Bryce Young appears ticketed to be the first pick in the NFL draft Thursday night by the Carolina Panthers, who acquired the pick from the Chicago Bears in March.
But what will happen with the No. 1 pick remains up in the air, as does much of the top half of the first round. It’s a draft with a ton of intrigue, in part because few positions have a consensus top prospect.
The unknowns extend to the Bears and general manager Ryan Poles, who moved down to No. 9 in the trade with the Panthers. Conventional thinking puts the Bears in play for an offensive lineman, maybe a cornerback — or perhaps Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter if he slips through the top eight picks.
Teams picking in the top 10 have been working overtime to understand Carter. He has evidence on film of his ability to be a game wrecker. There are also lapses in play on film, and teams had lots of homework they wanted to complete on his character and makeup even before his involvement in a road-racing incident in January in which a Georgia teammate and a Bulldogs staff member were killed.
The Bears have a pressing need for a three-technique tackle in coach Matt Eberflus’ defense, and that sticks out — along with adding pass rushers — as the greatest needs at Halas Hall. On tape, Carter is the best tackle to fit that position in the class.
“Jalen’s a really good player,” assistant general manager Ian Cunningham said Tuesday when asked how Carter might fit with Eberflus’ much-publicized HITS principle. “I mean, there’s no denying the talent. You turn on the tape a couple years ago when they first won the national championship and they had all those defensive linemen on the field, you couldn’t help but notice 88 and then knowing, ‘Oh, he’s going to be in next year’s class.’
“Then you turn on the tape this year and you see a lot of the same flashes where he’s been playing through things. He’s one of those players that you covet just in terms of being one of the better defensive tackles in this class.”
Cunningham, who turned down the Arizona Cardinals GM job in January, is clearly prepared for the role when it comes to obfuscating. He spoke for 15 minutes about the draft without sharing any real details. He’s not alone in that regard. It’s an exercise to hype the draft — not to provide any true insight.
The Bears met with Carter at the scouting combine before news broke of the auto incident, which led to Carter — who was not driving the vehicle that crashed — pleading no contest to road racing and reckless driving charges. They visited with him again at Georgia’s pro day, where Carter appeared out of shape, and then hosted him for a pre-draft visit.
“When you watch him on the field, he’s active, he works hard, he’s physical,” Cunningham said. “When you turn on the tape, he shows a number of plays where he shows physicality and toughness, those sorts of things.”
Pressed on the HITS principle, if for no other reason than the team makes it such a benchmark for player evaluation, Cunningham was asked about Carter again.
“For me personally, yeah, he fits some of those things,” he said.
It would have been news if Cunningham had said definitively that the Bears have high interest in Carter or that they’ve removed him from their draft board. That he left it somewhere in the middle is what you would expect.
A lot is at stake here. This will be Poles’ first first-round pick, and if a team picks Carter and misses because of makeup issues, it would be notable in that everyone knew in advance the risk involved.
On the flip side, at what point does Poles feel comfortable with the talent versus risk assessment? For the sake of discussion, had the Bears traded down to No. 4, would the risk be different than it is at No. 9?
Conflicting rumors were circulating Tuesday. Some said the Seattle Seahawks (No. 5) and Detroit Lions (No. 6) are unlikely to be involved with Carter. Another veteran personnel man said he would be surprised if the Seahawks passed on Carter given coach Pete Carroll’s ability to manage players. That source also said he wouldn’t be surprised, if Carter makes it to No. 8, that Philadelphia Eagles GM Howie Roseman might be lurking for a possible trade up from No. 10.
There’s no doubt the Bears could use an offensive tackle — and that might be the strength of the draft at No. 9, especially if Carter is off the board. They have a question mark at right tackle, and if this season is about discovering the career trajectory for quarterback Justin Fields, it’s easy to make a strong case for adding to the offensive line.
But if Carter is available, the Bears would have to be pretty turned off by him to pass, considering the state of their defensive line, which couldn’t rush the passer or stop the run in 2022.
Cunningham didn’t need to say as much and really couldn’t. He was just doing his job, joking at the beginning of his media session that he was seeking “softball” questions.
Hard answers will become available Thursday night as Round 1 unfolds.
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