Daniel Jeremiah Mock Draft: Bears offense gets a boost in 1st-round mock

We’re getting to the point in draft season that mock drafts have more value. The Senior Bowl is over, and the NFL Scouting Combine is approaching. The 2024 NFL Draft isn’t far behind.

Sure, free agency will change the landscape of the first round, as team needs right now may not be team needs in April. But that isn’t the case for the Chicago Bears and the first overall pick. Free agency won’t determine how GM Ryan Poles uses that first selection, which as of now centers around the quarterback.

Will the Bears keep Justin Fields and trade the first pick for a historic haul? Or will Chicago move on from Fields and select Caleb Williams (USC), a player most NFL Draft analysts agree is a franchise-changing passer?

NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah, one of the most tuned-in draft experts in the industry, published his second 2024 NFL mock draft of the season on Tuesday, and his opinion about what the Chicago Bears will do with the first pick hasn’t changed.

It’s Caleb Williams.

“There will be a lot of debate about what the Bears should do with this pick leading up to the draft,” Jeremiah wrote, “but I still think Williams makes the most sense for them here.”

I tend to agree.

Full transparency here: I had a weak moment for Justin Fields recently, and it had me thinking that maybe, just maybe, what’s best for the Bears is sticking with Fields and loading up the draft arsenal with a Powerball bounty of picks. But, it was only a moment. A fleeting one, too.

Williams is the best option for the Chicago Bears for several reasons. First, he’s a more talented quarterback than Fields, which, taken alone, is enough of a reason to select him first overall. Second, he’ll come to Chicago on a five-year, cost-controlled rookie contract. Williams will help the Bears win a Super Bowl because of his superior talent and his cheaper contract. It’s a win-win.

But for Williams to reach his full potential, the Bears must give him more weapons. In Daniel Jeremiah’s mock draft, they do just that at No. 9 overall.

It’s Washington wide receiver Rome Odunze.

“To me, it will be a home run draft for the Bears if they pick Williams at No. 1 and then land Odunze here,” Jeremiah wrote. “This would transform their offense.”

A wide receiver tandem of DJ Moore and Odunze would be… tantalizing. They’d form the best duo since Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffrey and give Caleb Williams the complementary skill set that makes every throw possible.

This is an A+ mock draft from Daniel Jeremiah. I have a feeling one of the big three wide receivers will fall to the ninth pick, which makes taking Williams at No. 1 even more of a no-brainer. The biggest argument against taking Williams (aside from the picks the Bears would get in a trade) is that Chicago should take Marvin Harrison Jr., the Ohio State star and consensus WR1 in this year’s draft.

But what if the Bears can land Malik Nabers (LSU) or Odunze with their second first-round pick? Suddenly, the combination of Caleb Williams and one of those two receivers is a lot better than Fields, Harrison, and a bunch of future draft picks.

At least, in my opinion, it is.

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