More Picks but Late in Draft

The Bears managed to bring in two more draft picks by trading but didn't lose any of their picks from this draft.

Bears GM Ryan Poles said he wanted more picks and on Saturday at the start of Round 5 he obtained some.

Then he just kept obtaining them.

They're late in the draft and he didn't really trade down to get the first two. Instead, he borrowed from the future in much the way former GM Ryan Pace did two years ago when he obtained a pick needed to trade for edge rusher Trevis Gipson.

Poles traded next year's sixth-round pick to the Los Angeles Chargers in order to get two seventh-round picks this year. Without the trade, the Bears would have been done drafting at No. 186 in Round 6.

The Bears obtained pick No. 254 and 255 in Round 7 in exchange for next year's sixth-round pick.

The sixth-rounder wasn't really one of their picks originally. It is one of the picks they obtained when they traded Khalil Mack to the Chargers. They received a second-round pick used to take safety Jaquan Brisker, and next year's sixth-round Chargers pick.

So essentially they just gave the Chargers back the sixth-rounder Los Angeles formerly had in exchange for two seventh-round picks this year.

They traded the No. 148 pick they had in Round 5 to pick up No. 168 in Round 5 and No. 203 in Round 6 from Buffalo. Then they traded No. 150 to pick up 166 in Round 5 and 207 in Round 6 from the Texans. Then they traded the 166th pick again and picked up 174 in the same round but also 226 in the seventh round.

All the trading left the Bears with two fifth-round picks at Nos. 168 and 174, three sixth-rounders at 186, 203 and 207 and three seventh-rounders in 226, 254 and 255. Unless they trade more, they will have 10 picks in the draft when they started out with six. The problem was eight of the 11 picks are 166th or later in the draft.

Seventh-round picks were never the forte of Pace's regime. The Bears haven't made a seventh-round selection since former GM Phil Emery picked Charles Leno Jr. in 2014. Their seventh-round picks since then have been backup defensive lineman Khyiris Tonga last year, backup tackle Lachavious Simmons and former Bears guard Arlington Hambright in 2020, former running back Kerrith Whyte Jr. and former cornerback Stephen Denmark in 2019, former receiver Javon Wims in 2018 and former receiver Daniel Braverman in 2016. 

Tonga started in two games last year, Wims started seven total games in 2019 and 2020 and both Hambright and Simmons were called on to start a game.

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