Caleb Williams understands he has no control over what the Chicago Bears do with the No. 9 overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft. If he did have a say, though, he knows which player he would like to see join him for his debut NFL season.
Williams spoke with reporters in Detroit on April 24 — one day before the draft — and fielded a question about who he would take if he were picking for the Bears at No. 9. Without hesitation, he landed on one name: Penn State offensive tackle Olu Fashanu.
“If I was able to choose and I was picked No. 1 [by] the Bears, I would probably go Olu Fashanu because I know he’d put his life on the line for me protecting me,” Williams said, via Yahoo Sports. “And then, geez, I would probably go one of the top three wide receivers — whoever is there at nine!”
Fashanu would be an interesting choice for the Bears’ ninth overall selection. The 21-year-old left tackle did not give up a sack and allowed just one total quarterback hit in two seasons (1,263 snaps) over the past two seasons starting for the Nittany Lions. He also won a state championship with Williams at Gonzaga College High School.
The Bears have a two-year starter at left tackle in Braxton Jones, but an investment in the position is not completely out of the question as the team explores its options for surrounding its new franchise quarterback with talent and support. The Bears did hold several official visits with potential first-round offensive tackles during the pre-draft process, but there are no reports to suggest Fashanu took a Top 30 visit with Chicago.
Bears Could Pair 1st-Round WR With Caleb Williams
Draft day has officially arrived, but the fans at large are still no closer to knowing what the Bears will do with the No. 9 overall pick in the first round. Part of the reason why could be that the Bears themselves do not yet know what they want to do with the pick and are instead waiting to see how the draft board falls before locking in on specifics.
Still, there are a few candidates who seem more likely to land in Chicago than others.
The first — and most obvious — option is one of the three top wide receivers in the class: Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr., LSU’s Malik Nabers or Washington’s Rome Odunze. The Bears have two Pro Bowl-quality receivers in DJ Moore and Keenan Allen, but they could feel the best winning approach is to pair a high-level playmaker with their new quarterback in hopes they can develop into a dynamic duo together for years to come.
The Bears hosted Top 30 visits with all three top receivers as well as Texas speedster Xavier Worthy, who broke the NFL Combine record in the 40-yard dash (4.21 seconds).
The other likely suspects for the Bears at No. 9 are the edge rushers. Chicago still needs a quality partner to play opposite Montez Sweat on their defensive line and took time to scope out several of the top pass rushers in the class over the past month, visiting with Alabama’s Dallas Turner, Florida State’s Jared Verse, UCLA’s Laiatu Latu and Penn State’s Chop Robinson. If things fall right, the Bears could have their choice of the four.
Can Bears Help Caleb Williams With Defensive Pick?
Most people expect the Bears will either target a wide receiver, edge rusher or left tackle at No. 9. It is also still perfectly valid to question whether the Bears will make the pick at all given they could trade back a little further into the round to acquire more capital. After all, they have a long wait in store for them between the ninth pick and the 76th.
Could the Bears take things in a less expected direction, though, and use their No. 9 selection on a defensive tackle for Matt Eberflus’ defense?
The possibility of the Bears targetting Texas defensive tackle Byron Murphy with the ninth pick has gained steam in recent weeks. Brad Biggs of The Chicago Tribune raised the subject in his April 21 column, acknowledging that Murphy has a chance to be the first defensive player selected and that the Bears would be an “ideal landing spot.”
The Bears have talent at defensive tackle — veteran Andrew Billings and two Day 2 picks from 2024 (Gervon Dexter Sr. and Zacch Pickens) — but they lost their three-technique defensive tackle when they let Justin Jones walk this spring free agency. If the role is truly the “engine” of the defense that Eberflus claims it to be, then a top-10 investment in the position would make sense, especially as the position’s price rises.
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