6 cornerbacks the Chicago Bears can add this off-season

The Chicago Bears could use the 2022 NFL Draft to land some secondary help.

Kaiir Elam, Florida, Late 1st/early 2nd round projection

The draft space seems to be all over the map on Florida’s Kaiir Elam. Some people see him as a first-round lock, while others see him as more of a day 2 guy. I am in the first camp.

There just aren’t many guys with the size and movement skills that Elam possesses. He is listed at 6’2″ 196 lbs, yet moves like a guy half his size. He is extremely fluid in the way he mirrors receivers and that is rare to find in someone who is that lengthy.

Now, as he is this perfect shutdown corner with consistency throughout his entire 2021 season? No, he got beat much more this season and that is probably why people are leery. However, his best games were against better competition, and he posted PFF coverage grades of 81 in 2020 and 89.8 in 2019.

I am willing to bet on the traits and the post-production, and if he is available at 39, the Bears should too. He is the prototype of how Eberflus wants his corners to look and fits right into this match-zone defense. This is a guy who could be a more than viable starter from the jump and has the ceiling to be one of the better corners in the NFL.

Martin Emerson, Mississippi State, Midday 2 projection

There aren’t many better prospects fits with the Bears than Mississippi’s State’s Martin Emerson. The guy is a tree at 6’2″ 200 lbs and has those pterodactyl arms that get Eberflus’s mouth-watering. In addition to his physical profile, he thrived in a similar match zone system that Eberflus ran in Indy.

Emerson is excellent at staying square with receivers from an off alignment and then squeezing them once they break off their route. And once he gets those vines for arms on them, their route is over. He is also pretty good at attacking routes from a standstill.

The major shortcoming of his game is that he isn’t this twitchy mover that is going to shadow a teams’ best receiver. Fortunately, he doesn’t have to be, especially in this defense. With his size and length, he is just flat-out hard to get around. That is why Eberflus values these traits as much as he does.

Emerson is seen as a fringe round 2/early round-3 prospect right now. That could obviously change after the combine but he would be a home a run selection at 71. Or, if the Bears wanted to trade back from 39 and grab him later in round 2, I would not be mad in the slightest.

Tariq Woolen, UTSA, Late day 2/early day 3 projection

I featured Tariq Woolen on my players to watch at the Senior Bowl article and said he could be one of the biggest risers with a strong showing. Well, his Senior Bowl performance was very much like his tape, inconsistent.

He had moments where he would destroy receivers at the line of scrimmage with his long frame but also had moments where he got torched. It’s clear he is still very much a project. However, there aren’t many 6′ 3″ corners with 33.5-inch arms on the planet.

In addition to Woolen’s insane size, he is reportedly a freak athlete as well per Bruce Feldman’s Freak List. The Bears obviously need people who can start immediately. Is Woolen that guy? Probably not. But, his tools might be too much for Eberflus and his staff to resist.

Having said that, pick 71 is a little rich for Woolen in my opinion. Ideally, they could trade down in the 3rd round and grab him later. Even if that happened, they probably shouldn’t start him in year 1. Having a viable stop-gap option that would allow him to take a redshirt year would be the best path for his success.