Bear Digest

Building the Perfect 2024 Chicago Bears Draft

The ideal Chicago Bears draft looks like one difficult to achieve considering what must be accomplished with so few picks.

Gene Chamberlain

Dallas Turner could help the Bears meet a goal as the best all-around pass rusher in this draft.
Dallas Turner could help the Bears meet a goal as the best all-around pass rusher in this draft. / Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports
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Every team approaches the start of the draft hoping for the best, a perfect selection process.

They'll model perfection as they do their own mock drafts in-house to determine which course the draft takes.

The Bears have their own goals, their own idea of draft perfection this year.

Ryan Poles' third draft will start with the selection of quarterback Caleb Williams as they've already cleared the way for him by practically giving away Justin Fields for a conditional future sixth-round draft pick.

There have been many years when an ideal full Bears draft would have been acquiring the best quarterback in draft class -- forget about what they did with the rest of the picks. In fact, it would be almost every one of the drafts they've ever had.

The only team without a 4,000-yard passer will have its pick of the best quarterback available to start but this will not be an ideal draft. This is because they appear to be close to competing for a playoff spot, based on last year's strong second half of the schedule, and because they still have enough critical roster holes to fill with young talent.

Here's what a perfect Bears draft would look like. Can they pull it off? It seems rather difficult considering the picks they have to achieve it.

1. Caleb Williams

He's coming to Chicago. The only legitimate flaw people are seeing in his game is holding the ball too long. Is holding the ball too long a flaw when you're able to deliver it with the right accuracy, zip or touch and in an instant because of a rapid-fire release? Williams gets the ball there often in the same amount of time as a quarterback who gets it out of his hand faster simply because he has a quicker release and better arm. He has a Dan Marino release but the ability to scramble if necessary.

Williams' game is big-play football and he's going to challenge defenses constantly with his arm.

The same couldn't be said about Justin Fields the last three years. He challenged constantly with his legs. Several aspects of his football makeup, as well as Bears roster deficiencies, prevented him from challenging defenses all the time with his arm.

2. Speed

Anywhere, any position. This is a defensive scheme based on speed up front into gaps. It requires speed at linebacker for coverage and in gaps against the run. The DBs are in zone almost all the time so coming at the receiver rapidly out their drop to a landmark is required. DJ Moore was fast, but not a sub-4.4 receiver and Keenan Allen is a slower, older receiver, so they need speed from a pass catcher. Neither tight end is known for threatening defenses deep. There is no speed back, per se. Their offensive linemen need speed to get to the outside in the wide zone blocking scheme. This is why they're required to drop weight. It's why nose tackle Andrew Billings went from a 325-pound fat man to around 311ish.

3. The Best Edge Rusher Available

They have only one established and real threat to QBs in Montez Sweat. Defenses will gang up on him the way Green Bay did in the season finale. Teams with better right tackles will be able to keep him in check. Without a real danger coming off the other side or in the middle of the line, a potentially lethal Bears secondary will be diminished without a potent supporting pass rush.

Unless you think Dominique Robinson or DeMarcus Walker are the answer at edge rusher, then they need an immediate edge rush infusion. There is no Jalen Carter in this draft so they're unlikely to find the immediate force rushing from inside. It needs to develop. They're hoping it could be Gervon Dexter but he's a project as a two-gap type of college player who had to learn the one-gap pro style.

4. Third Receiver Who'll Develop Rapidly

The goal here doesn't need to be a receiver who leads the league by taking catches from DJ Moore and Keenan Allen, although no one would complain if this happened. The contract Allen has ends this year and the Bears need a receiver with physical capabilities and the right mental makeup to learn and become someone who can take over in Year 2 as No. 2 receiver should Allen leave as a free agent. Anything above and beyond this level would be surplus. This is why talk they must acquire one of the top three receivers is exaggeration. A third wheel is not a need. It's insurance.

5. More Protection for Caleb Williams

This outranks the need for a 3-technique, mainly because they already devoted two of their first four picks in last year's draft to that defensive position. More pass protection can take on several different forms. It could come in multiple picks at different positions. It could be the best tackle on the board, or a pick later in Round 1 after a trade back. They're using an overachieving fifth-rounder at left tackle now. It could also be a college tackle who projects as an NFL guard. Considered a strength last year, their starting guards failed them over the course of a full 2023. It could be a center because neither of the two centers they acquired in the offseason—Coleman Shelton and Ryan Bates—look like long-term center solutions. Bates is young enough to be but has barely played over 200 NFL snaps at the position. He's a guard by trade. It doesn't need to be just one of these players. A couple of them would be of benefit.

6. Trading Back At Some Point for Picks

With only four draft picks, meeting every single one of these objectives is going to be impossible unless Poles does trade back somewhere.

7. The 3-Technique

Can anyone really say they have an answer at defensive tackle right now? Dexter is their choice. PFF graded him 118th out of 130 interior defensive players at stopping the run last year and that was for the team with the league's best run defense. What happens to that run defense with him starting? And if it's a run defense declining, then can the pass rush be far behind? They were only 31st in sacks anyway. Everything they achieved last year on defense started up front against the run. Now, after Justin Jones' departure, it's in question whether they have the most basic ingredients on defense.

8. Eventual Starting Safety

Drafting someone at the position early on Day 3 would be sufficient. They found former starter Eddie Jackson in Round 4. There usually are good safeties to be had in the middle rounds. The idea in free agency was to cover themselves with a veteran starter and they did with Kevin Byard. They found a suitable sub in Jonathan Owens, but as said, he's a sub. And if Byard is so good, why didn't Philadelphia GM Howie Roseman make a better effort to retain him?

9. Third Tight End

Rather than simply signing an obscure undrafted free agent, they could use a third. They have the in-line type of all-around tight end in Cole Kmet and a pass-catching tight end in Gerald Everett. A blocking tight end would be a huge asset. There are a few who would be available later in the draft.

10. A Speed Running Back

Beyond needing speed for the whole roster, think specifically at running back of someone like Jahmyr Gibbs, or even like Tarik Cohen was for them for a brief period. The smaller, speedy type who catches passes and makes people miss in the open field is something they lack. Khalil Herbert and D'Andre Swift are similar in style, although Swift is better at playing in the passing game. Roschon Johnson is more the power back. A speed back for third-down plays is needed.

11. Multipurpose Punt Returner

The one question they need to ask almost any player who isn't a quarterback or lineman is "have you returned punts?" Velus Jones couldn't field it. Neither Dante Pettis nor Trent Taylor impressed as someone who could do more than field it.

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX FOR A BEARS DRAFT PICK

12. A Long Snapper

Patrick Scales is a 36-year-old man trying to run down on punts after he snaps the ball and help tackling returners. It's like the Bears are operating with nine men in punt coverage when you consider most punters would injure themselves trying to tackle the common ball carrier.

THE SKILL SET PLACING CALEB WILLIAMS ALONE AT THE TOP

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher 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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