With the 2020 NFL Draft in the books, the Chicago Bears welcomed seven new players to their roster. General manager Ryan Pace addressed several roster needs, including tight end with Cole Kmet, cornerback with Jaylon Johnson and Kindle Vildor, pass rush with Trevis Gipson, receiver Darnell Mooney and offensive line with Arlington Hambright and Lachavious Simmons.
There’s a lot to digest with this Bears’ draft class, including several implications for this team moving forward in 2020.
Here are six takeaways from the Bears’ 2020 draft class.
1. Safety wasn’t a pressing priority in their eyes
Heading into the 2020 NFL Draft, safety was listed among the top needs for the Bears. With a strong safety spot left to vacate with Ha Ha Clinton Dix’s departure, the Bears were expected to bring in a rookie to start opposite Eddie Jackson.
The stars looked to be aligning for Chicago in the second round. The Bears had some top safeties still on the board when picks 43 and 50 rolled around, and they’d have had their pick of LSU’s Grant Delpit, Minnesota’s Antoine Winfield Jr. and Southern Illinois’ Jeremy Chinn.
Instead, they opted to select tight end Cole Kmet at pick 43, surely a need, but it was definitely a surprise. When pick 50 rolled around, they nabbed one of the draft’s top cornerbacks in Utah’s Jaylon Johnson, which no one could argue with.
“It was a pretty deep corner draft and there was a run on them in the first round,” GM Ryan Pace told reporters. “We tried to stay true to our board as we could and when Cole was there with that first pick, we were excited to get him there at that spot.”
There were still some developmental safeties on the board when Round 5 rolled around, but the Bears opted to forgo safety for edge rusher, cornerback and wide receiver. If anything, it speaks more to the deeper cornerback class than anything.
The Bears feel comfortable, to a degree, with Deon Bush, Jordan Lucas and DeAndre Houston-Carson competing for that strong safety spot opposite Jackson. Not to mention, the Bears could still snag Tony Jefferson on the free-agent market if anything else.
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