The first round of the 2017 NFL Draft was a very consequential one, as teams made either great or terrible decisions that affected them and will continue to do so for years to come. It's especially evident at the top of the draft when it comes to the quarterback position. The Chicago Bears traded up to take Mitchell Trubisky at No. 2 overall, the San Francisco 49ers took Solomon Thomas at No. 3 overall instead of a quarterback (paving the way for a Jimmy Garoppolo trade later that year), the Kansas City Chiefs traded up for Patrick Mahomes at No. 10 and Deshaun Watson fell all the way to the Houston Texans at No. 12 in another trade-up scenario.
While the Chiefs and Texans have to be excited about how things worked out, the same can't be said for the Bears. Chicago declined Trubisky's fifth-year option and brought in another quarterback to compete for the starting role this offseason. Bears fans lament the fact that their team didn't do their homework on Mahomes or Watson, and it became clear this week that they certainly weren't too interested in the former national champion.
On Friday, author John Feinstein and Doug Gottlieb of Fox Sports had a conversation on Twitter about the top-three quarterbacks taken during the 2017 draft. Gottlieb asserts that the Bears evaluated all three prospects, but just made the wrong choice. That's when Watson chimed in, tweeting, "The Bears NEVER ONCE talked to me."
The situation again took a turn when the Rich Eisen Show tweeted an interview Eisen had with Watson prior to the NFL Draft, where he said that he had spoken with the Bears on the phone. Many thought they had caught Watson in a lie, but Watson's private quarterback coach, Quincy Avery, chimed in to add some context to the situation.
Not exactly. Explain it to you same way I did for Doug. Every year, players are instructed by their agent to leverage the media so that teams feel that there is more competition in the market place than there actually is.
— quincy_avery (@Quincy_Avery) May 9, 2020
Avery is implying that Watson said more teams were interested in him than probably were, and later confirmed to ESPN's Bill Barnwell that Chicago did not call Watson, even though the quarterback said they did back in 2017.
No matter the level of interest the Bears had in Watson, you have to imagine they would like to take back the decision they made on April 27, 2017. Watson is reportedly in preliminary discussions on a big contract extension with the Texans, Mahomes is fresh off a Super Bowl victory and Trubisky is battling to prove he's a legitimate NFL starting quarterback.
