The hierarchy of draft strategies for the Chicago Bears to use in 2021 Draft

The Chicago Bears will be lucky to land a top-five quarterback

This offseason I have come to highly respect Chris Simms as a QB evaluator. Of all the ex-NFL QB’s covering the NFL, he is the only one I know of that is making rankings and getting into the details of the good, the bad and the ugly of the next crop of college quarterbacks headed to the NFL.

His track record of ranking the top QB’s coming out of college since 2018 is impressive. Here is a link to his college QB rankings since 2018.

So how does this all relate to the Chicago Bears in the 2021 NFL Draft? The rumors are flying hot and heavy the Bears are trying hard to move up from 20 into the 8, 9 or 10 spot to draft a quarterback. This leads us to the handicapping horse race between Justin Fields, Mac Jones and Trey Lance.

Going into this draft the consensus is these three fill out the last of the top five quarterbacks with Trevor Lawrence number one and Zach Wilson number two. Now the latest buzz after Justin Fields’ second pro day is that a consensus is emerging ranking him third.

This leaves Mac Jones and Trey Lance for numbers four and five. However, the ever-present issue of QB mechanics is clearly being overlooked by those that favor Fields over Jones and Lance. In the same segment quoted above, Lombardi is making the case that Kyle Shanahan prefers Mac Jones over Trey Lance and Justin Fields.

During his commentary on quarterbacks with running ability, he makes a great point that these quarterbacks play fast and as a result will run before surveying the whole field. He points out great quarterbacks are slow-minded and see it all unfold. He says, “They look like they are slow but their minds are quicker.”