Bears might have best situation ever for No. 1 overall pick to step into

The Chicago Bears are likely set to draft Caleb Williams in a few weeks, and Williams might be entering the best situation ever for a No. 1 overall pick. Defensively, the Bears ended he 2023 NFL Season on a hot-streak, allowing less than 20 points per game. Their trade deadline acquisition of Montez Sweat was a huge boost.

Even if Matt Eberflus' defense ends up as an average unit in 2024, that's fine, as it'd no longer be the liability that it was for years before 2023. Offensively, Bears GM Ryan Poles has really turned this unit into a strong one on paper. The offensive line has quietly turned into a strong running and pass-blocking unit.

Poles has invested draft picks and financial resources into the play-makers, adding guys like DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, Gerald Everett, Cole Kmet, and D'Andre Swift into the unit over the last few years. Overall, from top to bottom, the Bears roster is solid. It's not great by any means, but there aren't many glaring weaknesses.

And by way of the Carolina Panthers, Chicago also gets to pick first overall, which surely means Caleb Williams, the 2024 NFL Draft's best overall prospect, gets to enter into a ready-made situation. The Bears own first-round pick is the 9th overall selection, so that kind of shows you that the team wasn't truly bad in 2023. There were three other 7-10 teams, and another seven teams with a worse record.

Chicago was able to scrape together seven wins with a bottom-five QB, so their potential in 2024 is just through the roof, and when the Bears inevitably draft Caleb Williams, he'll be able to showcase what he can do immediately, as the roster, at that point, will be set. Sure, Williams could end up being an all-time draft bust, but it's more likely that he's at least an average NFL starter.