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NFL Insider Details Drastic Draft Shift at Need Position for Bears

A group of players projected to be drafted early may not be so highly regarded, according to NFL media's Daniel Jeremiah, and here's what it could mean for Chicago.
Gene Chamberlain|
Ohio State Buckeyes safety Caleb Downs catches throws during position drills at his team's pro day.
Ohio State Buckeyes safety Caleb Downs catches throws during position drills at his team's pro day. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Still a little less than a month out from the draft, there is plenty of time to rethink everything.

It would seem NFL.com and NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah has done this in regard to players the Bears could be considering for the 25th pick in the draft at a need position.

The only hole they have in the starting lineup is safety and they'll be drafting someone to plug and play. The top three picks at this position have been Ohio State's Caleb Downs, Oregon's Dillon Thieneman, and Toledo's Emmanuel McNeil-Warren. In many mock drafts, the three not only went in Round 1 but sometimes all before the Bears choose at No. 25. In most cases, they could select the third safety of the group, and, in those, it was always between Thieneman and McNeil-Warren because the Buckeyes' safety was graded a top-10 pick.

Suddenly, Jeremiah may have brought people back to reality with a comment he made on Kevin Hageland's show on Dallas' FM-105.3.

Not only does he hear Downs isn’t rated so high, but essentially none of the safeties are going very early. In fact, he's not even sure teams regard Downs as the best safety now.

"I know there's some teams that have Thieneman over him," Jeremiah said.

This wasn't expressed as opinion, but as a reporter with knowledge of what teams feel about a player.

"If you go back and watch Thieneman at Purdue when they let him play in the middle of the field, he had six picks as a freshman," Jeremiah said. "You could see him range and make a lot of plays."

Still, Jeremiah doesn't necessarily see it that way himself.

"So look, I have Downs as my top safety, then McNeil-Warren, then Thieneman," Jeremiah said.

That's fine, but Jeremiah isn't doing the drafting. And he said there are NFL teams  who see it differently. That matters more.

All of this matters to Bears fans because of that big hole they have in the starting lineup at safety where Jaquan Brisker used to play.

The drop of all the safeties is more likely than not. Jeremiah brought up how in 2018 he three safeties—Derwin James, Kyle Hamilton and Nick Emmanwori—all graded highly.

However, Hamilton went 14th, James 17th and Emmanwori fell to Round 2 at No. 35.

"Like, weird stuff happens and the safety position, and I don't agree with it, but has been pushed down to some degree," Jeremiah told FM-105.3.

Why Downs could fall seems incomprehensible considering how people have raved about him.

"And then with Downs, you're looking at someone who's not big, you know, he's under 6 feet, he's a little over 200 pounds," Jeremiah said. "He's got short arms, he doesn't have a ton of splash plays. Like, if you watched McNeil-Warren's splash plays from Toledo, he's got a lot more splash plays than Downs does."

This seems like a rather ludicrous comparison because the splash plays by Downs are tougher to come by when you're playing in the Big Ten and in national FBS playoffs against the best while McNeil-Warren is in the MAC.

Regardless, the fact that safeties have been pushed down the priority list cannot be denied.

Pushing these safeties down in Round 1 could very well impact the Bears in several ways. If they know one of the three would be there as late as early Round 2, it's possible they'd trade back for extra picks in Round 1.

Perhaps they stay put and Downs falls to them, or even Thieneman. It was GM Ryan Poles who said defensive coordinator Dennis Allen would like his secondary to get faster and Thieneman ran 4.35 in the 40 at the combine.

If the Bears can come away with one of the top two safeties at No. 25, or one of the top three late in Round 1 early in Round 2 while also getting an extra pick, they could come out of the draft with exactly what they need to fill a drastic need and even could have another way to help bolster diminished depth at other positions on Day 2 of the draft.

It's probably not dramatically different thinking than in the past for safeties to be moved down in the order but it is drastically different than where many of the so-called experts saw it trending.

And in Jeremiah's case, he actually cited people with teams who told him.

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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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