Chicago Bears: What’s “Plan B” for upgrading at wide receiver?

3. Reach for WR in the first-round

For obvious reasons, this should be the least desirable option.

And no, it has nothing to do with what happened with Kevin White in 2015. Any pick you take in the first round could end up a disappointment, not just wide receivers. And if the Bears took a wide receiver in the first round, there’s absolutely no guarantee they’d suffer the same fate as White has.

That said, the outlook for this isn’t necessarily rosy.

Now, you can say that you’d like Calvin Ridley at No. 8 overall in the draft and just call it a day. But nothing about Pace’s previous draft history suggests that will happen.

As good as Ridley looks as a route runner and as an open-field ball-carrier, he doesn’t fit the type of player Pace drafts in the first round.

He’s fairly polished as college receivers go, but he’s likely doesn’t have tremendous high upside. And those are prohibitively the types of guys Pace has targeted in the first round: raw, but potentially monstrous players.

If you want that kind of guy, you might want to roll with Courtland Sutton if he were to shoot up draft boards.

First of all, he has all the size and physical tools you can want along with some very moldable traits (ability to move quickly in and out of breaks and to use his body as a shield against defenders).

Sutton is plenty raw, especially from a technical and consistency standpoint, but he’s exactly the kind of guy Pace could fall in love with in the first round.

But again, don’t do that at No. 8, in my opinion. I’m not buying the idea that he isn’t a first-round talent, but top-10 talent? On potential maybe, but not the way he is now.

Next: Free agents the Chicago Bears should avoid

However, if the Chicago Bears traded down into the 10-15 range or later with someone hunting a quarterback? Sure. At that point, taking a receiver looks like an excellent choice there.

Before that, though? I’d go with an edge rusher, defensive back or Quenton Nelson before a wide receiver.