The Chicago Bears have a lot of holes to fill on their roster after an 8-8 season, but they’ll have limited draft capital with which to do it.
The Bears’ first pick in the draft won’t come until the 43rd spot, as the team was without a first round pick for the second consecutive year thanks to the Khalil Mack trade. The Bears do have two second round draft picks thanks to that trade, but after the 50th overall pick the Bears won’t pick again until the 163rd overall selection in the fifth round, as their third round pick also went to Las Vegas and their fourth round pick went to the New England Patriots.
With seven draft picks (pending trades), the Bears have plenty of needs to address, and here are six of the positions the team could look to bolster in the draft:
Cornerback
After the Bears chose to release Prince Amukamara, they opened up a cornerback spot on their roster. Buster Skrine and Artie Burns could potentially compete for a job in the Bears’ secondary, but the Bears could potentially use one of their second round picks to add a starting-caliber cornerback to help solidify a secondary that hasn’t gotten the attention in free agency that other positions have gotten.
Offensive Line
The Bears were already looking to upgrade their offensive line coming into the offseason, but then Kyle Long retired and left the team with yet another roster spot to fill along a line that struggled badly during the 2019 season.
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The Bears did grab Germain Ifedi in free agency, and the team has a high opinion of Rashaad Coward as a future building block on the line, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Bears add another lineman in what is one of the deepest draft classes at guard and tackle in recent memory.
Quarterback
The Bears have yet to make a decision on whether they will pick up Mitchell Trubisky’s fifth year option, but the team certainly signaled that it wasn’t satisfied with its quarterback play when they acquired Nick Foles in a trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
While it’s not likely that the team will make a big splash at quarterback in the second round, there are certainly options further down the board, including quarterbacks like Anthony Gordon out of Washington State or Brian Lewerke out of Michigan State.
Safety
If there’s one thing that mock drafts have had in common this year, it’s that the Bears could be looking at grabbing a safety in the second round to pair with Eddie Jackson.
Whether it’s Jeremy Chinn out of Southern Illinois, or Grant Delpit out of LSU, or Antoine Winfield Jr. out of Minnesota, there should be plenty of safety options to choose from in the second round for Chicago, and they could grab a day-one starter Friday.
Tight End
This year’s tight end crop is fairly weak, but while the Bears have made some moves at the position this offseason, there still seems to be work to do, especially after the release of Trey Burton.
While it seems that a player like Cole Kmet could be off the board by the time the Bears pick at 43, they could wait until later in the draft and snag a solid option at the position, with players like Colby Parkinson out of Stanford and Thaddeus Moss out of LSU both potentially serving as mid-to-late round options.
Wide Receiver
Yes, the Bears have Allen Robinson and Anthony Miller at receiver, and they have players like Riley Ridley and Javon Wims looking for an opportunity for more playing time, but after cutting Taylor Gabriel loose, the Bears could potentially look to snap up a receiver in the later rounds of the draft.
