Report: Chicago Bears agree to trade No. 1 overall pick in 2023 NFL Draft to Carolina Panthers

There have been plenty of questions about what direction the Chicago Bears will go with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. Those, apparently, have been answered — and in a big way.

The Bears are trading the top pick in this year’s draft to the Carolina Panthers, according to multiple reports. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport first reported the news. ESPN’s Adam Schefter then reported Chicago will get wide receiver DJ Moore, the No. 9 overall pick and the No. 61 overall pick in 2023, Carolina’s first-round pick in 2024 and the Panthers’ second round pick in 2025 in return.

For the Bears, they not only load up on draft capital, but add a likely WR1 for quarterback Justin Fields. But the Panthers, they have the ability to take its potential franchise quarterback atop the draft. It’ll be interesting to see which direction they go — and Schefter said it’s likely a two-quarterback race during a SportsCenter appearance shortly after he broke the news.

“Look, I think the pick will boil down to either Bryce Young or CJ Stroud,” Schefter said on SportsCenter. “If you look at Frank Reich’s history … he has preferred bigger quarterbacks. That would be the CJ Stroud model. There are people who believe Bryce Young should be the No. 1 overall pick, that he’s a mini-Patrick Mahomes. Well, we’ll see if that’s the direction they go. But clearly, at this point in time, it seems to me a decision between Bryce Young and CJ Stroud both in play for the No. 1 overall pick, and as that one Panthers official just said to me, ‘We’ve got 48 days to go through this.’

“I go back to what the 49ers did when they traded up for Trey Lance. And I still maintain and believe that when they made the trade, Mac Jones was the guy that they were leaning towards taking. But they had all that extra time to evaluate the quarterbacks and go through the process, and ultimately, they settled in on Trey Lance. So, the Panthers may have an idea and a lean today, but they have almost seven full weeks to go through their process and make a final decision about what to do. But there’s no doubt that they were comfortable going up to No. 1.”