(670 The Score) Riding a five-game losing streak and sitting at 3-9, the Bears are currently in line to land the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft next April.
The Bears hold that status after losing six of their nine games by eight or fewer points, and it certainly isn’t a position that’s close to solidified. The Rams (who owe their first-round pick to the Lions) and the Broncos (who owe their first-round pick to the Seahawks) are both 3-8. The Steelers are 3-7 entering their game against the Colts on Monday night, and four more teams are 4-8.
Which is all to say that with another win or two in their final five games, the Bears could get a morale boost in the locker room while also falling a meaningful number of slots in the NFL Draft. It’s with that in mind that Score afternoon host Danny Parkins argued vehemently that the Bears are best off if they lose out this season. Because as he put it, “the dream” is for the Bears to land the No. 2 pick and then trade it to a quarterback-needy team for extra draft capital and then help plug the many holes on Chicago’s roster.
“A top-two pick,” Parkins said of what the Bears need. “Because you want the right for someone to trade up to take a quarterback. Because what’s the example in recent history where a team sitting there with the second overall pick and took the best defensive player available? You don’t have to go back too far – two years … (We) had Ron Rivera on before the (2020) draft and it was so obvious he was going to take Chase Young, and Chase Young is awesome. But he took Chase Young. Who went five? Tua (Tagovailoa). Who went six? (Justin) Herbert. What’s happened to Chase Young since? Meh, he’s been fine when he has played, but he’s been hurt. They haven’t won anything of consequence. He’s not a transformational player. But if someone would’ve fell in love with Herbert or Tua and been willing to trade up to take a quarterback – and there’s got to be a quarterback prospect who’s there, but by all accounts, we’ve got a couple of them (in the 2022 draft). You are talking about the Lions, for example, you’d have to trade within your own division, but they just did it with the Vikings with T.J. Hockenson, you think the Bears would be in a pretty good spot if they had the third overall and 14th pick and an extra third or an extra fourth to just move down? It’s the dream.
“It’s the single-most valuable thing that can happen the rest of the way. It’s 1A/1B with Justin Fields continuing to development. It is that important.”
Listen to Parkins explain it further in the full segment here.
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