More Draft Picks a Bear Necessity

From the way Ryan Poles has handled free agency so far, and the number of roster spots they still have open, it's apparent the draft will see trades down to acquire more selections.

The pace and production of free agency for the Bears under Ryan Poles has maddening for those who failed to understand the scope of the team's rebuild.

Signing several bigger name free agents quickly before catching lower-priced players later had always been the standard operating procedure under former GM Ryan Pace. He hadn't really done a complete rebuild in 2015 and then still didn't after the team failed to make progress under coach John Fox. Then, all of the sudden in 2018 under a new coach they won a division, but then quickly reverted to mediocrity because the team wasn't properly rebuilt from the ground up.

Gutting the roster now made entire sense because of their poor salary cap situation caused by Pace.

Poles' refusal to plunge head first into expensive free agency by signing players like Terron Armstead or D.J. Chark left the Bears well short of the numbers needed to fill out a 90-man offseason roster and they'll need to continue being frugal as they set up 2023 as their year of spending.

What has become evident is Poles is a man of his word. He told everyone he would be building the team through the draft when he had his introductory press conference. Almost all GMs say this and there's no way to be certain he means it until it actually begins.

All Signs Point to Bears Trading Down

There are signs he does mean it and from what has happened so far it's obvious the Bears' course of action in the draft will be to trade down possibly more than once in order to gain more picks.

They now have two second-round picks because of the Khalil Mack trade, and without a pick in Round 1, 4 and 7, there will be big gaps in the draft when the Bears do not select. That's not desirable because the drop in talent level between picks becomes too great.

Trying to trade up for the best first-round receiver possible is nice fantasy talk and even was the focus of one mock draft here, but the reality is a team with so many roster spots to fill and in the first year of the rebuild ahead can use extra picks much more than it needs a first-round pick.

The Bears have six draft picks currently and only the Raiders have less picks. Even the Rams have more, and they treat draft picks like someone in Vegas treats $100 bills.

When Poles addressed the idea of getting more picks, he admitted it would be a nice idea.

"There are always options to get more draft picks, but we have to get together and see what that looks like," Poles said. "That comes in different forms and fashions. But at the end of the day, we have what we have and we're gonna do the absolute best to maximize those draft picks. And if that means the original draft picks that we have or finding ways to get more, we’ll do that."

Maximizing the picks is only going to get them six more players.

Adding picks is what they'll need with still about 40 more players needed to fill out their offseason roster. 

Either way, the rookie camp after the draft is going to be more interesting than it's ever been in a few decades because many of those undrafted free agents and players brought in for workouts over those three days will have legitimate chanes at roster spots, for better or worse. It's often been the case when zero to two unrestricted players make the final roster but it might be double figures this year.

Too Many Openings at Certain Positions

It goes beyond number of free agents they signed or quality. 

The positions they have signed point to trading down, too. They have left gaping holes on the roster at certain positions too critical to fill with undrafted free agents.

The Bears were last in the NFL in passer rating against at 103.3. They are two cornerbacks and at least one safety short of putting a respectable pass defense on the field. That doesn't even include the backup spots they must fill at cornerback and safety.

They had one safety on the roster until DeAndre Houston-Carson signed. Deon Bush has signed with Kansas City and Teez Tabor with Atlanta. They'll need to bring in several safeties in addition to more cornerbacks.

One way they may try to offset this is through coaching. They may have looked at Kindle Vildor, Duke Shelley and Thomas Graham Jr. and decided defensive backs coach James Rowe and assistant David Overstreet II will be able to coach those cornerbacks up. But that's what Sean Desai and his staff thought last year.

After his introductory press conference, Eberflus pointed out how his system is such that a player can come in and contribute immediately.  If it's not too complicated. 

That being the case, new cornerbacks coming in could do this just like the holdovers who have already failed in the past system.

Free Agent Signings Say Poles Values Picks

It's already showing in free agency how much draft picks mean to Poles. 

They could have easily spent a few more million dollars on a little higher quality of free agents than several they signed, but would have had their chances reduced in the future for compensatory picks.

Beyond their desire to have as much cash as possible for next year's free agency signings, a reason the Bears have been filling in spots with low-cost free agents has been compensatory picks.

They're going to get some of those as long as they're replacing free agents who were higher draft picks with free agents who originally were undrafted or Day 3 draft picks.

Poles values draft picks so there is no reason to doubt he will want to move down for more picks this year.

When he gets to this year's draft and is trading down for more picks instead of trading up to draft fewer but more recognizable players, there will no doubt be more whining and complaining. It will sound much like it has while he has tried to maximize his cap space with lower-priced free agents.

This is the method to what many see as madness from Poles, but the madness is over and it was Pace's use of free agency to make up for his draft failures.

Now it will all depend on Pace's ability to find those players in the draft after he gets more picks, and then Matt Eberflus' ability to coach those players to at least a respectable level until even more talent can be acquired.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven