The last time the Chicago Bears drafted seventh overall was 1993. They also took a wide receiver in that draft, just like they did last night. That pick, Curtis Conway, turned out quite well. Very well actually. He accomplished three 1,000 yard seasons with Chicago; one of just two wide-outs in team history to put up back-t0-back thousand yard seasons. (Marty Booker is the other).
Conway is definitely a good standard for Kevin White (the newest member of the Bears, selected from West Virginia last night) to live up to.
Conway teamed with Jeff Graham and Erik Kramer to give the Bears their first ever modern passing offense. They were the group that led the Bears into this new era of ultra pass-happy NFL football.
Conway, currently a studio analyst for the Pac 12 Network and co-host of Total Access on the NFL Network, was in town for NFL Network’s broadcast and coverage of the 2015 NFL Draft. At NFLN’s Media Day to preview the draft, we talked a whole host of topics including the Bears, the NFL, what makes Chicago the greatest sports town, his draft experience and rookie year.
He also made an interesting Ferrari/bike analogy between Chicago and Los Angeles. Curtis Conway hails from Los Angeles and played his college football at USC.
You can hear the analogy in the podcast below. Conway also discusses what he thinks the Bears need to do to be competitive again. He believes that they have a lot of the pieces in place already; they just need the appropriate leadership to bring them there.
Conway thinks that the Bears went wrong by trying to be too caught up in NFL trends. You hear the cliches “it’s a pass first league,” “it’s a quarterback driven league,” “it’s a passing league” all the time from NFL pundits. Those phrases are cliches for a reason; they are all entirely true. Conway thinks the Bears need to utilize Matt Forte more often, and not be so reliant on the passing attack to win games.
Have a listen to his opinions and ideas below.
Follow Curtis Conway on Twitter @CurtisConway80 and at Curtis Conway .com
Go here for Conway’s Oakland Raiders’ Draft analysis
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and Instagram (@paulmbanks)