2017 NFL Draft: Draft Grades for Each First-Round Selection

Well, this was interesting, to say the least. The Chicago Bears entered the night holding the third overall selection in the 2017 NFL Draft. Staying put is always the most likely scenario, but if anything, we expected the Bears to trade down. Instead, general manager Ryan Pace aggressively targeted his guy, trading up to the second overall pick to take North Carolina quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.

In exchange for the opportunity to select Trubisky at two, the Bears traded their third overall selection, their 2017 third-round pick (67th overall), 2017 fourth-round pick (111th overall) and a 2018 third-round pick to the San Francisco 49ers. No matter how you look at it, that is a steep price to pay for moving up one pick.

That being said, you cannot look at this trade that way. The Bears obviously believe that Trubisky will lead them to the promise land. He is a talented quarterback who has a lot of upside at the next level. If this pick works out like Pace thinks it will, nobody will care about the draft capital that they gave up. However, if he ends up being a bust, this is the kind of move that will set the franchise back dramatically.

The 49ers were not going to take Trubisky. They never showed much interest in these quarterbacks. Now, the Browns had been showing heavy interest in Trubisky and may have been knocking down the 49ers’ door to get this pick. There was likely something like this going on to force the Bears to make this decision.

Trubisky is a good quarterback who could easily have a bright future in the NFL. However, his upside is relatively limited. The pick itself would probably be in the C+ range, but the trade knocks it down an entire letter grade. The Bears put the future of their franchise on the line with this selection.