Bear Digest

Thinking Outside the Box for Bears Draft Picks

Not all draft picks own classic size-speed ratios or look like ideal scheme fits. Sometimes it's better to be creative in the draft.

Gene Chamberlain

Texas' T'Vondre Sweat at 366 pounds tears up the combine.
Texas' T'Vondre Sweat at 366 pounds tears up the combine. / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
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Scouting requires both an eye for talent and a thorough knowledge of your team's offensive or defensive scheme.

The types of players needed by every team are different. Normally defensive teams using one-gap fronts won't take fat defensive tackles who 

Conversely, at defensive end, they're looking for someone who rushes but does not give the outside away because they are the last line of defense on the outside of the line. In a 3-4, the outside linebackers handle this.

Pass rushers come in many shapes and sizes.

It's true with many positions.

Another quality the best scouts have is imagination. If they can see what could be besides what is there on tape or possibly take a flash of something and project it, then they can be most effective.

At the combine, many people didn't know what to make of Brian Urlacher. He was essentially a college safety who was huge and even returned kicks because he was so fast. Most thought of him as a linebacker. Coming out of college, he even had people wanting to see him work out as a fullback or tight end type.

Micah Parsons was regarded by many as just a linebacker coming to the Cowboys but they visualized him moving all over their scheme as a pass rush threat but being a good enough athlete to handle coverage like a linebacker.

Thinking outside of the box can net a team a real find or a total pain to opponents.

Buddy Ryan didn't think William Perry was a player because of his size coming to the Bears. He was too fat, even though his rookie weight of 305 pounds would make him on the light side today.

The Bears were using him in ways no one could imagine and even Ryan eventually found good use for him, too.

Here are some players the Bears would do wise to consider if they're thinking outside the box.

DT T'Vondre Sweat, Texas

The Bears can use a 3-technique, a real gap-shooter. What about one who simply creates his own gap wherever he's lined up? People look at this 6-foot-4 1/2, 366-pound tackle and realize why they say everything is bigger in Texas. At his size, people think hunker-down nose tackle and not a fit for the Bears scheme. Sweat can be so much more.

He was top 1% in weight for all defensive tackles on Mockdraftable's combine records with his weight, but he ran a 5.27-second 40. His height and weight put him in the same category as Ted Washington but his athleticism says he doesn't need to be just a nose tackle. He can be the whole defensive line. Bears offensive linemen--several of them--say the best defensive lineman they've faced in recent years was Dexter Lawrence. At 6-4, 340, he's played end and nose but he isn't at his best hunkering down and occupying blockers. He attacks and scared the wits out of anyone in the Bears backfield. If you're thinking outside the box, you can find a way to use Sweat in a 4-3 one-gap front. He's bigger than the box.

WR Luke McCaffrey, Rice

The Bears are in need of speed and verticality in the receiver room. They could actually take anyone who can get open and catch a pass. But McCaffrey brings more than that. Christian's brother was Nebraska's quarterback before switching positions. Consider the the gadgetry an imaginative offensive coordinator could come up with if they had a player like that. He could be a different version of Taysom Hill. As a receiver, he had sub-4.5 speed and got open enough to use great hand-eye coordination to hang onto passes. He's not your run-of-the-mill vertical threat or slot receiver but can do a lot of everything.

DE Evan Williams, Oregon

The former Fresno defensive back showed a real ability to blitz from a secondary position. The Bears could use a player like this. They aren't a blitzing team, but when they do blitz they just aren't good at it. Bringing someone from the secondary throws a scare into QBs from time to time. Williams had 4 1/2 sacks last year. Jaquan Brisker showed he could do it in 2022, but then didn't last year.

RB Isaac Guerendo, Louisville

A likely early Day 3 pick, Guerendo barely got used in college at Wisconsin and Louisville with 231 total carries and 17 receptions. Someone missed the boat here. He was always behind someone. You don't find 6-foot, 219-pound running backs who can run 4.33 seconds in the 40. That was at the combine, too, not a shady pro day with a couple stop watches.

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He was top 2% for all backs ever in the 40 at combines, top 3% in the broad jump, top 1% in vertical leap with a 41 1/2-inch vertical. At 217. Consider the possibilities in the screen game and even with a running on wheel routes who can run that fast and leap this high. Now put him in an offense with weapons like DJ Moore, Cole Kmet and Keenan Allen.

LB Payton Wilson, N. Carolina State

Wilson, a 6-foot-4, 233-pound linebacker, ran a 4.43-second 40 at the combine. That would be Matt Eberflus ideal player. Brian Urlacher ran only 4.59 at 6-foot-4. He was the fastest linebacker in the draft. You can do just about anything with a linebacker that fast, from playing him in deep middle coverage to blitzing middle or the edge. The Bears have two linebackers already but it is a 4-3 defense and someone that athletic could play strongside, weakside or middle. He'd be a first-round pick, though.

James Williams, Miami

This would be a Day 3 pick but Williams was a linebacker-safety for Miami. At 6-4, 230 as a safety, he ran a 4.49-second 40. He was more safety in college but at his size and with long arms, he would be that rangy type of linebacker Eberflus likes for dropping deep over the middle in zone coverage, especially if they don't have to use an early draft pick for him.

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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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