Bears should have day-one starters – but make ‘em earn it

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Ryan Pace’s draft portfolio is still an obvious work in progress, particularly the “Incomplete” grade hanging over his No. 1’s with Kevin White and Mitch Trubisky still very much in their prove-it years.

But if he and his staff have shown anything, it would be an aptitude for the kind of “solid but not spectacular” talent that lives in Rounds 2-4, especially in Round 2, where Pace secured nose tackle Eddie Goldman in 2015 and (guard?) Cody Whitehair the following year. Adam Shaheen remains to be seen, literally and figuratively, but Tarik Cohen, Eddie Jackson and Nick Kwiatkoski have all been fourth-round hits the past two years.

So when the Bears on Friday used their second round pick (the first of two, as it turned out) for Iowa center James Daniels, the sense is that Pace has significantly strengthened the fortifications around Trubisky, and he’s done it without expending stratospheric draft capital for a guard in Quenton Nelson. Daniels becomes the third offensive lineman in Pace’s four drafts selected inside the first three rounds (Hroniss Grasu, Whitehair and now Daniels).

Daniels, one of the Bears’ pre-draft visitors, has been the Hawkeyes’ starting center for two full seasons, pointing to him being ticketed for that spot and Whitehair for a return to guard. All of this assuming that they beat out Grasu for center and Earl Watford and Eric Kush at guard. And also assuming that Kyle Long is able to fully resume his career after his spectrum of surgeries.

(And wherever Daniels plays, he absolutely has to earn the job. More on that momentarily.)

Projecting rookies as starters, particularly on the offensive line, is always a leap. But Long was a day-one starter; Whitehair was starting at guard in 2016 before Grasu, the starter at center, was lost in camp to a torn ACL.

What adds to the Daniels appeal is that he worked very successfully at Iowa in very much the kind of system that the Bears will operate under coach Matt Nagy and offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich. “At Iowa, we’re primarily a zone offense, inside and outside zone,” said Daniels, 6-3, 306 pounds, during this year’s Combine. “Two backs, two tight ends. We run a lot of zone. We ran every type of play we could – zone, power and so it really doesn’t matter. I’m comfortable with any type of scheme.”

Exactly where he’ll be judged most comfortable by line coach Harry Hiestand remains to play out. But if Pace’s touch with No. 2 picks holds, it’ll be somewhere, soon.

“Trader Pace” makes bold move for his QB and offense base

It wouldn’t be an NFL draft without a Ryan Pace trade or two within the first two rounds. So after he’d traded up in the 2016 and 2017 first rounds, and down in each of those second rounds (twice in last year’s), it shouldn’t have come as a total surprise when Trader Pace went for it again, this time trading UP in Round 2, giving up next year’s second rounder and a fourth round pick this year to come vault into the round for Memphis wide receiver Anthony Miller.

The move suggests that the Bears’ under-tender’ing Cam Meredith was not a market miscalculation, but presumably a calculation that they had targeted a wide receiver to replace Meredith all along. They traded up for a second round pick to use on Miller, a second round pick that they wouldn’t have gotten with a second round tender to Meredith; teams weren’t going to give up a “2” for Meredith.

That the Bears were willing to mortgage some of their already short supply of draft capital speaks to the grade they had on Miller, who’s coming off what he reported at the Combine was a “Jones fracture” of his right foot. At 5-11, 201 pounds, and not a certified burner with his 40 times in the 4.5-sec. range, Miller was a production machine, with years of 47-95-96 catches, nearly 2,900 combined yards and 32 receiving touchdowns over his junior and senior seasons.

Not bad for someone who had a couple of D-II offers but no Division I’s and did what he did as a walk-on at Memphis. “It shows a lot of guys that they don't need all the recognition and the five stars just to be able to achieve something,” Miller said at the Combine. “All you have to do is put your mind to it and you are there.”

With Roquan Smith, honor “the code”

Roquan Smith is already being discussed in scheme terms, mostly as part of an inside-linebacker pairing with Danny Trevathan. Meaning that Smith is already being given Nick Kwiatkoski’s starting job.

Bad idea. Bad idea to give Smith or any rookie anything. “The code” says you win jobs in the NFL. Smith needs to win his. Period.

Neither Kwiatkoski nor Trevathan has played a full season in either of their two as Bears. But coaches once made a monumental gaffe announcing Brian Urlacher as the starting strong-side linebacker shortly after his selection at No. 9 in the 2000 draft. Urlacher wasn’t a fit at “Sam,” wasn’t ready for the NFL initially, and lost his job back to Rosevelt Colvin before that preseason was half over.

All that handing Urlacher a job accomplished was to alienate Colvin and set Urlacher up for an early failure, although he did recover from it pretty well. But even he said later than giving him a job rather than honoring the usual make-him-earn-it code was a mistake, for all concerned.

Kwiatkoski finished the season as a starter on what was a top-10 defense. Same with Trevathan. If Smith can’t win the job, then Ryan Pace has some ‘splainin’ to do, but players know who should be playing, and until Smith is better than the two incumbents, he shouldn’t. Leonard Floyd and Mitch Trubisky didn’t start on day one’s of offseason camps; by the end of preseason, Floyd had won his job and Trubisky eventually won his when he was better than the guy ahead of him.

Smith should be starting by the September trip to Green Bay. He could well be the day-one starter in Bourbonnais; based on offseason work, Jameis Winston at Tampa Bay and other established primacy through the minicamps and OTA’s.

Just go earn it, young man.

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