Chicago Bears Expected To Receive "Litany" Of Offers For #1 Pick

Teams are usually expected to keep the #1 pick and take the best player available. That has been the case in five of the past six drafts. Everybody knew Myles Garrett, Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Joe Burrow, and Trevor Lawrence would be the picks long before the draft even began. This year is different. The Chicago Bears sit atop the board. They already have a quarterback. Several teams below them need one. It seems like the ideal situation for a trade to take place. GM Ryan Poles is in the middle of a rebuild. His roster lacks talent and depth. He wants to build through the draft. Stockpiling more picks makes sense.

What people don't know is whether a trade will happen. It isn't exactly a common occurrence. The #1 pick has only been traded four times in the past 30 years. Poles will be treading on rare ground if he goes through with it. Former NFL executive Joe Banner made it sound like other teams will make it almost impossible not to.

"Between now and the April draft, the Bears will be offered a litany of trade proposals for the No. 1 pick, and the temptation to jump at one of them will be enormous."

It makes sense. Six teams in the top 10 have at least some questions at the quarterback position. Houston, Indianapolis, Atlanta, and Carolina have clear needs. Seattle must decide if they want to extend Geno Smith. Las Vegas will be trading Derek Carr. If none of those teams find a veteran solution in free agency or the trade market, the desperation to get #1 will intensify.

The Chicago Bears should get answers by the end of February.

Around that time, the Senior Bowl and other all-star games will have concluded. The scouting combine ends in early March. Teams will have a far better feel of this 2023 quarterback crop by then. They'll also have a good idea of where the top veteran options, such as Carr, Tom Brady, Lamar Jackson, and Jimmy Garoppolo end up. If Brady stays in Tampa Bay and Jackson stays in Baltimore, that would severely limit the options for those teams. Carr could end up in a place like Tennessee or New York. Garoppolo isn't exactly the ideal prize anybody hopes for.

If Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, and Will Levis do their jobs over the next month, the hype machine will take care of the rest. At that point, all the Chicago Bears have to do is weigh the offers and pick the one that they think gives them the best chance to build a championship roster. It may depend on which players they like in this class and how far they believe they can drop while still getting the one they want. There are lots of moving parts to this process. It is likely answers will come sometime in mid-March or early April.