Ryan Poles said he intends to build the Chicago Bears through the draft. He proved that by stacking 11 picks in the 2022 draft. Nine of those picks are currently on the main roster. The young GM is committed to building this team with homegrown talent. That means he must continue to accumulate picks whenever possible. That could prove challenging again next year as the Bears will only have six selections due to prior trade.
Well, it appears the NFL decided to help with that. Or, more precisely, their rulebook did. According to Over The Cap, the Bears are now projected to receive a 7th round compensatory pick in 2023. This resulted from fewer than 32 comp picks being awarded this year. The Bears ended up receiving the pick via something called net value. For those confused, here is a brief explanation of what that means.
“The formula will occasionally award a ‘net value’ compensatory pick for a team if that team loses and gains an equal number of Compensatory Free Agents (CFAs), but the sum of the Final Numerical Value (FNV) of the CFAs lost is 300 or more points greater than the sum of the FNV of the CFAs gained. Net value compensatory picks are always 7th round picks, and they are always placed in order immediately after the regular 7th round compensatory picks.”
In other words, the value of the free agents the Bears lost was higher than the value of the ones they gained, just enough to secure the pick.
The Chicago Bears will have a full slate next year.
It will mark only the third time since 2018 that the Bears will make a 1st round pick. GM Ryan Pace traded the ones in 2019, 2020, and 2022 for Khalil Mack and Justin Fields. That figures to be a practice Poles puts an end to. He knows trading away such valuable picks is not the proper way to build a team. Barring an unexpected turn of events, it will mark the first time he can officially take a 1st round player. That should be exciting.
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The only uncertainty is where the Chicago Bears will be picking. Most experts believe this season will be rough for them. That means a likely top 10 pick. Since 2010, the Bears have spent a pick that high four times. They ended up with Kevin White, Leonard Floyd, Mitch Trubisky, and Roquan Smith. Three of those players aren’t on the team anymore. If people were looking for the common denominator in why the Bears have been bad for most of the past decade, that is the one. Poles will have to change it.
