Why will the Chicago Bears pick first in the 2024 NFL Draft if they don’t have the worst record?

As an American living in Europe, a regular theme of discussion at the local watering hole is American sports. Everything from what they are called to how they work is questioned and, more often than not, ridiculed.

Often it is difficult to defend what goes on in America, but one glaring exception is the draft system. It is a work of genius.

The fact that the worst team has first pick helps to ensure that everyone has a fair shot at the talent on offer. There are notable differences in basketball and baseball, but in the NFL it ensures that the competition is fierce, and most notably, fair.

In European leagues, there will be one or two behemoth teams who vacuum up all the available talent, guaranteeing that they are dominant year in and year out. Forever.

Real Madrid and Barcelona will always dominate Spain’s La Liga. Paris Saint-Germain will likewise be the Don in France’s Ligue 1. Bayern Munich, Liverpool, and Manchester United are the same story. Periodically, an outlier will sneak through and win the league, but they will soon find their way back to the bottom of the heap. Even in those seasons when they don’t win, the top teams are always in the top two or three spots. It is as certain as death and taxes.

In America, and only in America, is it the norm that there is a wholesale upturning of the league virtually every year or two. Teams at the bottom can, and do, build tomorrow’s dynasties, while the big teams, the Yankees, or the Patriots, or the Celtics, will slide down to the bottom end of the table for a time. Until they in turn can rebuild and upturn the league again. It is wholesome. It is pure. It is competition at its finest.

Of course, salary caps and free agency have a large hand in this situation as well, but it all starts with the draft. “The last shall finish first,” says the Bible, and the NFL has taken that sentiment to heart.

But not this year.

As strange as it may seem, the Chicago Bears will have the first draft pick this year despite not sitting on the floor of the NFL standings. That is an ignominy that belongs to the Carolina Panthers.

Last season, however, the Panthers did a deal with Chicago for their draft spot. Both teams wanted Bryce Young and Carolina traded this year’s number one pick for Chicago’s draft spot last year. So the Panthers have Young, and the Bears have the number one overall pick this year.

The conventional wisdom is that the Bears should use that pick to take a quarterback, with USC’s Caleb Williams and North Carolina’s Drake Maye the most likely candidates. But there is an outside chance that the Bears will decide to stick with Justin Fields and try to beef up that receiving squad for him.