The Chicago Bears' best offseason move looks better with each day that passes
It's possible that the 2024 offseason will be remembered as the offseason that changed the course of the Chicago Bears organization.
After tearing the roster down in 2022 and establishing a base in 2023, Bears' general manager Ryan Poles used the 2024 offseason as the year to represent a pivot in the ideology of the franchise. For a Bears' franchise that is remembered for defensive legends such as Mike Singletary, Richard Dent, Dick Butkus, and Brian Urlacher; Poles is ushering in a new era.
An era that is expected to be carried by the team's offense.
That pie-in-the-sky type of thinking is something that Bears fans could have only dreamt about prior to this offseason. But in making a franchise-altering decision in moving on from Justin Fields in favor of Caleb Williams, for the first time in the organization's history, Poles was treating the quarterback position in the rightful sense that it is the most important position on the roster. That is the reason why D'Andre Swift, Rome Odunze, Keenan Allen, and Gerald Everett were key additions this offseason.
Caleb Williams signals change for the Chicago Bears' franchise.
But let's not get it twisted: the best move the Bears made this offseason was changing the quarterback position.
"CHICAGO BEARS: DRAFTING CALEB WILLIAMS
- Pro Football Focus
Caleb Williams was the obvious play for the Bears at the top of the 2024 NFL Draft, but there some analysts were caping for a strategy that included the team sticking with Justin Fields and trading the No. 1 overall pick again, likely for an even better return than the one they got the year before. Chicago's best move was not doing that and drafting Williams."
Sure, Williams has yet to play an official game in the NFL, and it may seem like an exaggeration to place these lofty expectations on the Bears' new quarterback. But what this excitement comes down to is two things: The Bears finally were able to take a "generational quarterback" at the top of the NFL Draft, and the value of Williams reaching his potential exceeds the dreadfulness of wishing Fields showed something in his fourth year that he hadn't shown consistently over his last three seasons.
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