NFL Draft rumors: Bears leaning toward the unimaginable with No. 1 overall pick

When Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the line "He is working through the unimaginable" for his mega-smash Broadway hit Hamilton (in the song It's Quiet Uptown), there's no way he was seeing into the future and talking about Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles, was he?

Longtime Sports Illustrated writer Peter King isn't so sure. In his Football Morning in America column Monday, King dropped the bombshell that he's retiring after a lifetime covering the game, and while that announcement is newsworthy in and of itself, he also casually referenced a move that would reverberate throughout the NFL if it came to fruition.

He believes the Bears will trade the No. 1 pick and the right to draft Caleb Williams, and instead opt to build the team around incumbent quarterback Justin Fields after procuring a historic haul by moving down twice.

Could Ryan Poles do the unimaginable and trade the No. 1 pick two years in a row?

The Bears acquired DJ Moore and a package of draft picks in their trade with the Panthers last year to give up the chance to select Bryce Young or CJ Stroud with the top pick. While some at the time thought that Poles was throwing away his shot at changing the direction of his long-suffering franchise, the move has looked like a masterstroke in hindsight, as the Panthers stumbled to the worst record in the league to give the Bears the top overall selection once again.

King envisions a scenario where the Bears just keep rolling that pick into bigger and better things in the future. In this case, Chicago would end up with three extra first-round picks and three extra second-round picks in the next two years, and the Bears would still have two top-10 selections with which to fortify the team immediately.

No team has ever traded out of No. 1 two years in a row, but is it really that unimaginable? Poles has what's known as a good problem right now. If he believes that Caleb Williams can live up to the Patrick Mahomes comparisons and blow us all away, he can draft him and start planning parade routes.

If Poles still has faith in Justin Fields to reach his ceiling, he can surround him with the best young roster in the league by trading down, as the market for this pick is certain to be through the roof. King's proposal would net the Bears a haul, but is it enough to make Poles say, "That would be enough?" In reality, he might be able to get even more if he trades down.

What comes next? The debate rages on, but only Poles is in the room where it happens, and until he makes his intentions known, all we can do is speculate.