My Biggest Fear For Draft Day Is If The Bears Draft Who Steven Cheah Predicts
It is Steven Cheah season. It's NFL Draft eve. I really like Steven Cheah. I always click on his mock drafts. Having said that, it is a very rare occurrence that I like what Cheah has to say about the Bears. Mock Draft 5.0 on NFL Draft Eve got my blood pressure up because it is the ONE "realistic" selection the Bears could make that would make me scratch my head.
9) Chicago Bears (via Carolina Panthers) - WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba (Ohio State)
A lot of buzz the Bears go Offensive Tackle here, but Ryan Poles has hit on Offensive Lineman later in the Draft, so I could see them investing in another need, like WR, and why not get Justin Fields' old teammate in JSN? He was limited to only 3 games last season due to a hamstring injury but had 95 catches for over 1,600 yards with 9 TDs in 2021 with the Buckeyes.
NO
Absolutely NOT.
I am sure JSN will be a good pro. Receiver is just so far down the pecking order in terms of needs for the Bears at this point. That is a wild thing to type considering that Equanimious St Brown was 2nd on the team among WRs in catches with a grand total of 21. That is the reality of the situation though. The Bears have already invested SO heavily in weapons. They acquired DJ Moore to be their #1 WR and it cost them a package including the first overall pick in the draft. They gave up the 32nd overall pick for Chase Claypool. People will probably scoff at that because Claypool struggled last season. With DJ Moore, Darnell Mooney back from injury, a full offseason with Fields and the playbook, I expect Claypool to be more effective now that he will be slotted properly and will get more favorable matchups. Combine those three with Cole Kmet and I truly believe that Fields has enough weapons to throw to and the Bears should NOT be using another high asset to pick a guy who arguably has never been the most talented WR on his own college team. If the Bears want to use the Carolina pick in 2024 to take Marvin Harrison Jr I will sprint to the podium for them which is saying something because I don't sprint anymore.
My realistic wishlist for the Bears at #9
Peter Skoronski, OT Northwestern
Paris Johnson, OT Ohio State
Devon Witherspoon, CB Illinois.
That is it. That is the list. If all three of those guys are gone, or all three of those guys are available then maybe explore a trade back. The Bears are sneaky sitting in a very good spot heading into 2023, but they have some glaring holes. WR thankfully is no longer one of them.
We have Mike Renner from PFF coming on the MidShow to discuss this and more tomorrow.