As the NFL draft fades into the rearview mirror and rookie minicamps approach, debates continue over which teams did the best work. The Chicago Bears have probably one of the more divisive classes in the league. Some experts think they did an amazing job, landing some of the best football players in the entire group. Others think they didn’t do a good enough job addressing some of their crucial needs. Much of that circles Logan Jones, the team’s 2nd round pick. Some can’t reconcile with why Chicago took a 25-year-old center when they could’ve added defensive line help.
Besides, he probably would’ve been available in the 3rd round. Well, based on the buzz coming out of the league, that isn’t entirely true. Multiple teams were lurking as possible landing spots for Jones. Baltimore was one such spot. Yet what clinches it comes from Sports Mockery insider Jeff Hughes. He connected with a friend who is a Midwest area scout for another NFC team. When Jones came up, the scout admitted that the Bears not only got the best center in the draft, they got the best football player in the entire region.
They’re looking at a 10-year pro.
That is the highest of praise for Logan Jones.
Keep in mind, eight players from the Midwest region went in the 1st round alone. Six in the first 11 picks. Saying Jones is a better football player than all of them is the highest of compliments. It’s also not completely out of left field. This is a man who started 51 games for a prominent Division I program, earning almost every honor there is. If he were slightly bigger and two years younger, there is a strong probability Jones would’ve been a 1st round pick. He is that athletic, that intelligent, and that skilled.
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Bears head coach Ben Johnson knew right away what kind of player he was, admitting he was smitten with Jones early on in the process. That is why taking the center in the 2nd round wasn’t even a thought for him. In his mind, the team was securing the middle of its offensive line for the future. The fit was obvious. Jones has many of the same qualities Drew Dalman did, and he was a Pro Bowler in this offense. The best part is that Jones might actually be a better pass protector.
Jones felt like a tone-setting pick.
It was a signal from this regime that it will never bow to pressure to fill needs in the draft. They are chasing the best football players. Coach Johnson said it multiple times. He doesn’t care what positions they target. Get the best possible players into the building, and the coaches will figure out the rest. That is his job. This draft reflected that. The Bears may not have needed to take a center that early, but Logan Jones was too good a prospect to justify passing on him. Avoiding a good player just because a position appears set for the upcoming season is a bad process.
People forget that the Bears didn’t need to draft a middle linebacker in 2000 when they took Brian Urlacher. They already had a solid starter in Barry Minter. The simple fact was that the team couldn’t justify passing on the freakish talents the New Mexico product offered. Jones may not be quite at that same level, but the principles are the same. If you’re convinced you are getting a good player, take him. Sort the rest out later. The Bears had stopped doing that for a long time. Not anymore.
