Bear Digest

A Bears Mock Draft by Any Other Name

A plan put forth to build around Justin Fields is more of a mock draft than a plan and really doesn't build around the Bears QB.

Gene Chamberlain

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Mock drafts come in many shapes and sizes.

Essentially, this is what an article by Pro Football Focus' Sam Monson is about how the Bears build around Justin Fields. It's really merely one of PFF's mock drafts from a simulator with some explanation attached.

There is nothing novel or deep about this great plan to build around Fields, because it isn't really a well-executed plan.

However, Monson does have one sentence in the piece which should reverberate throughout Halas Hall because it is extremely wise considering the current Bears situation.

"They should entertain any and all offers of trading down from any of their early picks, but the temptation to use No. 39 overall for the right player will be tough to resist," Monson wrote.

Truly, the Bears must trade down and this has been expressed here before. They need to do it several times if possible in order to create numbers out of a draft where there currently are none. Not only do the Bears have only six picks, but they have big gaps in the process. Obviously they have no first-round pick but having two in the first 48 could suffice.

The really big gap is after No. 71. They don't pick again until 148 in Round 5. Then after 186 in Round 6 they are done.

There are real roster holes and even starting lineup holes on the Bears roster and trading down needs to be the key.

The story quickly disintegrates into a Bears seven-round mock draft and the only trade offered up is one in the second round with pick No. 48. That is a good pick to trade, although doing it and moving completely out of the second round don't really seem necessary. They were in this deal.

Monson had the Bears send the 48th pick to Detroit for the Lions first third-round pick, No. 66, their 97th pick which is a compensatory selection at the end of Round 3, No. 234 in Round 7 and then a fourth-round pick next year.

The 66-97 combo would give the Bears three picks in the third round. The 97th then closes the gap until their 148th pick.

Beyond that, Monson brings in many of the names being mentioned for selection already.

He suggests the Bears draft Skyy Moore, Western Michigan's slot receiver, with the 39th pick. If not, then the suggestion is tackle Bernhard Raimann from Central Michigan or X-receiver types George Pickens of Georgia or Christian Watson from North Dakota State.

Moore is recommended over the others.

"A 4.41-second 40-yard dash time at the combine shows he has more wheels than many gave him credit for, and his tape is just a clinic on making plays in different ways," Monson wrote.

The next way to build around Fields is drafting Dylan Parham at No. 66, the Memphis guard/center.

For some reason, PFF insists on perpetuating the myth Parham is too small for the NFL as Monson says he is 285 pounds. He may have played at that weight at some time in the past but at the scouting combine he was weighed at 311, 26 pounds heavier.

Wide receiver is addressed once more at No. 71 with Cincinnati's Alec Pierce, who has been heavily researched by the Bears. However, it's quite possible Pierce never makes it to this late in the draft.

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Monson also gives Fields more help in Round 5 with the 148th pick by selecting Utah State tackle Braxton Jones. This is a sleeper type player at 6-5, 310, who could fit well with their wide-zone blocking scheme because of his quickness. He ran a 4.97 in the 40-yard dash.

Strangely, for an article aimed at building around Justin Fields, this is the last bit of building on offense Monson suggested. The rest is all a mock draft on defense with one suggestion for post draft of signing unrestricted, low-cost free agent pass rusher Jerry Hughes.

The PFF article does make one pick who could be of benefit for the Bears and that's Zyon McCollum, the Sam Houston State cornerback who needs to show he can actually play pass coverage. McCollum was chosen at No. 97 after the trade down and he hasn't had good skills for pass coverage so far but he did run a 4.33-second combine time for the 40 and had a completely ridiculous time of 6.48 in the three-cone drill.

This reminds me of the time Dave Wannstedt came down at the old Halas Hall media room to tell us John Theirry beat the heck out of Simeon Rice as a draft pick because he could run circles around the former Illinois star in the three-cone drill.

Thierry had 33 1/2 career sacks and Rice, who is from the south suburbs, made 122. It's about playing football, not sack races. So it was easy to see why Wannstedt never could come up with that brilliant outside pass rusher necessary to run his Dallas-style defense when he was looking at cones.

For some reason, Monson has the Bears drafting Noah Elliss, a 6-foot-6 1/2, 348-pound Idaho spud of a nose tackle. The Bears dumped the 3-4. The nose in a 4-3 ideally is someone almost the size of their three technique, around 300 pounds but with strength and explosiveness to get into a gap after tending to the center. They're not looking for Man Mountain to take up two or three gaps in a trench as a road block.

He also has them drafting punter Matt Araiza of San Diego State in Round 6, which is the round they once drafted Pat O'Donnell. But a team supposedly in need of trading down because of roster holes can't be wasting draft picks on a punter when competition for new punter Ryan Winslow can easily come from undrafted free agents or those veterans currently on the street. 

Araiza does get credit for a good nickname: Punt God. Being called this does sound a bit Todd Sauerbrunish, though.

The last pick actually is an interesting one even coming in Round 7 and that's defensive tackle C.J. Wright of Georgia Southern. Wright had 29 pressures last year and that's plenty for an interior line player. 

Finding someone like that, whose talent translates from a smaller school to the NFL at pick No. 234 in Round 7 would be a steal. 

And, again, it wouldn't be supporting Fields, which was the original stated intent of Monson's article.

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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