Winners and Losers of Bears Trading 2023 NFL Draft’s No. 1 Pick to Panthers | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

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From the moment that the Chicago Bears finished the 2022 season with the NFL’s worst record (and with it the first pick in the 2023 draft), there has been speculation that they could deal the first overall pick. After all, of all the things that went wrong in Chicago last year, the play of Justin Fields was a bright spot.

On Friday, speculation became reality—sending shockwaves across the league in the process.

Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Bears’ top pick now belongs to the Carolina Panthers. In return, the Panthers surrendered first-round picks in 2023 and 2024, second-round picks in 2023 and 2025 and wide receiver DJ Moore.

The trade shakes up Round 1 of the 2023 draft in a major way, and there’s no doubt that it’s a big deal for both the Bears and Panthers and that we can’t really grade the deal yet. It will be quite some time until we truly know who came out ahead. Much will depend on Carolina’s selection at No. 1 and who the Bears use all that draft capital on.

However, while the full fallout of this megadeal may not yet be known, there are already some players and teams grinning from ear to ear.

And others who aren’t quite so pleased.

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This biggest winner from Friday’s blockbuster deal was the most obvious one. From the moment the Chicago Bears indicated that they were committed to Justin Fields as their starting quarterback in 2023, the conversation turned to what the team could get in a trade down.

As it turns out, it was rather a lot.

The Bears were able to stay inside the top 10 in this year’s draft while adding an additional first-rounder in 2024. Chicago also got a pick at the back of Round 2 this year and another second-rounder in 2025—with the former recouping at least some of the capital lost in the Chase Claypool fiasco.

And finally, the Bears got a proven wide receiver in DJ Moore who surpassed 1,000 receiving yards three times in five years despite playing with a menagerie of mediocrity at quarterback. Moore may not be an elite talent at the position, but he instantly becomes the best wide receiver on the Bears roster—by a sizable margin.

It’s also worth considering what the 2024 first-round pick from Carolina might look like. Frank Reich is a fine coach, but he’ll be leading a team with either a rookie quarterback or a bridge starter and arguably the worst assemblage of skill-position talent in the NFL.

Matching last year’s seven wins could be a tall order—and that leaves the Bears with an extra top-10 pick.

There’s a reason the Bears jumped at this offer.

It was all but certainly the best they were going to get.

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Being the first overall pick in the NFL draft is already pressure-packed. For every Joe Burrow or Trevor Lawrence that goes on to have some early success, there’s a Baker Mayfield or David Carr who does not.

Often, a young signal-caller’s lack of success has as much to do with the talent (or lack thereof) around him as it does the player himself. Carr was drafted by an expansion Texans team and went on to be sacked a staggering 76 times as a rookie.

Carr started hearing footsteps. Seeing ghosts. And it ruined him.

Now, this isn’t to say that Alabama’s Bryce Young, Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud or Florida’s Anthony Richardson would be doomed as a member of the Panthers. Reich is a former NFL quarterback himself, and he has demonstrated more than a little aptitude in developing the position.

But aside from that, whoever the Panthers make the first overall pick will be inheriting a rocky situation.

After trading Moore, Carolina’s presumptive No. 1 wide receiver is a completely unproven youngster in Terrace Marshall Jr. After dealing so much draft capital, the Panthers will be hard-pressed to bolster that room in the draft, and the free-agent crop at the position is one of the weakest in years.

The Panthers’ leading rusher in 2022 (D’Onta Foreman) is a free agent. Carolina’s offensive line isn’t terrible, but it isn’t great, either—Pro Football Network ranked it 13th in the league.

Looking at 2023 as a “redshirt” year might be wise no matter which QB is picked. By just about any objective measure, Richardson needs time to develop, and if it’s Stroud or Young, he could be in for a rude awakening after playing collegiately for a team that had talent all over the place.

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At this year’s NFL Scouting Combine, Bears general manager Ryan Poles told reporters that the Bears were going to do due diligence on this year’s quarterback class—but that they entered that assessment with Justin Fields as their presumptive starter.

“Justin did some really good things—I’m excited about where is game is going to go,” Poles said. “But at the same time when you sit at our situation at one overall, you have to do your due diligence. You have to investigate everything. You gotta spend time with those guys just to make sure we’re making the right decision. What’s important to me, and I think everyone knows me by now and how I want to treat our players, we will be in communication with Justin along the way just to make sure that he knows what we’re doing and nothing’s a surprise to him.”

Friday, the Bears put their money where their mouth is and doubled down on Fields by trading the first overall pick—and in doing so they also set themselves up to build around the third-year pro.

Fields was electrifying on the ground in 2022, flirting with the single-season rushing record for quarterbacks. But he also struggled throwing the ball and winning games. However, those struggles can be attributed in part to maybe the worst pass-catching weapons in the NFL and an offensive line that was, well, bad.

In Moore, the Bears have already bolstered the pass-catching weapons. The ninth pick could be used for one of this year’s top receivers or offensive linemen—unless the Bears trade down and stockpile even more selections.

Add in a whopping $75.2 million in cap space (most in the league), and Fields should have a markedly better surrounding cast.

Now it’s on the former Ohio State standout to take advantage of it.

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It’s not fair to single out the Las Vegas Raiders as the only QB-needy team that just got kicked in the teeth by Friday’s blockbuster.

But as the team with the highest pick that also has a massive hole under center, the Raiders are the poster team for franchises that hurled expletives and furniture in equal measure when this deal was announced.

There are 10 mock drafts listed in the post-combine mock tracker at the Raiders’ website. All 10 have the Raiders drafting a quarterback with their first pick.

Only one (Todd McShay’s at ESPN) included a trade up—and that trade is now out the window, as it had the Bears moving from No. 1 to No. 4 and then down again to No. 7.

You can officially set all 10 of those drafts on fire.

The Carolina Panthers are 100 percent drafting a quarterback with the first pick. The odds are staggeringly high that the Houston Texans (No. 2) and Indianapolis Colts (No. 4) will as well. The Texans can’t keep kicking the can under center, and Jim Irsay has been QB-desperate from the moment Andrew Luck retired.

If you think another team in need of a quarterback (the Washington Commanders, Atlanta Falcons, Tennessee Titans or Tampa Bay Buccaneers, to name a few) isn’t strongly considering a move ahead of the Raiders, then there’s some sweet oceanfront property near Yuma I can get you a smoking deal on.

If the Raiders want one of the top four quarterbacks, they are going to have to make a move. Their other options are signing an uninspiring veteran like Jimmy Garoppolo or just rolling out Jarrett Stidham and punting the 2023 season.

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That brings us to the biggest winner of this entire transaction outside the state of Illinois.

Just like the Raiders, the Arizona Cardinals were hurling expletives when Friday’s trade was announced. But where it was interjections of frustration in Sin City, there were exclamations of joy in the desert.

While speaking to reporters at the combine, new general manager Monti Ossenfort said that the Cardinals would be open to conversations about the third overall pick.

“Our phone will also be open and I’m open to hearing any conversation about anybody that’s willing to come up,” Ossenfort said. “I think with that No. 3 pick, it’s an opportunity to add a player, it’s an opportunity to potentially get some calls on that pick and ultimately, we’ll make the best decision for us at the time.”

That makes sense. Whether you believe in Kyler Murray or not, the Cardinals are financially committed to him. Even if he ain’t the guy, he’s the guy.

And now that phone is going to be ringing off the hook.

The Panthers are taking a quarterback. The Texans are most likely going to follow suit. And the Colts lurk at No. 4, waiting to take one of their own.

It’s not just a matter of landing one of the “Big Four” of Young, Stroud, Richardson and Kentucky’s Will Levis. It’s about getting ahead of Indy to ensure the QB you want isn’t taken by the Colts.

The worst case for the Cardinals is having their choice of non-quarterbacks. The best case is landing an impact player while adding a bevy of picks.

Just like Chicago did.