First, one mock draft pushed Ashton Jeanty within one pick of the Bears' grasp and then anothe said they would get him at No. 10.
Now, another has Jeanty falling all the way to No. 10 and right to the Bears, who need another running back. The tricky part of this mock is it was done with only one quarterback drafted 1-9.
The mock draft was from Chris Simms of NBC Sports. And in it he claims someone is running a bluff or scam regarding Jeanty.
"Reading the tea leaves, I don't hear a consensus QB2," Simms posted on "X."
Logically, this should make it tougher for the Bears to get Jeanty.
Simms had the standard start many others have in the mock draft world with Miami QB Cam Ward first, Colorado's Travis Hunter second to the Browns, Penn State's Abdul Carter third to the Giants, LSU tackle Will Campbell fourth to the Patriots and Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham fifth to the Jaguars.
The entire thing takes a run off the rails starting with the Raiders' pick at No. 6 overall. Simms has Las Vegas draft Missouri tackle Armand Membou, which isn't totally out of the question even after all the noise being made in Las Vegas about taking Jeanty.
He says the Raiders are trying to run the bluff so they can try and make a trade back and get extra picks, that they have no intention of drafting Jeanty even though they can use a running back.
"Every mock draft I see is the Raiders-Ashton Jeanty from the start of time," Simms said. "The first mock draft of the year."
Simms scoffed at this entire idea.
"Like to me, I don't know, I'm not buying it. I'm not buying it," he said. "I think they know that he's one of the marquee offensive players in the draft and they're going: 'We're going to take him, we're going to take him,' hoping that one of these teams goes, 'there's only a few marquee offensive guys that go in the first round, let's go get him.'
"I think that's what they're doing."
He even suggested Pete Carroll was one of the poker face guys leading the charge.
"The other thing I'm going to come into here is (GM) John Spytek just came from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where they drafted middle round running backs who have become awesome: Bucky Irving, Rachaad White, Sean Tucker from Syracuse," Simms said. "So now the GM who's kind of been taught 'let's build the offensive line and we'll find a running back,' now we're going to go, he's going to say, '(Screw) the O-line and let's just get the running back?' "
Simms added that with Tom Brady now involved more with the Raiders as a part owner, they were dealing with a QB who came from a team that always used running back by committee and not the superstar.
So if the Raiders took Membou, it left the Jets without a player many thought they would draft, and there has been talk they might like tight end Tyler Warren. Here, again, Simms doesn't trust the betting favorites. He sees them taking tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. from Texas because he thinks Aaron Glenn wants to build the offensive line up as much as possible like he saw done in Detroit.
Simms went with a chalk pick to Carolina, defensive end Jalon Walker, even though he doesn't like Walker's 6-1 height. And he then came to No. 9 and doesn't have Jeanty going there, either.
Nor does he have the Saints looking for a tackle, like possibly Josh Simmons from Ohio State. Instead, he looked at linebacker DeMario Davis, who turns 37 in January, and says it's time to get a replacement. The pick was Alabama linebacker Jihaad Campbell. They could also use an edge rusher since Cameron Jordan is nearly as old as Davis.
So this leaves the Bears picking and Jeanty right there for them.
"I didn't intend for this to happen," Simms insisted. "I didn't go into this with any preconceived thought."
Instead, it just happened. The team needing a running back and there is Jeanty at 10.
"This is a team that is going to be running the football," Simms said. "I know everybody looks at (left tackle) Braxton Jones,, he played OK last year. I know he's going into a contract year but I don't think that just means, "Oh, we've got to draft a left tackle.
"I think this is just Jeanty will be too good to pass up here and they go with him."
Bears fans start the ticker tape parade.
"And you say, watch out with that offense in Chicago," Simms said.
