The Chicago Bears missed on another quarterback

We’re going to preface that at the time that the Chicago Bears made the decision last March to trade the first overall selection in the 2023 NFL Draft to the Carolina Panthers for  D.J. Moore, a swap of first-round picks in 2023, a 2024 first-round pick, and a 2025 second-round pick, the Bears made the right decision.

The Bears decided to give quarterback Justin Fields a third season to prove that he is indeed the long-term answer at the quarterback position for the team and they gave him a primary wide receiver in Moore that he hadn’t had in his first two seasons with the team.

The trade also gave Bears’ general manager Ryan Poles two first-round picks in the 2024 draft where the quarterback class led by USC’s Caleb Williams and North Carolina’s Drake Maye was widely believed to be better than last year’s class of Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, and Anthony Richardson.

Halfway through the 2024 season, it would seem that the Bears are on track to draft either Williams or Maye in the first round but it would also seem that they missed on their evaluation of one of the quarterbacks in the 2023 draft class.

Stroud was once again brilliant on Sunday as he and the Houston Texas upset the Cincinnati Bengals. Stroud passed for 356 yards and a touchdown while also scrambling for a touchdown. Stroud’s performance on Sunday when an encore to his previous week’s performance where he threw for 470 passing yards and 5 touchdowns.

There appears to be another quarterback that can be added to the list of quarterbacks the Chicago Bears have passed up on.

On the season, Stroud now has 15 passing touchdowns against only 2 interceptions while totaling 2,626 passing yards.

First things first, Bears fans should be thanking the Panthers for taking the wrong pick. Had the Panthers taken Stroud, chances are the Bears would not be in a position to grab their next quarterback in this year’s draft.

But, that should also be a concern. No, the Bears technically did not pass on Stroud as he was not on the board when they selected with the 10th overall selection. But, in previous comments last off-season, Poles said that he would have had to be blown away to take one of the quarterbacks with the 2023 first overall pick. Safe to say, they have missed in their evaluation of Stroud and that could be a concern this off-season when they are deciding between Maye or Williams.