Chicago Bears: Three players Ryan Pace could reach for in 2018 NFL Draft

Marcus Davenport

If you’re a Chicago Bears fan following the Senior Bowl, you’ve seen this name popping up quite a bit of late. In fact, our own Patrick Sheldon profiled him recently.

Part of it is because the Bears have made a point to take chances on Senior Bowl standouts since Ryan Pace has run the team. Of his 20 draft picks, six players—including Adrian Amos and Cody Whitehair—have participated in the Senior Bowl.

The other reason Davenport might have Pace’s eye, aside from being a good football player, is that he embodies that tantalizing upside that Pace loves.

After playing somewhat in obscurity with the University of Texas-San Antonio, racking up 27.5 tackles for loss and 15 sacks in his last two seasons, Davenport has attracted all kinds of attention in Mobile.

His big 6-foot-6, 250-frame places him in ideal outside linebacker territory, particularly as a partner for Leonard Floyd. And he has the quickness and athleticism needed to be a pain off the edge in a 3-4 defensive scheme.

Now, we probably don’t want to talk about him going with the eighth pick just yet. He has reportedly had an up-and-down Senior Bowl practice week, struggling to win one-on-one repetitions against top competition. At the moment, his pass rushing technique remains raw despite his athleticism.

So basically…how soon can the Chicago Bears take him?

Pace has never been shy about taking chances on young guys with a need for seasoning in hopes that they can become a star. In fact, that’s exactly what he did with Floyd, who has been dominant at times (especially when he has help).

If he has a big performance on Saturday and blows things up at the NFL Combine/his pro day, watch out. The Chicago Bears very well could fall in love with Davenport, who has mountains of potential.