If the Chicago Bears deem Jalen Carter’s tape good enough to warrant being selected with the ninth overall pick, they shouldn’t hesitate to turn in the card.

The conversation regarding Carter’s “off the field concerns” has gone way beyond logic. Carter pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and racing and was sentenced to 12 months of probation, a $1,000 fine and 80 hours of community service. The charges stem from an incident last January in which Carter was involved in a race that led to a crash that killed Georgie football player Devin Willock and recruiting staffer Chandler LeCroy. Carter’s lawyer said the Georgia standout did not cause the crash, nor was he under the influence of drugs or alcohol. And there’s no evidence to suggest otherwise.

Yet, he is being treated as if he is a hardened criminal.

Last week, ESPN 1000’s David Kaplan compared Carter’s situation to a player who was “kicked out of the NBA for cocaine.” Doing the math on Kaplan’s story, he’s possibly talking about Duane Washington, who was 24 years old when he was suspended for two years after testing positive for cocaine in 1988.

Another possibility is Mitchell Wiggins, who was 28 when he tested positive for cocaine and was suspended for two years.

Carter is a 21-year-old college student who raced a car.

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It’s a little odd attempting to put together an NFL draft big board for the team with the first overall pick, but with much speculation that the team might trade down, there is a lot to consider.

Obviously, if the Bears stay with the first overall pick, or move down just a couple of spots there are very few players who would be in consideration. But we shouldn’t rule out the possibility of the Bears moving down a couple of times or dealing out of the top ten entirely for a massive haul. There is also the possibility that the team will move up into the back half of the first round, should they acquire enough draft picks to do so.

With that, this board has to be tiered.

• Tier One will be players the team would consider with picks inside the top four.
• Tier Two will be players who would be in consideration from picks 5-10.
• Tier Three will be players the team could consider in the teens.
• Tier Four will be players who they might grab at the end of the first round.

Tier One

1. Will Anderson Jr., DE, Alabama

Anderson seems to check every box a team could want in a prospect. Even in a “down year” this past season, Anderson was among the post productive pass rushers in college football, finishing with 10 sacks and 17 TFLs. By all accounts, he fits the HITS principle and Matt Eberflus’ relationship with Nick Saban should give the Bears good intel.

2. Jalen Carter, DT, Georgia

If Anderson is the top player on the board, then Carter is 1A.

Carter didn’t quite have the production teams covet, but his tape shows flashes of a dominant player. Georgia asked him to do different things than the Bears will, but when Carter was asked to simply shoot a gap – which is what the Bears will require of him – he was tough to block.

But there is a question about if he fits the HITS principle. Todd McShay, Mel Kiper Jr. and Dane Brugler have all made mention of Carter’s effort. Will the Bears see it the same way? No idea, but it will be worth investigating.

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The Chicago Bears can’t possibly know if Justin Fields is capable of winning games for them if they don’t give him the opportunity to at least try to do so.

While many storylines have been about Fields’ inability to take the team down the field for wins late, those arguments have mostly ignored the positions in which the Bears have put the quarterback. The 2022 season has, essentially, been the organization asking Fields to make it look good without much support.

We saw it again last week.

The Bears had a chance to make the game interesting when on the last play of the third quarter, Fields uncorked a strike 44 yards down the field for Velus Jones Jr. Trailing 21-10, the team had life.

Then, it didn’t.

The Bears proceeded to run the ball three straight times before calling a pass play that relied on Fields threading the needle short of the first down marker. The Bears didn’t let Fields open the offense up again until the outcome of the game was already decided.

The next drive began with a swing pass that lost two yards (do they ever gain yardage on those plays?). On second-and-12, they ran the ball for no gain and relied on Fields to save them on third-and-12.

They got the ball back again, trailing 21-13. They proceeded to run the first two plays then asked Fields to make magic happen on third-and-13.

It isn’t as if the running game was working. After the first drive, David Montgomery and Khalil Herbert combined or 30 rushing yards on 18 carries. Montgomery has averaged more than 4.5 yards per carry in just two games this season. Herbert wasn’t quite up to speed after missing a handful of games on IR.

Fields is the straw that stirs the drink. Yet, with the game on the line, the Bears decided to go with what wasn’t working and ignore what could have. What about calling play action passes? RPOs? Rollouts? Anything that might have a chance to work because the traditional running game was not.

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