Getty Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner at MetLife Stadium on December 24, 2023.
The Chicago Bears were a solid team at the end of the 2023 season, bordering on legitimately good. After an active offseason and two top-nine picks in next week’s NFL draft, their roster figures to be even better.
Opposing teams and their players around the league have begun to take notice of the Bears and their apparently inevitable come up, though some are arriving at the party a bit later than the rest. New York Jets star cornerback Sauce Gardner is among that group, as he took to social media with legitimate shock upon learning an already quality and clearly improving Chicago team is about to pick at No. 1 and then again at No. 9 on Friday, April 26.
Sauce Gardner is in disbelief that the Bears have 2 Top 10 picks 😂
“How do Chicago got two top-10 picks on top of the talent they already got?” Gardner posted to X on Wednesday, per 33rd team. “Who did they fleece? 😂 (All I do is wake up and play football; IDK what be going on trade/draft wise).”
Bears May End Up Netting 5 Starters, Including QB Caleb Williams, Via 2023 Trade With Panthers
GettyQuarterback Caleb Williams of the USC Trojans.
The answer to Gardner’s query, as any Bears fans could tell him, is that Chicago fleeced the Carolina Panthers. And it’s even worse than it seems.
General manager Ryan Poles sent Carolina the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft in exchange for pick Nos. 9 and 63 last year, the Panthers’ first-rounder in 2024 that became the top selection in this year’s draft, along with a second-rounder in 2025 and wide receiver DJ Moore.
Moore is a bonafide No. 1 wideout after producing a career year in 2023 with 96 catches for 1,364 receiving yards and 8 TDs, per Pro Football Reference. The No. 1 pick the Bears make next week is almost certain to be Caleb Williams, a player whose most frequent professional comps are MVP and Super Bowl winners Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes — both of whom are already locks for the Hall of Fame five years after they retire.
Chicago used the No. 9 pick last year on right tackle Darnell Wright, who started as a rookie and will again in 2024. The Bears packaged the No. 61 selection in 2023 with a fifth-rounder in a trade up to No. 56 with the Jacksonville Jaguars, turning those picks into cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, who was also a starter as a rookie.
The Bears’ own pick in 2024, the No. 9 selection, could end up landing the team a top-end wide receiver like Rome Odunze, or the Bears could trade back into the middle of the first round, select a quality offensive tackle or edge rusher and pick up a quality asset — perhaps a future second-rounder — in the process.
Sauce Gardner Deletes Social Media Post About Bears’ Draft Picks, but Can’t Erase Damage to Panthers Fans
GettyNew York Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner.
Gardner later deleted his question from social media in rather comical fashion after a Panthers fan sub-posted the Jets cornerback with message and a question of his own.
“…What did we do to deserve this tweet?” the fan wrote above a picture of a forlorn Panther wearing Carolina gear.
“I didn’t know it was y’all that was catching the stray,” Gardner responded. “I’ll delete it for you 😂.”
Despite Gardner’s kindness, the damage to the Panthers and their fans has already been done. All they can do now is ride it out and watch as the Bears potentially put together a QB-WR duo in the top nine of this year’s draft that could dominate the league for a decade or more.