Now this is a doozy of a trade. The Chicago Bears have traded the 1st overall pick in the 2023 draft to the Carolina Panthers for receiver D.J. Moore and a haul of high-end draft picks.
Can you be arrested for draft robbery in the NFL?
For those who don’t know yet, the Chicago Bears have made the biggest trade of the offseason yet as they agreed to trade the #1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft to the Carolina Panthers in exchange for wide receiver D.J. Moore (2022 stats: 63 REC, 888 yards, 7 TDs), the 9th overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, the 61st overall pick (2nd round) in the 2023 NFL Draft, a 2024 1st overall pick, and a 2025 2nd round pick.
Yeah, that’s a hell of a haul for Chicago.
Not only have the Bears have just gotten one of the best wide receivers in the league to support Justin Fields on his journey of becoming a franchise QB, but they also have gotten the Panthers to cough up a plethora of 1st and 2nd round picks to further the growth and rebuilding of the whole team.
And these additional picks aren’t just some useless bottom 1st round and 2nd round picks either as the Panthers have finished outside of the playoffs in 6 of the last 7 seasons, while winning only 5 games in 3 of the last 4 years. Simply put, the Bears, for perhaps the first time in the franchise’s 102-year history, have robbed a team in a trade.
I’m not saying the Panthers have made utter fools of themselves by forking out a star wide receiver and multiple high-end picks (well, I kind of am) as they could draft the next Peyton Manning or John Elway with this #1 overall pick, but the odds are definitely against them.
I mean, the last time an NFL team gave up a huge haul to take a high draft pick was the Saints in 1999 when they traded away literally their entire draft class (1999 1st round pick, 1999 3rd-7th round picks, 2000 1st round pick, 2000 4th third pick) to Washington for Ricky Williams (5th round draft selection in 1999), and it didn’t go so well for them.
The Saints were the 2nd worst team in the NFL the following season with a 3-13 record, head coach Mike Ditka (the guy who pushed for the Williams trade) was fired, and Ricky Williams was traded to the Miami Dolphins after only three seasons. So, funnily enough, it was a former Chicago head coach that now serves as the cautionary tale as to why giving up an entire draft haul for one pick is not a good idea.
However, this trade isn’t as bad as the Ricky Williams one as the Panthers still have the opportunity to draft a franchise QB in either Alabama’s Bryce Young (the favorite pick), Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, Florida State’s Anthony Richardson, Kentucky’s Will Levis (who most mock drafts had the Panthers taking at 9th), or Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker (who is my favorite QB of the draft).
If they don’t, then we might have a contender as the worse trade in NFL history depending on how the Bears draft (which is a big concern in its own right).
So, unless one of the QBs I named turns into a franchise guy and the Panthers select them, this trade can only go down as a massive win for the Bears…for now.
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