The Ringer NFL Show - Instant Reactions: Chicago Bears Trade No. 1 Overall Pick to Carolina Panthers

Episode Date: March 11, 2023

March Madness begins. We break down every angle of the Panthers trading up with the Bears for the no. 1 overall pick in the draft, including who won the trade, who the Panthers will take at first overall, DJ Moore’s fit in Chicago, what this says about the Bears' future with Justin Fields, and more. Check out The Ringer's 2023 NFL Draft Guide here! Email us! [e-mail] Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producers: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's official. One Shining Podcast is back, and I am your host, Tate Frazier. And as March Badness begins, we're covering everything from Selection Sunday all the way to the championship and beyond. We're going to have great guests that are coming through on the show. And look, if you're a friend of the program and you're already subscribed, you don't have to do anything. OSP is back. It's going to be right back in your feed. And if you're not a friend of the program, and this is your first time on the rodeo, then let me tell you this. You need to go to Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcast. and smash subscribe today

because the OSP show is back. The ringer NFL draft show. My name is Danny Hypatts. I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Horleback. Woo! Emergency podcast, our first emergency spot at a long time. The Chicago Bears have traded the number one overall pick to the Carolina Panthers for

Adam Schaefter compensation update, comma, per sources. The Bears, we're getting the Adam Schaefter drink game starting early. I know the drink had started early, baby. We thought that was next week. I'm popping a beer right now. Friday night. Bears are trading number one overall pick to Carolina four. Pick number nine, pick number 61.

A first round. Yeah, first round pick in 2024. A second round pick in 2025. And wide receiver, D.J. Moore. Wow. Lots to talk about here, but I don't care about any of that yet. D.K., what was literally your first reaction to all this? Holy shit.

Like, this is, first of all, I didn't expect the bears to get this much. I thought, you know, know, with the uncertainty around the quarterback position this year with so many different teams apparently liking different guys, I just didn't think they would be able to get this insane of a haul. They're literally getting, again, a second round pick. Sorry, number nine, a second round pick this year, a 2024 first, a 2025 second, and DJ Moore, which I think is worth like a first. Like, they're essentially getting like three first round picks for this. Well, they paid, the bear, ironically, the bears gave up the 30 second overall pick for Chase Claypool.

So in theory, DJ Moore should be worth like. We don't know how that trade's going to turn out. Sure. We know Claypools, listen, he was there for half a season. We don't know. I'm just saying. I think this is huge for the Bears. My first impression is this was like as like almost perfect for the Bears.

I think Bears fans might be a little bum that they're moving back to number nine. So they're missing out on some of the quote unquote blue chip guys in this class. But I think you can live with it because you get a blue chip receiver in DJ Moore. You get a couple first rounders, a couple second rounders. Like this is massive for their team building. This is so huge. Yeah. I mean, look, DJ Moore's 25 years.

old. They got him. They swapped one for nine and then got three other picks, including a first rounder in 2024, which is a much better draft class. This gives them another year to look at Justin Fields with a revamped receiving court. Now they have, like you said, Mooney, Chase Claypool, and DJ Moore is an above average receiving core, I would say, in the NFL. And now if it doesn't work out, plus commit. And now if it doesn't work out, Fields isn't the guy. They will know it this year and then they can move into next year, which is a better draft class. And they'll have two first round picks now if they wanted to go make a move for somebody to. like Caleb Williams, the USC quarterback, or somebody else.

I think this is a fantastic move by Ryan Poles, the new, the young GM of the Bears. This reminds me of the Eagles. Like the way that they're building around their young quarterback, but at the same time giving themselves the opportunity to get out of it if they need to down the line, like accumulating first round picks. This is exactly what the Eagles did with Jalen Hertz. They traded for AJ Brown. You know, DJ Moore's not on the same level as AJ Brown, but like close enough.

Like he's a really, really good player. And so he's like maybe the most under. discussed underrated under 27-year-old wide receiver in the league. I was going to ask you guys, where do we think DJ Moore is among all receivers in the NFL? Because it's, Craig has finally labeled the group of receivers that we call it miracle receiver, like Terry McLaurin, where it feels like it's a miracle when they get the ball, but they're good. And people are like, they're good.

It's like, no, but why is it feel like a miracle? Terry McLaren. D.G. Moore is the king of it feels like a miracle. But the tier one is like the obvious best receivers in the NFL. It's Justin Jefferson. It's Devontey Adams. It's Cooper Cup. Tyree Kale, Jamar Chase, Cadarius, Tony.

and then tier two is like, well, you guys didn't even blink. I kind of threw that in his own guys a bit. Neither are you even blink. We're just so used to it. We just already believe this in our soul. So, yeah, it wasn't bothered me. Tier two, Stefan Diggs,

I think it's AJ Brown, D.K. Metcalfe, Devo Samuel. And then tier three, it's, you know, Cidie Lamb, Jalen Waddle, Garrett Wilson, Crystal Lave, maybe even already there. DJ Moore, Terry McLaurin. So is he like a tier three receiver?

Is that fair? I think he's somewhere in there. Oh, I think that's easily fair. and I think he has the potential. I mean, what's a bummer for him is if, you know, if he were on the Chiefs, he could be a tier two wide receiver for hell. He could even be a tier one wide receiver.

He's not exactly going to a team that is abundant in passing attempts. The Bears don't throw the ball a lot. And, you know, it is kind of a bummer for his fantasy value alone that he's going from the Panthers to the Bears. Like, I don't necessarily know how much better he's going to be from a fantasy perspective.

He was putting up over 1,000 yards every year on the Panthers. Will he do that this year with the Bears? the Bears? I don't know. But in terms of the overall Bears' offense and giving Justin Fields what he needs, this is an awesome move for the Bears. Fantasy, I don't know as much. Here's my question for the Bears aspect of this. So I'm one, I agree with you guys' big picture. This is

excellent for the Bears. And I want to come back to that, though. But the thing about the Bears, they suck. This team is awful. This roster is awful. And like, if you just look, because the giant, the Cadarius Tony trade, the Giants had the Bears first round pick this year. So the Bears last year, First year of the GM, the coach, they really only drafted freaking, like, defensive backs.

Like, the last two drafts for the Bears, the only people they've gotten that are, like, I'm really confident will be on the Bears in 2024 and 2025. They have, like, a quarterback, a safety, and Justin Fields. That's kind of it. Like, I don't know how many other people are like, they'll be on the team three years from, like, it's a really low. They need bodies.

They need picks. So picking up picks, 100% the move. As he gets with Eagles. Here's the thing, though. I would like to offer a word of caution. I agree with you guys. This is a win for the Bears right now. Having said that,

later, when we look back on this, it's 100% about whether Justin Fields is good or not. Like entirely. Like the Giants, Daniel Jones. The Giants took Daniel Jones in 2019. And so the next year,

2020, they're like, well, we don't need a quarterback. You know, we got Daniel Jones. So we'll take Andrew Thomas 2020. Guess what?

The Giants passed on fucking Justin Herbert. So it's like, that will always look bad. especially now that Daniel Jones, at least for right now, it's going to make more money than Herbert. So if any of the, if Justin Fields does not become the guy, and any of the quarterbacks in this year's draft do,

Bears fans will look back as like, oh my God, that was our chance to get a quarterback. And we, like, literally trade it out of the pick. But that's unrealistic because nobody wants the Bears to do that. No, there's no Bears fan right now, or at least, I don't think the majority of Bears fans want to give up fields for one of these guys in the draft.

I don't think so. So, yeah, if CJ Stroud turns out to be Justin Herbert, sure. but like I don't think they were going to take him anyway. I think Hyphids, I do think you're right in the sense that like this is another situation where it's like Trubisky versus Patrick Mahomes or whatever. You know what I mean? Like that's always going to be hanging over the bears forever, right? Like they passed on Mahomes to take Trubisky.

But even if, okay, say what happens, what you're saying happens where Justin Fields is just bombs in 2023, one of these guys, whether it's Richardson, and by the way, we're going to get to the Panthers, but whether it's Richardson, Stroud, or Young, or Levis, whoever they take at number one. And he pans out and he's really, really good. The Bears, again, still can go get Caleb Williams or one of the top quarterbacks in this next draft. It's not like the end of the world.

This is basically, they see themselves as, look, we're going to build our roster up. This is obviously a vote of confidence for Justin Fields, but not necessarily like a guarantee that they love him and they think he's going to turn into it. But it's just a vote of confidence. Plus, maybe they just don't see their roster as ready to draft a rookie, one of these rookies, you know, and go from there. So I think obviously with Fields, he's had a little bit more experience. Like, Fields, when you go back, he was a really good prospect in my mind.

Probably, and I would have had him ranked over all the quarterbacks in this class. Right. I think Ben said that too. Yeah. So, I don't know. I think, yes, optics-wise, it will look really bad if one of these quarterbacks that whoever the Panthers take, if he turns out to be awesome in year one, like, it's going to look bad for the Bears.

But that doesn't mean that they could still go get a quarterback in the 2024 draft. I just like that there's no long-term commitment with this. It's like, I like when a quarterback shows promise, like Fields did it in his second year. And it's like, all right, let's get him some weapons. Let's see what he can do. If it doesn't work out, we won't give him a fifth year option. And we'll get somebody else. It's funny to think that the Bears flipped the first and the 32nd pick in this year's draft to be like in deals that got them two receivers.

But I get why they were doing it. Like they overpaid for Claypool. But they looked at the free agency class with the best receivers like Jacob Myers and this year's class. And it's like, Chase, they were no big people. So they got Chase Claypool. And now they have DG Moore. And they built a real actual, they're building a real offense for Justin Fields, which he has not had. He's had the worst offensive line and the worst receiving group in the entire NFL, probably, since he entered the league.

And now they're like, okay, we have to see how he is. Because I think Matt Aberflus, the head coach was afraid to, like, trust Justin Fields to make a mistake. And the defensive head coaches were like, if you just don't turn the ball over, then my defense will win the game. I think it's smart for the bears to be like, let's see what we have in Fields. Yeah. Panther's side of things. Again, Adam Schaefter drinking game here. For those who don't know, we just, you know,

it's the time of year you play drinking games around Schfter's tweets. It's Friday night. Shefter says, well, so the bears have turned like no D, like typo. This year's number one overall, the two first, two seconds at DJ Moore. Carolina gets QB of the future. Two off seasons ago hyphen in the off seasons, which I love that Adam Schaefter like changes how he's supposed offseason. His whole job's about that.

Carolina tried trading for Matt staff for two off seasons ago. Last offseason, Carolina tried landing to Sean Watson. and today the Panthers traded up, put themselves in position to draft the quarterback they want. That was also the first thing I thought was, holy shit, they have been trying so hard

to get a quarterback for like five years. The Darnold, Baker, I mean, the amount of quarterbacks, they cut Cam Newton and then they brought Cam Newton back two years after they cut him because he was injured. So, D.K., this is Carolina's shot

to like end the quarterback question that has happened literally since David Temper bought this team like five years ago. forgetting for a moment who will the Panthers take. Who should the Panthers take, number one overall? Impossible question to answer. If I were them, I would probably take Stroud.

C.T. Stroud? Ohio State. If you're giving up all that to... Why? Safe as floor, highest floor? Yeah, I would say higher floor. Just better quarterback right now and maybe long term. Can I give like, though, two-sentence update on all these quarterbacks on who these people are you've never heard of them, and you correct me. Yes. Seger Stroud is like the pocket passing archetype that was really popular 10 years ago.

And then you've got, you've got Anthony Richardson, who's like somehow a more and less refined version of Josh Allen at the same time. Then you've got Will Levis from Kentucky, who is somewhere in between a toolsy, Josh Allen, but not as toolsy, but also not actually developed either, like the oldest and least, we don't know what to do with him. And then you've also got Bryce Young, who's the most fun to watch, I'd argue, of all the quarterbacks this year from Alabama. Most complete, maybe. Most complete quarterback.

And if he was 6'5, Bryce Young would be like Andrew Luck, but he's like 5'10. He's one of the shortest and smallest quarterbacks ever to play NFL football. Yeah. Well, Hyvitz always talks about nature versus nurture and how a quarterback's landing spot is almost more important than his talent. And man, D.K., how do you feel about the Panthers offense? Wherever this poor quarterback is now landing doesn't look great. I mean, this is a team whose offense is completely depleted, dude. They have, their running backs are Deonté Foreman and Chuba Hubbard and Rahim Blackshear.

The receivers, now without DJ Moore is they have Terrace Marshall. Shy Smith, she Smith? I always forget. Shia, I think. Shy Smith. They have Lavisca Chanel. They have Rashad Higgins and their tight end is Ian Thomas. I mean, are they just stepping into a burning building?

This is like borderline worse than the bear's offense in terms of skill players last year. Easily. Oh, yeah. They shipped Egypt more out. This is a huge reason I believe nurture nature. They do have a better offensive line, I think, or a line that could be better anyway. So that's good. Like, the foundation for the offensive line is solid, I think.

So at least there's that. But yeah, the receiver core is really bad. Like, probably the worst thing I've felt now by a long shot. And you mentioned Deonté Foreman, he's a free agent. Like Chuba Hubbard is literally like their starter as we go into. They're going to change that, obviously, as free agency happens and all that in the draft. But yeah, this is a terrible offense. I feel bad for whoever they draft from that point of view.

But again, and using this as a segue, I actually think they should, like they're probably more likely, I think, this move would indicate like Anthony Richardson because I think what they're going to do. Really? If I had to guess right now, I'd say they're going to re-sign Darnold to a bridge contract. They're going to draft Richardson as their quarterback of the future, and then they're going to try and build the offense over the next, like, two years. Do you think that makes more sense for them? Because Stroud is more game ready. And in Stroud, I think, would there be more calls for him to start right away?

Or maybe that's not true. I don't know. But, like, the team would be able to more easily convince the fan base that we need to wait with Anthony Richardson, right? Don't you think? But forgetting. waiting the fan base. I guess I just look at it as what you want. And I think that, like, Stephen Ruiz, who staff writer NFL, staff right here for the ringer, huge Panthers fan. I feel like Stephen would argue that. He wants Anthony Richardson because he's like,

I want people who can compete with Mahomes, Allen Burrow. And I kind of would rather miss on one of those people than swing for a Kirk Cousins and get a Kirk Cousins. Like that's kind of how Stephen feels. Not saying that's right or wrong. I'm kind of like the opposite. I'm like, holy shit, dude. The Panthers, like, go get, get C.J. Stroud, even if he's not elite, I just,

if this team trades all this and then misses on the quarterback, it's just a catastrophe. And I do think, I know, right? It is. And it's essential to have a coaching staff in place. It's good they have Frank Reich as their head coach, because at the base of it, so many of these quarterbacks, if you're like, look, I always think about Josh Allen.

We talk about Josh Allen. We're going to compare. Guess what? Josh Allen first overall to the Browns, the Owen 16 Browns with Hugh Jackson, and then Hugh Jackson got fired. And like, Baker Mayfield had four coordinators in his first three seasons. Like, if that happened to Josh Allen, I think Josh Allen would suck and be one of the biggest busts ever. So like the stability and the coaching matters just as much. So I don't know. This is going to be, do you think that, oh my God, this is going to be so interesting.

This is the most fascinating thing to happen. I'm so excited. I can't believe this. We don't. And the best part is, again, like, remember when the 49ers straight up to number three and we argued for a month or however long it was about who they were going to pick. So did they. And maybe that's, you think the Panthers know who they want? That was going to be my next question is like, do you think they actually know who they're going to pick?

Before the Niners thing, I would have said, well, they have to. But I don't know, man. The Niners all but admitting that they were like, well, we like Lance and Max, so we'll trade up. And then Mac just literally would have fell to them in the draft. Crazy. Maybe Lance would have, too. Yeah, I agree.

Bottom line, I think the safe. move and probably the more reasonable move would be to draft Stroud. And I don't even know, like maybe Bryce Young is on the table. Who knows? I don't know. But the safer, probably more reasonable move, it takes Stroud. The upside moonshot, just say fuck it and go for it and shoot for the, like, you know, shoot for the stars move is obviously Richardson. And, you know, with the history, Cam Newton and Carolina, like, I don't know, man,

just go for it. I feel like that would be, that would be what I would do. I don't know. Who is the most Frank Reich quarterback in this draft? Well, Solek has been a good point in saying that Frank Reich, out of necessity of not getting to pick his quarterbacks very much, has just had to make, like he's kind of like more of it than a diner chef than Michelin Star,

because it's just like all these weird orders are coming. It's like, I've got to make an omelet now and then like a T-bone. He's just the McGiver of quarterback coaches? Yeah, he had to do like Philip Rivers for a long time. And then he was like, all right, Carson Wentz. All right, cool. Make something for him. And then it's like, all right, Brissette, Rivers again.

And, uh, Wence, it's like, you know, he got to, I think that considering how much time he spent with Rivers and Wence, I actually think Stroud is super in play. Also, Josh McCown is the quarterback coach in Carolina. McCown, big, big Stroud guy. So Fandwell came out with their new odds for first overall pick to the, to the Panthers. And Stroud is the heavy favorite at minus 320. Bryce Young plus 210, Anthony Richardson plus 600. I would bet on Richardson there. Do you guys think that, you know, it was about 230, 2.45 Pacific, if 545 Pacific when this news broke, right? And obviously, us, this is our job. However, it's Friday afternoon, we were kind of like, ugh, of course this drops right now, right? Do you think the guys who are making the odds at Fanduil? Like, the guys like out to dinner and he's like, God damn it.

He's like, I got to go make odds for the Panthers first round pick. Like, I'm just going to put Strab minus 320. Yeah, 100%. I just wonder the odds makers are also inconvenienced by the time of important ways. You know what? Will Levis is plus 2,200. That's kind of an interesting one. That's pretty. That's,

what a fall from grace for Levis. Yeah. Yeah. All right. We skipped over this. The bears are at nine now. And that's kind of interesting because if we go ahead, I don't know a limb, but just say let's say four quarterbacks are taken in the top nine.

Kind of feels like four defenders are also going to go because Will Anderson. I don't know what's going to happen with Jalen Carter at Georgia. But then you also kind of think, you know, Tyree Wilson, Texas Tech, and then at least one cornerback. So it's like, is it possible? We're looking at four quarterbacks and then four defenders in the top eight

and the bears kind of just go ninth. Or, D.K., do you think it's more like, like, do you think it's likely that the bears are leaning defense here or offense? You have, you have this guy, Lucas Van Ness here as your ninth best, best, or your ninth pick going your mock draft, which is where the bears are now.

Do you see them leaning offense or defense? I think the beauty of this is they can do whatever the hell they want. half of me says they should pick an offensive lineman here. I think some people would argue, like I think it would be a great pick if they pick Peter Skoronski in Northwestern. He is an offensive tackle slash guard. He might come in and play guard on this team, and I think some people might view that as not a very good value at number nine.

And obviously a premier pass rusher, a guy who can develop into a really high level pass rusher. I think Lucas Van Ness has the potential. He has the athletic traits. He's kind of a Trouin Walker type player who, not an incredible amount of production, but like the traits are off the charts kind of deal. So that's why I had them picking him

just because he's a premium position, he's an ascending player, he could turn into a high level pass rusher down the line, and they're obviously building for the long run here. And so, but I think it would probably come down to, you know, an edge rusher or potentially like an offensive line there.

And if one of the, you know, one of the blue chip guys, maybe Jalen Carter falls to that spot, they could maybe still grab him there if they wanted to. To me, it's like if you want to see what you have left in fields, like give them, give him the offensive line help he needs.

Give him everything he needs to know if he's the guy or no. That might be the best way to do it. And honestly, like Skoronsky is a plug-in play starter from day one. You have him as the sixth player in your big board overall. Skoransky. But it's just he has short arms. There's a lot of concern that he might not be an offensive tackle in the NFL.

I mean, I would be confident that he could play tackle. But of course, they drafted a tackle last year. The Bears did. And he was pretty solid in his first season. So, Hyphitz has short arms.

It hasn't stopped him. Every lineman in this draft either has the longest arms of record or the shortest. There's no thing, no one in between. This is, Hyphids. The Bears are also lasting sacks. This is the class of outliers. This is just a class of a bunch of outliers.

Yeah, and that's the other thing, Hyphids is like last year, we were clamoring for them to take offensive players the entire draft, and they started out their draft with two defensive players. They obviously want to build on the defense too. All right, that's all we got. Thank you, T.K.

Thank you, Craig. I'm sure Aaron Rogers is going to get traded in like two hours. We'll probably see you later tonight. Anthony Richardson. Anthony Richards is already up to plus 380. The lines are moving. Aaron Rogers is going to do it during, like between the Oscars,

like right around Best Picture. And it'll just do it. Oh my God. I forgot about that. Thank you Lord. Can't wait to talk to you guys in like 10 minutes. Aaron Rogers is going to present the award for Best Actress and then announce

that he's signing with the Jets. Thank you, the Killers. Ooh. Mr. Brightside, White Guy Anthem. Craig, if anyone bets is listening to this between now and the Oscars, is there anything they should bet on for the Oscars?

Great, great question. I think there's a lot, best actor, there's a lot of differences in the certain books about who the favorite is. I think I would bet Austin Butler to win best actor for Elvis.

Yeah, just play a guy who was a white musician like 30 years ago and you win. I mean, listen, Remy Malik won for Bohemian Rhapsody and he wasn't even fucking singing. Austin Butler was singing. Also, I know Elvis was more than 30 years ago.

I don't want anyone to, you know, he knows about that. He died in 77 or something like that. Yeah, on the toilet. All right. Goodbye, everyone.