Chicago Bears Q&A: Is drafting a QB in the 1st round still on the table? Are continued Russell Wilson rumors just a smoke screen? Plus, dispelling a whole bunch of conspiracy theories.

This has been a popular question since the Bears signed Andy Dalton, and, yes, I would imagine a bundle of three first-round draft picks could get the Bears into the neighborhood of the top five. You can’t rule out the possibility of this happening, but it seems unlikely for a couple of reasons. For starters, if multiple teams like the quarterbacks after Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, who most expect will go No. 1 to the Jacksonville Jaguars, there will be competition to trade into the top five for BYU’s Zach Wilson and potentially Ohio State’s Justin Fields and North Dakota State’s Trey Lance. Second, I can understand why ownership would sign off on the Bears’ bid to trade for Wilson. They would have been selling a huge part of their future drafts to acquire a proven talent at the position. It’s a totally different discussion if Ryan Pace approaches ownership and asks about mortgaging that much future draft capital to trade up for an unproven quarterback. I imagine George McCaskey would be hesitant to green-light a move like that. Third, as I stated in the question above, the Bears need to compete this year, and investing heavy draft capital in a quarterback prospect would make it difficult to build the roster around the position. Fourth, by committing $5.3 million toward the salary cap this season to Dalton (who will earn $10 million), the Bears have used scarce cap space to bring in a quarterback. That’s with the intent, I believe, of him being the starter.