It was hard to expect much from the Bears’ 2019 rookie draft class considering that they had just five draft selections, including no picks before Round 3 and three selections in Round 6 and 7.
The Bears’ rookie class was less than impactful. David Montgomery was the only rookie that saw substantial playing time in 2019, as he took over as the team’s starting running back.
Surprisingly, ESPN and Pro Football Focus ranked the Bears’ rookie class the eighth best in 2019.
The Bears have a strange class. They had only five picks, none before Round 3, with three of those five selections coming after Round 6. As a result, their expected return was low. Running back David Montgomery was really the only Bears’ rookie to play significant snaps, and he managed to provide enough return from his third-round selection to land them at No. 8.
While Montgomery showed flashes of potential in Matt Nagy’s limited rushing offense, you could argue that it wasn’t enough to garner the Bears’ underperforming rookie class in the top-10. Montgomery had 889 rushing yards and six touchdowns as a rookie.
Highly-touted fourth-round receiver Riley Ridley was shelved for most of the season, and it took injuries to the Bears receiving corp. for Ridley to get some playing time in the final three games. He finished his rookie season with six receptions for 69 yards.
Sixth-round cornerback Duke Shelley was confined to special teams in his rookie season. While seventh-round running back Kerrith Whyte Jr. was signed off the Bears practice squad by the Steelers, where he had 24 carries for 122 yards in six games. Then there’s seventh-round cornerback Stephen Denmark, who spent his rookie season on the Bears’ practice squad.
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