Happy NFL Draft Day! And Other Bears Bullets
This is it. Don’t get scared now. It’s draft day.
- BN NFL’s full mock draft is OUT:
- This might be one of the few mock drafts where you see the Bears pick a player at a position that isn’t offensive line.
- It has been 108 days since the NFL regular season came to a close. I lost track of how many mock drafts I’d put in front of my face since then. There have been more prospect profiles crammed into my eyeballs than I’d care to admit. But today begins the process of teams making picks. Soon, we’ll go from talking hypothetical picks and fits to discussing how players chosen can make their mark on the next great Bears team. I’m excited to share it with you. Bear. TF. Down.
- Who’s got next?
- There’s some real good football advice in there that is also applicable to life: “Keep getting 1% better.” Be a little better today than you were the day before. As we know from years of watching the NFL, it is the little things that tend to add up. Stockpile little things, then make one big thing.
- How can you not love stuff like this?
- I love the simplicity of the Bears’ draft plans, as laid out by Assistant GM Ian Cunningham who says the Bears are going to “take the best player available approach.” Seems wise to me! We discuss that and more from Cunningham in this post.
- The best player available very well could be an offensive lineman. As Jason Lieser (Sun-Times) writes, getting it right in the trenches is vital to the franchise’s success moving forward. And it all starts on draft night. The trickle-down effect is undeniable. If the blocking is better, then quarterback Justin Fields will be better. And if Fields gets time to throw, receivers like DJ Moore, Darnell Mooney, Chase Claypool, and Cole Kmet will thrive. If the passing game is thriving, Chicago could successfully use a dual-threat running attack featuring D’Onta Foreman and Khalil Herbert to salt away games. All of this is possible … but only if the Bears make significant upgrades to the offensive line. The first steps toward said upgrades can be made starting tonight.
- Sometimes, all it takes is a strong headline to draw me in. A tip of the cap to the Tribune’s editors for accompanying Dan Widener’s latest with this headline: “How the Chicago Bears aim to find ‘calmness through the chaos’ as they navigate through the NFL Draft frenzy.” Yep, that’ll earn a click from me. (Tribune)
- Adam Jahns (The Athletic) writes about Trey Koziol, the Chicago Bears’ Co-Director of Player Personnel, a Chicagoland native who spent time with the Chiefs in a variety of different roles before coming to Chicago last offseason. We’ve previously discussed GM Ryan Poles’ affinity for signing local products and creating fun homecoming stories (it helps when players like T.J. Edwards and Robert Tonyan are interesting pieces in a larger puzzle), but we also have that in the front office. That’s neat.
- Also fun to think about: The Bears’ top three execs (Poles, Cunningham, Koziol) all have experience in the trenches. Poles and Cunningham were college offensive linemen. Koziol was a collegiate tight end. They should know what it takes to get it done at the line of scrimmage. I hope they put that knowledge to good use.
- Mina Kimes remains my favorite in part because of draft analysis like this:
- Aaron Rodgers says he missed linking up with Packers GM Brian Gutekunst this offseason due to bad service. Been there, bro. (PFT)
Former Bears GM Ryan Pace was playing the long game all along with former Chicago front office exec Joe Douglas coming through with a big assist to get Rodgers out of our life:
- I’m not gonna miss that guy one bit.
- The *OTHER* big draft countdown:
- The Bucks season ended with Grayson Allen running out the clock. No, seriously:
A fun read for nerds from the Sun-Times’ Jeff Agrest, who writes about how ESPN 1000 (radio home of the Sox … and Bears) and 670 The Score (Cubs radio home) will handle obsessive Bears and NFL Draft coverage on a packed baseball weekend. (Sun-Times)
- Holy cow! Cubs prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong had a 16-pitch at-bat that resulted in a GRAND SLAM. (BN Cubs)
- That’s one way of handling this:
