The scouting combine is less than a week away. Insiders warned that league-wide buzz would start picking up around this time. They weren’t lying. Over the past few days, an interesting NFL draft nugget surfaced via Lance Zierlein of NFL.com. He strongly believed the Houston Texans, not the Chicago Bears, would be the team making the first pick in the 2023 draft. That indicated a trade between the two was a virtual guarantee. Prominent insider Benjamin Allbright quickly confirmed this, stating smart people should start placing bets on Houston claiming that pick.
Those two aren’t alone anymore. Jeff Hughes of Da Bears Blog has proven on multiple occasions to have solid NFL sources in the past. He reached out to them this past week and then dropped this nugget on Twitter.
Texted all my folks over last 24 hours. Asked them all who they think will be making the first pick.
None of them had any specific knowledge but ALL of them predicted it’ll be Houston.
Now either this is one of the greatest misdirection campaigns a team has ever had, or it’s clear to many inside the industry that the Texans are fully intent on getting to the top of the draft for their quarterback. Why the urgency? The belief is some of it comes from recent comments by Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay. He didn’t hide his admiration for Alabama quarterback Bryce Young and has made it clear his team will draft that position. The Texans likely aren’t willing to take the risk of a division rival jumping them for a quarterback they want.
They have two division rivals working against each other. That alone should create a strong market for the #1 pick. If other teams get involved, and there are plenty of reasons to think they will, then GM Ryan Poles should come away with a robust package of extra picks when the dust settles in April. Initial projections are the Bears will likely get two 2nd round picks if they move down from #1 to #2. While it doesn’t secure that coveted future 1st, one of those picks would be at the top of the 2nd round this year. It would also mean they still get to draft the best player on Poles’ board.
On the other hand, such a move would leave the door open for the Chicago Bears to move down again. Perhaps the Colts will still want to come up for one of the remaining quarterbacks, or another team may wish to get ahead of Indianapolis. That would allow the team to stockpile even more picks. The number of possibilities is frankly staggering. Poles doesn’t have to rush anything. The longer this plays out, the more desperate teams will get.
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