247 Sports

● By Andrew Freeman
After going over free agency in the first part of my Chicago Bears 2023 mock offseason series, in this week's section, I turn my attention towards the NFL Draft. For this mock draft, I will be following two main guidelines. Firstly, my approach will be influenced by the roster as it stands after adding players in free agency. For readers who missed the first part of my mock offseason where I covered free agency, make sure to check that out in order to have a better idea of who I have added to the Bears' roster. As for my second guideline, while this mock offseason is an exercise in what I would do as the Bears general manager, I am also trying my best to put myself in Ryan Poles' shoes in order to make moves that are as realistic as possible. Therefore, Poles' track record and trends from last offseason will be useful in forming my strategy for this mock draft. Speaking of strategy, I had a few major goals with this mock draft. My first goal was to use the Bears' draft position to maximize draft capital through trading down. Obviously, one of the biggest storylines this offseason is about what the Bears will do with the number one overall pick, especially with many quarterback-needy teams looking to move up in the draft. While that will be a large focus here as well, I would also like to point to Poles' draft last year where he traded down a bunch on day three of the draft in order to maximize picks. When looking at that information, I tried to factor that into how I handled trades in general.