Daniel Jeremiah's mock draft has Bears, Ryan Poles loading up on premium offensive players
Daniel Jeremiah's mock draft has Bears, Ryan Poles loading up on premium offensive players originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
When NFL.com draft expert Daniel Jeremiah teased his latest mock draft on social media he promised chaos. He delivered on Tuesday, and the chaos he concocted turned out to be a perfect storm for the Bears.
Here’s how things shook out for mock Bears GM Ryan Poles in Jeremiah’s third mock draft of the offseason:
NO. 1: CALEB WILLIAMS - QUARTERBACK - USC
“The Bears have cleared the runway by trading Justin Fields,” Jeremiah wrote. “I’ll be stunned if Williams isn’t their choice at No. 1, and they’ve built an outstanding supporting cast for him.”
Looking at the tape alone, there’s no doubt that Williams is the pick for the Bears. But the Bears still need to finish their evaluation of Williams as a person. They put a lot of stock into character, so their meetings with Williams at Wednesday’s USC Pro Day and their upcoming top-30 visit will be important boxes to tick. However it feels unlikely that any major red flags would pop up at that meeting to make the Bears pivot to another rookie QB like Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels.
After that, Jeremiah has Maye going to the Commanders and Daniels going to the Patriots with the Nos. 2 and 3 picks. Nothing earth-shattering there as many believe quarterbacks could go with the top-three picks. But Jeremiah then projected a Vikings trade up to the No. 4 spot for J.J. McCarthy, an offensive lineman to the Titans at No. 7 since they already shelled out for wide receiver Calvin Ridley and a defensive lineman to the Falcons at No. 8 since they addressed their QB needs by signing Kirk Cousins in free agency.
That left one of the three elite wide receiver prospects for the Bears with their next pick. And instead of trading back for more picks, Jeremiah had Poles staying put.
NO. 9: ROME ODUNZE - WIDE RECEIVER - WASHINGTON
“The Bears could go pass rusher here after adding Keenan Allen at receiver, but I can't resist the prospect of playing Odunze alongside Allen and DJ Moore to give projected first overall pick Caleb Williams a Bengals-like receiving corps,” wrote Jeremiah.
There’s a chance that Odunze, Malik Nabers and Marvin Harrison Jr. are all gone by the time the Bears are back on the clock, but even a little run on quarterbacks could put one of the three of them in play. If any of them are there, it could be hard for the Bears to resist the opportunity.
Not only would adding one of the three wide receivers give the Bears one of the best WR units in the league to help their rookie, it would give the team one of the best futures at the position. DJ Moore is set to turn 27 next month, so he’s right in the middle of his prime, but Allen turns 32 this year. Since Allen relies on his precise route running to get open rather than running past defenders with top-end speed, there’s good reason to believe he’s got several solid years left in the tank. But he won’t be around for the duration of the next quarterback’s rookie deal. Adding another wide receiver now ensures there’s little dropoff whenever Allen leaves.
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