Peter Schrager’s 2024 Mock Draft paints awful scenario for Chicago Bears in Round 1

Good Morning Football co-host and Fox Sports NFL reporter Peter Schrager has one of the most popular mock drafts of any NFL draft season. His annual projections are always based on the intel he’s hearing around the league, and he’s usually pretty accurate. That’s why his first 2024 NFL mock draft is really bad news for Chicago Bears fans.

First, the good news. Schrager has the Bears doing the obvious with the No. 1 overall pick and selecting Caleb Williams, the uber-talented USC quarterback many consider a generational prospect. With less than 10 days until the first round kicks off, Williams to Chicago has become a foregone conclusion.

Now, the bad news. Terrible news. Downright atrocious news.

Peter Schrager has the Chicago Bears trading out of No. 9 overall to the Indianapolis Colts, who make the power move with Chicago to land Malik Nabers, who fell to the ninth pick! Rather than have GM Ryan Poles stay put and select whom I believe is the top wide receiver in the 2024 NFL Draft, Schrager instead has the Bears trade down to No. 15 for just a second-round pick in 2025. At least, I assume it’s a 2025 pick, Schrager’s mock draft details the trade as a “future” second-rounder.

MORE: Grading Mel Kiper Jr.”s picks for the Bears in his final 2024 NFL Mock Draft

As for who the Bears select, buckle up and grab your barf bags: Alabama offensive tackle JC Latham.

‘After piling up more draft capital by trading back, the Bears still land a stud offensive tackle,” Schrager wrote. “Latham could be the second OT taken on draft night — some teams like him that much. If the board falls this way, Chicago adds a big, pedigreed bookend who can join last year’s first-round tackle, Darnell Wright, in protecting the new franchise quarterback, Caleb Williams.”

For the record, I think Latham is a fine prospect. He’ll be a very good starting offensive tackle in the NFL. But he profiles as a right tackle in the pros, where last year’s first-round pick, Darnell Wright, shined as a rookie in 2023. I hate the idea of moving Wright to the left side or playing Latham there when he’s obviously a right tackle moving forward.

As much as I respect Schrager’s process (and the results) for his mock drafts, his Chicago Bears projection feels more like an attempt to get Latham selected at or near the range he believes he’ll be drafted rather than actually marry him to the Bears.

It’s a bad 2024 mock draft, and I don’t see it happening, especially not if Malike Nabers is gifted to the Bears.