Everyone surely thought the same thing as soon as they saw the news that the Chicago Bears were trading Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Caleb Williams, the consensus top quarterback prospect in the 2024 NFL Draft, will be picked by the Bears, who own the top pick.
To steal a line from ESPN's Lee Corso, not so fast, my friend.
Chicago may indeed draft Williams, but it's not a sure thing. The team's brass is currently in the process of finalizing its eventuations of each of the top quarterback prospects and will make a decision on which one they are taking over the next few weeks, according to ESPN.
There's also still the possibility of the Bears trading out of the top pick. While all signs point to them selecting Williams, Chicago will create a contingency plan for possibly trading back a pick of two if they determine that they will select a quarterback other than Williams, per the report.
OK, so we know the Bears are replacing Fields with one of the top quarterbacks in April's draft. The question is which one between Williams, North Carolina's Drake Maye or LSU's Jayden Daniels (with Michigan's J.J. McCarthy being the wild card).
Really, the only team the Bears can probably trade with is the Washington Commanders, who own the No. 2 overall pick. But that's only if the Commanders and Bears want to take separate quarterbacks. Let's say the Commanders want Williams and the Bears would rather have Maye. A trade between two the teams would make sense in this scenario.
There's probably no way the Bears can swap picks with the Patriots, who currently own the No. 3 overall pick. The Patriots, who recently traded former starting quarterback Mac Jones to the Dolphins, have been repeatedly linked to Daniels.
It'll be interesting to see who the Bears ultimately choose to select to be Fields' successor. Whoever they pick will be in a better situation than Fields was in during his time in Chicago. The Bears had recently added wideout Keenan Allen and running back D'Andre Swift in free agency, moves that should benefit whoever is under center in the Windy City this fall.
