(Audacy) We knew the Bears were likely going to trade the No. 1 pick, but the question was when. Chicago did so Friday afternoon, sending the top selection to Carolina in exchange for the No. 9 overall pick, a second-round pick at No. 61 overall in 2023, a 2024 first-rounder, a 2025 second-rounder and receiver D.J. Moore.
With the Bears committed to third-year quarterback Justin Fields, general manager Ryan Poles successfully leveraged Panthers' desperation for a quarterback into a bounty of picks that, if used wisely, should jump-start Chicago’s rebuild after the team bottomed out with an NFL-worst 3-14 record in 2022. A 2018 first-round pick with a proven track record (three career 1,000-yard seasons), Moore immediately becomes the Bears’ best receiver, bolstering an anemic passing game that averaged an NFL-worst 130.5 net passing yards per game last season.
After months of shopping the No. 1 pick to anyone who would listen, the Bears finally pulled the trigger. So what was the reaction afterward? Let's take a look.
Snap judgments like these are relatively meaningless in the grand scheme of everything, though this will certainly add a layer of intrigue to the NFL Draft in late April, creating a scenario in which we could see quarterbacks drafted with each of the first four picks (Alabama's Bryce Young, Ohio State's C.J. Stroud, Florida's Anthony Richardson and Kentucky’s Will Levis). This blockbuster trade Friday may have been the first domino to fall, but it likely won’t be the last with the Cardinals expected to shop their No. 3 pick to the highest bidder.
And to think, none of this would've happened if former Texans coach Lovie Smith had called off the dogs and run out the clock on Houston's season instead of inexplicably directing his team to a comeback win against Indianapolis in the season finale, which allowed Chicago (Smith’s former team, ironically enough) to luck into the No. 1 pick. Smith was fired soon thereafter.
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