Bears' Draft Day Trades
Historically the Bears have made a few Draft Day splashes. None quite like Kevin Costner's character, Sonny Weaver, Jr. did in order to reclaim a boatload of draft picks. But we've made moves nonetheless. Poles has already discussed trading back in the draft. Let's take a look at how draft day trades have worked for our Bears in the past. For length purposes, we'll focus on the first round of the draft.
Let's start with the 1999 draft. The Bears were sitting at pick 7 and then GM, Mark Hatley, made a deal with the Washington Redskins to trade back in the draft. The Bears received picks in rounds: 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and a 2000 3rd in exchange for pick #7 with which the Skins used to take future Hall of Fame corner Champ Bailey. The Bears' final haul was: Cade McNown, D'Wayne Bates, Warrick Holdman, Jerry Wine, and Dustin Lyman.
**Side Note** this was the same draft that the Redskins received a 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and a 2000 1st and 3rd in exchange for the 5th overall pick from the Saints. Ditka traded it all away so he could have Ricky Williams.
Next up is the year 2003. The Bears had pick #4 and GM Jerry Angelo traded with the Jets to move back. In this trade, Angelo was able to get two 1st round picks and a 4th. The Bears took the first of those round 1 picks (#13) and traded it to the Patriots for the #14 pick and a 6th. Their draft ended up being Michael Haynes, Rex Grossman, Ian Scott, and finally Marques Ogden. The Jets moved up and took Dewayne Robertson and the Patriots took Ty Warren. Robertson played 6 years in the league and tallied 16 sacks and 283 tackles. Warren played 9 years with 20 sacks and 377 tackles. Haynes only played 2.5 seasons with the Bears before being cut, signed with the Saints and the Jets but never played for either team. Sexy Rexy wasn't a stereotypical "bust," he was able to help get the Bears to the 2006 Super Bowl but threw 4 interceptions that game.
In 2006, the Bears once again traded back, this time with the Buffalo Bills. The Bears got a 2nd and 3rd round pick for the #26 pick. The Bills took John McCargo and the Bears selected Danieal Manning and Dusty Dvoracek.
Manning had a solid five years with the Bears, 1-2 interceptions each year, and averaged around 75 tackles each season before going to the Texans whereas McCargo was in the league for six years and only played in 44 games total, earning 2.5 sacks and 52 tackles.
We aren't counting the 2009 trade for Jay Cutler because that wasn't a draft-day trade. So the next up is 2016 when the Bears and Buccaneers traded picks. The Bears moved up from pick 11 to pick 9 and they included a 4th round pick. The Bears moved up to grab Leonard Floyd whereas the Bucs took Vernon Hargreaves III and Eric Murray. Floyd gave the Bears four decent years but never lived up to the team's hype and has been doing well in his new home with the Rams. Hargreaves, who currently sits as a free agent, has had an up and down career thus far between the Bucs and Texans.
Unfortunately, the very next year was the 49ers trade. The Bears swapped 1st round picks, as well giving up a 3rd and 4th, and a 2018 3rd to the 49ers.The Bears moved that one spot for Trubisky while those other picks were turned into Solomon Thomas, Alvin Kamara, Tedric Thomson, and Fred Warner. I don't think I need to go too into detail on how well Kamrar and Warner are. Thomas hasn't quite lived up to his 1st round potential though.
This finally brings us to our last year's draft. The Bears traded up with the Giants to get their man Justin Fields. They swapped 1sts where the Giants took Kadarius Toney who is supposedly already on the trade block. The Giants also picked up a 5th (Jamar Johnson), and a 1st and 4th in this year's draft.
