There are two NFL teams getting ready for the Super Bowl right now. For everybody else, there is free agency and the draft. When Super Bowl LVII comes down on Sunday night, only one team will be happy, and the game’s unfortunate finalist between the Eagles and the Chiefs is already getting ready to fly back from Arizona, maybe take a day or so off, and then get back to the draft boards.
One of those teams wondering just what their 2023 roster will look like is the New York Jets. Unlike other teams, the Jets don’t really have a multi-tiered shopping list. They are a playoff-worthy team for the most part with an Ice Age crater at the game’s most important position.
In this pre-Super Bowl mock, general manager Joe Douglas seeks to rectify this by calling Bears general manager Ryan Poles, and offering this year’s 13th, 43rd, and 74th picks in the 2023 draft, and New York’s first-round pick in 2024. It’s a good move for both teams — the Jets have to narrow everything in on their quarterback of the future, and the Bears have obvious needs at just about every other position.
A few notes before we get started — the Dolphins forfeited what would be the 21st overall pick in the draft over tampering charges, and the current 30th and 31st picks (the Chiefs, and then the Eagles) are based on tiebreakers — it’ll obviously be based on who wins and loses the Super Bowl.
With that our of the way, here’s one version of how teams might have the first round going at this point in time.