According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, former starting wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown has agreed to a new deal with the New Orleans Saints that will expire in 2024, meaning that another Chicago Bears free agent is no longer available.
During the previous two seasons, St. Brown caught 26 catches for 385 yards and a score with the Bears. He started 18 of his 23 games with the team, including 16 in 2022. In addition, he was benched by the Bears in Week 4 of the previous season to replace Chase Claypool. However, St. Brown suffered a hamstring injury in his second game and was placed on injured reserve for the following month, which ended his season with the Bears.
In his four prior seasons, St. Brown caught 37 catches for 543 yards and a touchdown while playing for the Green Bay Packers. In the 2022 offseason, he moved to Chicago with Luke Getsy, the offensive coordinator for the Bears the previous two seasons.
The sixth unrestricted free agent signed by the Bears to sign with another team is St. Brown. For the 2024 season, new contracts have also been signed by D’Onta Foreman (Cleveland Browns), Dan Feeney (Minnesota Vikings), Justin Jones (Arizona Cardinals), Darnell Mooney (Atlanta Falcons), Nathan Peterman (Saints), and Justin Jones (Arizona Cardinals).
Equanimous St. Brown’s Signature Removes the Depth Choice
It’s possible that the Bears had no plans to bring St. Brown back for the 2024 campaign. Now that Getsy is in Las Vegas, Justin Fields, the quarterback with whom he developed a rapport, has been moved to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Bears may have enjoyed having the option available if the NFL draft does not go as expected.
The Bears have already altered their receiving group in a few ways for 2024. They lost both Mooney and St. Brown to free agency, but their March trade for six-time Pro Bowler Keenan Allen brought more value than either of the losses combined. For depth, they also signed veteran Dante Pettis, a second-round selection in 2018, to a one-year deal.
Nevertheless, the Bears have the capacity to fill the need as early as the first night of the NFL draft on April 25 and could use more quality receiving depth on their roster.
Chicago is in a solid position to potentially target one of the top three receivers in the class—Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr., LSU’s Malik Nabers, or Washington’s Rome Odunze—because it has the ninth overall selection in the draft. Even while there’s a chance none of the three will still be available when the Bears select in the second round, their chances increase if four quarterbacks are selected in the first eight spots.
There is another, often-ignored avenue for the Bears to select a new wide receiver in the draft.
Is It Possible for Bears to Trade Up to Get WR After the First Round?
It makes sense that the majority of observers and supporters are now obsessed with the prospect of the Bears selecting one of the top three receivers at pick No. 9 overall. In recent CBS Sports and ESPN mock drafts, Odunze has been a favorite pick for them; but, any of the other two options would be home runs for a developing Chicago squad.
Maybe the Bears can trade up from No. 75 overall if they miss the chance to select one of them or decide against taking it in favor of a highly regarded defensive player.
The Bears will make their next selection, if they don’t make a deal to add more assets, at the 75th pick. They will pick first and ninth in the order. The Bears may feel that it may take some time before they have a top-10 selection, which would encourage them to use it and select an impact starter now, even if they decide to trade down from No. 9. If one of the team’s preferred pass-catchers starts to struggle, they might instead think about trading their No. 75 pick for one of their 2025 selections in order to advance into the second round.
Chicago doesn’t have many 2024 draft picks, but it does have two 2025 second-round selections, one of which was once owned by the Carolina Panthers, the worst NFL team in 2023. After their losing habits finally awarded Chicago the No. 1 overall pick in 2024, the Bears might want to hang onto the Panthers’ selection. However, Chicago may win immediately by using this premium asset in a deal.
Without knowledge of the first round, it is challenging to project which receivers the Bears would choose to target in a trade-up. During the pre-draft process, they had conversations with Xavier Worthy of Texas and Ladd McConkey of Georgia, with the latter receiving a Top 30 visit.