ChicagoSportsBlogs : Non Compete

I have not been asleep at the wheel. I also haven't be hibernating. Unfortunately for all 2 of my avid readers, life sometimes throws you curveballs. I have missed, yet again, the opportunity to run a live mock draft. A true interactive blogger mock draft. Its a shame really. I'm going to just have to make some changes around here.

I bet that exact statement was uttered by Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo at least 100 times in the past month. The Bears are coming into this year's draft with some serious problems. We need a offensive lineman. We need a new running back. It turns out that we may need a new middle linebacker (more on that later). And of course, we could always use another quarterback. The general population, and the majority of mock drafts have the Bears taking the obvious pick, a tackle. I'm going to succumb to this group think and agree. Even though I want to draft the sexy pick. I want to draft Mendenhall. I want to help the quarterbacks out by limiting the number of times they actually have to throw. That's not exciting, modern football but this is Chicago. Remember? We run off the bus.

Cedric Benson is a complete bust and the Bears waited too long to figure this out. Other holes on offense have developed since our Superbowl appearance 2 years ago. The wide receiver position is terrible, or at best, a complete unknown thanks to Moose and Berrian's departures. The football experts, and the Monday-Morning-QBs all say that offensive skill positions like QB, RB, and WR aren't important if you don't have a great offensive line.

Common knowledge right? I guess. But I'd like to think that a great running back, in our scheme would make a more immediate impact. So let me cut to the chase and predict what I think the Bears do today in the draft:

14. Chris Williams, T from Vanderbilt. As much as I would prefer Mendenhall here, there is little to no chance the Bears front office will take another first round running back. They've had a hard enough time with Benson.

44. Felix Jones, RB - Arkansas. McFadden's understudy is going to get a chance to compete for our starting RB position. I really don't like this pick, but considering they won't be able to get the QB they want (Henne) with the #44 they'll probably move on to RB

Letsee how accurate I am after day 1...Don't be surprised if they trade out of the first round if they don't get their man.

BEAR DOWN.

(and stay tuned. I may have Twitter updates running before the draft)