Chris Olave to the Bears?
It was a case of reality trumping fantasy, or the right idea but wrong execution.
Nevertheless, it was a very good guess.
The website Pro Football Focus found a way for the Bears to get Ohio State receiver Chris Olave in its latest two-round mock draft. They had GM Ryan Poles trading up with Howie Roseman and the Philadelphia Eagles to No. 16 overall in a mock released very early April 4.
The reasoning by PFF's Anthony Treash was the Eagles would be in the mood for gathering more picks for next year because they might also be in the market for a quarterback next year, when the quarterback crop in the draft should be better. They have pick No. 15, anyway, and would be willing to get out of 16 with QB in mind after making a pick at No. 15.
Almost as if Treash had seen it all coming, the Eagles later on Monday really did trade out of that No. 16 spot.
They just didn't trade with the Bears.
In the real world, they traded the pick to the Saints in a multi-pick deal involving picks for next year and 2024. So the Bears will not have that particular opportunity now.
Thinking Poles would want to trade up so far from pick No. 39 by giving away other picks probably doesn't show as much grasp of the Bears' situation as Treash did with his feeling that the Eagles would want out of the No. 16 pick.
Poles needs picks and needs multiple players far more than he needs any one specific player, receiver or otherwise. It doesn't matter that it's Justin Fields' favorite target.
Besides, neither PFF nor other analysts have considered Olave a truly generational receiver talent, the kind a team would want enough to give up multiple picks in order to move up from 39 to 16.
"He won’t offer plus value after the catch, but he doesn’t need to be a YAC specialist to help spark Chicago’s explosive play rate," Treash wrote.
If a team is moving up to 16 from 39 to find this receiver, he'd better offer YAC and everything else.
Not having it was one of the flaws of their offense under Matt Nagy. They finished 30th at YAC last year and never seemed to get much when they needed it.
At least Treash's mock had the Bears getting Olave to reunite with Fields. Another mock released on Monday by Eric Eager and Ben Brown sent Olave to the NFC North, as well. But they had the rival Green Bay Packers getting him at No. 22.
After Treash's bit of precognition, his PFF mock found a very viable cornerback for the Bears with the 48th pick. The Bears used the second-round pick they acquired for trading away Khalil Mack to select Auburn cornerback Roger McCreary.
The Tigers' cornerback currently is trying to overcome slings and arrows of misfortune following a bad combine in whcih they found out he has shorter arms than any cornerback in the NFL now (28-7/8 inches).
This has suggested McCreary might be a slot corner in the NFL by PFF as a result of that measurement. Short arms or not, McCreary shows a real knack for coverage and has fantastic closing speed.
He was PFF's highest-graded cornerback in all of FBS and had 13 pass breakups. He can play zone or press coverage but the PFF says he has the second highest grade among all cornerbacks in press coverage since 2019, which also spells out slot cornerback.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
