By now most everyone knows that the Chicago Bears are going to draft Caleb Williams with the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, the debate and speculation centers on what they’ll do with the ninth overall pick and there’s not a consensus on what they should do.
The 2024 NFL Draft kicks off tomorrow with the Chicago Bears having two first round draft picks, the first of which will be used on Caleb Williams. The second of which is still up for debate on what they should do and yet the answer is simple, the Bears need to get younger on offense.
The Chicago Bears have invested most of their most valuable draft capital the past two years on defense, with only Darnell Wright being a draft pick of consequence on the offensive side of the ball. The defense has received the most attention with Jaquan Brisker, Kyler Gordon, Tyrique Stevenson Gervon Dexter and Zaach Pickens all being drafted with second and third round picks over the last two draft cycles. The focus for the 2024 NFL Draft now needs to shift to getting younger and more talented on offense.
Regardless of whether or not the Chicago Bears trade up, stand pat or trade back, there is not truly a player on defense they should focus on. Byron Murphy simply isn’t good enough to invest a Top-10 draft pick in and there’s not a Top-10 quality defensive end or even a consensus on who the best DE is in the 2024 NFL Draft. So with that in mind the Bears need to upgrade the young weapons around Caleb Williams.
The first player under consideration, would be a wide receiver as the top-3 receivers in the draft would make perfect additions. You can easily make a case for the Bears to move up to grab Marvin Harrison Jr, or they could stand pat and hope that Rome Odunze falls to them at nine. The best-case scenario is that all of the hype surrounding the QBs leads to teams wanting to trade up into the Top-10 to grab one of six possible first round QBs. From there you hope that maybe a team values tight end Brock Bowers highly enough that he goes ahead of Odunze or perhaps Nabers.
If Bears opt to choose to trade down from nine adding one of the of building block developmental offensive tackles may also be a good idea. It’s also no secret that the most talented players in this draft are on the offensive side of the ball. In addition to QB, wide receiver, offensive line have a plethora of options that would make sense if the Bears able to add a second-round pick in a trade down scenario.
The future of the offense needs to be the focus of Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles primarily to get younger. The Bears do have talented players on offense and have invested in the offense through trade and free agency, but it’ doesn’t have the young core that the defense has. It will be of the utmost of importance with this deeply talented offensive 2024 NFL draft to add additional young and talented pieces.
Wide receivers that might be under consideration in the later part of the first round of the 2024 NFL draft could be receivers Adonai Mitchell from Texas, Brian Thomas Jr from LSU, Troy Franklin from Oregon or Ladd McConky from Georgia, depending how far back they trade.
On the offensive line players like JC Latham from Alabama, Taliese Fuaga from Oregon State Troy Fautanu from Washington, are players that make sense outside of the Top-10 for the Bears if they trade down in the 2024 NFL draft. Perhaps they could finally solve their gaping hole at center by drafting Jackson Powers Johnson from Oregon. Regardless there’s plethora of talented players the Chicago Bears can target in late round one and into round two if they do trade out of the ninth spot.
With Keenan Allen entering the twilight of his career, DJ Moore and Ryan Bates both being 27 years old, the Bears would be smart to add young players through the 2024 NFL draft to develop alongside Caleb Williams. More than anything getting away from a franchise that’s been long dedicated to the failing notion that you need to run the ball and stop the run on defense to win championships should do the right thing to win the next Super Bowl title.
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