With the recent news of Justin Fields being shipped off to Pittsburgh, the Chicago Bears continue their active offseason full of polarizing moves. Along with the Fields trade, the Bears traded for Keenan Allen from the Chargers and signed D’Andre Swift and Kevin Byard away from the Eagles. These additions have the potential to be boom or bust for the franchise, but with the addition of a potential franchise quarterback and edge rusher in the draft, history shows signs of a playoff leap for the Windy City.
The main thing has just been, it was a decision with my family and my team and it really came down to not all 32 teams can draft me. So why give all 32 teams my personal, medical things.
There’s nothing there. I played all 30, however, games I played. I’ve never came off the field unless my helmet came off and a ref took me off.
While comments like these can cause concerns for some prospects, Williams’ tape outweighs all those concerns. The quarterback looks like the best prospect to come out of college since Trevor Lawrence, showing very few weaknesses on the field. The scrutiny that Williams’ receives seems to be coming from those that are looking for anything to criticize the young star on, and the Bears would be sorely mistaken to pursue any other option besides Williams with the first overall pick.
With the ninth pick, the Bears will look to fill one of their other key holes at edge rusher and they should have their choice of stud prospects at those positions.
UCLA’s Laiatu Latu has shot up draft board over the course of the past couple months. The edge rusher piled up 13 sacks and four turnovers in 2023 for the Bruins, initially placing him in top-20 draft spot. After an extremely impressive combine, Latu’s stock jumped into the top ten of many expert’s big boards. Latu looks to bring a strong pass rush with a deep bag of moves that looks to pair well with Montez Sweat’s ability to single-handedly disrupt the run game.
If the Bears decide to pass on Latu or he is off the board by the ninth pick, other options at the edge position look to be promising, as well. Florida State’s Jared Verse, Alabama’s Dallas Turner and Penn State’s Chop Robinson had all been mocked to the Bears prior to Latu’s meteoric rise. All three performed very well at the combine and they will most likely all be first round picks. Any of them would be solid additions to a very weak Chicago pass rush.
With these two key additions, the Bears will look to make some noise across the league. The NFC North could be the most competitive division in the NFL this year, and the Bears will look to surprise everyone and make a jump into the top tier competitors.
Let’s take a look at what the Bears can do compared to a team that just made a huge leap in 2023 in order to help them take that next step.
With the second pick in the 2023 NFL draft, the Houston Texans selected quarterback C.J. Stroud and then traded up to get the third pick, where they took Alabama edge rusher Will Anderson Jr. Both players were instrumental in the Texans jumping from the second pick to a playoff berth. While the Bears situation looks slightly different, their selections should mirror Houston’s from last season in order to compete in the NFC North.
The Bears have the first overall pick, where it is widely speculated they will select the consensus top prospect, Caleb Williams. Much like Stroud, Williams has spenta majority of the past season as one of the best quarterbacks in college football. Once the offseason hit, though, both quarterbacks were scrutinized for qualities that are not entirely related to what happens on the field.
