3 best moves by the Bears in the 2024 NFL Draft

The Bears’ best decision is blatantly obvious, but that doesn’t mean it still shouldn’t be addressed. But really, this move goes back to their decision last season to trade their No. 1 pick to the Carolina Panthers in exchange for theirs in this year’s draft. Whether Poles is a fortune teller or not is unclear, but it worked out possibly better than anyone could have expected.

The Bears technically weren’t in need of a quarterback, as they had Justin Fields, even if the verdict was still out on him becoming a true starter. Luck would have it, though, that the Panthers’ two-win season led them to earning the No. 1 pick… that they then had to give right back to the Bears.

No one truly knows how Williams will be, obviously, but there was a reason he was touted as the No. 1 overall pick going back two years ago. He’ll have to clean some things up about his game, but he already feels like the best decision Chicago has made at the position, maybe in the history of the team.

Drafting Rome Odunze at No. 9 overall

Again, this is too easy, but the Bears could have gone much differently with their No. 9 pick. For one, they may have even gotten a bit lucky that Rome Odunze was still available at nine. The Atlanta Falcons were just ahead of them and could have easily selected Odunze. But we all know how that turned out.

The Bears could have also chosen to trade down and acquire more picks that they desperately needed. But with Odunze somewhat falling into their laps, the best choice was to get the talented receiver and keep adding to what could turn out to be a lethal offense. Odunze will join Keenan Allen, DJ Moore, and running back D’Andre Swift with Williams as the signal caller.

Trading back into the fifth round to draft Austin Booker at No. 144

The Bears only had four draft picks when they entered the 2024 NFL Draft last Thursday. But thanks to a trade with the Buffalo Bills, who were trading all throughout the event, the Bears got a fifth pick by sending a 2025 fourth-round pick to Buffalo. In doing so, Chicago selected Kansas’ Austin Booker at No. 144 overall, their last pick of the draft.

This was obviously a draft focused heavily on the offensive side of the ball, with three out of the five picks going to that side. But getting some sort of pass rusher to go alongside Montez Sweat was a need.

In 12 games playing for Kansas last year, Booker had 56 total tackles, 12 for a loss, eight sacks, two forced fumbles, and one pass defended. That seemed to have been enough for Poles to get excited and get the Bears back into the draft for one last pick.

“I think it was a player from personnel to coaches everyone felt strongly about,” Bears scout John Syty said about Booker, via 247Sports. “And I think when you have that type of conviction, it was able to give Ryan [Poles] a reason to get back into the conversation.”