Mocking the Mocks: Three Chicago Bears 7-round mock drafts

The 2015 NFL Draft is only a matter of days away now, and everyone has a theory on whom the Chicago Bears will take with their first round pick, the seventh overall.  But what about in the other rounds?  Here are three recent mock drafts that look a little deeper than most - not necessarily to predict exactly which player will be taken in each, but rather to highlight the kind of player who might be still available at that point, and how that could mesh with what Ryan Pace and John Fox are thought to be looking for in the draft.

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First up it's Not-Hub Fishbain's mock draft 3.0.  Here's how he sees it shaping up:

Round 1, Pick 7: Alabama WR Amari Cooper

Round 2, Pick 39 (potential trade-up): Connecticut CB Byron Jones

Round 3, Pick 71: Louisville OLB Lorenzo Mauldin

Round 4, Pick 106: Tennessee-Chattanooga DL Derrick Lott

Round 5, Pick 142 (from the Jets): Southeastern Louisiana QB Bryan Bennett

Round 6, Pick 182: Texas RB Malcolm Brown

For those of you counting at home, it's an offensive prospect to start off with, then three consecutive picks on defense, rounded off with a couple of depth pieces on offense in the late rounds (though Fishbain speculates that Brown could spell, and eventually even replace, Matt Forte).  Click on the above link to read his thought process for each selection.

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Next, Fishbain's Hub-or-not-Hub.com colleague Arthur McHubsson with his mock draft 2.0, which looks like this:

Round 1, Pick 7: West Virginia WR Kevin White

Round 2, Pick 39: Florida State DE Mario Edwards Jr

Round 3, Pick 71: Alabama RB T.J. Yeldon

Round 4, Pick 106: USC CB/S Josh Shaw

Round 5, Pick 142: Harvard LB Zach Hodges

Round 6, Pick 182: Florida C Max Garcia

Another wide receiver to start things off - Son of Hub takes White over Cooper - and another even 3-3 split between the two sides of the ball; with a running back taken in the third round, that would mean two of the top three draft picks are spent on the offensive side of the ball.  Despite the need at both positions, are the Bears confident enough in the defense to do that?  As before, click on the above link for the reasoning behind each pick.

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Finally, NFL.com's Lance Zierlein and Chad Reuter ran through an entire 7-round mock draft involving every team's selection.  It's presented round-by-round but, for ease of perusal, here are their selections for the Bears along with comments for the first three selections:

Round 1, Pick 7: West Virginia WR Kevin White - Chicago's transition to a 3-4 defense could use a nose tackle and an edge rusher, but White's traits and talent will be tough to pass on.

Round 2, Pick 39: Oklahoma DT Jordan Phillips - That transition to the 3-4 just got a lot easier with the large, but surprisingly athletic, Phillips clogging up the middle.

Round 3, Pick 71: TCU ILB Paul Dawson - Dawson's slow 40 at the Combine only emphasized his average sideline-to-sideline movement -- but moving upfield between the tackles, he's a beast. He'll make a great piece in the team's new defensive lineup.

Round 4, Pick 106: Louisville OLB Lorenzo Mauldin

Round 5, Pick 142: TCU CB Kevin White

Round 6, Pick 182: Michigan State RB Jeremy Langford

Zierlin and Reuter have Lorenzo Mauldin lasting a full round later than Fishbain took him in our first featured mock, and go defense-heavy with four picks on that side of the ball sandwiched between the first-round receiver and a sixth-round running back (two Kevin Whites could get confusing; perhaps the receiver could maintain recent Bears first-round draft pick tradition and change his first name to Kyle).  You can see how it all panned out and who else was still available at the NFL.com link above.

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A range of possibilities for you to brush up on, should your interest be piqued; tell us if you like or dislike how these mocks fall in the comments below.