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When we last visited the mock draft of ESPN's drafting guru Mel Kiper, he was doing his Grade: A mock where he picks players based on how he would draft if he were running each team. He gave the Bears Darqueze Dennard the Michigan St. cornerback in the first, defensive tackle Brent Urban of Virginia in the 2nd, and in the third it was another DT, Caraun Reid from Princeton.
In his latest mock draft he's back to picking how he thinks each team will pick. We won't bring you his entire mock, since it's behind a pay wall, but we will spotlight his Chicago Bears' selections at 14 and 51.
In the 1st round he has the Bears going in a familiar direction with Aaron Donald, the quick defensive tackle from Pittsburgh. Here's his take on the pick.
The Bears added Lamarr Houston and Jared Allen in free agency, a big help to the defensive line. But by the end of last season -- with injuries to blame -- no defensive line was in worse shape than Chicago's, and the team still needs to stack some more sandbags up front or the Bears are going to be in trouble against any team with a decent run game. Donald is the most disruptive interior defender in this draft, and precisely with the Bears need, a play wrecker from the 3-technique role.
He had corner Dennard going at 13, Alabama safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix going at 10 and Louisville safety Calvin Pryor still on the board for the Bears.
I'm all in with Donald being the pick if he's available, so I have no criticism of this selection.
In the 2nd round he has the Bears going with cornerback Lamarcus Joyner from Florida St., and here's his reasoning behind the selection.
Both Tim Jennings and Charles Tillman are over 30, and Joyner has added value for the Bears because he can also play safety. The Bears need help everywhere you look on the back end of the defense, and Joyner is a playmaker.
He not only played both corner and safety at Florida State, he played both well. He played corner as a true freshman, moved to strong safety in 2011 and was named 2nd Team All ACC. He remained at safety for his Junior season, but returned to corner in 2013 where he was named 1st team All ACC.
Much of his time as a Senior was spent lined up at nickle, where he covered slot receivers. As an added bonus, he's a physical run defender from either safety or corner even though he lacks ideal size (5' 8", 184).
What do you think about these two players if the actual Bears draft went this way?