Part 3 of a 10-part series previewing the NFL Draft and analyzing the Bears’ needs.
The Bears have 10 tight ends on their roster — the most in the NFL and double the league average. But coming off a season in which they were at or near the bottom of the NFL in tight end production — 46 receptions for 416 yards and two touchdowns — there’s always room for more. They have quantity. They need quality.
After signing Jimmy Graham and Demetrius Harris in free agency, the Bears still figure to be in the market for a tight end in the draft — maybe even with one of their two second-round picks. For one thing, even with 10 tight ends on the roster, the Bears don’t know precisely what they have.
Their top three tight ends on the roster are question marks. Trey Burton played in only eight games last season because of complications from a groin injury that flared up prior to the wild-card playoff game following the 2018 season. Adam Shaheen, the 2017 second-round pick (45th overall), has missed 18 games the past two seasons and has underperformed when healthy. And Graham’s production has declined the past five seasons.
The tight end class in this year’s draft is not considered to be particularly strong. Notre Dame’s Cole Kmet, the former football/baseball standout from St. Viator, is the consensus top prospect, but he’s projected to go in the second round — possibly late in the first. Kmet fits the classic mold of the blocking/receiving tight end — likely to be a particularly hot commodity after the exponential success of 49ers tight end George Kittle the past two seasons.
Dayton’s Adam Trautman might be the most intriguing tight end prospect in the draft — a small-school player rising up mock draft boards. The 6-5, 255-pound Trautman is a former prep option quarterback who started playing tight end as a freshman and bulked up to become a matchup nightmare at the FCS level. He had 70 receptions for 916 yards and 14 touchdowns last season. But after coming up empty with Shaheen out of tiny Ashland (Ohio) in 2017, drafting Trautman would appear to be too dicey even for the risk-taking Pace.
For what it’s worth, tight end is one position where not having a first-round pick isn’t a major obstacle. Several of the best tight ends in the NFL over the past 10 years were drafted in the second round or later — Rob Gronkowski (second), Travis Kelce (third), Kittle (fifth), Graham (third), Zach Ertz (second) and Austin Hooper (third) among them.
DRAFT SPOTLIGHT
Tight ends
Grading the Bears’ need: High. The Bears have bodies and potential production already on their roster. But considering the importance of this position in Nagy’s offense, they likely will take a shot somewhere in the draft.
On the roster: Trey Burton, Jimmy Graham, Adam Shaheen, Ben Braunecker, J.P. Holtz, Jesper Horsted, Demetrius Harris, Dax Raymond, Darion Clark, Eric Saubert.
The five best draft prospects: Notre Dame’s Cole Kmet, Dayton’s Adam Trautman, Florida Atlantic’s Washington’s Hunter Bryant, Missouri’s Albert Okwuegbunam.
Keep an eye on: Purdue’s Brycen Hopkins, a run-after-catch, big-play receiver who might be a good fit for Nagy’s offense. The 6-4, 245-pound Hopkins, who had 61 receptions for 830 yards and seven touchdowns last season, is a good route-runner who seems to have an intuition about the position and the game that could flourish at the NFL level in the right offense.
Close to home: Missouri’s Okwuegbunam, a wide receiver on Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin’s Class 5A state championship teams in 2014 and 2015, had modest production in college (98 receptions, 1,187 yards, 23 touchdowns in three seasons), but has the athleticism and versatility to be a complete tight end in the NFL.
