Chicago Bears Draft: The ultimate Day 2 playbook

There exists only one way that the Chicago Bears should and hopefully will approach the second day of the NFL draft. If they don’t follow my approach, then the 2020 season is all but lost.

I’m just joking.

There’s really a multitude of ways the Chicago Bears can attack the current talent pool and it’s hard to be disappointed in which avenue they travel down. That’s because it’s kind of hard to fill a handful of needs when you only have two top-50 picks. However, I do believe that there is one clear path that they should consider traversing because of the way the board has fallen, and because of how they approached free agency.

If we start with the free-agent additions, we can dissect which positions they probably feel best with passing up:

• Jimmy Graham: While you may not agree with the money, Graham offers a shorter-term window of “potential starting success” (a phrase I will use loosely) and lets Chicago ignore the tight end need until later on in day three. The team releasing Trey Burton only confirms that there is faith in the former Packer delivering in a new scheme.
• Germain Ifedi: Ryan Pace did allude to how confident he is in this addition, and while fans might disagree, there might be some real confidence in the signing. He made most of his starts in Seattle at right tackle. It’s possible with a new scheme and new position change that he might not be an entire liability. In theory, we can survive a year with him holding down the fort (hopefully).
• Robert Quinn: Upgrading the pass-rush position is a win for the Bears, but they should at least consider stockpiling extra players to attack the pocket when Khalil Mack and Quinn are having a Gatorade break. It isn’t the biggest of needs, but asking Isaiah Irving and Barkevious Mingo to hold down the fort is a big ask.
• Nick Foles: Not much else needs to be said. Even if you are a part of Bears Twitter that loves Jalen Hurts or Anthony Gordon, quarterback is not an immediate need, no matter how uninspiring the in-house options are. I think they become fair game if the team trades down.
• Artie Burns, Tre Roberson, and Jordan Lucas: We’ll touch on them later.

Even if Chicago plans to go by the best player available route, which the organization has done in the past, I think we can use the process of elimination to determine what positions the Bears will target with picks 43 and 50.