Getting Rome Odunze with the No. 9 overall pick would be a dream come true for the Chicago Bears. But draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah thinks at least one team might complicate that dream.
On one hand, thank goodness no one is asking what the Chicago Bears are doing at the quarterback position anymore. Following the trade of Justin Fields and the continued revelations about the rest of this NFL Draft class, all roads lead to the Bears taking Caleb Williams, the clear best quarterback in this year’s draft in this writer’s opinion, with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
The new big question: what do the Bears do with their second first-round pick at No. 9 overall?
The dream scenario, of course, would be to somehow land one of the top three receivers in the draft should one fall to No. 9. That would much more likely be Rome Odunze over Marvin Harrison Jr. or Malik Nabers. Even though the Bears would only have two draft picks after that, you could say they got tremendous value with their blue-chip and helped their young quarterback even more.
But NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah thinks the Bears might have some competition for the likes of Odunze should he slip to the bottom of the top 10.
On a pre-draft call with reporters, Jeremiah highlighted the Jets, who own the 10th overall pick, as a team that might want to move up for a top receiver to build around veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Should the Jets be unable to hit a home run and trade up for Harrison Jr., for example, Odunze could be the next best thing, according to Jeremiah.
“If Odunze—we talked about him potentially being in Chicago — if he gets to 8,” Jeremiah explained, “I could make a strong argument that the Jets could make an easy, painless flip with Atlanta, where Atlanta goes back to 10, they could leapfrog Chicago and take Odunze, and it wouldn’t cost them much. You give them your 3(rd-round pick), they give you a 4.”
For fans who would absolutely love to see the Bears grab Odunze, who should fit in well with the likes of DJ Moore and Keenan Allen, this would feel like a gut punch.
And yet, it feels as if the Bears would be better off allowing another team to trade up for a receiver than to give up one of their two remaining draft picks (at that point, at least) to move up themselves. The only realm in which a trade-up in the top 10 would make any sense is if you could do it by giving up a 2025 third-rounder to make it happen. That would hurt less because the Bears have an extra second-rounder next year (from the Panthers trade) to play with.
If the Bears miss out on a receiver, the other options feel a bit murkier.
Chicago could simply take a top offensive tackle prospect like Joe Alt or Olu Fashanu who could lock down the left side for years to come and either move on from Braxton Jones or move him to another spot.
Maybe they’d consider edge rusher Dallas Turner if he was available, but Turner doesn’t quite fit the mold of a 4-3 defensive end. Meanwhile, Jared Verse fits the bill more at that position, but taking him at No. 9 might feel a tad rich.
Trading down could be the play at No. 9, especially if a quarterback like J.J. McCarthy is still available there or if someone really wanted to grab Michael Penix that high. That could even yield the kind of draft capital the Bears want (e.g. a second-round or extra third-round pick this year). But the value of such a trade-back depends on the player the other team wants — a non-quarterback won’t net as much of a return — and the players that would be available to the Bears in the teens, which is as far as it makes sense to move back.
Bottom line: it would just feel so much better if the NFL lets Odunze fall into the Bears’ hands at No. 9. It would just be too good to pass up, and I’m not ready to buy that the Bears would trade away the rights to draft him if he fell to them.
So hopefully the Jets don’t see Jeremiah’s comments and start thinking that jumping the Bears to get Odunze is a great idea.
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