Chicago Bears mock draft with a trade into the first round

The Chicago Bears select a plug-and-play left tackle in the first round

Now, whom do the Bears draft? The top two left tackle prospects are Evan Neal and Ickey Ekwonu. They are projected to be exceptional players. Evan Neal is a top-of-a-line protector whereas Ekwonu is a good pass protector but he could also be quite special in the Bears’ new outside zone blocking run scheme. Here is a link to Bootleg Football that shows how good Ekwonu would be in the Bears’ new running scheme.

With both these tackles, their biggest weaknesses are quite fixable and not something that would scare any team from drafting them in the top five. Chris Simms describes these two this way. Ekwonu has cleaner overall tape but Evan Neal flat out stops everyone when pass protecting. He puts up an absolute wall and nobody gets by him. That included Travon Walker who is expected to be drafted in the top five of this year.

Ekwonu has some trouble with edge rushers but his issue is more about technique than having quick enough feet to stop edge rushers. So when all is said and done, given the mantra of what is best for Justin Fields is best for the Bears, my first pick for the Bears is the excellent  pass protector, Evan Neal.

If neither is available at the fifth pick then Charles Cross is a good consolation prize. On one hand he will be a very good pass protector at left tackle. However, his team ran the so very very pass happy Air Raid offense. So the knock on him is he did not do much run blocking. The good news is that he has shown the skills to become an accomplished run blocker and has enough agility to run block well in an outside zone blocking scheme.