The Chicago Bears are about to roll into the 2021 NFL season with Andy Dalton as their starting quarterback.
No, it’s not only because of the viral tweet sent out by the Bears Twitter team, which claimed that Dalton was “QB1.” There are a lot of factors that go into this, but none more alarming than the trades we saw go down on Friday.
A pair of deals were made yesterday that will have an enormous impact on the upcoming 2021 NFL Draft, and both involved the Miami Dolphins. First, the Dolphins moved down from pick No. 3 overall, which they sent to the San Francisco 49ers.
Following that deal, the Dolphins traded with the Philadelphia Eagles to move all the way back up to pick no. 6. Now, the Dolphins did not move back up to take a quarterback. Instead, it will likely be one of the best non-quarterback offensive players.
John Lynch may have pulled the rug from under the Chicago Bears yet again.
Back to the 49ers, though, because that’s the team that really messed things up for the Bears. San Francisco has stated they’re hanging onto Jimmy Garoppolo for now, but most draft experts are still saying they will be selecting a quarterback at that third overall pick. That’s why they moved up.
If that’s the case, then we will see quarterbacks selected with the first three picks of the draft. At pick number four, the Atlanta Falcons may feel obligated to take a fourth quarterback since Matt Ryan could be at the tail end of his career.
If four quarterbacks go in the first four picks, that leaves one more first-round quarterback for the Bears to think about — and whichever name it is, he isn’t falling to pick 20. That fifth quarterback probably won’t even make it out of the top 10.
Therefore, it’s Andy Dalton season, folks. With that in mind, our latest mock still sees the Bears move up in the first round.