What if Kiper and McShay were drafting for the Chicago Bears the last 7* years?

Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay are two of the most well known NFL Draft analysts on the planet. Both work for ESPN, and both have been dropping mock drafts for a very long time now. Our sister site, Blogging The Boys, who cover the Dallas Cowboys for SB Nation, recently dug up the last seven mock drafts from these two ESPN Draftniks and wondered how their team would look, had the Cowboys listened to them.

I figured that would a fun exercise to apply to the Chicago Bears, right here on Windy City Gridiron, so I jacked his idea.

Here’s a reminder of what the Bears have done the last seven six* years. Current GM Ryan Pace has made the picks in 2015 and 2016, but before that it was Phil Emery from 2012-2014, and Jerry Angelo made that 2011 selection.

2011 - Gabe Carimi, OT, Wicsonsin - Carimi has been out of the league since 2014. He played 2 years with the Bears, starting 16 of the 18 games she appeared in.

2012 - Shea McClellin, DE/LB, Boise State - In four years with the Bears, McClellin endured three position changes and he racked up 7.5 sacks. He’s currently getting ready to play n the Super Bowl with the New England Patriots.

2013 - Kyle Long, OG, Oregon - Before missing eight games in 2016, he only missed one game his first three years while making three Pro Bowls.

2014 - Kyle Fuller, CB, Virginia Tech - The promise he showed as a rookie (64 tackles, 4 interceptions, 3 forced fumbles) kind of fizzled a bit in 2015, then he missed all of the 2016 season. His spot on Chicago’s roster isn’t guaranteed.

2015 - Kevin White, WR, West Virginia - Through two years, White is best known for being injured.

2016 - Leonard Floyd, OLB, Georgia - he was one of the better rookies in the NFL with 7 sacks in 12 games.

* Remember the Bears traded away their 2010 1st round pick as part of the Jay Cutler trade. Please do not let this thread turn into a Cutler debate.

Now lets take a peek at what Mel Kiper had the Bears doing in his final mock draft of the last six years.

Kiper

2011 - Derek Sherrod, OT, Mississippi State - Believe it or not Sherrod had a worse career that Carimi. He played the same four years, but he only started 1 game in his time.

2012 - Chandler Jones, DE, Syracuse - Don’t get Bears fans started on the McClellin over Jones pick. Jones has 47 sacks in 5 years, and he was a Pro Bowler in 2015.

2013 - Manti Te'o, ILB, Notre Dame - Te’o has had some injury issues in his career, but he’s been a decent player for the Chargers. Hindsight tells us the Bears got a gem with Kyle Long.

2014 - Kyle Fuller, CB, Virginia Tech - Fuller was drafted to play in a zone based system and if he can’t transition to what the Bears are doing now, he could be gone.

2015 - Brandon Scherff, OT, Iowa - A Pro Bowler this season who has started all 32 games at guard.

2016 - Shaq Lawson, DE, Clemson - An injury prevented him from starting the year with the Bills, and he played sparingly in the last 10 games of the season making 2 sacks.

And here are the players that Todd McShay mocked to the Bears.

McShay

2011 - Derek Sherrod, OT, Mississippi State - Bad drafting isn’t only a Chicago tradition. Teams miss with 1st rounders all the time.

2012 - Dont'a Hightower, ILB, Alabama - In 5 years, Hightower has started 64 of the 67 games he’s played in for the Patriots.

2013 - Manti Te'o, ILB, Notre Dame - A lot of mock drafters believed the Bears would take Te’o in the 1st, but he actually fell to the 2nd round.

2014 - Calvin Pryor, S, Louisville - Pryor went 4 picks after the Bears took Fuller, and he’s played in 44 games with the New York Jets, with 38 starts. He only has 2 interceptions in his career.

2015 - Kevin White, WR, West Virginia - I have hopes that a healthy White will become a playmaker, but the key word in this sentence is healthy.

2016 - Shaq Lawson, DE, Clemson - I think time will eventually tell that the Bears got a good one in Floyd.

So the Bears’ actual draft brought a grand total of three Pro Bowl seasons to Chicago, all by Kyle Long. Between the two mocks, only one Pro Bowl season happened.

Which one of the three “drafts” above would you rather have?

The real pain comes when looking at what the Cowboys did during the last 7 drafts. They have 14 Pro Bowl seasons and 12 All Pro seasons among the 7 selections.

Blogging the Boys actually ranked the 1st round picks of all 32 teams during the last 7 years by Pro Football Reference’s Approximate Value and the Bears checked in at 31st.

Drafting has been a major issue the last few years for the Bears. The 2016 rookie class has a lot of promise, so hopefully Ryan Pace can find a few more gems this year.