Will they or won’t they?? … With Chicago having finally clinched the #1 pick at the 2024 draft last weekend the chorus of questions whether the Bears should select a QB or not has reached literally crescendo level here and here and here and here and here and here. The question for the Bears, of course, is whether they stick with Justin Fields, their first-round pick from just three years ago who has some intriguing tools, and build up the team around him either by taking the best non-QB available like Ohio State WR Marvin Harrison or trading the pick for a boatload of future picks, or use the #1 pick to take a QB like USC’s Caleb Williams or Drake Maye of North Carolina and let them sort it out on the field. We’ll leave the debate to those with a higher pay grade than ours, but it would just seem to be almost malpractice in this day and age to pass on a potential elite franchise QB when a team doesn’t have one and while Fields is an improving player, he just doesn’t appear to have that kind of arm talent.
There had also been pretty much the same debate over much of the course of the season in Arizona as the Cardinals languished in the top 2-3 pick range. Did they stick with Kyler Murray, who had been selected, somewhat controversially, by the Cards’ previous administration and who had just signed a huge contract extension that would be a cap-killer if they did try and either trade or release him, or just bite the bullet and move on. At least for this week, though, that debate may be academic as the Cardinals dropped down to the 4th pick and very possibly out of position to take one of this year’s top 3 QBs after stunning the Eagles in Philadelphia last Sunday. At the same time, Cardinals’ head coach Jonathan Gannon expressed his strong support for Murray in a local interview this week. When asked if there was any doubt Murray was the team’s starter going forward, Gannon responded that ‘No, there’s not any doubt’ that he’s ‘our franchise quarterback’ and that he (Gannon) was ‘a Kyler guy now!’ Of course, Gannon could just be covering his bases in case the Cardinals don’t get a shot at a top pick and could always change his tune if they did, but right now that looks like the less likely option in Arizona, especially if the Cardinals win a very winnable game this Sunday at home against Seattle. But stay tuned anyway.
