The board never matched up with the need at running back claimed Bears general manager Ryan Poles.
Wouldn't we all like to see that board, then.
For a team with an offense under Ben Johnson that is focused on play-action passing and establishing the run, the Bears sure had a strange way to treat this draft after they finished 25th in rushing in 2024.
Round by round the picks went by and the Bears couldn't find a running back, or wouldn't reach for one after higher-rated ones went off the board just before their pick.
Finally, they drafted Kyle Monangai of Rutgers in Round 7 after both Damien Martinez and Brashad Smith were selected ahead of their final pick.
Although Monangai carried 669 times for 3,222 yards and 27 touchdowns for Rutgers, one quality he has definitely would be considered an asset—he is said to pass block well.
"The quarterback's the most important person on the field, for an offensive perspective," Monangai said. "So protecting the quarterback comes first.
"You've got to protect the quarterback if you want the ball is kind of the philosophy I was raised in."
Monangai joins a backfield with D'Andre Swift, Roschon Johnson, Travis Homer and Ian Wheeler. The lack of another bigger name from the draft definitely didn't help much for a team ranked 25th in rushing last year but now focused on reviving the ground game.
The need for an edge rusher seemed just as big coming into the draft and they did get Shemar Turner, but he will be used at 3-technique inside for the most part.
So they never addressed this and there will be plenty of speculation the extra edge rusher will be Gervon Dexter, moving from tackle to the outside.
"Again, if you're going to be disciplined, you're going to let the board dictate how you do things and it just happens that way," Poles said. "Because of that, you wind up in some really cool situations in acquiring talented players who might come from a different position than you maybe would have liked them to.
"But at the end of the day, you're increasing the talent on your football team. And I do think you can get into a lot of trouble when you start trying to manipulate things to get into certain pockets where it ends up hurting your team long-term."
Perhaps, but it still seems strange they could go until the 22nd back selected in the draft before getting one.
