The Chicago Bears have been busy wheeling and dealing in the 2021 NFL Draft. Ryan Pace started the draft with eight picks. The Bears traded up twice and back once. In the first round, the Chicago Bears struck gold by moving up for Justin Fields. Ryan Pace doubled his trade efforts in the second round when he traded up again. This time he moved up from 52 to 39 and selected offensive tackle Teven Jenkins.
Within the Teven Jenkins trade, the Chicago Bears acquired a fifth-round pick to replace the one they lost in the Justin Fields trade. Ryan Pace doubled down with another offensive lineman when he drafted Larry Borom, offensive tackle out of Missouri.
Can Ryan Pace and the Chicago Bears find success with any late-round picks?
The team went from having four picks within the first five rounds to three and all three of those players were on the offense. With the selections of Jenkins and Borom, Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy are obviously looking to protect, not only Andy Dalton, but more importantly, the quarterback of the future — Justin Fields.
The Bears still had three picks left in the draft — all in the sixth round. However, after a third trade, Ryan Pace turned three picks into four as he moved down from 208 to 217. With a shift in focus to the offensive side of the ball, I had assumed to see defense selected in the later rounds. However, Ryan Pace kept the offensive theme going by taking a total of five consecutive offensive players in this draft before switching focus to the defense.