The Chicago Bears have done a number on the 2024 NFL offseason. General manager Ryan Poles should be feeling as though he's on top of the world, because this Bears team is ready to compete for a whole lot more than some might think.
After a handful of significant moves made both in free agency and the draft, these Bears should be well on their way to competing for a division title and looking at a playoff run. Out of all the offseason moves made, though, which one will prove to be the most impactful?
Most would agree that the Bears' best offseason move is pretty easy to name. It has to be the drafting of Caleb Williams, right?
Well, if you were to ask The Athletic's Mike Sando, he'd go a different route. Maybe Sando simply assumed Williams to be the best move by Chicago, but in a recent piece he wrote (subscription required) Sando actually picked the additions of both Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze as his favorite move(s).
He opted to go with the weaponry for Williams, rather than Williams himself.
There is a reason Caleb Williams is coming into the best situation a no. 1 pick has ever come into
It isn't hard to see Sando's point. Had the Bears stuck with the receiving group they had in place, with D.J. Moore, Tyler Scott, Velus Jones and the likes of Dante Pettis and Equanimeous St. Brown, Williams might have been set up for a rough rookie campaign.
Instead, Poles went out and traded for Keenan Allen, drafted Rome Odunze and now Williams has a three-headed monster at the wide receiver position. Not only that, but he's got a top tight end duo in Cole Kmet and Gerald Everett, plus three capable running backs behind him.
No other quarterback taken with the no. 1 overall pick has been able to come into a situation like this before. It's not even close. What the Bears were able to do, with Carolina's pick and the work of Poles behind the scenes, is second to none.
Now, the Bears are going from a team holding the no. 1 overall pick two years in a row, to a team that could be ready to compete with the best of the NFC in the matter of just a year or two.
It's not just Williams. It's the work done around Williams, to ensure the most success possible, that should get all the attention. Picking Williams was easy. The Bears owned the selection. What else would they have done with it? Of course it was Williams.
But, the moves made to put talent around him? Those took a whole lot more effort.