2024 NFL Mock Draft: Caleb Williams, Drake Maye or none of the above for the Bears?

The 2023 regular season is over. That leaves 18 teams to kick their offseason rebuilding plans into high gear.

The 2024 NFL Draft will be the easiest way to add high impact, low cost playmakers capable of engineering a turnaround. But while we know the order of the first 18 picks of April’s draft and, roughly, who this year’s first round prospects might be, any sort of guess on how the selections will pan out is a crapshoot at this point.

Welp, pew pew.

My latest attempt to predict the future makes the most of a deep crop of wide receiver and cornerback talent while tossing four quarterbacks into the mix on Day 1. For the Chicago Bears, the decision with the first overall pick — acquired last season in the deal that brought DJ Moore to the midwest and gave the Carolina Panthers the latitude to win two games behind Bryce Young in 2023 — will be whether to take a quarterback and replace Justin Fields, or move in another direction. Chicago could bring back another king’s ransom if it decides to move back, but would miss out on an inexpensive, high-ceiling quarterback in the process.

That brings more unpredictability beyond just figuring out whether Caleb Williams or Drake Maye should be the first player off the board. But since it’s too early to create some fake trades in a draft where 14 slots still have yet to be determined, I’ve got the Bears taking a quarterback first overall.

Read on to figure out which one — and the 31 selections that follow.