Included in the NFL Draft fallout are now some tough realities for certain players, and one Chicago Bears veteran already looks like he'll be on the outside looking in.
Last year, just before the season started, Bears general manager Ryan Poles made a trade to address one of the remaining roster needs.
Chicago acquired former Cleveland Browns defensive lineman Chris Williams and a seventh-round pick in exchange for a sixth rounder. Williams would go on to finish the season with 3.0 sacks in limited action, playing 34 percent of defensive snaps.
When the Bears selected Shemar Turner in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft, though, it was immediate bad news for Williams.
The Chris Williams trade might soon look like a failed experiment
In a long line of some big-time failed trades by Poles, this one won't necessarily garner as much attention. But, the reality is, Williams now faces an uphill battle in making this Bears roster after the Turner selection.
With the Texas A&M product in the fold, Chicago now has four clear-cut keepers on the interior defensive line between he, Andrew Billings, Grady Jarrett and Gervon Dexter.
If Chicago wanted to keep five on the interior, 2023 third-round pick Zacch Pickens is probably still a better bet to stick around over Williams. The odds of Chicago keeping six interior linemen don't seem too high, and unless Williams were to go unclaimed after a cut later this year and wind up on the practice squad, the Bears likely wasted some late-round capital in this trade.
Of course, that isn't to slight what the Bears have done to their defensive line. Adding Jarrett and Turner meant the Bears were attacking an area of need with fervor.
Poles isn't afraid to take swings. He never has been. That's part of why the Bears are now in such great position. After all, he was the one who orchestrated the infamous Bryce Young trade, or as Bears fans now call it, the Caleb Williams trade.
This small failure won't mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, especially if Turner becomes an integral part of the team's defensive line.
