The excitement surrounding the 2023 NFL Draft is building. We are less than two weeks away and I think the lull between the big wave of free agency and the draft is catching up to everyone. We have seen Chicago Bears fans go from wanting Jaxon Smith-Njigba to wanting Paris Johnson, Jr. to now believing Mel Kiper's recent mock draft and now wanting Darnell Wright.
These flavors of the week are getting annoying. Everyone seems to just jump on the new bandwagon. Everyone seems to think that a player can't fall, or it's too soon to take a certain prospect that soon because so-and-so said he wasn't graded that high. The thing is, it seems everyone forgets just how crazy and unpredictable the NFL Draft can be every year. Sure, we can make educated guesses by following the breadcrumbs, but there is no guarantee any of us get things right.
In fact, the Chicago Bears' situation is even more unpredictable than most other teams. Ryan Poles and his staff need to fill plenty of positions still and the team only has one pick in the top 50. That could make things a little difficult. The positive though is that they have four picks in the top 65. Will Poles make any additional trades to shake things up even more? We are going to look at his moves last year and try to predict how many draft picks the team finishes with this offseason.
Predicting how many draft picks the Chicago Bears end up with in 2023
To help figure this out, let's take a look at last year. To start, the Chicago Bears only had six picks and that did not include a first-round pick. Not having a first-rounder last season was obviously difficult, but honestly worth it seeing the reason they were without a pick was that it was part of the trade that landed Justin Fields in 2021. With the help of the trade of Khalil Mack, Ryan Poles turned those six picks into 11. Poles has already added more draft capital to his arsenal with the Robert Quinn, Roquan Smith, and first-overall pick trades. How many total players do we think Poles will select in 2023?
The way things worked out last year is not how I envision the draft working out this year. The team currently has 10 picks - one first-rounder, two seconds, a third, two fourth-rounders, two fifths and two sevenths. Going from six picks last year to 11 was impressive. However, it's important to note that five of those 11 picks came after pick number 200. Quantity doesn't always trump quality. When we look at the current lot of picks, my prediction is that with the trades up and down in the 2023 NFL Draft the Chicago Bears will finish with 13 total picks this year.