This 2024 NFL Mock Draft has Bears revamping offense in 1st round

The Chicago Bears are 0-4. They’re the worst team in the NFL. It’s a sad reality for Bears fans to admit, but it’s true.

The second-worst team in the NFL may be the Carolina Panthers. They’re the only other club in the league that’s still searching for its first win.

The good news for the Bears is that they have the Panthers’ first-round pick in addition to their own, and as of now, they’re the first two picks in the 2024 NFL Draft.

If the 2023 season continues down this path, the Chicago Bears will have a rare opportunity to add the two best college prospects to their roster, which is good news in general. For the 2024 NFL draft, it’s great news: Caleb Williams (QB) and Marvin Harrison Jr. (WR) are borderline generational prospects who will be part of the draft class.

If this scenario plays out, it will force GM Ryan Poles to make a final decision on the future of Justin Fields. The 2021 first-round pick has had an up-and-down career as Chicago’s quarterback, but his evaluation still seems incomplete. He’s played for two coaches and a misfit cast of coordinators who can’t get out of their own way. He’s also fresh off of a career-high 335 passing yards and four touchdowns in Week 4, albeit in a losing effort to the Denver Broncos.

Perhaps Poles will end the Fields era because of the opportunity to draft Caleb Williams. In the most recent 2024 NFL Mock Draft by Pro Football Focus, the Bears do make that call and move on from the former Buckeyes star in favor of the USC Trojan.

“If the Bears are picking at No. 1, the top quarterback prospect will land in Chicago. (Caleb) Williams has earned elite grades of 91.3, 91.8, and 90.8 in each of his three college football seasons,” PFF’s Trevor Sikkema wrote. “The Bears won’t pass on picking (a QB) at the top again.”

Williams has been on fire to start the 2023 college football season. He’s completing 75% of his passes for 1,603 yards, 21 touchdowns and just one interception. He’s rushed for three touchdowns, too.

Regardless of how big of a Justin Fields fan you are, it’s hard to find any argument to support keeping him as the starting quarterback if the Chicago Bears do end the season with the No. 1 pick. Fields can be a franchise quarterback with an upside similar to many of the dual-threat stars at the position today. But Williams will have a much higher grade than Fields did as a prospect, and his NFL upside is higher too. You can’t pass up a guy like that.

Plus, the Bears can help Williams by adding Marvin Harrison Jr. to the wide receiver group that already includes a star in DJ Moore.

Sikkema has Harrison calling Chicago home at the second pick.

“If you’re taking the top quarterback at No. 1, you better give him the offensive weapons to produce,” Sikkema wrote. “Harrison, the son of Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison Sr., could be a WR1 in the league today with his combination of size, speed and skill. Last season, he recorded an 89.9 receiving grade with more than 1,200 receiving yards and a nation-leading 36 explosive plays of 15 yards or more.”

It’s nice to dream. This would be as fun of a Chicago Bears draft class as any in team history. Caleb Williams and Marvin Harrison would inject so much excitement and juice into the fanbase, even for those who are staunch supporters of Justin Fields. I’m one of those, I believe in Fields. But I also can’t help sneaking a peek at Williams, who’d be the most naturally talented quarterback the Bears have ever rostered (topping Fields).

There are 13 games left in the 2023 regular season. We could look back at this mock draft in two months and think how crazy it was to imagine the Bears with the first two picks. Maybe Chicago has a meaningless midseason winning streak, or the Panthers get hot in the second half of Bryce Young’s rookie year.

Regardless, this is reality right now. The Bears have the first two picks right now. And with the season already over, Bears fans can sit back and fantasize about what could be coming in April, as long as the right now continues for the rest of the season.