General manager Ryan Pace might get fidgety on Saturday.
The Bears aren’t slated to make their first pick of Day 3 until No. 163 overall — the 18th selection of the fifth round. Starting with the Bengals’ first pick of Round 4, Pace will have to wait through 56 selections before making his move.
Or maybe he won’t.
Pace prides himself on having a “no-regrets mindset,” and has never been afraid to make trades on draft day.
“You know how we are,” he said late Friday. “So it can be challenging, as you’re watching some of these names [get picked]. But going into it, just with the foresight of knowing that we have five draft picks … We have an abundance of picks and albeit a lot of them are later. So there was a lot of focus in that area of the draft, too.”
As Pace spoke, he looked at the two computer screens with the Bears’ prospect rankings on it, and declared that plenty of good players remain. He better hope so, as the Bears have a lot of quantity but low quality Saturday: two sixth-round picks (No. 196 and 200) and two seventh-rounders. (No. 226 and 233).
Pace can package any of his five Day 3 picks to move up Saturday. Or he can do what he did Friday — use the picks the Bears were given.
“I’m just looking for where we are connected on players and where guys feel passionate on players,” he said. “And I’m sure we’re going to have a lot of that.”
