The Chicago Bears control the top of the 2024 NFL draft. The team has two picks inside the top ten, and with the number one overall pick, the team will decide how the draft goes. Still, while the first-pick discussion is all but wrapped up, there are plenty of questions surrounding what the team does with the ninth-overall pick.
It is hard to say for sure because the team does not know who exactly will be there. To get a better idea, we will mock out the top eight picks, with eyes on predicting what will happen. Who could be on board for the Bears?
1. Chicago Bears - Quarterback Caleb Williams, USC
This one is all but set. Caleb Williams met with the Chicago Bears during his top-30 visit, and reports show that this will be the only team that he is set to meet with this offseason. Once the Bears traded Justin Fields, it was clear that the team was going quarterback. While they did put in the work on the other players, such as Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, and J.J. McCarthy, they have not put in the same amount of effort on them as they have with Williams.
The team is not going to pass on a quarterback with his potential, even knowing there is always the chance that it does not work out.
Williams is going to be the first pick in the 2024 NFL draft. So, the debate will shift to how picks two through eight play out and who will be there at number nine.
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2. Washington Commanders - Quarterback Jayden Daniels, LSU
There has been some resistance to the thought, but as time continues to move on, it is looking more likely that Jayden Daniels will be the number two overall pick. A lot of the national media is drawn to Drake Maye, and at this time last year, the debate was Maye against Jayden Daniels.
However, we have seen this story before. It was Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields as one and two, and in came Zach Wilson, who had a strong year and ended up going second overall. The media was higher on Fields, but the NFL was higher on Wilson. This feels similar.
Jayden Daniels is coming off of a Heisman year, and his rushing, along with his passing, is what makes his ceiling so high. With the Commanders hiring Kliff Kingsbury, the thought was that the team was high on Caleb Williams.
Still, Kingsbury also coached Kyler Murray and has always wanted to build his offense around that type of running threat as a quarterback. The season that Daniels had, the fit with Kingsbury, and all of the buzz surrounding Daniels being viewed higher by the NFL than the media tells us that Daniels is going to be higher than expected.
3. New England Patriots - Quarterback JJ McCarthy, Michigan
This is another media sensation. For J.J. McCarthy, it makes just as much sense as Jayden Daniels. Of course, for Daniels, he was the Heisman award winner and had the best stats coming into the draft. For J.J. McCarthy, the stats were not the draw as much as the wins.
All that McCarthy does is win. People fall in love with the person. He has the size and the arm, and while accuracy can come and go, if he runs the offensive effectively and can make a couple of big plays with his tools, teams can win with him. They also think that they can win because of his charisma in the locker room.
Similar to Daniels, there are plenty of people in NFL circles saying that McCarthy will go higher than Drake Maye. The New England Patriots are starting over with a quarterback from Michigan, and this makes too much sense not to happen at this point.
4. Arizona Cardinals - Wide Receiver Marvin Harrison, Ohio State
If the top three quarterbacks fall like this, and Drake Maye is still around, it is going to be hard to see the Cardinals sit tight and not trade back. Teams are not as high on Maye as the media may want us to believe, but every team has a point where they feel that they have to make the move.
The question for the Arizona Cardinals is whether they can pass over the best non-quarterback in the draft for a package to trade down. Also, how far back would they have to trade, if a quarterback does go here? That just means that there are more talented players dropping closer to them. If they only have to drop a spot or two, and they can get a haul, it is an easy decision. Will this happen?
It is so hard to predict trades, so we will not. With that in mind, the obvious choice is Marvin Harrison Jr. His dad was a Hall of Famer, and we know that Harrison has the work ethic that his dad does. He is also physically more impressive than his dad. At Ohio State, it was well known that he was better than Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and other NFL talents. The Arizona Cardinals take someone who is a lock to be drafted before the Chicago Bears make their next pick.
5. Los Angeles Chargers - Wide Receiver Malik Nabers, LSU
A lot of people will be interested in seeing what Jim Harbaugh does in his first NFL draft. With a new GM and the roster having so many issues, they are another team that is in a great trade-down spot. If they are in this current spot, teams will be calling for Drake Maye. If Maye goes four, you have to wonder if Los Angeles would trade out for Marvin Harrison as well.
Still, as we said, it is so hard to predict a trade. So, in this mock draft, we will continue by taking someone who is going to be gone before the Chicago Bears make their selection. It is hard to see a world where Malik Nabers falls much further. If Drake Maye went four, Nabers would be gone by the sixth pick.
Nabers has rare speed, but he is also built rather impressively, and he is not as small as the typical burners such as Tyreek Hill and Desean Jackson. Still, his big play impact can hit in the same regard.
While Harbaugh has said he would go offensive line, the Chargers actually have some talent there. They are depleted at wide receiver. So, expect them to take the best player and fill their biggest need.
6. New York Giants - Quarterback Drake Maye, UNC
It feels like every pick since number two has been centered around Drake Maye and when he will actually go. He could get taken second, third, fourth, or fifth, but it does feel like his floor is sixth. The New York Giants have Daniel Jones, but his contract is easier to get out of after next season.
They could add Maye, have him come in slow, and then take over for Jones, and when the salary of Jones is off of the books, the team has Maye ready to ascend in year two. The fit makes too much sense and the Giants are far too desperate to pass on a quarterback that even some may have questions abo. Maye is not going to fall past this spot.
When you add in that there are three quarterback-needy teams in the top three, and the Giants will have teams looking to jump them with the two picks in front of them it is easy to assume four quarterbacks will be gone by this point. It may not even matter as much about getting the team player fit correctly in this exercise, as much as we have to acknowledge the top six picks will be four quarterbacks and two receivers, no matter what.
7. Tennessee Titans - Left Tackle Joe Alt, Notre Dame
It is so hard to see the top six go in any other direction at this point. Sure, there are players who could slip in, and I am not talking about the exact order. However, most consensus mocks have the top four quarterbacks and the top two wide receivers gone by this point. So, who goes at pick seven? This seems obvious.
The Titans are rebuilding their offense with Brian Callahan as head coach. They added Calvin Ridley to go with DeAndre Hopkins and Treylon Burks, so they have all ages and pay grades covered here. It is hard to see them go wide receiver. However, at left tackle, they have a massive hole. So, even if they do lean toward Rome Odunze, it would be hard not to take the top offensive tackle in a tackle-rich draft.
The Titans can pair Joe Alt next to Peter Skoronski, and they have built the left side of their line for the next four or five years. That is how you bring things back on offense.
8. Atlanta Falcons - Edge Rusher, Dallas Turner, Alabama
The Atlanta Falcons have done about as much as you can to rebuild their offense. The pieces were there last year; they just did not have a quarterback, and now Kirk Cousins can unlock everything that they wanted to. So, this pick should be focused on defense. With Calais Campbell and Bud Dupree out of the picture, the Falcons really need a pass rusher.
Dallas Turner has high-end athletic traits and can fire off of the football. He may not be an elite edge rusher, and his power can be up and down, but the high-end potential as a designated pass rusher will be too hard to pass up.
So, in this spot, the Bears will have plenty to choose from. Brock Bowers and Rom Odunze will be the most popular options, but Olu Fashanu, Jared Verse, Byron Murphy, and Johnny Newton are all available as well. If the board breaks this way, who should the Chicago Bears draft?