Anonymous NFL Executives weigh in on the Chicago Bears 2024 draft class

Some NFL executives thought the Bears should have drafted a lowed graded prospect at nine overall due to need.

In his recent article for The Athletic, Mike Sando shared quotes from anonymous NFL executives about each team’s draft class. His two-part series offers a fascinating insight into how executives think, and we wanted to pass along their comments about the Chicago Bears.

There was some debate about the direction the Bears should have gone at nine instead of selecting Washington Rome Odunze, but this exec was down with the pick.

“Chicago already (has) tackles, so to take a lineman in the top 10 who is going to start out at guard versus a receiver who is clean as a whistle, a proven playmaker at a position that has gone up into the $32 million range, I would have gone with Odunze as well,” one exec said.

Odunze was the most popular mock pick at nine, but leading up to the draft, it seemed like he’d be off the board. Thankfully for Chicago, two offensive linemen and a fourth quarterback went in the top eight.

Atlanta’s selection of Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. at eight was ripped by the execs that Sando spoke with. Some drew a parallel between former Bears’ GM Ryan Pace, who is the current Falcons director of player personnel, signing Mike Glennon before drafting Mitch Trubisky in 2017. Atlanta’s current general manager is Terry Fontenot, but who knows if Pace had any influence in the decision to draft Penix after signing QB Kirk Cousins.

But back to their thoughts on the Bears.

This executive wondered why Chicago didn’t draft an offensive lineman to better support rookie quarterback Caleb Williams.

“If you hold the football in college, you’re not all of a sudden learning how to get rid of it on time in the pros,” an exec said. “They are surrounding this quarterback with weapons, thinking that he can go through progressions and distribute the football on time, and that is not his game. You traded for a veteran receiver (Keenan Allen) who is used to catching passes from Philip Rivers and Justin Herbert. He is going to be frustrated if his young quarterback does not operate on time.”

The Bears are content with left tackle Braxton Jones, but it’s certainly possible other league execs aren’t as familiar with the former fifth-round pick’s game.

However, suggesting the Bears select a lower-graded player off their board because he fits a perceived need must be a common line of thinking among some league executives.

Here’s another one.

“I would have traded back,” another exec said. “The idea of taking the third-best receiver, unless he was rated as their top receiver, I don’t like that when I could trade back and get the best defensive player to fill a hole at three-technique or a hole opposite Montez Sweat. They could have a harder time than you think outscoring people unless Caleb starts out really strong.”

Why should Odunze’s rating among the receiver class matter if he had a higher overall grade than the defensive line prospects?

I’m not just talking about the Bears’ draft board, as they clearly had Odunze graded higher than Laiatu Latu, Byron Murphy II, or any other defensive lineman, but there was a consensus among analysts that Odunze was the better prospect.

And considering the first defensive player (Latu) wasn’t drafted until pick 15, the league likely agreed that Odunze was the better prospect, even if he was the third receiver off the board.