Month Away From Draft, Bears Fans Know Nothing

One month from today, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will step to the podium at Radio City Music Hall in New York, and announce, "With the 29th pick in the 2011 draft, the Chicago Bears select ..."

One month away, and no one knows on how that sentence will be completed.

Sure, there are some clues. Jerry Angelo talked about how the draft is slanted towards the offensive and defensive lines. The team has interviewed, worked out and visited the pro days of offensive linemen like Gabe Carimi, Mike Pouncey, and Danny Watkins. Some mock drafts have the Bears bolstering the defensive line, while others have Chicago filling the most obvious problem area, the offensive line.

But really, no one knows which way the Bears are going to go on April 28. It's not even like in the 2008 NBA draft, when the Bulls were picking between Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley. (They obviously picked right.) The Bears could go in several different directions, and because the team has so many needs, not one of those directions is wrong.

That uncertainty about the Bears pick is exactly what will make draft night so exciting yet frightening for Bears fans. We'll have to sit through 28 picks and all of the speculation that goes with that, having no idea just who Goodell will say when he speaks up for the 29th time.