After trading his first two picks in this year’s draft, Ryan Pace is counting on striking gold when the Bears draft at No. 87 overall next week.
The Bears’ first draft pick next week will come in unfamiliar territory: the third round, where general manager Ryan Pace hasn’t selected a player since 2016
He traded the 2017 and 2018 picks in the same deal — to move up one spot in 2017 and draft quarterback Mitch Trubisky second overall.
Last year, the 49ers used the Bears’ pick, No. 70 overall, on BYU linebacker Fred Warner, who totaled 124 and started all 16 games. In 2017, the 49ers flipped the Bears’ pick to the Saints. With the No. 67 pick, they chose Tennessee’s Alvin Kamara, who, in two short years, has established himself as perhaps the most valuable running back in football.
Pace knows — at least second-hand — the value of a third-round pick.
After trading his first two picks in this year’s draft, Pace is counting on striking gold when the Bears draft at No. 87 overall next week.
History, though, has other ideas.
Of the 49 players selected No. 87 since the NFL-AFL merger, only two have reached the Pro Bowl. Each did it once — and none as recently as 1974.
One was infamous. Eagles quarterback Mike Boryla was ready to begin law school after the 1974 season — he’d even bought the books — when he was invited to the Pro Bowl. He’d started only five games the year before and ranked 36th in the NFL passing yards. Five other quarterbacks had declined their invitations, though, so he was in.
