This 2024 NFL Mock Draft has Bears TRADING UP in 1st round

The Chicago Bears have incredible flexibility — and power — in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. Owners of the first and ninth overall picks, the Bears will dictate what happens at the beginning and end of the first ten selections.

It’s assumed general manager Ryan Poles is closing in on Caleb Williams (QB, USC) as the No. 1 pick, and it’s the right move. He’s the best quarterback prospect to enter the NFL since Andrew Luck, and while Justin Fields is a beloved member of the Bears, he falls way short of Williams’ upside.

But things get really tricky when trying to predict what Poles and the Chicago Bears will do with the No. 9 pick. Will they select the best available wide receiver? Will an edge rusher be the preferred choice? What if Joe Alt (OT, Notre Dame) falls? Will Poles make it back-to-back years with an offensive tackle in Round 1?

The answer, according to Dane Brugler in his latest NFL Mock Draft for The Atheltic, is none of the above.

Brugler has the Bears TRADING UP from No. 9 to No. 5 overall. Yep, Brugler has Chicago swinging a deal with Jim Harbaugh to get their rookie quarterback a weapon on the outside.

More on that in a minute.

At No. 1, Brugler has the Chicago Bears taking Caleb Williams.

“While this isn’t a done deal, I didn’t talk to anyone at the combine who believes this won’t happen,” Brugler wrote. “An intriguing scenario would be if the Commanders try to make a move up to No. 1 to bring Williams back home — that possibility came up a few times during my conversations in Indianapolis. And if the Bears have similar grades on multiple quarterbacks, a move down might make sense for them.”

It’s a weird time right now for the Bears. Everyone agrees that Williams is the pick, but there’s still a sense of anxiety about whether a last-minute offer from a team desperate for the former Heisman Trophy winner will blow away Poles.

I don’t think that will happen, Caleb Williams will be a Bear, and he’ll throw passes to Washington’s Rome Odunze after Chicago swings a deal to move up four spots, per Brugler.

Note: The projected trade would send the No. 9, No. 75, and the Bears’ fourth-round pick in 2025 to the Chargers for the No. 5.

“For the Bears, fortune favors the bold,” he wrote. “None of the top three receivers are falling to No. 9, and this is a relatively low price to pay for an impact pass catcher who will help win games from Day 1. Only GM Ryan Poles knows which receiver he would prefer in this scenario, but a popular theory to emerge from combine buzz was that a Bears-Odunze pairing might be the best fit in the draft.”

Did you catch that last part? Brugler is sharing intel he heard at the NFL Combine, which is why mock drafts like this one are so valuable. It’s not that Brugler will get every prediction right, but that little piece of intel is worth underlining. The buzz about Odunze to the Bears was very real at the Combine, and where there’s smoke, there’s usually first-round fire.

Imagine a 2024 NFL Draft that produces Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze in the first round. That’s nightmare fuel for the rest of the NFC North.