5 NFL Draft prospects Bears should already be scouting

Fresh off their first win of the season, it still does not change the fact that the 2023 Chicago Bears are absolutely terrible. No amount of spin can reshape the narrative over them being a dismal 1-4 team. They may have won an emotional game on Thursday Night Football over the Washington Commanders, but that is the worst team in the NFC East. Regardless, Chicago is playing for 2024.

I have no faith in Bears general manager Ryan Poles getting it right next spring after completely soiling the bed with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. A right tackle out of Tennessee at No. 10. You have to be kidding me? What may have given this blind squirrel a rare nut is the team they dealt the No. 1 pick to for Bryce Young's draft rights also stink to high heaven: The Carolina Panthers!

So with quite possibly the first two picks in next spring's 2024 NFL Draft, you better believe hope is the greatest currency of all time in Chicagoland right now. Thankfully for Bears fans, it is pretty much impossible to screw up the first two picks of the upcoming draft, assuming Carolina and Chicago continue to circle the drain like the NFC bottom-feeders they either already are or are truly becoming.

If Poles was a smart man, he would have his scouting department all-in on these five blue-chippers.

Chicago Bears: 5 NFL Draft prospects they should already be scouting

5. Joe Alt could make Bears menacing in the trenches out of Notre Dame

It would be so unbelievably Bears of them to take another offensive lineman with one of their two likely top-10 picks next spring. Then again, Joe Alt is different. He is the latest, and potentially the greatest, offensive lineman to come out of the pro football line-meat factory known as Notre Dame. You hardly ever see Fighting Irish offensive linemen bust coming out of this particular program either.

The Bears will also have the Panthers' pick in this draft. They can afford to take a quarterback or a skill-position player of their choosing and still be in a prime position to take the best offensive line prospect in this draft in Alt. He is only a true junior, but when you need to turn pro, you turn pro. Besides, the Bears could conceivably trade back from No. 2 with this selection if they were to get it.

Overall, if the Bears were to come out of the top 10 next year with some combination of a franchise quarterback, a No. 1 wide receiver or a book-end tackle, Chicago could be well on its way towards maybe thinking about being something. I do not trust Poles to make the right decision here, but hey, D.J. Moore looked pretty good vs. Washington on Thursday night. That was a huge positive for them.

There are few certainties in life: Death, taxes and Notre Dame offensive linemen thriving in the top 10.