How Bears are preparing for decision with No. 9 pick

The Chicago Bears have two top-10 draft selections in the 2024 NFL draft, where they’ll be able to land a couple of top prospects.

While trading back is certainly an option — especially given Chicago currently has just four picks — it sounds like the Bears are planning on staying put at No. 9 and landing a top prospect.

General manager Ryan Poles has employed an interesting strategy when it comes to preparing for a decision at ninth overall, where there could very well be top prospects at several premium positions.

The Bears will have different teams representing a specific position group, where they’ll run simulations to determine the best fit.

“One team is going to talk about, ‘The tackle position is the best to go after’ [or] ‘the wide receiver’s the best’ [or] ‘the defensive end’s the best.’ — and use factual information to kinda spit that out,” Poles said, via the Sun-Times. “And we’ll have a debate in terms of what’s more impactful for our football team, short-term and long-term.”

The Bears’ biggest need among the groups is defensive end, where the team is looking to pair someone with Montez Sweat off the edge. After not addressing the position in free agency, it certainly seems like it’s on the board in the draft, where top options like Dallas Turner, Jared Verse and Laiatu Latu should be available — be it at No. 9 or in a trade back scenario.

While Chicago traded for Keenan Allen this season — pairing him with DJ Moore — if a top receiver like Rome Odunze or Malik Nabers falls to them at ninth overall, it would be hard to pass on him. Plus, adding weapons for a young, incoming rookie quarterback like Williams is never a bad thing.

If the Bears can’t add a top wideout, the next best thing would certainly be shoring up protection for your rookie quarterback. Given quarterbacks are expected to dominate the top-five, could there be a situation where Joe Alt falls to Chicago at No. 9? If not Alt, Olu Fashanu and Taliese Fuaga are other options at tackle.

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