-Ed-Mulholland-USA-TODAY-Sports-1
Pro Football Hall of Famer Warren Sapp claims to have the scoop on the Chicago Bears’ next move.
Appearing on The Boone Podcast hosted by former MLBer Bret Boone (who is also Aaron Boone’s brother), Sapp says the Bears plan to trade their young quarterback Justin Fields for draft picks, and then draft Alabama’s star under center Bryce Young.
“What I’m hearing out of Chicago is they’re fixing to package him up, trade him for some other pieces and then go with the Bryce kid from Alabama,” Sapp said. He later added “There’s smoke everywhere talking about them trading Justin Fields and going after Bryce.”
Sapp’s words remain rumors at this point, but some NFL insiders and analysts have spoken publicly about how they feel this potential move is quite unlikely. ESPN’s Mel Kiper said “[Fields would] be number one,” if Justin and Bryce Young were in the same draft class. Kiper had Fields only behind Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence two years ago.
Matt Miller, also from ESPN, said the Bears shouldn’t consider taking a quarterback at all in the upcoming draft. He drew Fields comparisons to Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, another athletic prospect who struggled to break out initially:
“And I think that what we’re seeing in Chicago reminds me so much of [Eagles quarterback] Jalen Hurts. One year ago when people in Philadelphia were saying this team has three first-round picks, should they go for broke and get a quarterback? And they said, no, we believe in Jalen Hurts…and now he’s an MVP candidate.”
No matter who selects him, Bryce Young is widely expected to be drafted #1 overall in the 2023 NFL Draft.
