Bears Draft: This division rival made a fool of themselves in round one
The Chicago Bears selected Darnell Wright with the tenth overall selection in the 2023 NFL Draft. They traded down during the off-season and then moved back on spot on draft day to find themselves in that spot.
Wright is going to be their new star right tackle as he exits Tennessee and comes to the NFL. It should be a lot of fun to see what he is able to step in and do after having so much success in college.
The Chicago Bears made a really nice selection that they should be proud of. It is very important to build your football team through the trenches and a pick like this suggests that Ryan Poles is starting to do just that.
It is also important to think about what your division rivals are doing at the draft. 6 of the 17 games will be played against those teams and what they do directly affects the Bears.
The Chicago Bears are in an NFC North Division filled with wild teams.
Obviously, the Green Bay Packers traded Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets. That is news that makes Green Bay look worse in the short term. However, the haul that the Packers got for him could alter the trajectory of the franchise. It would be nice to see them struggle for a while but they do always seem to find a way out of jams.
The trend of the Packers not selecting any offensive weapons did continue, however, as they selected Lukas Van Ness with pick 13. He is a pass rusher from The University Of Iowa and he is hoping to wreak havoc at the next level.
The Minnesota Vikings drafted Jordan Addison with the 23rd overall pick. He is a wide receiver from USC where he had tremendous success.
Now, he looks to have success in the NFL which might be easy for him playing opposite of Justin Jefferson. That’s not a bad gig at all.
The team that made a fool of themselves from this division, however, is the Detroit Lions. It has looked like they are on the right path over the last year or so but they continue to make bad decisions. That isn’t the roster’s fault but they will suffer for it and take some of the blame.
In the first round, the Lions had two selections. The first one was the biggest head-scratcher of any team in the first round. They started by trading back from 6 to 12 in order to gain more picks. That’s never a bad idea.
However, they used pick 12 on Jahmyr Gibbs who is a running back coming out of Alabama. They just signed David Montgomery in the off-season so this one truly just makes no sense. They also could have taken Gibbs in the second round as he almost for sure would have been there.
That 6th pick that they traded back originally belonged to the Los Angeles Rams from the Matthew Stafford trade. The Lions had their own selection to make at pick 18 as well.
With that 18th pick, they took Jack Campbell out of Iowa. Again, good player but it is an overdraft of a player that plays a tier 3 position in today’s NFL. They could have landed him in the second round as well.
The Lions had a chance to checkmate the NFC North with these picks and they blew it by over-drafting two players at positions that are less important right now. Honestly, that’s good news for the Bears.