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The homework is almost complete. The big test is just around the corner. The Chicago Bears will punctuate an important offseason when they roll through seven rounds of the NFL draft next week, looking to add impact starters and reliable role players.
General manager Ryan Poles remains optimistic about the strides the Bears can make and will enter draft week with 10 picks, starting with No. 9 in Round 1. NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah is among many around the league intrigued by what the Bears might do with their top-10 selection. Jeremiah also was impressed with the trade Poles made last month to stockpile draft capital for the next three years while also adding veteran receiver DJ Moore.
Jeremiah took time out recently to speak with the Tribune’s Dan Wiederer on all that has happened with the Bears this offseason and what might be ahead in the draft.
In February when I asked about the possibilities for the Bears trading out of the No. 1 pick, you said their most likely trade partner was probably the Colts but that the ideal target in terms of a maximized return would be the Panthers at No. 9. When that trade went down in March, what was your initial reaction to the deal and what the Bears got back?
I thought it was a no-brainer. I guess the old “offer you can’t refuse” analogy, that qualified. To be able to get DJ Moore in that deal was huge. A huge part of it to be able to get a guy who can be a No. 1 receiver, who has a track record in the league and who’s going to make your quarterback’s life so much easier in a year where the top-end wideouts in this draft are not great. I thought that was a great haul.
They got a proven standout receiver for Justin Fields plus a small gift basket of picks in the trade. Overall, how do you put in perspective the value of that return while still keeping in mind that many times these future picks are little more than a dream that doesn’t come true?
Look, they’re all going to be dependent on you hitting on those picks. And a lot of times the problem is not with the tool, it’s with the carpenter, right? So it’s whether you have the right people making the picks. I feel like they have a good personnel department right now with guys I’ve known over the years and who I think know what they’re doing. So having the right picks in the right hands is a good thing. And the centerpiece of that is you already have a name-brand, proven player. So that makes that (trade) even better. But they have a chance in this draft with four of the first 65 picks. They should be able to come away with four starters with those four picks this year, not to mention what they’ve got for the future.
[ [Don’t miss] Who will the Chicago Bears select at No. 9? Brad Biggs’ NFL mock draft 2.0. ]
With what you know about Ryan Poles and assistant GM Ian Cunningham, what are the things that leave you with the feeling that this is in good hands?
They both come from places where they understand the importance of the line of scrimmage. “Best player available” is one thing. But I also think that “best player available in the trenches” is a good way to go, and that’s how both those guys were raised in this league. That’s incredibly important as they try to build the foundation of this team going forward. And knowing that you have to give your quarterback a chance and that you have to have a chance to truly evaluate your quarterback in this upcoming season, I think they’re in a good spot to be able to get that accomplished.
Now that the Bears have the No. 9 pick, they are in a spot on the board where a lot of us assume they’ll address one of the fronts. In Chicago, there’s understandably a lot of curiosity as to what will happen with Jalen Carter on Night 1 of the draft. If you were Ryan Poles or part of his staff trying to put together the most comprehensive evaluation possible, what questions would you want answered about Jalen Carter and what questions would you want answered by Jalen Carter?
You talk to him and you would think that he’s going to say all the right things. To me, you’re going to be spending a lot more time around those who have been around him, including teammates, support staff, coaches, all those things. And you’re trying to compile as complete a profile as you can. One of the things with him, obviously the decision-making off the field is a real concern. When you watch him on the tape, I see a guy who appears to be pretty passionate and who plays with a lot of effort and really loves football. Just in my personal experience from years past, when guys have that part of it and they know that it can be taken away from them, that can open their eyes a little bit and you can get an improvement on some of the stuff that has taken place off the field. If you have some off-the-field issues and football doesn’t really matter to them all that much and it’s just kind of a means to an end, that to me is a way scarier process and carries much more risk. So that’s part of the homework that you really have to do.
As part of that homework, how does a front office ride the seesaw between the potential regret you might have five years up the road from passing on a talent like Carter versus five years up the road having the regret of selecting him and some of the off-the-field stuff burns you?
I go back to my time with Ozzie Newsome (in Baltimore), and I’m sure Ian will rely on this as well. You can’t be scared to be aggressive. But Ozzie always felt like in the first round, he was OK with doubles, he just didn’t want misses. So that philosophy served him and that organization well for a very long time. So if they can get to a point where they’re comfortable and they feel like they’ve really minimized the risk there, the talent is undeniable. I think he’s the most talented player in the draft. But if it’s a 50-50 deal in terms of whether or not you feel like he’s going to be able to toe the line and do what needs to be done on and off the field, I don’t think they would do it.
It’s almost unanimous that the Bears still need to upgrade their offensive line in front of Justin Fields. If you were hellbent on drafting an offensive tackle before Thursday night ends, who’s your favorite of the Peter Skoronski-Paris Johnson-Broderick Jones trio? And if they wanted to wait until Friday night, who might seem appealing in that mid-50s to early 60s range where they have several picks?
For me, it’s Skoronski. Even though there’s a chance he ends up moving inside and playing guard, I think he’s the best football player. And that allows you to get your best five on the field. Because I think he could play any of the five positions, to be honest. So that would be the way I would go at No. 9 if you were staring at all of them. If you are looking for what might still be there at No. 53, it kind of falls off. After (Darnell) Wright, Paris Johnson and Broderick Jones, there’s a pretty steep drop-off. And to be honest, I don’t love the options you’re going to be facing there. You’re looking at Dawand Jones (of Ohio State), Jaelyn Duncan (of Maryland). I don’t really love either player. There’s a lot of ability there, but those are probably the top two guys. I like Matthew Bergeron a lot from Syracuse. Of those guys, Bergeron would be the one I would prefer, although he’s similar to Skoronski in that a lot of teams have him as a guard.
What reservations would you have in using a top-10 pick on a guy like Skoronski, whose position you might not know yet?
There’s a difference between not thinking a guy can play tackle versus thinking that the guy is going to be a better guard. I think he can be a good tackle. A good example would be a guy like Zack Martin. Zack Martin could have played tackle in the NFL and been a good tackle. And he has had to at times. Zack Martin is going to go to the Hall of Fame as a guard. We saw it with Alijah Vera-Tucker when he came out a few years ago. He could play right tackle — and he did last year when called upon and did really well. But he has a chance to be a much more dominant guard. So with Skoronski, to say that he’s not a tackle is not accurate. I would just say he’s even a better guard.
Another guy getting some buzz in the pre-draft process is Georgia’s Nolan Smith. And there’s obviously a lot to like with his speed, the burst, the character. I know you’ve used the Haason Reddick comparison in terms of their size/skill-set similarities. But do you see Smith exclusively as a 3-4 edge rusher, or could Matt Eberflus find a way to use him as a chess piece in a 4-3 defense, especially considering all the Bears have already done at linebacker this offseason by signing Tremaine Edmunds and T.J. Edwards?
You can play him off the ball (in a 4-3). He’s shown the ability to do that. So you can do a lot of different things with him. To me, similar to Reddick when he was coming out because it took a minute to figure out where is he best. And then it was like, “Just screw it! Let’s just let him rush! Let’s just put him down there and let him go.” I think that’s kind of the same thing with Nolan Smith. I think that’s where he’s going to be most impactful. But no question he can play off the ball if you wanted him to do that.
If you look at Smith being at his best as a pass rusher, would it be difficult for him to fit in a 4-3?
I’ve kind of gotten away from being too hung up on 4-3 or 3-4. At the end of the day, you’re in your sub-package rush, you’re playing with four down. It’s not really a huge difference there. I think he can do that. But just know that you’re going to have to cover him up at certain times against the run. Roll guys through there on some of the early downs. But, no, I don’t think you’d dismiss him as a four-man front team.
It’s always easy to get fixated on the headliner of a draft class and not see the entire field with the understanding that the draft doesn’t end on Thursday night and that Poles will have his chance to add 10, maybe 12 players to the roster. When you look at the Bears, what are the one or two boxes you think they must absolutely, positively have checked when draft weekend ends?
To me, it’s all the offensive line. I just go back to this being the year of Fields, sink or swim. Knowing exactly what you have with him. That’s why, if you told me they’d have the 32nd-ranked defense in the league next year but they knew whether or not Fields was the guy, I think it would be a successful year. I know you have a defensive head coach, but this should be an offensive-heavy draft. Even though the defense is where it is, I want to give (Fields) every opportunity to be successful and give yourself every opportunity to evaluate him as you go into a year next year where you have some extra picks and it looks — at least ahead of time — like it’s a good quarterback year. I think they have to know what they have in Fields at the end of next season.
To that point, we’ve talked here about Poles having the responsibility to set up the “No Excuses Tour” in 2023 for Fields and get him that help up front and in the playmaking department. If you were the chief overseer of assessing who Fields is as a quarterback, what are the things you have to see out of him in 2023 and the steps he needs to take for the front office to stay down that path with him beyond this season?
In simplest form, I want to see him major in his arm and minor in his legs. You could arguably say, at no fault of his own, that’s what they’ve have had to do because of who they had in front of him and what they had outside. He didn’t have much choice. But I want to see him show improvement (as a passer). Win from the pocket. Be a more consistent passer. Be more accurate. All those things. I just don’t think we’ve had a chance to fairly evaluate him in that world. So that is the improvement I want to see. I want to see the legs be more of a “In case of emergency, break glass” option as opposed to being the No. 1 option.
Ohio State receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba looks like a guy who probably would be available to the Bears in the top 10. When you watch him on film, what jumps out and how do you separate his 2022 evaluation from the 2021 part?
There’s not much to go off of in 2022. So you go back to 2021 and you see somebody who is a ready-made slot receiver. He has really good feel working the middle of the field. He’s quick. He’s tough. He did not play with elite speed. And I think he could play outside, but you’d be taking him away from what he does best, which is just working the middle of the field. He’s going to be a high, high volume guy. Lots of targets. Lots of catches. Lots of first downs. I don’t think he’s going to be a huge yards-per-catch guy. I don’t really see him playing outside. I think he has a very specific role.
As an extension of that, with Poles’ own acknowledgment that this is going to take multiple successful drafts — maybe three or four — to get fixed properly, how would you reset expectations and patience levels internally of not feeling pressured to get it all done now, now, now like the rest of the world wants?
That’s why I go back to this: Let’s start with the goal in mind of fixing one side of the ball. And when you have a young quarterback, I think you have to start on the offensive side of the ball. Get that all up and running. Let (Fields) have a chance with some players around him. Let him grow in confidence. Then, as you get that side fixed, now as those guys are growing together, if you need to let some of those guys walk on second contracts and maybe reallocate some of those resources to the defense when your quarterback is established and he can elevate the play of others around him, then you can try to get that other side fixed. But initially, this should all be about trying to get this offense up and running.
