New Footage Shows How Bears Executed The Jalen Carter Trade

For weeks leading up to the 2023 NFL draft, rumors circulated that the Chicago Bears were fully prepared to draft Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter if he somehow fell to the 9th spot in the 1st round. Surprisingly, that is what happened. He slipped past Seattle and Detroit and was still there when the Bears went on the clock. Everybody felt the pick was obvious at that point. So you can imagine the added shock when GM Ryan Poles engineered a trade down with Philadelphia, swapping the 9th and 10th picks for a 4th round selection in 2024.

The Eagles took Carter, while the Bears went with Tennessee right tackle Darnell Wright. It was the first realization to many that Chicago never intended to take the Georgia standout. They may have started the rumors leading up to the draft to throw people off their real intentions. Now we got some actual behind-the-scenes action of how the entire sequence went down courtesy of 1920 Football Drive on YouTube. It turns out much of the credit for the trade belongs to assistant GM Ian Cunningham.

Passing on Jalen Carter wasn't the only gamble with that move.

For one, it was amazing to see how much trust Poles put in Cunningham to handle the entire trade process. He never touched the phone once. The difficult part came after the trade. It's obvious the Bears sensed Philadelphia wanted to come up for Carter. However, there was a risk they might pull a swerve and take somebody else. Someone like Wright. That is why you can see Cunningham and others looking visibly nervous as they wait for the Eagles to make the decision. Once Carter's name went up, the tension broke.

Credit the Chicago Bears for recognizing the opportunity. They never had any intention of drafting Jalen Carter. They would've been fine taking Wright at 9th overall. Yet when the Eagles offered a 4th round pick for basically nothing, it was an easy decision. Poles got his sixth pick in the first four rounds of next year's draft and still landed the player he targeted from the outset. That is as well-executed a plan as you could hope for. Now we wait to see if Wright is the real deal.