If given the choice would you rather the Bears trade for Chase Young for nothing more than a second and later round picks, or wait and draft a DE, which would you prefer?
You draft him. The advanced stats view him highly and his play hasn’t dropped off from injury now that he’s he’s healthy. You have the draft capital and the money to do the trade and sign him for a few more years without breaking the bank or hurting the draft capital. There is no need to give up a first rounder so the Bears still have those and could get a first rounder to put on the dline either way him.
To me, despite the injury he had that kept him out for a while, this is low risk.
It was a 2021 knee injury that kept him out for a while. It wasn’t like he was snake bit and got injured every season like a Jaycee Horn type of player or CMC in Carolina type of player.
The Bears have 10 sacks as a team. Young has 5 by himself. TJ Edwards, Yannick Ngakoue and DeMarcus Walker combine for 5.5 sacks.
Young has more sack yards than all three of the above combined. He also has more tackles for loss than any of the 3 above.
Having a guy like him on the team would help out the entire defense and he’s still a young player.
Outside of money, how many kids in this draft class have his upside that they will fall to round two? You have to spend the money on something and this free agent class doesn’t look great and last years free agent class had almost all of the high potential guys get resigned or traded and signed. And those folks who do become available would still have to CHOOSE the Bears.
Two in the hand they say.