Assigning new grades to the Chicago Bears 2016 NFL Draft
The Chicago Bears selected Nick Kwiatkoski with their fourth-round pick in 2016
The Chicago Bears had three fourth-rounders in 2016. You’d be shocked by how many draft picks Ryan Pace had in this draft based on all of his follow-up drafts. With his first fourth-round pick, Pace selected linebacker, Nick Kwiatkoski with the 113th-overall pick.
This was actually a pretty solid pick. It took a couple of years for Kwiatkoski to make an impact on the defense, but he was also part of a solid special teams unit. Kwiatkoski saw nearly a 50% snap share on defense his first two years. That dropped drastically in 2018 when the team drafted Roquan Smith in the first round, but Kwiatkoski stepped up in a big way in 2019 when Danny Trevathan went down with an injury.
Kwiatkoski is a very solid depth linebacker who can not only help with special teams, but also can help in spot starts or in a rotation on defense. When you take into consideration he was a fourth-round pick and helped net a compensatory pick when he left for the Raiders, Kwiatkoski’s draft grade should see a bit of an uptick.
NFL Draft Grade: B-
The Chicago Bears selected Deon Bush with their fourth-round pick in 2016
With their second fourth-round pick, the Chicago Bears selected safety, Deon Bush. I’ll admit right off the bat that I am a Deon Bush fan and this is likely to skew my overall grade of him. Although the sample size is low, his advanced stats are superb in pass coverage. In 2021, Bush was targeted a career-high 23 times. He only allowed nine passes to be completed (39.1%). Bush also had two interceptions and quarterbacks saw a passer rating of 36.0 when throwing in his direction. I was sad to see Bush go to Kansas City.
All of that said, his contributions were too inconsistent to be considered a great pick. He contributed even less than Kwiatkoski and therefore his grade needs to be lower than his too.