Why Bears must exploit Cardinals' desperation for Ty Simpson at No. 25 in NFL Draft

The Cardinals are reportedly interested in a trade up for Ty Simpson near the bottom of Round 1 and the Chicago Bears should be ready to exploit that.

Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Knowing the history of the Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles, we need to be prepared for the possibility that the team will trade back from No. 25 during the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft.

Throughout his tenure as general manager, Poles has traded back during drafts more than a handful of times. It would make sense to do so again this year because the Bears have a massive gap in picks form Round 4 to Round 7.

Based on a rumor from Tony Pauline of Essentially Sports, one team we should be keeping an eye on as a possible trade-back partner for Chicago is the Arizona Cardinals.

Pauline reports that the Cardinals "will look to move into the bottom of Round 1" with the intention of taking Alabama quarterback, Ty Simpson.

"I’m also told that (Cardinals general manager Monti) Ossenfort will look to move into the bottom of Round 1 and draft quarterback Ty Simpson if the opportunity arises," Pauline reports.

Why Bears must exploit Cardinals

Arizona Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

It's become widely believed that Arizona likes Simpson, and based on Pauline's reporting, they might like him enough to move up to grab the Alabama signal-caller.

Because of the aforementioned gap in picks, Poles should be very interested in dealing with Arizona with his No. 25 pick. It's possible Poles could get better value than expected if general manager Monti Ossenfort is desperate to grab Simpson.

There's a few reasons why he might be. For starters, teams will do just about anything to draft a quarterback they believe in, and the selection of Simpson could buy Ossenfort more time as his seat heats up following three lackluster years at the helm in Arizona.

What a Bears-Cardinals trade could look like

Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles. | David Banks-Imagn Images

This is actually a scenario we've touched on in a previous article that saw Arizona move up to Chicago's No. 25 pick for Simpson.

In that scenario, the Bears landed pick Nos. 34, 65 (third round) and 143 (fifth round) in exchange for Chicago's 25th and 89th (third round) selections, which is a difference of 6.5 points in Arizona's favor, per the NFL Draft Trade Value Chart.

It's not crazy to think Poles can do a bit better by securing Arizona's fourth-rounder instead of the fifth-round selection if Ossenfort is as desperate as we think he could be. That said,
this trade scenario would no doubt suffice for the Bears.

Chicago grabs the fifth-round pick it doesn't have and makes a sizeable leap up in the third round. Chicago would also have three second-round picks and there should still be plenty of good edge rushers and interior defenders there.

If there was ever a draft for the Bears to trade out of Round 1, it's this one. The difference in grades for players from Chicago's No. 25 pick to Arizona's No. 34 pick is tiny, at most, and the Bears can land just as quality of a player with the later pick while also beefing up its stable of selections.