The Chicago Bears are already set to dominate the headlines during the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft and now another bombshell might be on the way.
According to The Athletic's Dianna Russini, the Bears are "very open for business" with the ninth overall pick and have told teams they are ready to move for the right price.
The Bears are also armed with the first overall pick and are widely expected to take USC quarterback Caleb Williams. After that, the team will only have three more selections total, unless they make a trade.
It'll be interesting to see which teams will look to move up into the Top-10 and what the package would look like for the Bears to slide down. Recently, the Los Angeles Rams and the Philadelphia Eagles have been rumored to be interested in moving up the draft board and could look to call up Bears general manager Ryan Poles.
The Bears second pick will now be a highly coveted position if the Bears are serious about moving off the pick to acquire more assets later in the draft. With the ninth overall pick, teams are expecting multiple blue-chip prospects to still be on the board at various positions, most notably wide receiver and offensive tackle.
Even if the Bears can’t find a willing trade partner to move back in the first round, the team is still prepared to take a blue-chip prospect of their own with the pick. Many experts have linked Washington wide receiver Rome Odunze, offensive tackle Olu Fashanu, and defensive tackle Byron Murphy II as potential targets the Bears will consider drafting at nine.
However, if the team moves back, the draft board will so completely out of the window, leaving the Bears to scramble and see which prospect falls in their lap. Poles clearly has a plan in place and if the right offer comes along, he could reposition his team to land another top player with his second pick of the draft while adding some much needed capital to use over the rest of the weekend.
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