Chicago Bears: Final 2021 NFL mock draft with trades fixes team’s needs

The Chicago Bears trade up to select Mac Jones at 12th overall

Trey Lance came off the board at No. 9 as the Denver Broncos selected him. Once he was off the table, it left an opening for the Chicago Bears to move up, but not too far up. Dallas and the Giants were not going to take a quarterback. I risked no other teams moving up and it paid off. As Ryan Pace, I picked up the phone and swapped first-round picks with the Eagles. In order to make that happen, I sent a future first (2022) and a future fourth (2023) to move up eight spots.

Mac Jones is my QB4 as Trey Lance is my QB5. Obviously, I was happy that Lance went before Jones, but I would have taken either here with the same trade cost. Jones is more of your prototypical pocket quarterback. He has enough athleticism to move within the pocket, he has good footwork and even better decision-making skills. He’s not the type of quarterback I picture performing the best in Matt Nagy’s offense, but he has some serious upside as a franchise QB.

Jones also fits a mold more closely related to Andy Dalton and Nick Foles. Although we have yet to see Dalton in Nagy’s offense and we saw how bad Foles can truly be, adding Mac Jones is still ideal. Despite some of his early, off-field antics, he brings plenty to the table. He already looks to be more accurate than Foles as a prospect and has the potential to succeed Dalton in that area too. If he can reach his potential, I can see him falling into a Matt Ryan-type of success in the NFL.