Travis Hunter, Abdul Carter, or Ashton Jeanty to the Bears? A potentially mind-blowing 2025 NFL Draft twist

In the sports media world, the 48-ish hours leading up to the NFL Draft are, in a word, nutsy-cuckoo.

Okay, that’s two words, but you get the idea.

Any notable crumb of information, or any rumor, or any hot take enters the public consciousness early and often, especially when it involves an imaginary trade.

And right now, there are crumbs, rumors, and hot takes everywhere.

Teams at the Top Are Considering the Bottom

The draft's top eight picks are getting close to turning into concrete—Cam Ward to Tennessee at one, Abdul Carter to Cleveland at two, blah blah blah—or at least they were.

Multiple outlets have reported that the Cleveland Browns, the New York Giants, and the New England Patriots are fielding calls about moving down from, respectively, the second, third, and fourth picks in the first round.

The Athletic’s Diana Russini tells us, “The majority of teams looking to move up see Colorado CB/WR Travis Hunter as their target should they be able to entice one of those teams, particularly Cleveland, with a suitable package. All three teams are listening.”

She then adds “Sources say the Browns and the Giants, who own the first two picks of the second round, are in trade talks with teams at the back end of the first round. If either team trades up, the expectation is that it would be to select a quarterback.”

That all makes great sense. Cleveland has needs galore—quarterback being one of them—but after Tennessee hoovers up Ward, there isn’t a signal caller on the board worthy of a two-spot selection. So if the Browns can acquire a lower-end first rounder, they can roll with a Shedeur Sanders or a Jaxson Dart, and get some additional early day two capital in the process.

The Jints are in a near-identical position: They’re starved for a QB, and Sanders or Dart at three is a reach. Carter or Hunter would be fine additions, but are they the necessary additions?

For their part, the Pats are set at quarterback with Drake Maye, but they, too, need help all over the field, so acquiring a ton of picks make a ton of sense.

Here’s where the Chicago Bears come in.

Bear Up

A whole lot of pundits are urging Bears GM Ryan Poles to trade down from the tenth pick, as—barring a surprise fall by RB Ashton Jeanty or OL Will Campbell—there won’t be any perfect Chicago fits on the board.

But what if Poles pulls a 180 and climbs into the draft’s top four? Suddenly, near-perfection might be a thing.

Would Cleveland or New York be willing to accept the Bears’ first round pick (10), one of their two second rounders (39 or 41), the higher of their two seventh-rounders (233), and a 2026 fourth-rounder for their, respectively, second or third pick?

If yes, Poles can look to Carter (a.k.a., Micah Parsons 2.0) who’ d be a menace all over the field in DC Dennis Allen’s scheme. If the Penn State product is as good as advertised—and he will be—the Bears could arguably field one of the NFC’s top-five or -six defenses.

If Poles misses out on Carter, there’s Hunter, a wildly talented multi-hyphenate (wide receiver and cornerback) who would be beloved by Allen, head coach Ben Johnson, and quarterback Caleb Williams.

Hunter has made it clear that he’ll quit football if he can’t play on both offense and defense , and there’s little reason to think that the imaginative, ballsy Johnson would stop the Heisman Trophy winner from becoming the pro football version of Shohei Ohtani.

Wither Thou, Ashton?

If Poles believes that potentially generational running back Ashton Jeanty is the answer, he’ll get on the horn with New England GM Eliot Wolf and offer a slightly lesser package than the Cleveland or New York deals—some iteration of the aforementioned trade without the 2026 fourth included might get it done.

If Chicago lands at the four-spot, Carter and Hunter will almost definitely have found homes, but scooping up Jeanty while maintaining one of their two second rounders would be a W. Sure, the remainder of the draft would be barren—after the second round, Poles would have a piddly three more picks to play with—but welcoming one of the classes' three best prospects would be a coup.

And a nutsy-cuckoo one at that.