Chicago Bears NFL Draft: Is Trey Lance being overlooked?

Do the Chicago Bears have a shot at Trey Lance, the dynamic signal-caller?

After defeating the Houston Texans last Sunday, the Chicago Bears currently sit at the 15th overall pick in next year’s NFL Draft, which could be Trey Lance territory (more on that below). You can almost etch in stone a win against the Jacksonville Jaguars, meaning at worst, they’ll finish 7-9, and at best, if they can go on a magical run, they’ll finish 9-7.

Regardless, the reality is they will be in that range, and will likely stay in the middle of the draft order. Sitting in the mid-teens will put them eons away from Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields. In all reality, it will likely put fast-rising BYU quarterback Zach Wilson out of reach, as he seems to have overtaken the role as QB3 in this draft.

Absent mortgaging the future by trading a haul of draft picks (a move which failed majestically in 2017) you can forget about those three studs.

That’s the bad news. However, there is actually some potential good news in all of this, and that is the Bears may still have a chance to land one of the top quarterbacks in the draft in Lance.

There’s an old expression that goes “out of sight, out of mind.” Such might be the case with Lance. Prior to the start of the college football season, Lance was affixed as the third-rated quarterback in the draft, with some even speculating that with a terrific season, he could challenge Lawrence for the top pick. As we now know, Lance never got the chance to play that full season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Consequently, he appears to be sliding some in the most recent mock drafts. Now it’s important to note that what you see in mock drafts is not necessarily consistent with what’s happening across the league’s front offices. Nevertheless, the concern over him being just a one-year starter is likely real. To the extent that a guy like Wilson has put a solid year on tape, he could realistically overtake Lance for the third spot.

That would be great news for the Bears as they could still have a shot at a quarterback as dynamic as Lance. While he may be the “forgotten man” to some, his dynamic skill-set is unquestionable. While you can have legitimate concerns about his number of starts or level of competition, his talent is beyond reproach. He has all of the traits (physical and mental) that a franchise should be looking for in the face of their franchise.

So as we continue through the rest of this season and the offseason, people may continue to sleep on Lance, and that would be just fine by me.