The Chicago Bears actually held the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft. But the franchise traded him to the Carolina Panthers. The franchise was actually already in agreement with another team.

But the franchise around general manager Ryan Poles decided to trade the pick to the Carolina Panthers.

In return, the 61st pick in 2023, the first-round pick in 2024 and the second-round pick in 2025 went to the Bears, in addition to the 9th pick in 2023. In addition, wide receiver DJ Moore came to Chicago.

Bears initially wanted to trade pick later

As it now turned out, however, that scenario was on the back burner for a while. Eventually, Poles apparently considered a far more complex option in which the Bears could have generated even more draft capital.

As the GM revealed on Football Morning in America, he considered trading the No. 1 pick to the Houston Texans first, thus obtaining the No. 2 pick this year and the Texans’ first-round pick next. After that, the idea was to trade that asset to the Panthers.

But Poles feared that interest in top quarterback prospects would cool off at a later date, leaving the Bears with less to trade. That’s why the deal with the Panthers.

Poles listened to his gut

“I thought there was an opportunity to do something historically pretty cool with a trade of one for two and two for nine,” Poles said. “That had the potential to get more draft capital this year and the possibility of sitting on three first-round picks next year.”

But, “My gut told me to strike now. At the Combine, I think the quarterbacks did a great job in the interviews. A lot of teams felt really good about some of those guys, but the further away you get from the Combine, maybe the Pro Day gets worse or something else that scares teams off. “