The Bears Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Draft Picks and Other Bullets

Instead of watching the Titans-Texans game on Monday Night Football, I found myself Shawshanked by the Carson Palmer episode of “A Football Life” on NFL Network. There, I learned an interesting anecdote about one of my favorite college football players.

Palmer told the story of how his family was set to move from California to Connecticut, a decision that didn’t sit well with the high school quarterback at the time. To show his son it would be alright, Palmer’s dad booked a trip out east and enrolled the budding prospect into a football camp where he would get to know his future coaches and teammates. Upon arrival, Palmer was notably bigger than everyone. So much so, his teammates thought he was an offensive lineman and the coach insisted on penciling him in at left tackle.

That blew my mind. I mean, imagine being the coach who wanted to play a future Heisman trophy winner and three-time Pro Bowl quarterback at left tackle. Wowzers!

  • Before we dive into things, here is a non-update update regarding the health of quarterback Mitch Trubisky:
  • Nagy doesn’t do coach speak much, so I can appreciate the art of saying nothing when it comes to player health.
  • It’s about to be December and we haven’t really touched upon the NFL Draft, which has been a popular topic on this site since its inception. But at least we have good reasons behind putting draft talk on the back burner. The Bears are in first place in the NFC North and driving toward a playoff spot, which is reason enough to not be worried about what’s happening with college football’s best prospects. Think about it this way: Worrying about playoff positioning >>>> trying to calculate draft positioning.
  • Even if we were putting a major focus on the draft, this team doesn’t appear to have many glaring needs:
  • In a piece breaking down draft needs for each of the NFL’s 32 teams, Michael Renner of Pro Football Focus echoes the sentiment above from SI.com’s Andy Benoit. Save for slot corner Bryce Callahan, strong safety Adrian Amos, and right tackle Bobby Massie, the Bears are stacked with starters who are locked into their positions for the foreseeable future. If the Bears can re-sign two of those three pending free agents, it would leave only one starting position to fill. Credit GM Ryan Pace for drafting well and tweaking his free agent strategy, which has allowed this to happen.
  • It’s good that the Bears don’t have major needs because they aren’t scheduled to have a pick until Round 3. As it stands, their picks are as follows: Nos. 91, 122, 156, 218. That’s it. Of course, that will change a bit when the league announces which teams get compensatory selections after free agency. But it’s good to have this in mind once we get into draft mode, which hopefully won’t happen until we have completed celebrating the Bears’ Super Bowl LIII championship.
  • And before you even think about saying anything about that last sentence, I believe that sometimes you have to speak things into existence before they can actually happen.
  • So at this point, you might be curious about what the Bears might do with their draft pick. After all, we made it today’s Bullets lead. Tankathon’s mock draft goes three rounds and has the Bears taking Clemson defensive end Austin Bryant with the 91st overall selection. Bryant has 6.5 sacks and 11 tackles-for-loss as a senior. Last year, he collected 8.5 sacks and 15.5 tackles-for-loss. That’s 15 sacks and 26.5 tackles-for-loss in 26 games over two years. Not bad!
  • In case you’re curious, Tankathon has the Raiders taking North Carolina State wide receiver Kelvin Harmon with the first-round pick the Bears sent their way as part of the Khalil Mack deal. Frankly, I’d rather have Mack.
  • Speak of the devil:
  • Safety Eddie Jackson, a 4th round pick in 2017, was a virtual lock for Pro Football Focus’ Team of the Week squad as soon as he broke on that fourth-quarter Matthew Stafford pass that turned into the game-winning pick six. Jackson is the only Bears representative on this week’s edition of the team, but it’s nice to see him get his due.
  • The Bears have the nicest points off turnovers margin in football:
  • On the other side of the ball, the Bears *offense* is doing things to create mismatches. Visually, it’s beautiful:
  • Javon Wims is the real MVP for this:
  • https://twitter.com/Javon_Juice/status/1066870679587471370

  • Updating a story that broke over the weekend, Bears legend Mike Ditka is out of the hospital after suffering a “mild” heart attack last week. I’m hesitant to refer to any heart attack as mild because the health of your ticker is serious business. Admittedly, my family has a history of heart problems and my mother’s heart issues weren’t taken seriously until she was diagnosed with one. So, yeah, take care of your heart. It’s important.
  • Giving is good:
  • The #MyCauseMyCleats initiative is one of my favorite things about the NFL season:
  • https://www.instagram.com/p/Bqr7qplnnBo/

    written by

    Luis C. Medina, who you can find on Twitter at lcm1986, has been covering the Chicago Bears at Bleacher Nation since 2017. Since then, he has written about 3 head coaches, 5 play-callers, and 11 starting quarterbacks. Previously, Luis wrote about the Cubs and MLB at BN (2015-16) and worked in the Chicago Tribune sports department (2011-16). He also co-hosted a Cubs postgame show, Outside the Ivy, in 2019.

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