Ryan Poles reflects on Bears' three second-round draft picks

Ariana Pensy - Correspondent - 10 hours ago

CHICAGO - General manager Ryan Poles and the Chicago Bears had a busy day on the second day of the NFL Draft. After selecting wide receiver Luther Burden III with the No. 39 overall selection, Poles traded the No. 41 overall selection along with No. 72 and No. 240 overall to acquire No. 56 overall and No. 62 overall along with No. 109 overall.

Burden III was a player commonly projected to get drafted in the first round. However, he was not among the four receivers selected in the first round.

That meant he was available for Chicago to select him with their first pick of the second round, but also means that he has more of a chip on his shoulder as he was not seen as worthy of a first round pick.

“A player that, obviously, there’s a lot of value there. He was at the top of our board, really did a good job of following the board, letting it talk to us. It was clear he was the most talented player on the board and we think he is an electric playmaker, highly competitive and the run after the catch is special, probably best in this class. So, when you add that to the group that we have, things get pretty exciting,” Burden III said. “Anytime in a situation where you feel like you got passed by certain teams for certain reasons, I do think that chip grows on your shoulder and ignites a different type of work ethic, a different type of mentality. The key thing is capturing that and making sure it carries on, that it’s not a flash in the pan type of thing. So, we consistently put that time, that work in to be at a really high level. The beautiful thing about our situation, you come in, you got to compete. There’s guys in this room that have played either Rome coming off of his year last year to DJ who’s played for a long time to Duvernay, all of them. You got to bring it if you want time on the field … There’s some guys that are going to have to grind a little harder than they probably ever have before. So, I think it’s going to push everyone to be really good.”

With the No. 56 overall selection, the Bears chose to add another member to their offensive line with Ozzy Trapilo from Boston College. Trapilo’s father was also an offensive lineman with Boston College and played with Poles’ father, so it was a bit of a full-circle moment for Poles to be able to draft Trapilo. During his time in college, Trapilo has shown himself to be a reliable and disciplined player.

This was highlighted in the fact that he was not penalized at all last season.

“Ozzy’s dependable, disciplined, technician, very, very intelligent. He’s tough, strong. We look at lean mass for the bigs. He’s a real dense player that can get movement at the point of attack and anchor well,” Poles said. “Tall player that needs to continue to bend, but he’s going to do a really good job because he’s a reliable player for us.”

Defensive lineman Shemar Turner was Chicago’s last pick of the second night of the draft with the No. 62 overall selection.

Turner has a high level of passion for the game of football, is aggressive in his play style and has a high ceiling for further growth.

“High motor, passionate about ball. We will feel him on the practice field as well as games and all of these games are going to raise the level of competition in our building, which is a beautiful thing,” Poles said. “When you watch two-gap guys, it’s very difficult to see the projection. Usually you see this weird stance, almost catching sometimes rather than getting off and penetrating. But, there are certain downs and distances where they’ll do that and sometimes you got to go back a few years to see the clips and a lot of it has to do with traits - overall, explosiveness, length, power, motor, those types of things. You can piece it together and there’s actually a couple of guys over the last few years that came from similar systems that we actually went back and watched the tape and it was eerily similar that once they got in a different system, you could see them flourish and actually play to a whole different level and that was specifically one of the things that we talked about with Shemar.”

At both offensive line and defensive line, the Bears have a lot of players that could make an impact for them this season.

This is precisely the situation Chicago wanted to be in - with a lot of playmakers who will have to compete during training camp for their right to play in this offense.

“I know it’s going to be a very competitive training camp and offseason and I know that at the end of the day, whatever best five come out of that are going to be the guys that are going to start for us,” Poles said. “But as you know and trust me, as we know around here for the past three years, we’ve been going through a lot of different rotations and a lot of different people. So, to have guys that are going to be reliable and dependable as things happen throughout the season is a good thing. We want that depth. I think now, those guys have really good role models and vets ahead of them to learn how to play this game at a high level.”