For the second year in a row, the Chicago Bears will have the rights to the first overall pick in the NFL Draft. They traded away the selection last year and gave quarterback Justin Fields another year to prove his worth to the franchise, but it is looking more and more like they will be moving on and looking for a new young prospect to be under center for the 2024 season.
NFL: Urlacher Says Bears Should Draft Caleb Williams
𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚: #Bears legend Brian Urlacher says the team has to trade Justin Fields and draft Caleb Williams with the 1st pick.
(via: @ZachGelb) pic.twitter.com/qNotvAsaIR
— JPAFootball (@jasrifootball) January 27, 2024
And one of the greatest players in the team’s history thinks that they should do just that.
Former Bears’ linebacker and Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher appeared for an interview on the Zach Gelb show earlier this week, and was asked about what he thinks the team should do about their current situation:
I think they have to take Caleb. You know I don’t think there’s any way around it this year. If you don’t take him, and he turns out to be great…But having said that, Justin Fields played good at the end of last season as well. It’s tough
Urlacher cited the Bears passing on CJ Stroud and Deshaun Watson in the past as reasons for not passing on Caleb Williams when they are officially on the clock in April.
Fields had the chance to prove that he was the team’s quarterback of the future, and could have potentially made that highly-valuable first overall pick expendable. And while he wasn’t terrible, his 2,562 passing yards in 13 starts simply wasn’t enough to overwhelmingly convince the front office to not select the highly-touted prospect out of USC.
Fields threw 16 touchdowns to 9 interceptions.
Bears Have The #1 Pick Thanks To Carolina
Chicago Bears LEGEND Brian Urlacher says the Bears have to pick Caleb Williams in the #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/gbTTPPCfiX
— NFL Rumors (@nflrums) January 27, 2024
The Bears acquired this year’s pick by trading the right’s to last year’s. The Carolina Panthers wanted to move up into the top spot in order to select Bryce Young out of Alabama, and they gave up their first round pick in 2024 in order to do so. Carolina finished with the worst record in the NFL in 2023, giving the Bears the first shot at any of the available players in this year’s draft pool.
Williams is the overwhelming favorite to be selected #1, whether it is Chicago making the pick or not. The odds of him being the pick currently sitting at -750 according to BetOnline, with North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye coming in as a distant underdog at +400.
Add Sportslens to your Google News Feed!
