Chicago Bears: Why Ryan Pace won’t draft a quarterback in 2020

The Chicago Bears regressed offensively and defensively in 2019. Fans are calling for a new quarterback in 2020, here is why it won’t happen.

The Chicago Bears have two second-round picks in the 2020 NFL draft. Those two picks would be the chance for the Bears to draft a quarterback since the Bears don’t have a first, third, or fourth-round pick. The two quarterbacks, in reality, have to be Jalen Hurts and Jake Fromm. I’m not sold on either of them, they both have questions that need to be answered.

Hurts played for Lincoln Riley in Oklahoma. Riley can make an average college quarterback look like a top 10 pick. Hurts has only been with Riley for one year as his starter. People talked about him as a Heisman Trophy candidate going into 2019. That didn’t happen.

The young quarterback was Alabama’s starting quarterback before Tua Tagovailoa stole his job. Hurts would transfer to Oklahoma and in one season with Riley, Hurts threw 32 touchdowns, seven interceptions, and 3,634 passing yards.

Right now, Hurts’ team is 12-1 and is ranked fourth in the AP National poll. If the number four ranked Sooners pull off an upset and win the national championship, Hurts draft stock will go up. He is projected to get drafted in the early to mid-second round but winning a national championship changes everything. If he slides into the first round, Ryan Pace won’t even get a chance to draft him.

Jake Fromm isn’t a top prospect in my eyes. He has a lot of talent and could turn into a solid quarterback someday. Luckily for him, he will be drafted in the mid-to-late second round, which almost guarantees him a spot on a good football team.

The junior quarterback’s numbers slipped a little bit from last year. Fromm threw 22 touchdowns and only 5 interceptions in 2019. He threw for 2,610 yards, just 139 yards shy of last year’s total. His sophomore season showed a more complete quarterback than this year did. It worries me that Fromm didn’t take his game to the next level like he was supposed to do.

His stats dropped tremendously. Fromm’s yards-per-attempt (7.4) was down almost two yards from 2018. Fromm’s completion percentage dropped by seven percent. This wasn’t Fromm’s best season, he wasn’t a top 30 quarterback in most stats.

It’s surprising draft experts have Fromm going in the second round after this season. Players have bad years but falling this far in college worries NFL scouts. I would like to see a lot more out of him. If any team drafts Fromm over Hurts, that will be a big mistake.

There are two reasons why Ryan Pace won’t draft a quarterback in 2020.

Number one, Mitchell Trubisky has a lot of promise still. I see a lot of special things when it comes to Trubisky. One bad season shouldn’t determine everything. The simple choice is to keep Trubisky and build a system around him. Matt Nagy needs to stop holding Trubisky back and make a system that revolves around Trubisky.

The quarterbacks that will be around when the Bears draft projects. They’re not going to be good right away. Next year, Trubisky can turn things around still. The jury isn’t out on Trubisky yet, so it’s time to stop counting him out.

The second reason is he can’t strikeout. If Pace wants to keep his job by drafting a new quarterback, he is admitting that he messed up in 2017. Now, he would have the same choice he did in 2017. Instead of Trubisky or Deshaun Watson, it’s Hurts or Fromm.

The Patrick Mahomes of this choice could be Anthony Gordon. They both score at will. Mahomes and Gordon both went to smaller schools which might deter people from drafting Gordon high. In Pace’s case, the risk is way too high. There is a bigger chance to miss than hit a home run.

There is a chance to get Hurts and Fromm with the Bears’ two second-round picks. The only problem is, that it takes away from other needs. What happens if he drafts both of them and neither one is good? Pace can’t take this risk.