Bears takeaways from Ian Cunningham’s pre-draft press conference

As the Chicago Bears inch closer to the 2023 NFL Draft, assistant general manager Ian Cunningham spoke with reporters and gave a few nuggets.

The Chicago Bears inch closer to the 2023 NFL Draft. The big event begins in less than two days. The team wants to improve upon their 3-14 2022 season and become a consistent playoff contender.

General manager Ryan Poles and his staff face a huge test in their plans for the offseason. This should be one of the most impactful offseasons in franchise history.

Poles already made a number of moves to improve the roster. With the number one pick and almost $100 million in salary cap space, he acquired wide receiver D.J. Moore, offensive guard Nate Davis, tight end Robert Tonyan, quarterback P.J. Walker, and running backs Travis Homer and D’Onta Foreman to help the offense.

Additionally, he acquired linebackers T.J. Edwards, Dylan Cole, and Tremaine Edmunds, and defensive linemen Andrew Billings, DeMarcus Walker, and Rasheem Green to help on defense.

This will already be a much different team that takes the field in Week 1 of the season. Now we’ll see even more players after the draft.

Ahead of the draft, assistant general manager Ian Cunningham spoke with reporters. He gave them and the fans a little bit of an idea (but not much) of what the Bears might do this weekend.

Here are a few takeaways from that press conference.

The Bears have a large number of prospects to choose from in the first round

Likely the biggest takeaway from Cunningham was the number of players they have in mind for their first-round pick at number nine. He said there is a list of 6-8 names. They did all their due diligence on these players and at least one of them will be available when the Bears pick.

No one knows what will happen once the draft begins. There will be a number of scenarios that will play out and the front office needs to be ready for them.

That takes us to takeaway number two:

A trade at nine is very possible

Interestingly enough, some of those names might not be what some would consider at nine. That means there is a chance that a trade could happen and that Poles moves down and still gets his man while also acquiring even more draft picks.

By trading the number one pick, Poles acquired not only the ninth pick and Moore but also the Carolina Panthers’  second-round pick (#61), their 2024 first-round pick, and their 2025 second-round pick.

Poles has said on a number of occasions that he wants to build this team mainly through the draft. This is exactly what he is doing. When he took over the Chicago Bears last year, he had just five picks. He turned those picks into 11. With a series of other trades, he has 10 picks in 2023. Now he has two first-round picks next year and an added second-round pick in 2025. He is setting up the team to be in a very good position in upcoming drafts.

Cunningham told ESPN’s Courtney Cronin that the team would look at things on a case by case situation.

That means that while they could be high on someone like, say, Jalen Carter, if he is available Poles could decide that other teams would pay dearly to pick him up. In that scenario, he could trade down and get another haul.

The Jalen Carter situation could be interesting

The Jalen Carter situation could be an interesting one for Poles and the Chicago Bears. It appears that they really like Carter. He met with the Bears twice on visits and during the NFL Combine before he left.

Would Poles select him if Carter was there at nine? That would depend on whether he values offensive tackle, a big need, over defensive tackle, another big need. If tackle is the priority, and if Poles could move down, pick up some valuable picks, and still pick up a tackle they like, he could decide to pass on Carter.

Cunningham might have sent out some information to scare other teams

Cunningham spoke about the Bears going for the best player available even if it is at a position that might not be a pressing need. He spoke about the possibility of selecting Texas running back Bijan Robinson.

He was asked if picking a running back in the top ten is worth it. He said it was.

That would indicate that Robinson could be available for the Bears to take. That would be a shocker of a move. With Khalil Herbert, Foreman, Homer, and Trestan Ebner it seems the Bears are set there.

Of course, they could try to find someone late to push Ebner, who had an opportunity to shine when both Herbert and David Montgomery were injured. He struggled mightily in their absence. The Bears could pick someone up to compete with Ebner.

This could be an attempt to scare some team that might want Robinson. If they feel the Bears could take him they might want to move up to pick him up.

All this drama will certainly make Thursday’s first round an interesting one for the Chicago Bears. It is certainly one of the most exciting drafts for the team that hasn’t had much excitement on or off the field for quite some time.