Chicago Bears Mock Draft 1.0: The Shane Waldron Era Starts
By Ryan Olson
The Bears have decided on their upcoming offensive coordinator, and all signs are pointing toward Seattle Seahawks OC Shane Waldron being the guy for the job in Chicago. With that news, I have decided to conduct a seven-round mock draft in honor of this new hiring.
The biggest needs of the Bears going into the offseason will be finding a WR2, a center, a possible edge rusher to pair with Montez Sweat, and a possible Eddie Jackson replacement. Not all of these will be fixed via the draft, nor should they be. The draft shouldn’t be a way to find all of your quick fixes to problems that arose in the past season. Some of these holes will have to be fixed via free agency in the trade market, or maybe they won’t be fixed at all.
Spoiler alert: This mock draft is filled with offense, offense, and more offense. Offense has always been the problem in Chicago, and at some point, that has to change. I would very much like to see the Bears take the approach of the Packers and throw darts at a wall and see what sticks by bringing in as many young receivers as possible.
#1 Overall Pick: Caleb Williams, QB, USC
Right now, Caleb Williams seems to be the front-runner for the first pick of the draft, and it was well-earned. From day one, Williams has dominated the college competition ever since he came in for Spencer Rattler during the Red River rivalry and led a massive comeback against the Texas Longhorns.
Although he may not be the “generational prospect” he was deemed as going into the season by many of the Twitter aggregate accounts, Williams is still very worthy of the number 1 pick. Williams has some things he will have to fix going into the NFL, such as getting adjusted to playing more in structure and holding onto the ball less. He won’t be able to extend the play solely based on him being a better athlete than the players he was going against.
However, with Williams’ young age, there should be optimism he can develop and get to a point where he does get the ball out quicker. Not to mention that the Lincoln Riley collegiate air raid offense encourages the quarterback to hold onto the ball, and all of the Oklahoma QBs have lowered their time to throw as they entered the NFL.
Also, saying you are completely out on Williams because he holds onto the ball, similar to Justin Fields, is disingenuous because with Williams at age 22, there is a higher percent chance he can overcome this problem than Fields at 25.