(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Thursday night will be a busy one as the Bears pick first and ninth in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft. The rest of the weekend, though, might be quiet.
The Bears enter the draft with only four picks, but General Manager Ryan Poles has signaled there will likely be less wheeling and dealing than in the recent past. He said it’s because the roster’s in much better shape than when he took over.
“It’s going to be hard to make this team now,” he said. “It’s going to be really hard to make this team. That doesn’t mean you don’t want more shots later. We’ll always welcome a lot of picks, but it doesn’t force you to panic about the situation we’re in right now with how many picks we have.”
Still, Poles and his staff will have to make their limited picks count.
“They’ve got to impact the football team from a skillset standpoint, but we always are going to look at some key things when we talk about passion for the game, when we talk about coachability, dependability, resilience — those things are going to be consistent from the first overall pick to a seventh-round draft pick,” Poles said.
Guys who the brass believe have that quality are marked on the team's locked-away draft board with a Bear-head sticker. A Grizzly. “Top Bears,” as Poles calls them — an easy reference as the draft drags on.
The Bears have made 21 picks in the last two drafts combined. Seventeen of them still call Halas home.
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