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The New York Jets finally moved on from quarterback Sam Darnold, who was traded to the Carolina Panthers on Monday for a handful of picks — a 2021 sixth-round pick and 2022 second- and fourth-round picks.
Darnold’s trade certainly impacts the Chicago Bears, whether that’s through the NFL draft or the trade market.
Now that the Panthers have landed their quarterback, that effectively takes them out of the running for a quarterback in the NFL draft. With quarterbacks now guaranteed to go with the first three picks, that would leave two of those five prospects still on the board. Carolina could certainly trade their eighth overall pick to a quarterback-needy team like the Bears, although that could be quite costly.
While it’s not likely, there’s also the possibility that one of those five prospects falls to 20th overall. Although that depends on what happens with some other teams potentially in the market for a quarterback, including the Atlanta Falcons, Denver Broncos, New England Patriots and the Washington Football Team.
At this point, Chicago appears content with drafting a quarterback on Day 2 — someone like Kellen Mond or Kyle Trask. But we know how GM Ryan Pace is — whatever hand he’s showing you, isn’t the hand he has. So there’s always the possibility that Pace tries to trade up to grab his guy.
But there’s also another intriguing factor in this equation — Teddy Bridgewater, who the Panthers signed to a massive deal last free agency. Interestingly enough, the Bears were also interested in Bridgewater last offseason, although reports indicated Bridgewater didn’t want to compete with Mitchell Trubisky for the starting job.
Now that Bridgewater is available, it would be a shock if Pace didn’t at least consider the possibility, especially given he’s checked in on every quarterback option this offseason. Not to say that Pace will pull the trigger — or that it even makes sense given Bridgewater’s $17 million base salary in 2021 — but he’s taken a look at pretty much every quarterback up for grabs this offseason.
At this point, it feels like Chicago is primed to draft a rookie to groom behind Andy Dalton rather than make another trade for a veteran quarterback with a massive contract.
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