The Bears had the third pick in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft, but they didn’t want to wait that long to get on the clock.
Mike Glennon may not be long for the Bears’ starting quarterback job.
The Bears traded up one spot to leapfrog the 49ers and select North Carolina quarterback Mitchell Trubisky. The Bears sent the 3rd overall pick, a 2017 third-round pick (No. 67), a 2017 fourth-round pick (No. 111 overall) and a 2018 third-round pick.
Trubisky joins Glennon, who signed with the Bears as a free agent this offseason on a deal that only has $2.5 million in guaranteed money next season. Trubisky was widely projected to be the first quarterback to be selected on Thursday night, but there weren’t many people banking on him going to Chicago. It’s a bold move by General Manager Ryan Pace and one that will likely wind up defining his tenure one way or another.
We’ll likely hear more about the machinations that led to the deal, but it’s fair to assume that 49ers General Manager John Lynch let them know that another team was coming up to take Trubisky or that they would be taking him themselves. However it came to fruition, the haul is a useful one for Lynch as he works to build a winner in his first season in his new job.