The Chicago Bears enters the off-season of 2021 in a strange position. They ended the season with a winning streak and reached the playoffs, but they also feel like a team that needs serious reconstruction and currently lacks third and fourth rounds NFL Draft picks. In this 7 round Bears 2021 NFL Mock Draft, Chicago finally finds a quarterback from the future to build around and adds an elite piece to his secondary.
Bears Pre-Senior Bowl 7-Round 2021 NFL Mock Draft
- Round 1, choose 11: Zach Wilson, QB, BYU *
- Round 2, choose 52: Hamsah Nasirildeen, S, FSU
- Round 5, choose 147: Thayer Munford, OT, Ohio State
- Round 6, choose 178: Tyler Vaughns, WR, USC
- Round 7, choose 194: Kylen Granson, TE, SMU
* Trade
- The bears receive the 11th overall selection in the New York Giants’ 2021 NFL Draft
- The giants receive the 20th and 83rd overall selection in the NFL 2021 draft and the Chicago first and third round selections in the NFL 2022 draft.
Bears 2021 7 rounds NFL Mock Draft pick-by-pick analysis
Zach Wilson, QB, BYU
The main priority in this 7-round Bears 2021 NFL Mock Draft is finding a true quarterback in the franchise. Windy City has been hungry for this commodity for a long time, and Zach Wilson could fill that void.
In the quarterback, Chicago currently has Mitch Trubisky and Nick Foles, but neither is an attractive option. Trubisky showed flashes in the final stretch, but that looks like fool’s gold. He must also become an unrestricted free agent in this off-season. Meanwhile, Nick Foles has been demoted since bankruptcy in the first round. Unfortunately, its dead limit reached is large enough to keep it around 2021 in all likelihood.
As a result, the Bears are no longer able to solve the quarterback problem and will have no money to attack a top veteran.
Enter Zach Wilson, the franchise quarterback the Bears have been looking for since Sid Luckman retired.
Zach Wilson’s strengths and weaknesses
Wilson has a fantastic arm and sometimes shows a ridiculous level of accuracy. He is also in his pocket and knows how to manipulate the protection to keep a piece alive. This will be a key feature for any Bears quarterback when rebuilding Chicago’s offensive line.
This mix of arm talent and functional mobility is the tempting aspect of Zach Wilson. This makes it look like a premium version of what Baker Mayfield was as a potential customer.
However, there are many reasonable concerns about Wilson. Although he has spikes of supernatural precision, he can also hit cold stretches, where he will force receptionists to make major adjustments to the ball. Its mechanics are also not fully polished and its base can be very wide.
However, these strokes are not enough to make the Bears doubt that choice. It fits everything they would like a franchise defender. Landing it with the eleventh choice is a steal.
Negotiating until the draft Zach Wilson
In order to summon Wilson in this 7-round NFL Bears 2021 Draft Mock, Chicago needed to negotiate.
Some may argue against the exchange, as the Bears are still recovering from the exchange of several choices for the Las Vegas Raiders by Khalil Mack, but this is different.
This is a negotiation to get the kind of franchise that QB Chicago did not have for half a century. It is not a tradeoff to get one of the best defensive players in the NFL.
When Wilson started to fall into the draft, the Bears tried to negotiate with the Eagles and Panthers before finally agreeing to a deal with the Giants. In exchange for the 11th overall selection, the Bears sent back their choices for the first and third round of this year’s draft and the next.
This is quite expensive to move nine slots, but it allows Chicago to maintain its second-round picks for each of the next two seasons. It also allows them to start building around a young and talented quarterback.
Hamsah Nasirildeen, S, State of Florida
The secondary Bears has a ton of parts to build around moving forward. They have an elite free security in Eddie Jackson, and two famous cornerbacks in Kyle Fuller and newcomer Jaylon Johnson. However, the security point next to Jackson remains a hole.
Both of its two main security devices, Tashaun Gipson and Deon Bush, are replacement level. They also have expired contracts, and Chicago is unlikely to bring them back.
Selecting Hamsah Nasirildeen in this 7-round Draft Mock of the NFL’s Bears 2021 would be an upgrade there and would give Chicago a promising future in high school.
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You cannot emphasize enough how Nasirildeen is special from an athletic point of view. He is tense and has great long speed for loading receivers or tight ends in the field. Nasirildeen also has a well-built structure that is long but robust.
In addition to athletics, Nasirildeen also showed great versatility in defending the Seminoles. He played well on top, on the slot machine and down in the area, although he is at his best in football. His ability as a striker flying in the field to blow up a running back is particularly impressive.
The red flags with Nasirildeen are much smaller, which makes it surprising to see it projected in the second round. He tore his ACL in 2019, but has been healthy this season. He also relies heavily on his athletic ability to make plays on the cover, as well as making quick passes. Then, he will have to refine the more technical aspects of these functions to the next level.
Thayer Munford, OT, Ohio
Chicago’s next selection is not until the fifth round because of its exchange with New York. However, they still manage to land an exciting development prospect.
Thayer Munford, from Ohio, already looks like a NFL tackle at 6 feet-6, 325 pounds. He also has a desirable arm length and solid movement skills, which, when combined with his mammoth size, will make him a headache for opposite edge rushers.
Munford’s problem is that there are not many promising traits outside of this fantastic tool set. His feet are rough and he struggles to plant, which makes no sense considering the aforementioned picture. He is also always late with his hands, which digs him into a hole from which he does not yet have the skills to dig.
However, Munford makes sense to the Bears as a tackle in the fifth round. You will rarely see a tackle with this athletic profile fall so far in the draft, and between Bobby Massie and Charles Leno, Chicago has beginners who will allow them to develop Munford.
Tyler Vaughns, WR, USC
Chicago will almost certainly lose Allen Robinson to the free agency, so they will have to try to find a way to replace him in this 7-round Bears 2021 NFL Mock Draft.
Ideally, they would target a wide receiver earlier in the draft, but the board did not fall this time. With that said, landing Tyler Vaughns in the sixth round is not a bad consolation prize.
Vaughns doesn’t have the speed to break the game, but he showed great hands and stamina. He will attack the ball in the air and does a good job of surviving the contact to bring the reception. Vaughns is also a smart player who has shown the ability to operate both outside and inside the slot, and he knows where to attack the defender.
The concern Chicago should have for Vaughns is that he is struggling to break up, which is worrying. He cannot part with pure athletics just by means of speed or strength. He is also not an elite runner. As a result, he has to fight tooth and nail for almost every footprint. This is a much more difficult strategy to succeed in the NFL than in Pac-12.
Kylen Granson, TE, SMU
The Bears have just spent their favorite choice in the 2020 NFL Draft on the tight end Cole Kmet, but Kylen Granson is too good to pass up here.
Granson is an athletic tight end that could replace and potentially update Jimmy Graham. It won’t offer much as a blocker, but it is a confrontational nightmare that can quickly become a red zone option.
However, Granson plays more like a thick wide receiver than a tight end, making it quite one-dimensional. In addition, it does not have the size advantage that you would like to see at the end of this style.
If Chicago selected Granson, this could allow Kmet to be his full tight end, which is the focal point of the attack, while Granson is used as the field stretch counter strike.
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