Rumor of Bears Trade Gets Specific

The Bears and Steelers trade rumor on Monday gained new life thanks to a reputable source.

Peter King of NBC Sports' Football Morning in America followed up on a podcast report last week saying the Steelers had talked to the Bears about a deal, but did so with a specific target named.

In his Monday morning column, King said the Steelers are trying to move up to No. 9 in order to draft Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter.

The podcast report last week suggested the Steelers were looking to trade up to the ninth spot with the Bears with an offensive tackle in mind, but there are plenty of tackles who could still be available in the middle of Round 1.

Trading up to get Carter seems more plausible.

Pittsburgh owns the No. 17 spot and from there the Bears would be in position to draft either a tackle or defensive tackle Calijah Kancey or possibly edge rushers Nolan Smith or Myles Murphy from Clemson.

According to the draft value chart, there is a 400-point difference between the ninth pick owned by the Bears and the 17th pick owned by the Steelers. Pittsburgh has the 49th pick in Round 2, which is worth 410 points. So trading that might require an adjustment on the part of the Bears of some sort. The Bears don't have a sixth-round pick to give away, which could be worth about 10 points. They have the first pick of Round 7, which is worth 2.3 points.

The last fifth-round pick the Bears own, which is No. 148, is worth far more than could be used in this case. It's worth 31 points.

The Bears and Steelers have already hooked up on one trade within the last year and it doesn't look like one that turned out well for Chicago. Wide receiver Chase Claypool came to the Bears for their second-round pick, which turned out to be No. 32 overall because they finished with the league's worst record.

Claypool last year played in seven games with three starts. He missed two games due to injury and made 14 Bears catches in 29 targets for 140 yards, with three dropped passes.

The Bears have already traded the first pick to Carolina for the ninth pick and pulled in DJ Moore, Carolina's first-rounder next year, and second-rounder this year, as well as the Panthers' second-round pick in 2025.

If the Bears came away with the 49th pick overall in this draft, they would have five picks in the top 64, but only one pick (No. 17) higher than No. 49. They'd have No. 17, then in Round 2 they'd own No. 49, No. 52 and No. 61 and then the first pick of Round 3 at No. 64.

Then again, the Steelers also own that 32nd pick the Bears gave them at the top of Round 2 and could use that in a trade. But for the Bears to get that one back would require some other major piece of compensation sent back to the Steelers besides the ninth pick. That first pick in Round 2 is worth 590 points, 10 less than the last first-round pick owned by the Chiefs.

The Steelers trading their first-rounder and the first pick of Round 2 to the Bears would be 1,540 points, which is 190 more than the Bears' ninth pick is worth. The Bears do own two picks in Round 4 but together those only equal about 129 points.

Regardless of potential compensation packages, the trade rumor is even more lively considering ESPN's Matt Miller reported last week that the Bears would not let Carter get past No. 9 if he falls.

Are they not letting him get past No. 9 because they want him, or because they would just draft him and then trade him to the Steelers or move out of the ninth spot entirely so the Steelers could draft him?

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