Ryan Pace Will Face a Rough Chicago Bears Draft Streak Next April

Ryan Pace put the Chicago Bears in a difficult position regarding the NFL draft next year in 2019. The trades for Khalil Mack and Anthony Miller this past offseason cost them their 1st and 2nd round picks in that draft. Along with other maneuvers, they only have five picks at present and the highest resides in the 3rd round. This means the Bears will be a non-factor until late on day two of the festivities. This will be made all the more interesting by the background of the situation. The Bears have not made a pick in the 3rd round since 2016. This due to the trade they made with San Francisco to go get Mitch Trubisky, costing them both their 3rd rounders in 2017 and 2018. It's probably a good thing too. Truth be told. The 3rd round has become a bit of a house of horrors for the Bears dating back over a decade. The players they've gotten from it have ranged from decent to absolutely horrific. They haven't secured a truly special talent in that round since 2003 when they acquired a young linebacker named Lance Briggs. Since then, here's the list of picks they've made.

1. Bernard Berrian
2. Dusty Dvoracek
3. Michael Okwo
4. Garrett Wolfe
5. Marcus Harrison
6. Earl Bennett
7. Juaquin Iglesias
8. Jarron Gilbert
9. Major Wright
10. Chris Conte
11. Brandon Hardin
12. Will Sutton
13. Hroniss Grasu
14. Jonathan Bullard

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Ryan Pace has contributed to the Bears' 3rd round woes

Not exactly an inspiring list. Berrian and Bennett were decent receivers for a brief period. Wolfe was a special teams ace. Outside of that, it was a lot of average mixed with outright failures. Okwo, Iglesias, and Hardin didn't even play a regular season game in their careers. The painful part is Pace himself has failed to break that streak in two tries. Hroniss Grasu looked like he was becoming the starting center for the team before tearing his ACL at the start of 2016. He lost his job to Cody Whitehair and is no longer on the roster. Jonathan Bullard came in with lots of promise but he's failed to crack the starting lineup in three seasons to this point. Next year will mark Pace's third attempt to get it right, and he won't have a lot of leeway this time. He has few picks at his disposal and the 3rd rounder will be the most valuable. If he can't at least get a good player out of it, the odds of having a productive 2019 draft will drastically diminish. He doesn't need another Briggs, but somebody who can help the team is a must.