2023 NFL Mock Draft: A Texans trade up, 4 Day 1 QBs and late-round luxury picks

Let’s get this out of the way right now. The Chicago Bears have the first selection in the 2023 NFL Draft. They will not be taking a quarterback.

The Bears failed upward into the premier pick in this spring’s draft. That puts them in prime position to select Alabama passer and former Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young. They will not — or, since this is Chicago and logic is merely a suggestion, should not — do this with Justin Fields behind center. The second-year quarterback was electric in 2022 and single-handedly served as the optimism engine for a team that surrounded him with terrible blocking and an anonymous receiving corps.

Fields deserves the opportunity to see this through with a true NFL roster and the talent to bring the Bears to the postseason. Chicago will have no shortage of avenues to beef up its roster around him. First will be through an estimated league-high $92 million in salary cap space. Second will be via auctioning off the top overall selection to the highest bidder.

This puts our latest mock draft in a tough position. The Bears are unlikely to keep the first pick. The Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts are both in prime position to trade up thanks to their spots at No. 2 and No. 4, respectively. So while past rules have kept these mocks trade-free until the weeks leading up to the draft, we’ll have to bend that now that we know how the top three-quarters of the order will shake out.

Chicago is on the clock, but won’t be making its pick — not without a pressing need at quarterback and many holes to fill elsewhere. So who’ll step up and pay the Bears a franchise-building ransom?