Draft Rules for Bears to Live By

Analysis: Now that the Bears can participate in the draft, there are several rules for them to live by on Day 2 and Day 3 as they sort through best available and some top athletic talent that fell through the cracks.

Bears GM Ryan Poles made it to Round 2 of the NFL Draft without committing the huge gaffe.

This would have been trying to away draft picks to get into Round 1 with his team short on bodies for its roster.

Poles also avoided the other potential major disaster and this would have been worse. He didn't trade up into Round 1 by giving away a future first-round pick and a second-rounder to go get receiver A.J. Brown or any of several other disgruntled diva receivers.

The potential pitfalls change on Day 2 from predraft concerns. Here are the possible problems to avoid now that the Bears can take part in the selection process on Day 2.

1. Don't Make a Teven Jenkins Move

The Bears still need to wait six picks in Round 2 before their pick comes up. They've just made it through Round 1 without wasting later picks by moving up, there's no reason to move up into slots 33-38 of Round 2 the way they did last year when they traded up to draft tackle Teven Jenkins in Round 2. Ryan Pace last year gave up the team's third-round pick at No. 83 and a sixth-round pick (204) to swap spots in Round 2 with the Carolina Panthers to get into better position and draft Jenkins. Then it turned out he needed to have back surgery and was unavailable until late in the season. Jenkins could very well turn out to be a good NFL tackle, and they've been trying him on the right side so far. But a team without picks and with plenty of open roster spots does not need to move up in Round 2 any more than they did in Round 1.

Stay put and make a pick or trade down.

2. Cap Off Trading Down

The Bears' need to trade down, particularly with one or more of their first three picks, is real because the return can be a better pick to plug the gap between 71 and 148 in this draft.

However, at a certain point on Day 3, trading down will only net them long shots. The don't have a seventh-round pick or a fourth-round pick, but trading down in Round 6 from 186 doesn't make much sense if the return is a seventh-round pick. Seventh-round picks are barely better than undrafted free agents.

The Bears are in a position now where they should get the best undrafted free agents because agents know they have plenty of open roster spots and even starting spots. They should be targets for agents of undrafted players. So they can't be trading back in Round 5 unless they are taking another fifth-round pick in the process. Sixth-round picks aren't much better. They've had a history of drafting players in Round 6 who can help but are not really even starting talent.

3. Don't Ignore Draft Board

Poles has said he's leaning to best available over need. Aside from ignoring any of the quarterbacks, it's a good policy to pursue even when they need receivers, cornerbacks and offensive linemen. If the player staring them in the face on the board is a ridiculously good edge rusher and the drop off is great to a need position player like receiver, cornerback or offensive line, take the edge rusher. Talent is talent and can't be denied. If Michigan's David Ojabo or Penn State's Arnold Ebiketie are still there for the Bears in Round 2 and they have those two graded far ahead of the players at need spots like cornerback, receiver and offensive line, then they shouldn't hesitate to take the talent. Especially in Year 1 of a rebuild, the greatest need is laying a foundation and not a particular player or two at a position.

Even at the cost of taking a receiver on Day 3, the Bears need to remain true to their board.

4. Don't Overvalue Robert Quinn

According to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, there were teams out there with an interest in Robert Quinn. The Bears weren't shopping him, though. However, Bears can't be too enamored with their edge rusher who is going to eat up $17 million of their cap space. They need to realize in the trade market his value will be lower and they shouldn't be so attached to him that they can't take a fourth-round pick for him if there is a team with cap space and wants an effective pass rusher. The likelihood is the Bears won't get much in terms of a trade offer because teams might think they could get Quinn if he is cut after June 1. This shouldn't be anticiated unless the Bears bring in another edge or two.

The Robert Quinn trade discussion is a touchy topic and they need to treat offers seriously without overvaluing a player who is turning 32 in a few weeks.

5. Red Flags

Ojabo had an Achilles, wide receiver John Metchie an ACL tear, wide receiver George Pickens an ACL tear. There are players who could come up on Day 2 and Poles doesn't need to get into the same problems Pace did by taking players who might have issues. Jenkins last year had back issues in college but the Bears have insisted he had a totally different injury. There's no way to prove this because they're not handing out the x-rays to everyone but anyone with back issues knows one back injury can often result in other back injuries. The Bears need to be extremely careful with these players remaining who have injuries attached. It could be the reason some of these players remain.

Likewise, they need to be alert to background issues with players. These could also be the reason players are in Round 2 who some believe have Round 1 talent.

The Byron Pringle situation alone should push this topic to the front of Poles' mind.

6. Trust Coaches with Late Rounds

In later rounds, sometimes athletes emerge who simply need refinement. There are examples of very raw talent from the combine who probably won't be taken in the first three rounds. A team in its first year can take players like this later in the draft and count on their coaches to bring them around. 

Matt Eberflus keeps bragging about what great teachers his coaches are. Then raw talent could bring around a player like this. Examples might be cornerback Damarri Mathis, who can leap 43 1/2 inches but isn't the best one-on-one corner, or Virginia Tech freakish edge Amare Barno, who ran 4.36 as an edge and has a 37-inch vertical leap but is very raw as a rush man. SMU's Danny Gray and Tennessee's Velus Jones are wide receivers expected to go later but who have so much speed it's difficult to look the other way.

If you can't take a chance on athletic ability in later rounds, then you can't do it at all.

7. Don't Fear the Punt God

Matt Araiza of San Diego State will probably be drafted by someone somewhere even though he is a punter, and has a very strange nickname: the punt god. A god? He is a very good one, though. In case someone hasn't noticed, the Bears lost their punter and currently have only journeyman Ryan Winslow on their roster. He hasn't even made 25 NFL punts.  A punter doesn't have to be a bad pick, especially later. The Bears chose Pat O'Donnell in Round 6 and he was one of their most effective punters in team history.

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