Prioritizing the Chicago Bears player-acquisition strategies after their big trade

Back to the Chicago Bears right tackle position

Let's get back to the possibility of signing a free-agent right tackle. The wisdom of this gets murky if the Bears spend $15 million-plus on a right tackle. The reason is, they may need this money so they can sign two free-agent pass rushers. If the draft unfolds as expected, it is pretty unlikely for them to draft a player projected as a very good pass rusher. The defensive ends that might fall to nine in the draft are Tyree Wilson and Myles Murphy.

Wilson is not likely to get to the ninth pick. With Myles Murphy, the question is whether Paris Johnson is the better player and whether Paris as a left tackle is more important to the Bears than Murphy. The Bears have no real internal candidates to look to as starting defensive ends that give them a consistent, good pass rush.

However, they do have two internal candidates who have shown they can possibly be good right tackles. These two would be Braxton Jones and Teven Jenkins. It "bears" repeating that the last time they won a Super Bowl, they had a top-flight left tackle. Admittedly, the Bears could trade back from nine to set them up to draft a left tackle and a pass rusher. However, there is absolutely no way the Bears can count on this to happen.

If the Bears had an early second-round pick they would have a good shot at drafting a good pass rusher. However, their second-round picks are at 53, 61, and the "64th" pick which is really the 63rd pick because Miami forfeited a draft pick because of tampering. Looking at two-round mock drafts I just don't see a good quality starting pass rusher making it to the 53rd pick.