poles and the Bears will select Williams with the top overall pick. Now the question is what happens with the next pick.
The Bears have another top-ten pick by virtue of their record. The first pick came as a result of the trade with the Carolina Panthers. With only four picks in the draft (half of them in the first round) there are many who feel that Chicago will trade the ninth pick to acquire more.
While many feel the Chicago Bears could trade the ninth pick, it appears as if they will use it instead.
Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus made the rounds with the media during the owners meetings this week. In-between talking about how Williams is the next great quarterback, they also gave some clues as to what they will di with the ninth pick. They sound an awful lot as if they plan to use the pick and not to trade it.
“He’s an outstanding young man, and everything looks great in terms of his personality, his character, his football knowledge …”#Bears coach Matt Eberflus joined me to talk Caleb Williams (and more) on @gmfb @nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/Qw39zaQYqG
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 26, 2024
Eberflus spoke on having blue-chip players at both one and nine. That means that they don’t plan on trading that ninth pick. Poles went more in-depth, talking about the positions the Bears plan on going after.
“We’re gonna do some cool things when we get back (to Halas Hall), kind of break into teams. One team is going to talk about ‘the tackle position is the best to go after,’ ‘the wide receiver’s the best,’ ‘the defensive end’s the best’ — and use factual information to kind of spit that out. And we’ll have a debate…”
As you can see, it does not appear as if the Chicago Bears will trade the ninth pick. We know with Poles’ history that there will be trades made. However, it looks as if he will use his third and fourth round picks to try to acquire more. How that works will remain to be seen.
Poles and Eberflus have a lot riding on Williams. They want to make sure he succeeds. If they do use the pick, one would imagine that the player would be a wide receiver or offensive tackle. Adding a weapon for Williams or protection for him would be a wise choice.
However, there is another valuable player who needs some protection. The Bears invested at least $98 million in defensive end Montez Sweat. He transformed the defense as soon as he came over from a trade deadline deal. We saw, though, in the final game of the season against the Green Bay Packers, how teams will try to neutralize him.
The Packers sent a multitude of bodies at Sweat, slowing his path to the quarterback. Without having anyone to make them pay for that, the Bears’ defense could not pressure quarterback Jordan Love, and he easily torched the defense. Will Poles prioritize Williams over Sweat? We shall see.
In his first year as general manager, he had five total picks, two in the second round. He used those second round picks and ended up with good picks — cornerback Kyler Gordon and safety Jaquan Brisker. He also used his third pick on wide receiver Velus Jones Jr. That was not a good pick. He used the next two picks to pick up eight middle-to-late round picks. Let’s see what happens this year.
