Bears hoping to benefit from early run on QBs

As little mystery as there is surrounding the Bears' plan for the first overall pick, the direction they take at No. 9 is likely to be determined by how many other quarterbacks go off the board in the seven spots that follow their expected selection of USC QB Caleb Williams at No. 1.

Ryan Poles' dilemma at No. 9 is whether to use the pick to further bolster his young roster or trade back and recoup some of the draft capital he's already spent, which has left the Bears with only four total selections in this weekend's draft.

Five non-quarterback prospects meet the Bears' needs and are talented enough to forgo the chance to trade back with their ninth overall pick: three WRs, Ohio State's Marvin Harrison Jr., LSU's Malik Nabers and Washington's Rome Odunze; one OT, Notre Dame's Joe Alt; and one EDGE, Alabama's Dallas Turner.

While the Bears boast one of the top wide receiver duos in the league in Keenan Allen and D.J. Moore, Allen has only one year left on his contract and will be 33 before the 2025 season, which makes WR a long-term need.

The Bears are similarly set in the short term at tackle with LT Braxton Jones and last year's first-round pick, RT Darnell Wright. But as dependable as Jones has been, his play has consistently been competent while never excellent, and the chance to find a decade-long Pro Bowl-caliber LT in Alt would be hard to pass up.  

Chicago's more dire need is at edge-rusher, where the cupboard is mostly bare behind Montez Sweat and Demarcus Walker. The chance to draft Turner, ESPN's top overall defensive player at No. 9, would be a coup.

Combine Harrison Jr., Nabers, Odunze, Alt and Turner with the three quarterbacks expected to go in the first three picks — Williams to the Bears, and LSU's Jayden Daniels and North Carolina's Drake Maye in some order to the Commanders and Patriots — and eight draft prospects stand above the rest.

This means that in order for the Bears to draft one of the top non-QB prospects with the ninth pick, they'll need one of the teams drafting in spots four through eight — the Cardinals, Chargers, Giants, Titans or Falcons — to either select a quarterback or trade their pick to a team planning to do so.

Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy's odds of being taken in the top five are skyrocketing. Buzz about the Vikings trading up for a quarterback continues to swirl. Even Washington's Michael Penix Jr. is starting to get a little top-10 buzz, with ESPN's Adam Schefter reporting, "There now is speculation Penix could go as high as No. 8 to the Falcons."

This is one situation where the Bears will be hoping that the rumors are true.