Consensus Mock Draft - Pick 9 Chicago Bears

[goldfishwars]

Why not, let's give this a go with combine and the major free agency moves in the book. 

Rules:

There are two polls - your first choice will count as 2pts, your second as 1pt. If players have the same score after 24 hours, the pick will go to the player with the most first place votes. 

I will take poll options from the website below, which aggregates all media big boards - so if your guy isn't on the board, don't blame me. 

https://www.nflmockdraftdatabase.com/big-boards/2023/consensus-big-board-2023?pos=ALL

Your vote can be who you would take, or who you think the team will take - it doesn't matter.

Draft Order:

1. Carolina Panthers - C.J. Stroud | QB | Ohio State 

2. Houston Texans - Bryce Young | QB | Alabama

3. Arizona Cardinals - Will Anderson | EDGE | Alabama

4. Indianapolis Colts - Anthony Richardson | QB | Florida

5. Seattle Seahawks - Jalen Carter | DL | Georgia

6. Detroit Lions - Christian Gonzalez | CB | Oregon

7.  Las Vegas Raiders - Devon Witherspoon | CB | Illinois

8.  Atlanta Falcons - Tyree Wilson | EDGE | Texas Tech

 

9.  Chicago Bears - 

[chisoxguy7]

Can’t imagine it will be a WR. Expecting Edge or OT, but wouldn’t be surprised to see it be a cornerback. 

[Epyon]

I think Witherspoon-CB will probably be the best actual player on the board when we pick (he went #7 in this mock), but this season is entirely about figuring out whether Fields is "the guy" or not so I literally do not care about any defensive players until the offense is set.

Team basically NEEDS to draft one of: Johnson, Jones, or Wright for OT and all 3 are off the board before our 2nd rounder so that kind of narrows things down.

Beyond that I'm higher on Gibbs-RB than most and would have him almost even with Bijan for best offensive skill position player

If I where to pick a receiver I'd take Hyatt over JSN right now (I think Moore fills the role JSN does, and Hyatt brings more big play potential)

The only other guys I'd consider first round are Harrison-OT or Skoronski-OG.  Defense can go pound sand, imo

 

Edited March 27, 2023 by Epyon

[Dr A W Niloc]

It's gotta be a CB (if only to prepare for a 2nd CB soon) and there's only one top guy left so...

[Superman(DH23)]

It's going to be pick on one of the lines either the best OT - Paris Johnston, or the best DL - Lukas Van Ness.  I would probably try to trade back just a bit, and then go for LVN, but I wouldn't be super upset to take him here either.

[Superman(DH23)]

25 minutes ago, Dr A W Niloc said:

It's gotta be a CB (if only to prepare for a 2nd CB soon) and there's only one top guy left so...

Jaylon Johnson is likely to be extended this offseason, and Kyler Gordon is going into his 2nd year.  They will likely go CB at least once I. This draft bc you can never have too many good CBs, but unless it's insane value it's not going to be early.

[Ragnarok]

Edge or OL.

Myles/LVN or Skoronski/Broderick/Paris

[goldfishwars]

Is JSN potentially in play here more than has been touted so far? Bears get to reunite him with his old teammate and suddenly a huge weakness is a big strength at receiver.

[Epyon]

45 minutes ago, goldfishwars said:

Is JSN potentially in play here more than has been touted so far? Bears get to reunite him with his old teammate and suddenly a huge weakness is a big strength at receiver.

We have had a private workout with him and Fields boosted him up given the Ohio State connection. So it's not impossible.

That said, we have also acquired DJ Moore (who should be our #1 guy), already have Mooney (who is a decent #2), drafted a guy last year in Velus Jones Jr (who admittedly has shown close to nothing and shouldn't count much), and traded our early 2nd rounder for Chase Claypool (who has been woefully disappointing so far, but might be ok in a #2-3 role, and probably is going to get way more leeway than he should considering what we gave up for him)... I'm not really sure JSN is serious consideration for us now.

I'd add, personally, I'd be more interested in grabbing Hyatt as a WR as well.... He should be attainable on a decent sized trade down from 9 (where JSN at most lets us move down a  mere couple of picks), and Hyatt brings a skillset that the rest of the WR room has (where JSN overlaps heavily with Moore, imo)

Edited March 27, 2023 by Epyon

[Dr A W Niloc]

4 hours ago, Superman(DH23) said:

Jaylon Johnson is likely to be extended this offseason, and Kyler Gordon is going into his 2nd year.  They will likely go CB at least once I. This draft bc you can never have too many good CBs, but unless it's insane value it's not going to be early.

      Lacking a top 64 cornerback Bears GM Ryan Poles can hope to get a free agent CB2 but the CB1s have been picked clean.  The need for a DT,  DE, and Center won't be as pressing because they can be acquired after Round #1 and virtually any starter will be a significant improvement.  Even if unlucky in the draft Poles should be able to upgrade the 112-110-110-115 D-Line, the worst in this century, to r48-16-r56-24 with the two free agents already acquired and two rookies.

     Alas, poor coaching and quarterbacking may obscure the stunning turnaround we're seeing in ChiTown.

[NYRaider]

5 hours ago, goldfishwars said:

Is JSN potentially in play here more than has been touted so far? Bears get to reunite him with his old teammate and suddenly a huge weakness is a big strength at receiver.

He and Fields hardly played together at Ohio State. Investing #9, #32, and a 2025 FRP into their WR room in a year span would be a crazy amount of resources into one position group.

[MikeT14]

I voted for o-line. Don't necessarily care who but that's 100% where they should go. 

[ClutchDJ]

9 hours ago, Superman(DH23) said:

Jaylon Johnson is likely to be extended this offseason, and Kyler Gordon is going into his 2nd year.  They will likely go CB at least once I. This draft bc you can never have too many good CBs, but unless it's insane value it's not going to be early.

Eh, you look at the conference championship participants the past couple years & realize most of those teams have 1 good CB at most, but it’s offset by a very good pass-rush.

 

CB is such a volatile position in todays very favored-offensive league that I don’t think it should be looked at as a premium position anymore. 
 

Trading back just to draft a CB with your first pick is just backwards-thinking of building a defense in 2023 imo.

[Haha21]

Fields was sacked a league leading 55 times last year. I would definitely go O-line here.