A little look around the NFC North and the top of the 2023 NFL draft, courtesy of Peter King of NBC Sports…
From King’s weekly Football Morning in America (FMIA) this week, the longtime NFL insider makes it pretty clear that the Chicago Bears are going to trade out of the No. 1 position in the draft. King interviewed Chicago GM Ryan Poles and came away convinced the Bears are trading back from the top spot.
They also won’t be trading quarterback Justin Fields, a notion that some analysts have tried to push forward as a path for the Bears to escape being the worst team in the league. From King’s column recapping his interview with Poles,
Poles spoke softly but urgently in 50 minutes. He was supportive of quarterback Justin Fields, saying “we’ve got to see it through” in giving Fields a chance to be the team’s long-term starter. It’s clear he’s not trading Fields, and he’s not picking a quarterback high in this draft. He left little doubt the Bears will trade the first overall pick and said he’d spoken to three teams at the Combine about a deal. (He wouldn’t identify them.) He said he had enough conversations about a deal to know in swapping first-round picks this year he can get “a ’24 one and a ’25 one” in a major package for a trade.
Teams in need of a quarterback figure to be the likely suitors for the Bears, including the Colts, Panthers and perhaps the Seahawks.
