Not that we needed it, but the 2017 season confirmed what we already knew about the Chicago Bears’ receiving corps entering the year: The Bears need help and need it soon.
Luckily for them (and quarterback Mitch Trubisky), it could be on the way via the 2018 NFL Draft.
Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller connected with area scouts, coaches, front office types, and agents in an attempt to unearth which players may have already caught the eyes of which teams. Miller runs through his projected draft board and shares one player with a current first-round grade with one team he has already been liked with at this point.
Bears fans are in store for a bonus treat, as Miller hears that the team has already been liked to wide receivers Calvin Ridley and Courtland Sutton.
Sources indicate to Miller that “the team is all about Calvin Ridley from Alabama” but cautions he doesn’t have a receiver ranked high enough to be worthy of a top-10 selection – which the Bears currently have. Miller adds that both Ridley and Sutton as the type of players who have the skills to be a team’s WR1, but are targets the Bears should trade back to draft.
Of course, for that to happen, the Bears need to be in a draft slot that would entice a team to trade up for a player who otherwise wouldn’t be available later. Considering the Bears’ needs at receiver and elsewhere on the roster, trading back and acquiring picks would be a bold (and ideal) strategy.
Not only do the Bears need help at receiver, it’s worth remembering that Cameron Meredith and Kevin White – who were expected to be the team’s top targets in 2017 – will enter 2018 recovering from season-ending injuries.
Even if both came back healthy, it would be unfair to put a heavy burden on a player who it has grown impossible to expect a healthy season from (White) and another with just one season as a reliable target (Meredith).
Because the Bears need to aid in Trubisky’s development by adding weapons to the outside, finding a receiver in the 2018 NFL Draft feels more necessary than it did last year … when it had similar holes.