The first round has come and gone, and let’s answer some of those burning questions that you have about the Chicago Bears‘ draft!
Q: I love the draft!!! So, who did the Bears get???!!
A: Ummm…I don’t know how to break this to you, but…
Q: Oh no!! Don’t tell me the Bears traded down again! They didn’t trade down again, did they??
A: Oh! No, no no. They didn’t. Don’t worry about that. They just didn’t have any first round picks.
Q: What?? Why!!???!!
A: Well…it was that whole Jay Cutler trade. The Bears dealt not just their first round pick last year, but their first rounder this year, too.
Q: Oh, right, right. That’s cool, though, because the second round is just as good as the first round anymore. Who are the Bears talking about in round two?
A: Umm. Well…again…I hate to break this to you…
Q: Oh COME ON! We have to wait until the third round for the Bears to pick????
A: Yeah. Not an ideal situation. They dealt their second round pick, and I think enough time has passed to put it this way, for a dead guy.
Q: LOL, they didn’t trade for a dead guy, did they?
A: Well, reportedly, he was alive when they traded for him…
Q: So no picks until the third round. What are the Bears going to do there?
A: Well the almost certainly will be drafting a safety. As of right now, they have none on the active roster, so they need to get a little bit deeper than, say, zero. It’s amusing because it looked as though WR would be their number one need, but as it turns out, they need secondary help, then help on the O-Line, then depth at LB all before they need a wide out. It’s funny the way things change.
Q: Safety is deep this draft though, right? That means there should be talent available for the Bears where they pick, no?
A: Yes and no. It is a deep safety draft, with as many as eight guys who can come in and start right away for teams. That’s impressive. Unfortunately, they all could be gone by the time the Bears come up to pick tonight because they HAVE no second round pick.
Q: Stupid dead guy! So what are the Bears to do?
A: Stupid dead guy, indeed…although it does mean the Bears are almost going to certainly have to do something that we don’t hear often in Chicago — the Bears may have to trade up!
Q: What? That’s unheard of for Jerry Angelo!
A: I know! It’s really quite something and it remains to be seen if a Bears front office, one that is so incredibly used to trading down, can pull it off going in the opposite direction. But the fact remains that the player the Bears covet most is South Florida’s Nate Allen, and he almost certainly will be a late second round pick.
So many of the safeties got pushed to the second round, including the uber-talented, but motivationally-challenged Taylor Mays of USC, that there could be not only a huge run on the safeties in the second round, but the competition to trade up to get those players could make the price tag higher than the Bears can afford.
Q: What will it take to move up and get some of those guys?
A: An interesting question, and one that is directly affected by the 20 hour break in between the first and second rounds. With that long break, the bidding wars for those high second round picks have really taken off. I speculated yesterday in conversations with people who know things that it could take a first rounder next season to grab one of those first few picks in the second round — and they certainly would need a few picks in order to move out of those spots.
And it sounds like that bidding war totally has ensued, with almost every team in the NFL reportedly calling the Rams for pick number 33, the first pick this evening. If the Bears want Taylor Mays, that’s most likely the price it would take.
In order to draft Allen, it would certainly take less. The Bears would need to get into the back end of the second round, somewhere in the mid 50s, most likely, and if I had to guess they would not only have to give up this year’s third rounder, they would certainly have to give up next year’s second round pick as well, if not some more late round picks to make the whole thing palatable to their trade partner — because no matter what pick the Bears give up in next year’s draft, it is worth less than this year’s because you just don’t know A) where the pick will be and B) what talent will be available and if it can help you.
Q: Are Mays or Allen worth that much?
A: Therein lies the question. I like both players a lot, and think that taking them in the second round would be great value. However, are the Bears just one player away, and are either Mays or Allen the guys? My instinct there says no. They have too many holes and such an uncertain future that I think they are wrong.
But the most important thing in the draft is, in the end, to get your guy. If you have to spend picks to trade up and get your guy…then you do it. It’s just what you have to do.
Q: This is going to be a long season again for Bears fans, isn’t it?
A: No comment.