Bears Mock Draft 4.0 for BearDigest: Trades Version
Chicago Bears Mock Draft 4.0 for BearDigest.com is the only one with trades and it was a new, eye-opening experience dealing with the GMs of other teams as seen through the Profootballnetwork.com simulator.
Putting it bluntly, there are a lot of jerks out there. In barroom setting, substitute any number of vulgarities for jerks.
The GMs had an unrealistic value for the picks. Proposed trades were met with stone walls and they were easily trades other teams routinely take when another one is trying to move down in the real draft.
And that was the name of the game in this Bears draft because my goal was doing what Ryan Pace should do. He should be trading down for picks from one of those second-round spots, and maybe trading down a few more times because going from Pick No. 50 to No. 163 like the Bears have to do is simply not going to get it done for a team with real lineup holes.
The trading started at No. 50 in Round 2 after an attempt to do it with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens at No. 43 failed. When all the trading and drafting was done my mock had turned the seven Bears draft picks into 10 at nine picks but then ditched one to trade up and make a late pick.
The bottom line was it filled most of their needs, although not always with a preferred player. It did get the tight end they've had an eye on, and a speed receiver -- not likely the one they want but fast nonetheless. It also produced a pair of great offensive line selections for so late in the draft, a safety who fits well into what they do and even a quarterback. The disappointment came in trying to fortify depth at outside pass rusher, inside linebacker and interior defensive line. So Pace needs to go to work on that with the remaining available free agents.
Go find some cash and sign someone.
No. 43 Cornerback Jaylon Johnson, Utah
The first need has to be cornerback. Safeties are a dime a dozen comparatively, and in this draft through other mocks and studying the personnel it's obvious the Bears are in a bad position at 43 to find the best cornerbacks. That being said, let me bend over and you can kick me swiftly because LSU safety Grant Delpit fell there and I refused to take him. I don't believe in taking safeties that early in the draft, especially when you've just paid $58.4 million for one.
There is a dropoff near the early picks of Round 2. Because people like the Ravens and Steelers got greedy, I took Johnson at No. 43. He was rated 44 at the time so it's appropriate, and he has the size and speed. Getting past the thought of taking a Utah defensive player so high in the draft is the big problem, but Utah's defense was excellent last year.
No. 87 Wide Receiver Devin Duvernay, Texas
What happened to pick No. 50? I traded down twice to get extra picks and got out of Round 2 and into Round 3 twice as well as Round 5. By then, of course, the wide receiver possibilities dwindled. Jalen Reagor, KJ Hamler or Brandon Aiyuk had been intended targets but this mock draft valued those player so much they all went in Round 1 while bigger, slower receivers dropped into Round 2. The Bears have three of those already. So trading down worked to fill a need.
Duvernay is a former national-class sprinter and track athlete with good hands and he has played both the slot and Z receiver so he'll fit nicely. Plus, unlike Taylor Gabriel, he's built to take a hit. He has the size of a running back at 5-11, 210 but he ran a 4.39-second combine 40, faster than Gabriel, almost a tenth of a second faster than Reagor and well, we don't know about Hamler because he never ran at the combine and claims he can run in the 4.2s.
The trades down were dropping 10 spots to 60 to also take the Ravens' fourth-rounder at 129. That's totally unrealistic, but the only deal any of these creepy GMs would take in 10 attempts. So I took that then and found someone I knew the Bears could always trade with and sent No. 60 in Round 2 to the New England Patriots along with 163 in Round 5 for 87, 98 and 172. This effectively eliminate that huge gap between the second and fifth round for the Bears.
For some reason in real life the Pats and Bill Belichick always seem to work out deals and the Bears never benefit much, but they rarely get taken or win. It usually amounts to nothing for either team.
Special thanks here to the Raiders, who refused to listen to any one of three fair trade proposals. That organization hasn't been worth anything since the death of the legend, Al LoCasale. He personally made that franchise. Enjoy Vegas losers and let me know where you'll be moving in 2021. Vagabonds.
No. 98 Tight End Brycen Hopkins, Purdue
Right there, a pick known to be on the radar for the Bears and I turned down the chance for Dayton's Adam Trautman to take him. He's 6-foot-5, 253, and some people say he's the next George Kittle. Hardly. Kittle was a fifth-round pick but he played in college at Iowa. Trautman is more like the next Adam Shaheen. Dayton plays a schedule so inferior compared to Iowa or Purdue, it's not even worth comparing. Hopkins' hands are supposed to be a problem but he was targeted so much drops are sure to happen. He's a very fast tight end (4.66) with decent size at 6-4, 245 to replace Trey Burton.
No. 129 Safety Brandon Jones, Texas
With the 129th pick acquired in the trade down, the Bears get a safety in the fourth round, the place where they acquired Eddie Jackson. Jones isn't a speed demon but he's a vicious hitter and does have value in zone coverage according to scouting reports. He's a bigger player at 6-foot, 203, than some of the corners available here.
No. 172 Guard Jonah Jackson, Ohio State
With the pick acquired in the trade with New England, the player Pro Football Focus had labeled as their second-best choice at his position in the draft. This guy is a real technician who knows how to pass block and use good speed to get to the second level to run block. Why he's here at 172 just shows everyone else went to sleep or didn't renew their PFF subscriptions.
No. 187 Tackle Saahdiqu Charles, LSU
Wait, what, No. 187? Saahdiqu Charles? The Browns for some reason seemed in a race to collect picks in the 200s so I traded 200 and 226 to them for 187 and when it came up LSU's tackle was still there. This is a player who could be a guard, too, but at 300 pounds he'd be better at tackle because he has a long reach and runs 5.05 in the 40, which is excellent for someone his size. The only concern here is he missed six games with a suspension last year and no one to this day knows what it was for, but he's vowed to make up for the error of his ways and can start by doing it in my draft class.
No. 196 Quarterback Anthony Gordon, Washington State
My personal favorite was there long after I thought he'd be gone, so I couldn't resist even though the need was for an inside linebacker, pass rusher or interior defensive lineman. This basically came down to taking a quarterback who was rated higher than this, or overreaching for defensive lineman Raequan Williams, because the rest of the defensive help was picked over at this time. Gordon has the quickest release of the ball when he throws of anyone in this draft. He also throws at a lot of weird arm angles because he was a high school baseball player. Once Gordon spots the receiver, the ball is out of his hand in an instant no matter what slot his arm has to take to get it there. The only problem is he's not the most mobile guy, he isn't big and even though he gets rid of the ball quickly he has to do this because he doesn't have a really strong arm. What do you expect for the sixth round?
No. 233 Cornerback Javelin Guidry, Utah
The seventh round is such an armpit I'd have gladly just tossed in the pick free to the Browns for their collection of seventh-round garbage when I traded them the two picks in the 200s, but they didn't ask so I held it. And when you get to the final round of the draft you're just hoping for some freakish athlete or complete lucky break. The freak came my way. How you can get the second-fastest man in the entire combine with the 233rd pick in the draft is beyond me. He has plenty of technique problems to get over, but when you run a 4.29-second 40 at the combine, and the third-fastest time is .09 seconds away, you've maxed out on a pick. Even if he never becomes an NFL cornerback, Matt Nagy would look at that speed and try to put him at Z receiver for a few plays to see if he can stretch the field on offense.
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