Post-Combine Mock Drafts Locate QBs for Bears
No sooner had the last football bounced off a tight end's head and final broken vertical jump device been taken down, then the mock drafters were at work.
Matt Miller of Bleacher Report did a revised post-combine two-round mock draft and produced one of the more controversial mocks from a Bears standpoint.
At No. 43, he has the Bears selecting Notre Dame tight end Cole Kmet. If the Chicago area native and St. Viator High School product came to Halas Hall, there would no doubt be rejoicing. They could forget then about not winning the March derby for Austin Hooper's services, because they simply don't have the salary cap capital to go against teams like the Redskins who need a tight end.
Kmet is big, fast and has the hands and blocking ability, but Miller did have the Bears passing on TCU wide receiver Jalen Reagor to take Kmet, and had Reagor selected one pick later. It might be a surprise if Reagor goes so early now after the 4.49 40 he put up when most observers felt a 4.3-something was on the way.
The real controversy in Miller's mock was the 50th pick in Round 2 where he has the Bears selecting quarterback Jalen Hurts of Oklahoma. Hurts had a very good performance on the field in passing drills and had the fastest 40 time among quarterbacks. Whether it's enough to vault him up to the 50th pick when there have been flaws apparent in his overall play remains to be seen.
Hurts has his fans, and the Bears definitely have quarterback issues. If they took Hurts, he'd likely be third in the pecking order at the beginning.
But the real questionable aspect of this pick is how Miller had the Bears ignoring Auburn cornerback Noah Igbinoghene and Mississippi State cornerback Cameron Dantzler to take Hurts.
Hurts wouldn't be playing right away and those are two excellent cornerbacks at a position of need, a position where there usually is a huge drop in talent between Round 2 and the end of Round 4 where the Bears select again.
Drafttek.com set out its post-combine mock and also found a quarterback for the Bears, but not in the second round.
They had Georgia's 6-foot-4, 335-pound guard Solomon Kindley landing in Chicago at No. 43 and Virginia cornerback Bryce Hall going to the Bears at No. 50.
Instead, Drafttek.com put Washington's Jacob Eason with the Bears at the end of Round 4 with a compensatory pick. At 6-6, 228, Eason did nothing at the combine to hurt his stock in terms of arm strength. His accuracy and ability to read defenses will be the question.
The Drafttek.com mock went seven rounds and also put Iowa safety Michael Ojemedia (Round 5), Utah State linebacker Francis Bernard (Round 6), Vanderbilt wide receiver Kalija Lipscomb (Round 6) and Utah State edge rusher Tipa Galeai (Round 7) in Chicago.
One other longer mock draft made after the combine was Walterfootball.com's five-rounder, a more conservative draft because it doesn't include compensatory picks until they are officially announced.
The Bears wound up with fast-rising Florida edge rusher Jon Greenard at No. 43 overall and at No. 50 took Missouri tight end Albert Okwuegbunam. Of note, they had the Bears ignoring Auburn cornerback Igbinoghene to take Greenard, and then ignoring Mississippi State's Dantzler at cornerback to take Okwuegbunam.
With their Round 5 pick, Walterfootball.com sent guard Hakeem Adeniji from Kansas to the Bears. He's actually a tackle projected to be a guard.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
