Every team says that they will take the best player available, and then finds a way to fill their needs by selecting the best player each round. The reality is that the best player available at least has to fit in a position of need.
For the Chicago Bears, they do not just have one position of need, which gives them room for more best player available options. Still, there are a variety of positions that would leave you scratching your head if the Bears selected, even if they claimed he was BPA.
For this, we will break the positons into 10 separate groups. You have QB, RB, WR, TE, OL, DL, EDGE, LB, CB, S. Whether it is the depth of the class or the status of the roster, the Chicago Bears are unlikely to walk away from the draft weekend with any of these five positions. This means they will focus on the other five.
5. Inside Linebacker
After his poor 2020 season, the Chicago Bears should start to look to move on from Danny Trevathan. However, the Bears have a huge dead money hit not only for this season but next year. It makes it hard to move on.
Beyond that, they signed depth in Christian Jones this offseason. Jones does not stop them from drafting an LB, but the combination of signing him with the Trevathan cap hit means that any LB drafted will be a fourth LB at best.
That would leave a draft pick competing with Joel Iyiegbuniwe. The Bears could try to find a diamond in the rough to start developing into replacing Trevathan. However, this class does not bring much to the table in that regard. There are more positions that they are less likely to draft, but you should not expect to see ILB.
4. Tight End
Had the Chicago Bears moved on from Jimmy Graham, this would have been obvious. However, with Graham on the roster, it almost would seem preposterous for them to draft a tight end. They have Cole Kmet from last year, and with Graham, have more invested in the position than most teams.
While they are not stars the depth of JP Holtz, and Jesper Horsted. That is enough depth for the roster to get by. With the huge investments in the roster, the Bears clearly would wait until day three to draft a tight end if they did.
A tight end who could motion into the backfield as an H-back or a tight end who would stay in-line to block only would very likely be the type of tight end that gets drafted. That does leave room for day three options. Still, they are more likely to focus on other positions, even on Day three.
3. Outside Linebacker
The Chicago Bears have a lot invested in this position. Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn are the big names and are both seeing big money. They are not moving on any time soon. Beyond that, they went out and signed Jeremiah Attachou to replace the snaps they are losing from Barkevious Mingo.
They could add a fourth edge rusher, but once again, this means they are not looking this way until day three. Beyond that, drafting an edge rusher would be admitting a huge mistake last offseason. Ryan Pace traded a future draft pick for Trevis Gipson. The two picks are day three, but this year’s pick is gone, and last year’s pick went to Gipson. He had better be a fourth edge rusher at the very least for his second season. Lastly, James Vaughters adds the fifth name. They cannot justify drafting another outside linebacker.
2. Running back
The Damien Williams signing made this a pretty clear lock. Williams opted out last season for COVID-related reasons, While missing the past season is not great, there is a reason to believe that he will be just fine next season. Especially in his role as a depth RB who is taking the load off of David Montgomery.
Tarik Cohen should be back from his injury and Montgomery is obviously the man. This one is pretty clear. They do not even need to carry a fourth running back if they do not want to. However, if they want a return man Cordarrelle Patterson remains unsigned.
The Bears could add a UDFA here, but even Artavis Pierce and Ryan Nall are UDFAs with experience. There is no rhyme or reason for the Chicago Bears to draft a running back.
1. Defensive line
There is no question about the top-end talent or the depth of the Chicago Bears defensive line. This is the team that is getting Eddie Goldman back to join Akiem Hicks and Bilal Nichols who broke out last season.
To be fair, the team did lose Roy Robertson-Harris and Brent Urban. Still, getting Goldman back, and adding Angelo Blackson should make that an easy replacement. So, they have five studs from top to bottom to fill the roster. In most years, they carry six defensive linemen. Still, like they found John Jenkins last offseason, they can find a depth NT after the draft.
Even with the Bears, they have made the most of names like Urban, and Edwards, who were cast offs elsewhere. They have too much strength here and too many weaknesses elsewhere.
This leaves their 5 positions of need to OL, QB, WR, CB, S