Getty Wide receiver Mike Williams of the Los Angeles Chargers.
Regardless of who plays quarterback in 2024, the Chicago Bears will need a bonafide No. 2 in the wide receiver room and may be able to land one at minimal cost by helping out a cash-strapped AFC squad.
The Los Angeles Chargers‘ new regime is in serious need of dumping salary this offseason and wideout Mike Williams is a prime candidate. Maurice Moton of Bleacher Report on Monday, February 26, authored a trade proposal in which the Bears surrender a fourth-round pick (No. 111 overall) to take a one-year flier on Williams in 2024.
Williams may be the most expendable because of the team’s depth at wide receiver, his inability to stay healthy last season and the $20 million in savings if a team acquires him via trade.
As wideout Darnell Mooney prepares to test free agency, the Chicago Bears need a No. 2 wideout to complement DJ Moore. Williams, if healthy, can attack defenses over the top and serve as the primary red-zone target for whoever starts at quarterback in Chicago next season. By the way, the Bears have a projected $78.3 million in cap space. They can easily absorb Williams’ contract.
Mike Williams Can Bring 1,000-Yard Potential to Bears if Healthy
GettyWide receiver Mike Williams of the Los Angeles Chargers.
Williams is entering the final season of his three-year deal worth $60 million total and while he is an expensive option, the Bears could negotiate with the Chargers to have L.A. pick up some of Williams’ salary in order to clear his cap hit off their bloated books.
A fourth-round pick isn’t an overwhelming price for Chicago to pay if it believes Williams has adequately recovered from the torn ACL he suffered against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 3 of last season. The Bears own two picks in the top 9, another in the third round, two in the fourth and another in the fifth.
Chicago is also likely to secure a second-round selection by trading quarterback Justin Fields, which will probably happen if the team drafts Caleb Williams of USC at No. 1 overall. If the Bears decide to move off the top pick, they can trade back once or even twice and accumulate so many assets that one of their two fourth-rounders in 2024 is a near afterthought — particularly if it nets the team a receiver that, when healthy, is a legitimate threat to go over 1,000 yards.
Williams eclipsed that figure in 2019 and 2021, before catching 63 passes for 895 yards and 4 TDs across 13 games played in 2022, per Pro Football Reference. A former first-round pick (No. 7 overall in 2017), Williams will play next season at 30 years old.
Mike Williams May Not Fit Bears’ Plans Depending on Other Options at Wide Receiver
GettyWide receiver Mike Evans of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Bears plans may not include room for Williams, though details of what is poised to be a complicated and eventful offseason in Chicago could change significantly based on how the initial dominoes in free agency, and subsequently the draft, begin to fall.
Chicago could make a free agency play for Mike Evans of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers if he reaches the open market or try to get in conversations around a potential trade for Tee Higgins, who the Cincinnati Bengals just franchise-tagged but may be willing to move for the right draft asset.
The Bears could also draft a wide receiver themselves. Several mocks have linked Chicago to Washington receiver Rome Odunze in a move that makes sense by pairing a rookie with elite talent alongside a more expensive veteran in Moore who is likely looking at an extension sooner than later.
In any of those scenarios, Williams doesn’t make sense for Chicago and the franchise can scrap the entire notion of a trade. But there is a world where the league makes a run on receivers at the top of the draft and the Bears are unable to land a premium free agent at the position because of uncertainty and/or inexperience under center. In that case, Williams in a Bears uniform for one year could make considerable sense.