It waited until the sixth round on Saturday.Bears general manager Ryan Pace turned largely to the defensive side in the final day with three selections, including sixth-round defensive end Kylie Fitts
from Utah.Before Fitts, the Bears selected Western Kentucky inside linebacker Joel Iyiegbuniwe in Round 4, and Delaware defensive tackle Bilal Nichols in Round 5.
They closed out the draft in the seventh round by taking another target for
quarterback Mitchell Trubisky, Georgia wide receiver Javon Wims.After grabbing Georgia standout inside linebacker Roquan Smith with the No. 8 overall pick on Thursday, the Bears drafted Iowa center James Daniels with the
39th pick on Friday, then traded up to select Memphis receiver Anthony Miller at
No. 51.Yet there was no outside pass rush help until they took Fitts as the Bears stuck to their draft board instead of moving up or reaching for a player at a
position of need."You've just got to be careful that you don't force these things," Pace said. "I'm glad we attacked needs, but we also took best players on the board."Now they'll be left to rely on free agent acquisition Aaron Lynch and third-year linebacker Leonard Floyd for an outside pass rush, while considering
remaining unrestricted free agents or undrafted free agents.Overall, productive safe picks replaced potential and risky selections for Chicago, as Pace made only one trade in his first draft since Matt Nagy became
coach.Last year, Pace traded up to select Trubisky with the second pick of the draft after Trubisky had just 13 college starts. He picked fast, undersized pass
rusher Floyd in the first round in 2016 Taron Johnson Jersey , and in 2015 drafted inexperienced wide receiver Kevin White. White has played in five NFL games due to injuries.The Bears finished last in the NFC North for the fourth straight year and have missed the playoffs every season since 2010, leading to the firing of coach
John Fox. They haven't posted a winning record since 2012, Lovie Smith's final
year.INJURY QUESTIONSA defensive end in Utah's 4-3 formation, Fitts has more than his inexperience in the Bears' 3-4 scheme to overcome. He had a Lisfranc ligament tear in his
foot in 2016 and played in only two games, then had shoulder and ankle sprains
last year.Fitts called the injuries the reason he dropped from a projected pick in the third or fifth rounds to the sixth."It was just a run of bad luck and I think I got it all out of the way," Fitts said. "I think it definitely made me into a stronger man and I'm healthy
now and I'm excited to play for the Bears."OVERLOOKED AGAINGoing undrafted until the final round gave Georgia's Wims a familiar overlooked feeling.When the Bears' seventh-round pick came out of high school, he had to go to NAIA Belhaven after only one year of high school football and because of poor
grades. Wims left Belhaven for Hinds Junior College, earned a scholarship to
Georgia, and helped lead the Bulldogs to the national title game last year with
team highs of 45 catches, 720 yards and nine touchdowns.INSIDE CONNECTIONDelaware's Nichols has a real inside Bears connection. Nagy is a Delaware grad, as is Bears offensive assistant Brian Ginn, who played quarterback and was
an assistant for the Blue Hens."Coach Ginn, he's an awesome guy," Nichols said. "He was one of the guys that helped recruit me at Delaware. Unbelievable guy Darius Leonard Jersey , great guy."STILL NEEDAdditional outside pass rushers are needed because the Bears like to use a rotation of three or four outside rushers. Fitts joins Howard Jones, Isaiah
Irving and Sam Acho as potential outside pass rushers behind Lynch and
Floyd.Veterans Lamarr Houston, Pernell McPhee and Willie Young accounted for 10 Bears sacks last year but are no longer with the team.Deandre Ayton might be going back to Arizona after all. The same can be true for Marvin Bagley III. Or
maybe Luka Doncic gets to reunite with his past coach.
The Phoenix Suns have a trio of fine candidates for the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.In various ways, the team already has an element of familiarity with each one of them.Ayton played his college ball at Arizona. Bagley, the Duke freshman star this past season, is an Arizona native. And Doncic, the Slovenian teen who has been
tabbed a can’t-miss NBA prospect, won a title with new Suns coach Igor Kokoskov
last summer – when they helped give the tiny nation its biggest sports win, a
gold medal at the European Championships.These are good days for the Suns, who have gone through three dreadful seasons and eight consecutive playoff-less campaigns. But they have a new coach
in Kokoskov, a promising young core and after winning the draft lottery on
Tuesday night, a chance to pick No. 1 overall at the draft in New York next
month.”It’s not a race,” said Josh Jackson, who just completed his rookie season with Phoenix and is part of that young group that the Suns believe will get them
back into the playoff mix before long. ”We’re going to progress at our pace. Any
progression is good progression Peyton Manning Jersey , in my opinion. So wherever we are, hopefully we keep taking steps forward.”This draft could be a big step forward.Start with Ayton, who averaged 20.1 points and 11.6 rebounds in his one college season at Arizona. He came to the U.S. from the Bahamas, hoping for
great things but never expecting this would be the cards he was dealt.”It’s God’s plan,” Ayton said.Bagley was the Atlantic Coast Conference player and rookie of the year, leading the league in scoring (21.0 per game) and rebounding (11.1 per game).
Unlike Ayton, he’s expected to work at the draft combine that commences in
earnest in Chicago on Thursday, and he will be on the Suns’ radar.He said he would obviously welcome the chance to go back to Arizona, where he was born and raised.”It would mean a lot if it were to happen that way,” Bagley said.Doncic will get plenty of support from Kokoskov, and others who know his game well – like Miami guard Goran Dragic – insist that he has the ability and
intellect to make a quick impact in the NBA.”It’s been a good month for us, a good week in particular,” Suns general manager Ryan McDonough said. ”We targeted a three-year rebuilding window and I
know it’s been a little bit controversial in some ways. … If you’re serious
about winning a championship someday in the NBA, it’s really hard to build
through the middle Kelvin Benjamin Jersey , so to speak.”So three years ago, when they couldn’t convince LaMarcus Aldridge to come to Phoenix, the Suns decided it was time to push the reset button.The results: They got budding stars in Devin Booker and Jackson, wound up creating some cap space to spend on veterans this summer, and will not only have
the No. 1 pick but also two others in the top 31 selections in this draft.”The future’s bright,” McDonough said. ”And our hope and our goal is to be a lot better next year.”McDonough left the lottery holding a placard with a big red ”1” on it, and Jackson left with the one bearing the Suns logo that NBA deputy commissioner
Mark Tatum displayed when announcing that Phoenix won the right to pick
first.The Suns aren’t holding all the cards.They’re just holding the most important ones.”We have a small target grouping in mind, but we’re not going to rule anything out at this point,” McDonough said. ”I think we’ll have a great choice,
no matter who we select.”— Mohamed Bamba Jersey
