The scouting combine is less than a week away. Insiders warned that league-wide buzz would start picking up around this time. They weren’t lying. Over the past few days, an interesting NFL draft nugget surfaced via Lance Zierlein of NFL.com. He strongly believed the Houston Texans, not the Chicago Bears, would be the team making the first pick in the 2023 draft. That indicated a trade between the two was a virtual guarantee. Prominent insider Benjamin Allbright quickly confirmed this, stating smart people should start placing bets on Houston claiming that pick.
Those two aren’t alone anymore. Jeff Hughes of Da Bears Blog has proven on multiple occasions to have solid NFL sources in the past. He reached out to them this past week and then dropped this nugget on Twitter.
Now either this is one of the greatest misdirection campaigns a team has ever had, or it’s clear to many inside the industry that the Texans are fully intent on getting to the top of the draft for their quarterback. Why the urgency? The belief is some of it comes from recent comments by Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay. He didn’t hide his admiration for Alabama quarterback Bryce Young and has made it clear his team will draft that position. The Texans likely aren’t willing to take the risk of a division rival jumping them for a quarterback they want.
The Chicago Bears appear to be in a great spot.
They have two division rivals working against each other. That alone should create a strong market for the #1 pick. If other teams get involved, and there are plenty of reasons to think they will, then GM Ryan Poles should come away with a robust package of extra picks when the dust settles in April. Initial projections are the Bears will likely get two 2nd round picks if they move down from #1 to #2. While it doesn’t secure that coveted future 1st, one of those picks would be at the top of the 2nd round this year. It would also mean they still get to draft the best player on Poles’ board.
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On the other hand, such a move would leave the door open for the Chicago Bears to move down again. Perhaps the Colts will still want to come up for one of the remaining quarterbacks, or another team may wish to get ahead of Indianapolis. That would allow the team to stockpile even more picks. The number of possibilities is frankly staggering. Poles doesn’t have to rush anything. The longer this plays out, the more desperate teams will get.
We are all guessing. We may feel we are making educated guesses, but they are still guesses! Which is OK and may be fun for us. It is for me! After 3 games last year, the Bears were 2-1. Did I figure them to land the top pick in the draft? No way! But it happened. So the Texans’ 2024 pick could very well be top 3. I would like to see the Bears grab this pick in case they need a QB in 2024. They would have to throw in something decent to entice the Texans to do that.… Read more »
Eggs
Egg
So most of the guys on here are telling me if Fields would have been a complete bust this season and we were picking second that this would be a good trade? Poles would trade up to #1. He would trade our second round pick this year and our first in 24 to move up one spot and draft Young. In the middle of a rebuild. I guess everyone would agree we made out great. I’m not buying it.
So the Texans hire a new coach and they are going to trade away their second rounder this year and their, most likely, top ten pick next year. Yeah. This is their third head coach in as many seasons. I believe Ryans will be a great coach. They are definitely not desperate when they are starting a rebuild. I guess I’m going to be the only person not surprised if they don’t take a quarterback at two. Everyone is saying next years quarterback class is going to be great. But the Texans are going to trade away their second rounder… Read more »