With the 2025 NFL Draft just hours away, we have yet to see a trade in the first round. This marks the longest offseason cycle in the modern draft era that we have not seen a trade, since Joe Montana was traded just five days before the 1993 NFL Draft.
But that might be about to change.
According to Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News, the Chicago Bears are calling the teams ahead of them in the first round, looking to move up from the tenth-overall selection on Thursday night. Leonard also notes that “six” teams ahead of the Bears are looking to move back:
League source text: “Chicago Bears looking to move up”
Another league source: SIX teams ahead of the Bears at No. 10 are open to moving back#NFLDraft
— Pat Leonard (@PLeonardNYDN) April 23, 2025
With Leonard sharing this report, one might think that the Bears could be looking to get to No. 3, where the New York Giants currently sit in the first round, for a chance to draft Penn State pass rusher Abdul Carter. This could also be a move from the Bears to move up and draft Colorado two-way star Travis Hunter Jr.
However, there is probably another player Chicago is targeting, and that speaks to just how much the NFL has changed in recent years.
Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty.
The dots are not hard to connect.
According to an ESPN Insider column over the weekend, Adam Schefter reported that league insiders believe the Bears are “praying” that the Boise State running back falls to them at No. 10.
“There are multiple personnel people who believe the Bears are praying that Jeanty slips to them at No. 10. They think new Bears coach Ben Johnson could feature Jeanty and D’Andre Swift as a two-headed duo the way the Lions did with David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs when Johnson was Detroit’s offensive coordinator,” wrote Schefter this weekend.
A sticking point in that plan? The Las Vegas Raiders at No. 6. Throughout the entire draft cycle, Jeanty to the Raiders in that spot has been one of the easiest lines to fill out in a mock draft.
But could the Bears instead try to leap ahead of Las Vegas via a trade, say with the Jacksonville Jaguars at No. 5, to land Jeanty?
That could be the reason for these latest rumors.
Chicago general manager Ryan Poles hinted at some moves to come during his pre-draft press conference. “I think this one’s going to be a little wild but we’re going to be prepared for all the different scenarios that pop up,” said Poles on Tuesday.
Assistant GM Ian Cunningham predicted that the first round would be “wild.”
“It could get wild, It could get wild. Sit back and watch. We have no feel right now. We’ll see,” added Cunningham.
Trading UP in the first round for a running back? That would indeed be wild.
