Bears Exact Heavy Toll with Texans in Mock

NFL Draft Bible so far has stuck mostly to the talent aspect of the NFL Draft in its mocks.

On Wednesday, the website's draft expert Ric Serritella released a mock with trades involved and determined the Bears can acquire some of the key ingredients they lack, both on offense and defense, by dealing down.

Serritella has the Bears moving down one place with Houston and acquiring both of the Texans' first-round picks. It seems to be a trend as Pro Football Focus released a mock draft on Wednesday with the same move.

This might be exaggerating the value of the first pick, but then again, there could be a real demand for that top spot. It has yet to be determined.

With the second pick, Serritella had the Bears taking Will Anderson Jr., the best pass rusher available at a spot where they are very low in talent level.

The Bears get their own version of Aiden Hutchinson and the positive about Hutchinson from their standpoint had to be his weight.

Anderson came in at 253 during the combine. Some of the weights posted of Anderson during the run up to the combine had ranged from 238 to 243. It's not an ideal weight for an edge in the Matt Eberflus scheme. In fact, at Indianapolis all of the players who succeeded on the edge weighed at least 250.

Houston also owned the 12th pick and with it the Bears had an opportunity to select tackles Peter Skoronski of Northwestern or Broderick Jones from Georgia. Instead, they went the way Fields would like. They drafted Ohio State receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

Smith Njigba did not run the 40 at the combine as he said he's still coming back from an injury, but will run it at Ohio State's March 22 Pro Day.

ESPN's Todd McShay might not agree with selecting Smith-Njigba this early.

"He's a great college player, great slot receiver," McShay said prior to Ohio State's participation in the college playoff. "But he has some drops, doesn't have exceptional size, doesn't have exceptional speed."

There was a hint at the combine that Smith-Njigba has better speed than some believe. Although he didn't run the 40, he did participate in other aspects and ran the fastest three-cone drill among every player at the combine in 6.57 seconds.

There couldn't be better measure of actual playing speed for a potential slot receiver than the three-cone drill.

In the PFF mock draft conducted by Sam Monson and Mike Renner, the Bears got the same result with their first pick, No. 2 after trading with Houston. They selected Anderson.

Renner summed up the choice now facing teams between Anderson and defensive tackle Jalen Carter following the driving charges filed in Georgia.

"It's close between Jalen Carter and Will Anderson," Renner wrote. "I have Carter ahead on-field, but you're not in your right mind drafting Jalen Carter (at No. 2) even if he gets completely exonerated."

The PFF mock did not give the Bears the 12th pick Houston owns for the trade down one spot. It's actually a pick Houston got from Cleveland in the Deshaun Watson trade.

As a result, PFF has Jaxon Smith-Njigba going to Green Bay at the 13th pick.

The33rdteam.com, the website that bolstered the trade Fields talk earlier, has faced the facts that the Bears are not doing this and conducted its fourth mock draft, a post-combine version. And they also have Anderson winding up with the Bears.

Have we considered Jaxon Smith-Njigba primarily played the slot bc he was surrounded by Olave, Wilson, and Harrison Jr? His win rates against man are just as good against zone. You can line him up anywhere. pic.twitter.com/2OQoXh706I
— Kyle Lindemann (@LuckIsMadeFF) March 1, 2023

They have the Bears trading down to No. 4 with the Colts so Indianapolis can select quarterback Anthony Richardson, the workout wonder who put up awful stats as an actual quarterback at Florida.

The Bears got the Colts' pick at No. 4, their second-round pick at No. 35, the third-rounder at 79 and a 2024 first-round pick.

The33rdteam also has a second round posted and with the 35th pick they have the Bears drafting 6-5 1/2, 311-pound Pitt tackle Carter Warren. They regard Warren as a player who can win blocking both the run and the pass. At his size, he would be a fit in their wide-zone scheme.

Carter Warren, OT
*Captain
*Can play LT & RT
*LONG ARMS 35 IN
*Impressive hand usage
Active hands
Independent usage
No wasted movement
Strikes hit their mark
Uses fake punch to uncover pass rushers move
STRONG inside hand - lands it then looks to secure… pic.twitter.com/9FBllHFX8F
— Erik Turner Cover 1 (@ErikJTurner) March 2, 2023

With their 53rd pick overall in Round 2, the Bears took Tennessee wide receiver Cedric Tillman, a 6-3, 213-pound whose role is X-receiver and winning contested catches. The33rdteam gives Tillman the eighth ranking among all receivers.

While there are not many WRs with size in this class, Tennessee’s Cedric Tillman is one of the class’ best.

Tillman isn’t being nearly talked about enough and would be an excellent snag in RD 2.
pic.twitter.com/g3ctzeZOiz
— Daniel Griffis (@DanDGriffis) March 4, 2023

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