After hiring Ben Johnson and making several potentially significant roster upgrades, the Chicago Bears are a popular pick to compete for a playoff spot this season. While the Bears have been trending up since they made Caleb Williams the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, they weren’t always painted in a positive light.
Yet, it doesn’t help when the franchise makes questionable decisions, essentially setting the organization up to fail, like they did ahead of the 2017 NFL Draft.
That’s when Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox says they made their “worst trade of the past 10 years” by trading up to the No. 2 overall pick in the first round to select University of North Carolina quarterback Mitch Trubisky.
"This one shouldn't come as a surprise," Knox wrote. "The Chicago Bears' 2017 trade up to draft quarterback Mitch Trubisky was both bad and unnecessary. The San Francisco 49ers were never considering Trubisky at No. 2, according to Peter King, writing for Sports Illustrated at the time. According to King, the 49ers had Myles Garrett, Solomon Thomas and Reuben Foster atop their board and were happy to take any one of them near the top of Round 1. So when Chicago called looking to move up from No. 3, San Francisco jumped at the chance to add more draft capital."
So, what was the trade again? Chicago sent their third and fourth-round pick, plus an additional third-round pick in 2018, to the San Francisco 49ers just to move up one slot and select Trubisky. Yet, Knox states a strong case suggesting that the 49ers were never going to pick Trubisky, meaning the Bears should have kept their draft assets and stood pat.
Of course, this would be viewed as one of the Bears’ best trades, had Trubisky lived up to his draft potential. Yet, since he didn’t, it’s become a move that many can’t forget.
Perhaps getting the Williams selection right in 2024 can finally help Bears fans wipe away their distant pains of Trubisky failing to take shape in the Windy City.
The craziest part? The Bears could have simply selected Patrick Mahomes, who was selected by the Kansas City Chiefs with the 10th overall pick in 2017. In other words, sometimes the first player selected isn’t always the best.
