Chicago Bears 2017 mock draft: Latest seven-round look

Marquel Lee, ILB, Wake Forest (6-foot-3, 240 pounds)

The Chicago Bears had a pretty good inside linebacker unit. Before the 2016 season, they signed Danny Trevathan and Jerrell Freeman through free agency. They also drafted Nick Kwiatkowski, giving them a solid rotation. Of course, as with the other units on this snake-bitten team, the injury bug reared its ugly head.

With Trevathan’s ruptured patella tendon injury, the Bears are in a quandary — will he be back to play at all in 2017? If so, how effective will he be? Not many players have come back to be the same players they were before the injury. Jimmy Graham had that injury and played pretty well in his return last season so there is hope.

In any case, the Bears need to add an inside linebacker if for no other reason than to add depth.

Lee has good size and long arms. He has good instincts in the running game. He has the ability to get out on the edge and force the running back to return to the inside where the other defensive players can make the play.

In his career, Lee had 291 tackles (41 for loss) and 14.5 sacks. He also added four forced fumbles.

Next: Does drafting Reuben Foster make sense for the Bears?

Lee won’t be a star in the NFL, but he has incredible discipline. That discipline will help him stay on a roster. He could fit in the Chicago Bears defensive system and give them the added depth to handle another season of players missing time.