LAKE FOREST – It was as entertaining of a first round as the NFL has had in years on Thursday night, with trades of picks and players seemingly coming every couple of minutes.
Bears fans were left to sit and watch those moves being made since their team was without a first round pick and lacked the draft capital to try and move up into Thursday’s selections. That wasn’t much of a disappointment, since it would have taken something extraordinary for the Bears to have gotten into the first round.
In reality, the Bears 2022 NFL Draft begins on Friday, when Ryan Poles will get the opportunity to make his first selections as the general manager of the Bears. Just like the first round, there is no telling where the Bears might go in the second and third starting at 6 PM.
At the moment, Poles has the No. 39 and No. 48 pick in the second round and the 71st overall selection in the third. As always, that’s subject to change, and with just six overall selections in this year’s draft, there is a good chance that a deal could be made to give the general manager a few more picks.
The team has two selections in the fifth round, the 148th and 150th overall, and one in the sixth, the 186th overall, on Saturday.
The 2022 draft remains deep at a number of positions of need for the Bears, including wide receiver and cornerback, though the Bears really would be open for depth at just about every position but quarterback.
Friday is a big moment for Poles, who will be the one to officially pull the trigger on selections for the first time in his administrative career.
“It’s bigger, but at the same time, you just rely on the work that everyone put in to make the right decision,” said Poles of his first draft. “That was the cool thing about doing a lot of these mock-up drafts is we feel comfortable with the way this thing is going to play out.”
It could a number of ways over the next two days, but at last the Bears will be on the clock starting Friday.
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