Olin Kreutz Is Ready to Announce the Bears’ Next Great Draft Pick and Other Bullets

I’m looking forward to listening to how Adam and Myles held it down without me on the latest episode of Talkin’ Toros. This NBA season is almost over and I just hope to enter the next season with as much optimism as I had about the Bears going into the 2018 season. Am I asking for too much?

  • The Chicago Bears don’t have picks in the first or second round in the upcoming NFL Draft. But when they eventually go on the clock, their first selection will be announced by one of the team’s best draft choices:
  • Olin Kreutz is presenting the pick for the Bears in Round 3, which is a neat little honor. Kreutz was a six-time Pro Bowler and a first-team All-Pro in 2006 during his 13-year career with the Bears. What makes this selection feel so right is that Kreutz was a third-round pick himself back in 1998. Chicago selected Kreutz with the 64th overall pick and was the star of a draft class that was headlined by first-round running back Curtis Enis (yikes!) and included safety Tony Parrish and long snapper Patrick Mannelly. Only Mannelly (16 years) played longer than Kreutz, which says a lot about how great each player was at their respective position to have that type of longevity.
  • The hope here is that Kreutz brings some good luck with him when the pick is made because the third round hasn’t been too kind to GM Ryan Pace. Defensive lineman Jonathan Bullard (Round 3, Pick 72) has slowly grown into a rotational player, but center Hroniss Grasu (Round 3, Pick 71) didn’t pan out to be the type of anchor in the middle that was once expected. The Bears didn’t have third-round picks in 2017 or 2018, but the players who were selected with those choices were Alvin Kamara (2017 Saints via 49ers) and Fred Warner (2018 49ers). That Kamara fella sure turned out to be pretty good. I bet the Bears (and 49ers) have some regrets about dealing that pick.
  • Earl Bennett, who was once a Bears third-round pick, was spilling tea on Thursday:
  • Bennett’s play-callers in Chicago included Ron Turner (2008-09), Mike Martz (2010-11), Mike Tice (2012), and Marc Trestman (2013). So whose offense was doomed from the start? There is no shortage of possible correct answers.
  • I had high hopes for Bennett after his second season in the league when he caught 54 passes for 717 yards and a pair of touchdowns. A productive slot receiver who was about to join forces with Jay Cutler (who was also a college teammate of Bennett’s at Vanderbilt) should have had a solid run with the Bears, but it was never meant to be.
  • A Bears salary-cap update:
  • Interesting nugget: Aaron Lynch is making less in 2019 than he did in 2018, a season that was better than what he had put together in his last two years combined. Good luck finding a player with more reasons to be motivated than Lynch, who will be on a one-year “prove it” deal in his age 26 season. There are more prime years to come for Lynch. And if he’s healthy enough to make the most of this season, then Lynch will be on the right track.
  • Offensive lineman Josh Sitton announced his retirement. Sitton is best known for his eight-year career with the Packers, but he spent two seasons in Chicago, including a Pro Bowl campaign in 2016 when he was leading the way for Jordan Howard in his Pro Bowl season. Injuries during Sitton’s two years in Chicago limited him. The Bears cut Sitton before free agency opened up in 2018 and he signed with the Dolphins, but his career in Miami was a brief one. Sitton suffered a shoulder injury that ended his season after just one game with the Dolphins. There was much hand-wringing over the Bears’ decision to let Sitton go at the time, but the Bears replaced him with James Daniels, so that turned out to be a pretty heady move.
  • Sitton is living proof that recruiting stars don’t matter:
  • This is awesome and great to see:
  • Wireless Bluetooth speakers are my jam, and one from Brilliant Soul is among today’s Deals of the Day at Amazon.
  • 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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