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Bear Digest

Cornerback Over Receiver?

Mel Kiper Jr. looks at best available option and need for the Bears and issues the first mock draft picks he has made for them this offseason.
Gene Chamberlain|
USA Today

It's definitely like the very old television slogan about investment company EF Hutton: When Mel Kiper talks, or writes about the NFL Draft, people listen.

Sure, there is Todd McShay now at ESPN and everyone has a mock draft and rankings dot the web, but it was Kiper who more or less started it all.

Kiper's first two-round mock draft came out on Wednesday, the first time he has put down picks for the Chicago Bears.

Certainly the second pick would come as no surprise to anyone but the first pick at No. 39 might.

Kiper had cornerback Kyler Gordon being drafted by the Bears.

Definitely, a cornerback is a possibility for a team with one good starter and two unsettled spots on the left side and in the slot. 

"He has lockdown traits and didn't allow a single touchdown in coverage last season," Kiper points out about Gordon, who didn't display elite speed at the NFL combine.

Gordon ran 4.52 in the 40 and is 6-foot, 200 pounds. He didn't do a vertical jump at the combine, either.

Kiper concludes by saying he likes Gordon's chances to play early.

Pro Football Focus has also sang the praises of Gordon's coverage skills this year, although he hasn't been a player widely mocked to the Bears.

Gordon made two career interceptions and broke up 12 passes.

With the second pick in Round 2, Kiper has the Bears taking a name familiar to anyone following mock drafts in Tulsa tackle/guard Tyler Smith.

"He has to be more consistent and work on his technique—he was called for a whopping 12 penalties last season—but the tools are there," Kiper wrote.

At 6-6, 332, Smith no doubt is larger than the linemen offensive coordinator Luke Getsy is used to seeing in his offense. He's more the size of linemen who run inside zone and not the wide zone. But Smith's 5.02-second 40 time shows  he can haul.

Conspicuous by the absence is a wide receiver, which leaves the Bears looking at a Round 3 selection for a Justin Fields target.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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