Ranking the Bears’ 3 best options with the No. 1 pick

Bears best options with No. 1 pick in 2023 NFL Draft – No. 1: Trade back with a team that wants a QB

In the 2023 NFL Draft class, the narrative is all going to be about the quarterback class. Alabama’s Bryce Young and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud look like surefire studs at the next level while there are fascinating physical projects like Kentucky’s Will Levis and Florida’s Anthony Richardson that teams will easily talk themselves into in the pre-draft process.

But the Bears don’t need a quarterback. Despite winning only three games, we saw Justin Fields prove he’s the franchise signal-caller in Chicago with phenomenal play despite having a criminally bad supporting cast with the O-line, receivers and running backs. The simplest point, though, is that Chicago doesn’t need a quarterback, which will work to their advantage.

Now that Houston has dropped to No. 2 and Chicago is at No. 1, that will give teams breathing room to jump ahead of the Texans and get the quarterback of their choosing. That’s going to raise the price of trading up and the Bears can all but name their price if a team is desperate to move up and draft their franchise quarterback.

This is by far the best option that the Bears have. They need help across the entire defense, at wide receiver, on the offensive line and basically everywhere on the roster that isn’t quarterback. That makes draft capital exceptionally valuable to them as they can get as many darts to throw at the board as possible.

And if they’re trading the No. 1 pick, those darts will be better than before as they will be getting high-level capital in the deal.