Chicago Bears: First round breaks in Bears’ favor

The first round of the NFL Draft is in the books and it went pretty well for the Chicago Bears.

Although the Chicago Bears did not have a pick in the first round of last night’s NFL Draft, there was still plenty for fans to keep track of. As the Kansas City Chiefs made the final selection of Clyde Edwards-Helaire, one thing became clear — the first round broke pretty well for the Bears.

Although the first-round saw seven offensive linemen come off the board, the one with whom the team seemed to have the most contact — at least publicly — is still available, and that is tackle Josh Jones from the University of Houston. Lloyd Cushenberry, an interior line option who we’ve highlighted previously is also still available and would give the Bears another high-quality option if they want to go the route of offensive line.

Another position of need for the Bears is safety, and while some are not in favor of spending a second-round pick on a safety, it just so happens that the two best safeties in the entire draft are still available — Xavier McKinney and Grant Delpit. Also still available is another safety with whom the Bears have been linked and that is Jeremy Chinn, the thumper from Southern Illinois University and fan-favorite Antoine Winfield, out of Minnesota.

If safety isn’t your thing, and you’re looking for more value out of the second round, then you might look to cornerback where AJ Terrell’s and Damon Arnette‘s surprise first-round selection pushed down some quality cornerback options. One of them is a player the Bears are reportedly ga-ga over and that is Trevon Diggs, brother of Stefon Diggs. Two other strong candidates in LSU’s Kristian Fulton and Utah’s Jaylon Johnson could also be available when the Bears make their selections at 43 and 50.

The one position that took a big hit in the first round is wide receiver. Although it’s been heralded as a very deep draft at the position, six of them went on Day 1. Among them were fan favorites Jalen Reagor and Brandon Aiyuk. However, because of the depth at the position, there are still plenty of good ones left like Michael Pittman, Denzel Mims, Laviska Shenault, KJ Hamler, and Chase Claypool.

Any of those players would be wonderful picks for the Bears, and with the depth, they could even trade down and still manage to land a high impact player while recouping picks.