GM Ryan Poles isn't going to tell anybody his plans for the upcoming draft. All anybody can say with confidence at this point is the Chicago Bears will take a quarterback #1 overall. Most believe that quarterback will be Caleb Williams. After that, it becomes a guessing game. There is no shortage of directions the Bears could go at #9 overall. The general assumption is Poles will target one of the top three wide receivers, hoping to stock the arsenal of weapons for his young quarterback. However, there has been an interesting subplot developing of late, and the Bears' top 30 visits have hinted at it.
One thing that has stood out lately is how the Bears have been meeting with several names expected to go outside of the top 10. That was especially clear when Kevin Fisbain of The Athletic revealed their latest schedule of names.
Two of them, Latu and Worthy, are projected as mid-to-late 1st round options according to most experts. The same is true of Oklahoma tackle Tyler Guyton, Penn State edge rusher Chop Robinson, and Duke offensive lineman Graham Barton. All are projected to go in the same range. This could mean nothing, but it's difficult not to feel like this is a warning sign the Bears may have designs on moving down from #9 overall.
This idea has plenty of merit from the Chicago Bears' perspective.
While taking a potential blue-chip player at #9 is an easy sell, one fact remains impossible to ignore. As of now, the team only has four picks in the entire draft. While Poles has said he is comfortable with that, given how thin the overall class is, it doesn't fit with his personality since taking over. His first two drafts included 11 and 10 picks, respectively. The Bears GM has said he wishes to build through the draft. It is difficult to do that when one of those classes only has four picks. If he feels it's possible to still get a great player at, say, #14 or #15 vs. #9, it makes sense to move down and add one or two more.
As always, it all comes down to how the board falls. For the Chicago Bears to enact such a plan, they need the right players on the board when they go on the clock and a team that wants to come up for them. That doesn't work out a lot of times. Then again, Poles has a track record of finding deals when he needs them. With the quarterbacks expected to be gone, the same assumption is the Bears use the talented group of offensive tackles to lure somebody up from the middle of the 1st round since the Jets are all but guaranteed to take one.
