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Would Ryan Poles Really Select a MAC Safety for Bears at No. 25?

The trendy mock pick for the Bears now seems to be safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren of Toledo, but No. 25 overall for a player from this conference could be a gamble.
Gene Chamberlain|
Washington State Cougars quarterback Zevi Eckhaus is tackled by Toledo Rockets safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren.
Washington State Cougars quarterback Zevi Eckhaus is tackled by Toledo Rockets safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren. | James Snook-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Normally, safety is a position teams get around to taking in the NFL Draft without prioritizing it.

In the last two drafts, it took until the end of Round 2 before the third safety was selected, and the year prior it was the start of Round 3.

This must be a special draft for safeties, indeed, when many analysts' mock drafts project three to go in Round 1 and maybe even before GM Ryan Poles makes a selection for the Bears at No. 25.

ESPN draft analyst Matt Miller this week called that third safety, Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, a good pick for the Bears in Round 1.

However, he added something else in a response to a social media query: "Not sure if he slips that far down."

McNeil-Warren must be a far better player of his position than his athletic testing at the combine suggests, if Miller is worried he'd be a third safety taken before No. 25.

McNeil-Warren to Chicago has become a trendy pick. NFL media's Daniel Jeremiah has them taking him at 25 in his mock draft. The Athletic's Bears beat writer Dan Wiederer mocked him to the team and was pointing to this possibility long before others called it.

Bears are interested

At the combine, McNeil-Warren said he had interviewed with the Bears on the very first day.

Whether McNeil-Warren actually goes this high after consensus top safeties Caleb Downs of Ohio State and Oregon's Dillon Thieneman, could depend on how he performs at Monday's Toledo pro day —if he does work out there. Having tested at the combine, he could feel this is sufficient. The combine performance he had hardly inspired, though, as he was 13th of 14 safeties in the 40-yard dash at 4.52 seconds, and 12th in the vertical leap at 35 1/2 inches.

What McNeil-Warren did well, though, was play football.

"I'm versatile, so I've played in the box, been able to play up high," he told reporters at the combine. "So being every play, everywhere on the field, being able to make plays, it means a lot."

The Bears would be looking for someone like that to pair with free agent acquisition Coby Bryant as Jaquan Brisker's replacement. It's the only open spot in their starting lineup at the moment.

The playmaking ability McNeil-Warren has shown earned him a grade of No. 2 safety in the country from Pro Football Focus last season. He was graded No. 2 against the pass and 35th against the run out of 914 safeties.

Nine career forced fumbles to go with five interceptions and 13 pass defenses shows he can be around the ball. He's got that Charles Tillman/"Peanut Punch" ability the Bears like to emphasize on defense.

"We practice the Peanut Punch every day at practice, going 100%,"  he said.

Of course, in McNeil-Warren's case the statistics must be taken in the context they occurred. In other words, they came in the Mid-American Conference and not a power conference. He did face Illinois, Wyoming, Ohio State, Louisville, Kentucky, Washington State, and Mississippi State during four Toledo seasons. The other 41 games were against MAC teams or their equivalent.

It's not to say the MAC doesn't produce good players. Khalil Mack, Ben  Roethlisberger, Jason Taylor, and Randy Moss played in the conference. The rank and file may not be at the same level as in top D-1 conferences, though.

"I feel like wherever you are at, if you know how to play ball they're going to find you," McNeil-Warren said. "So me being at Toledo, I was just working hard, working hard every day, trying to just keep that motivation in myself, just telling myself, like, they're going to find me wherever I'm at."

He loved his time and the team, but is honest about the playing-level differences.

"Toledo, it's a small school, it's like a small MAC school so how I treat it like is you've got to work harder than anybody because people at a power-5 school they got it easier than us," he said. "So I feel like me being in a MAC school, I had to work harder every day to push myself. Even when my body was tired, even when I feel like giving up, I'd try to keep pushing myself."

Always the underdog

It goes along with a theme to McNeil-Warren's career. He wasn't heavily recruited  coming out of high school.

In an age when players take the portal at the drop of a hat in pursuit of bigger NIL money, he stayed at Toledo, though. Perhaps being loyal can ultimately count for something in this age of transferring.

"I feel like they appreciate me a lot, just staying loyal, you know, a team that believes in you from the start," he said.

As for the NIL cash McNeil-Warren could have pursued once he made a name for himself, "To me, I wasn't worried about short-term money. I was trying to worry about long-term money in the League and being in the League forever."

Whether it's all sufficient to get him into the top 25 overall is the question, and especially at No. 25 to the Bears.

Their last first-round safety was Mark Carrier in 1990, which only goes along with that traditional thought about where safeties normally go in the draft.

It's up to McNeil-Warren to convince them he's one safety worth taking so early, even when they have other key needs on the defensive line.

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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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