The 2021 NFL draft is more than six months away, but as is always the case this time of year, mock drafts are being produced at a fast and furious pace.
Is it silly to pay too much attention to mock drafts in October? A little, but if you don’t think there’s any value to them, then you’re missing a great opportunity to build an understanding of the upcoming draft class and the potential team needs that are beginning to crystallize across the NFL.
For the Bears, the 2021 draft conversation starts at quarterback, where veteran Nick Foles is serving as a quality bridge to whoever will take the next swing at being the team’s long-term franchise passer.
Most mock drafts have Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, Ohio State’s Justin Fields, and North Dakota State’s Trey Lance at the top of the quarterback class, with all three coming off the board in or around the first 10 picks.
BYU’s Zach Wilson and Alabama’s Mac Jones are building momentum as potential first-round quarterbacks too, but by the time the Bears are on the clock — assuming their 5-1 start isn’t a fluke — they could be left just outside the top-quarterback range.
According to the latest mock draft from The Draft Network, GM Ryan Pace is still going to take his swing at a signal-caller, and it’s a guy who hasn’t been discussed (at least not yet) as a consensus top-32 name: Florida’s Kyle Trask.
It ain’t Mitchell Trubisky, and it ain’t Nick Foles. The Bears have one of the more surprising records—who am I kidding, their 5-1 record is without a doubt the most surprising—in the NFL. They can’t drink their own Kool-Aid, though. They have to make a change and invest in a new future at that position.
Trask is off to a great start in 2020. He’s completed 71.8% of his passes (through three games) for 996 yards, 14 touchdowns and just one interception.
Trask looks the part aside from the production, too. At 6-5 and 239 pounds, he’s the prototype (or at least what used to be the prototype) for the position in the NFL. He moves well, too, and has an NFL-capable arm.
The problem with projecting Trask to the Bears is that he isn’t a slamdunk must-have first-round quarterback and I don’t see Pace taking any chances on a quarterback after his epic failure with the Trubisky selection in 2017.
The next quarterback Pace picks is going to be a can’t-miss type of guy. Otherwise, it’s safer to expect him to wait until Day 2 (or later) when there’s less pressure on his next hand-picked QB to pan out.