4. Pace might’ve found some more late-round gems in 5th round
Ultimately when looking back at the Bears’ 2020 draft class, it might be the fifth-rounders that we’re talking about. While Ryan Pace has failed on more than one occasion with his first-round selections, he’s almost made up for it with some of the studs that he’s found in the later rounds.
Pace traded twice in the fifth round to acquire some high-value prospects. The Bears traded a 2021 fourth-round pick to move up eight spots before their first fifth-rounder to select Tulsa edge rusher Trevis Gipson, who has the physical tools to develop into a bonafide No. 3 EDGE player for the Bears.
The Bears added Georgia Southern cornerback Kindle Vildor with their actual fifth-round selection. And while he’s not going to be an immediate starter like Johnson, he’ll be a solid special teams player for Chicago. But Pace wasn’t done after Vildor. He traded both sixth-round picks to move back into the fifth round to take Tulane receiver Darnell Mooney, who should provide some much-needed speed to this Bears offense.
“We felt like that area of the draft — right there in the fifth round — there was a lot of value for us where we had players graded really high on our board,” Pace told reporters.
It’s too early to gauge whether these players will become the late-round gems that Eddie Jackson and Nick Kwiatkoski, among others, have become. But when it comes to the later rounds, Pace’s track record speaks for itself.
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