If the Bears fail to get their next starting defender through exchange, or sign a free agent when the league year starts on March 17, that doesn’t mean the team is stuck in trotting Nick Foles back to the field in 2021. Sure , there is always the draft. For the first time since 2018, the Bears have a choice in the first round, so it can be a great opportunity to chart a new face for the franchise, right? Well, by the time the Bears’ choice reaches the 20th overall position, many of the most important names must already be off the board.
However, Chris Simms of Sunday Night Football said on Monday that he believes a quarterback with a first-round draft note may fall into the draft on April 29: Trey Lance.
“Trey Lance is the one I’m really intrigued by,” said Simms. “For me, now, just based on my research, people put Trey Lance in the top ten, I don’t see that at all. I mean, at all. For me, my initial statement would be, Trey Lance is too tall and Mac Jones is too short. I bet that changes at some point. “
Our own Adam Hoge agrees, and even had Lance go to Bears at No. 20 overall in his first mock draft after the Super Bowl. In this simulated draft, Hoge listed several reasons why Lance might fall into the hands of the Bears, and why drawing Lance carries some risk.
“There are legitimate questions about the level of competition (FCS) and its development, especially considering that Lance only played one game in 2020,” said Hoge. “And it comes from the personnel assessors I spoke to – not me. Although the state of North Dakota uses a professional-style attack, the 2019 manual was very basic and Bison rarely opened it with Lance’s big arm. In fact, in 19 career games, Lance tried more than 23 passes in one game twice. In total, there are only 318 college approval attempts to assess. To put this in perspective, Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson and Mac Jones launched more than 318 passes in 2020 alone and the only reason Justin Fields was capped at 225 this season is because Ohio State played only eight games. But even Fields has 618 career approval attempts to evaluate. “
However, Simms’ reservations about Lance’s prospects in the NFL go a little deeper.
“I know he played just one game, but I would be very concerned about how he played the ball,” said Simms. “I would even be concerned about what they called the game. It shows that they are even afraid to play football with him. Even the tapes from before that, from last year, are an initial approach. He has a very wild movement. The ball can go anywhere with him. So this is where, in the early stages, I think it is overestimated based on my TV research.
To be fair, Simms said it was all based on his first impressions, watching the games at home. He will start to delve into each of these QBs starting this week.
On the other hand, Hoge also wrote why Lance could be a great option for the Bears after watching his solitary game in 2020, despite some concerns.
“As a redshirt freshman in 2019, all Lance did was reach 16-0, win a national championship, complete 66.9 percent of his passes, shoot for 2,786 yards, shoot for 28 touchdowns and run for another 14. Ah , and he did not launch a single interception. That’s right. Lance went to his 17th college game of his career on Saturday, without interceptions.
“Lance can run, but he is also restless and can get rid of the blocks with his strength. It’s a pretty deadly combination. The arm is quite strong and although I still think there is something to prove with accuracy, you can’t really argue with a guy with zero interceptions in a full season of college football, even at the FCS level. Another strength is the attack with which he plays. The bison huddles together, they make plays under the center with game action and play outside the shotgun. They run the ball and tight ends are heavily involved. It is not a very exotic offense, but it translates into the NFL and, honestly, there are similarities to what the Bears had been doing in 2020 ”.
None of this back and forth is new. Each year, we dissect the smallest details of each defender trying to discern who will have the best career. There were pros and cons that scouts found in Mitchell Trubisky’s work, just as there were pros and cons that scouts found in Patrick Mahomes’ work.
Assessing talent as a defender is one of the most difficult things to do at the NFL level. Unfortunately for the Bears, they find themselves doing this for the second year in a row.
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