"The Bears Did Not Really Interview Either Of Those Guys [Patrick Mahomes & Deshaun Watson]" - Jordan Palmer

We had Quarterback Consultant Jordan Palmer on the latest Going Deep podcast. He works with a bunch of big name guys leading up to the Draft and during their tenure in the league. Two of QBs he works with are Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson, so I wanted to ask if they were surprised that Mahomes went before Watson in the 2017 NFL Draft (revisionist history will bury this, but Mahomes was seen as a huge reach at the time), as Watson was viewed by most as the top QB prospect in the Draft. The Bears ended up trading up to #2 to take Mitchell Trubisky, but the surprising part of the interview was that Palmer said "The crazy thing is, as far as I know, the Bears did not really interview either of those guys [Mahomes and Watson]."

Ryan Pace has been the Bears GM since 2015. His first round picks have not turned out exactly as planned. 

2015: WR Kevin White (7th overall)

2016: EDGE Leonard Floyd (9th overall)

2017: QB Mitchell Trubisky (2nd overall)

2018: LB Roquan Smith (8th overall)

Mercifully, he did not have 1st round picks in 2019 or 2020 due to the Khalil Mack trade (which to his credit, he did orchestrate). And while it's fine if you have conviction on a QB and you take him 2nd overall, the fact that Pace and the Bears didn't even do their due diligence to get a ton of research on the other perspective 1st round Quarterbacks is alarming.

It was a really interesting sit down with Jordan Palmer. Over a year ago he said Joe Burrow would be a Heisman Finalist and Top 5 pick in the Draft. At the time, Burrow had a Day 3 grade by most accounts. So we asked him who's the next guy to come out of nowhere and get his takes on a lot of the games current signal callers. Check out the show wherever you listen to pods: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more exclusive content.