Chicago Bears 2017 mock draft: Latest seven-round look

Jeremy Sprinkle, TE, Arkansas (6-foot-5, 252 pounds)

Football is a passing game today. If you don’t have a good quarterback to throw the ball and a good receiver to catch it, your offense will suffer. In college, that fact is emphasized even more with the spread offense.

The spread is so engrained in college that most tight ends today are just bigger receivers. Brandon Marshall would’ve been a tight end in college today.

Sprinkle is a throwback. He has the size, strength, and speed to play the traditional tight end. He has good hands to be a dependable target, especially in the red zone. His speed allows him to break free and get downfield. His strength helps him be a good blocker in pass protection. Even better, he has the desire to be a good blocker, something not seen in very many of today’s tight ends. That ability to block serves him well to sell a block before releasing on play action.

I know that the Bears just signed Dion Sims to a big contract. Additionally, Zach Miller has a big contract himself. The trouble with those two is that Sims has concussion history and Miller has a body made of paper. At some point in the season, one or both of them will go down. Besides, Sims is known as a blocking tight end while Miller is more of a pass-catching tight end. Sprinkle is a combination of the two.

While some think the tight end position is taken care of, I think the Bears need to draft one.