Bears 2024 NFL Draft Grades For Every Pick

In general, the practice of assigning grades to an NFL team’s draft class in the hours after they were selected is a tricky proposition. What we’re actually grading is the public’s perception of the draft class. We’re projecting what the class could be because there’s no way to actually evaluate (yet) what they will be. 

However…

Sometimes after an NFL Draft, a team manages to do so well with the picks that they had at their disposal, it immediately feels like the players who comprise it will end up being a generational, franchise-altering draft class. This is the position that the Chicago Bears find themselves in today.

With just five picks — and in fairness, a two-year rebuild — Bears general manager Ryan Poles has done his part in ushering in a new era of Chicago Bears football. There’s just no other way around it. Bears fans are generally a pretty gloomy, critical bunch, and I’m qualified to say so because I am one, and I grew up with a father who has been one for the entirety of his life. But ask anyone who regularly dons the navy blue and orange how they’re feeling about the state of the Chicago Bears, and you’ll be able to identify an optimism and excitement that is often lacking.

And for that reason alone, the Bears draft has to be considered a slam dunk of epic proportions. The actual results won’t be tallied for years to come, and when that time comes, maybe we’ll think otherwise. But because we’re doing our grades right now, the biggest winner of the 2024 NFL Draft is the Chicago Bears, because no other franchise was able to completely reverse the public perception of their team as drastically as Ryan Poles and the Bears did over the course of the final weekend in April.

1st Round, 1st Pick – Caleb Williams, Quarterback, USC 

Of course, the figurehead of this drastic franchise makeover is USC quarterback Caleb Williams. Williams had been waiting his entire life to hear his name called as the 1st overall pick in the NFL Draft, which is fitting considering Bears fans have been waiting our entire lives for a quarterback with Caleb Williams’ potential to put on a Bears uniform. As my cousin texted me late last night, “Caleb Williams might already be the franchise’s best quarterback since Sid Luckman was out there slingin’ the pigskin in his leather helmet.”

As I’ve advised in the past, Bears fans should be patient with Caleb Williams. While the talent and potential is both obvious and staggering, he’s still going to be a rookie in 2024, which means he’ll make some throws he shouldn’t make, he’ll hold onto the ball a little longer than you’d want him to, and he won’t always be able to expertly navigate the media frenzy that comes with being the Chicago Bears quarterback, as he has in the 72 hours since the Bears made him the #1 pick. But the early returns on Caleb Williams, both on and off the field, are incredibly optimistic. He’s clearly built to be a quarterback in today’s NFL.

Part of the reason why this is an A+ pick in my book is because of the work that Ryan Poles has done to put Caleb Williams in a position to succeed right away. Work that was done in the years, months, weeks and days leading up to the NFL Draft. With a pair of All-Pro caliber receivers, a 1,000 rusher, an offensive line that at minimum should be among one of the 10-12 best units in the league next year, and a defense that believes they could be among the best in the NFL next season, Williams is set up for potentially unprecedented success early on in his career. And that’s not even considering what Ryan Poles did with the rest of the Bears 2024 draft class.

Grade: A+

1st Round, 9th Pick – Rome Odunze, Wide Receiver, Washington 

Nearly as big of a problem historically for the Bears as their lack of a franchise quarterback has been their inability to find and maintain a bonafide #1 wide receiver. The prolific days of Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffery, and Allen Robinson were nice, but those three productive wideouts played a combined 12 seasons for the Bears. There’s a reason why Johnny Morris and Harlan Hill are the two leading receivers in Bears history, and they both played when the NFL and AFL were still separate leagues. Now, the tables have turned. Chicago has an embarrassment of riches in their wide receiver room, and Rome Odunze is the latest addition to that group.

Rome Odunze was insanely productive at Washington, putting up 92 receptions, 1,640 yards and 13 touchdowns during his senior season with the Huskies. Dig a little deeper, and you’ll find stats like these, courtesy of Alex Shapiro of NBC Sports Chicago: among WRs with 100 targets last season, Odunze was 1st in yards, 1st in first down, 1st in contested catches, 1st in contested catch rate, 2nd in average depth of target, 4th in touchdowns, and 6th in drop rate. Not too bad.

In an ideal world, Caleb Williams to Rome Odunze will become the Manning to Harrison, Young to Rice, Bradshaw to Swann sort of connection that Bears fans have been hoping for for a very, very long time. And based on their early off-the-field rapport alone, it feels like they might have a shot. Until then, Odunze will be just one of the many reliable targets Caleb Williams gets to throw to.

Grade: A 

3rd Round, 75th Pick – Kiran Amegadjie, Offensive Tackle, Yale

Back in February, The Athletic’s Dane Brugler noted that Yale offensive tackle Kiran Amegadjie could’ve entered the transfer portal after the 2022 season and easily found himself a starting spot for a Power 5 conference team. As to why he didn’t follow that path, Amegadjie responded, “I love Yale too much to imagine playing somewhere else.”

This is noteworthy for two reasons:

First, it’s an indication that a step up in competition may not involve as steep of a learning curve as you’d expect from the ultra-athletic Amegadjie, who spent his collegiate career playing in the Ivy League. In fact, pending good health — Amegadjie suffered a partially torn quad muscle during his final season at Yale — Bears co-director of player personnel shared with The Athletic’s Adam Jahns that he expects that as Amegadjie develops this offseason, he could potentially push Braxton Jones, a 5th round pick two years ago, as the projected starter at left tackle.

And second, it could mean that Amegadjie, an Illinois native and lifelong fan of the Chicago Bears, may decide he wants to spend his entire career in Chicago playing for his hometown team, which could beneficial down the line if/when Amegadjie garners interest from other suitors around the league. In fact, it’s not even that Amegadjie just wanted to play for the Bears as a kid… according to Courtney Cronin of ESPN.com, he called his shot.

“Kiran Amegadjie, a Hinsdale native, grew up a Bears fan and met Matt Eberflus last year at the golf club his father belongs to. He said that he told Eberflus he would one day be sitting in his office as a Bears draft pick.”

That’s pretty awesome if you ask me.

Grade: B

4th Round, 122nd Pick – Tory Taylor, Punter, Iowa 

The selection of a punter is never a popular pick in the NFL Draft, especially when a team takes him in the 4th Round of the Draft. However, not all punter’s are Iowa’s Tory Taylor.

The same people criticizing this pick were likely the ones who were spending the entire 2023 college football season talking about how Taylor was the best weapon on an Iowa Hawkeyes squad that went to the Big Ten Championship Game, and all of those folks were right. As much as people consider Caleb Williams a generational prospect at quarterback, the same could potentially be said of Taylor, it’s just that punter is a whole lot less sexy than quarterback.

Hopefully Caleb Williams’ prediction proves to be correct, and the Bears won’t need to utilize the leg of Tory Taylor too often. But make no mistake, when they do, the 26-year-old Aussie will be an impactful player for the Chicago Bears. Last year, Bears punter Trenton Gill was dead last in net yards per punt with one of the lowest percentages of punts inside of the opponent’s 20-yard-line in the league. That will change in 2024, and for however long Taylor wears a Bears uniform.

Admittedly, I will have this pick graded higher than most. I’m fully aware of it, but that’s because I can already see the scenario playing out. Crummy weather, Soldier Field, early December. It’s just one of those games for Caleb Williams where he looks like a rookie, and the Bears need some sort of big-time special teams or defensive play to swing the momentum of the game in the 2nd half. Tory Taylor walks onto the field and launches a punt through the windy, snowy Chicago air, pinning an opponent inside of the three-yard line. Two plays later, Montez Sweat records a strip-sack for a score.

When that happens, we can come back and re-litigate this pick. Deal?

Grade: A-

5th Round, 144th Pick – Austin Booker, Edge, Kansas 

One of the primary needs the Bears had heading into the 2024 offseason was to find a pass rusher on the opposite side of Montez Sweat. The Bears didn’t do much to address this need in free agency, nor did they use any of those first four picks in this year’s Draft to address this need. But on day three, Chicago traded a 2025 4th round pick in order to get back into this year’s Draft in order to select Austin Booker, a long, twitchy, and productive edge rusher who in limited snaps at Kansas last season still managed to record 8 sacks and 12 tackles for loss with a pressure rate that was through the roof.

Booker lacks both the experience and the bulk of a traditional rusher coming off the edge, but the Bears are confident that with time, their 5th round pick can add the weight and the reps to soon enough become a starter on a defense that was among the ten best units in the league over the second half of the 2023 season. Until then, expect Matt Eberflus to let Booker loose on passing downs.

Grade: B

What should also be considered here: The Bears traded their 2nd round pick for Montez Sweat, their 4th round pick for Keenan Allen, and their 6th round pick for Ryan Bates, three starters next season. It’s safe to assume that Caleb Williams, Rome Odunze and Tory Taylor will all be starters next season too, with both Amegadjie and Booker expected to see the field plenty. This means with his 2024 NFL Draft capital, Ryan Poles secured at least six new starters for the Chicago Bears ahead of the 2024 season.

Time to Bear Down.

Overall Grade: A