We are nearly a month away from the 2023 NFL Draft. The Chicago Bears have added nine free agents through the first two waves of free agency. To date, the Bears have agreed to $158,050,000 in free-agency contracts that span between one and four years. There could be a couple more signings before the end of April, but I would not expect any splash-free agents. Defensive end should be on Ryan Poles' radar, but I am not certain Poles is looking to add any of the top names like Yannick Ngakoue or Frank Clark. The next step for Poles to add some serious talent is the 2023 NFL Draft.
Now that the trade happened and a large portion of free agency is in the books, I wanted to do a new mock draft. I used Pro Football Focus (PFF) for the simulator. I should point out that I traded back in the first round in this mock draft. Although I believe that to be the best approach for Ryan Poles and the Chicago Bears, it should be noted that trading back is not always as easy as it sounds. Teams are not always looking to give up draft capital to move up -- especially if the move is only a few spots. That is what happened in this case.
The Chicago Bears trade back with the Houston Texans in the first round
As you can see, the Chicago Bears made a trade with the Houston Texans. It wasn't the move that was on the table according to Peter King's recent interview with Ryan Poles. Instead, the Bears moved back from ninth overall to 12. To move back, the Bears and Texans swapped second-round picks. Chicago sent the 61st-overall pick received in the Panthers trade involving the 1st-round pick and in return Poles received the Texans' pick at 33.
Some fans might not find this to be enough. However, this would be in the Chicago Bears' favor by 138 points when using the Jimmy Johnson value chart. I found that there were enough options available that I could move down from nine to 12. In this mock simulation, the Texans selected Peter Skoronski at nine. Other names that were available included Paris Johnson, Jr., Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Lukas Van Ness, Myles Murphy and Devon Witherspoon. Who fell to 12?