A small nagging thought as the first round made its way toward the Bears early Thursday night was that the top guys in general manager Ryan Pace’s supposed eight-player cloud of candidates might not be going necessarily or precisely the way Halas Hall would’ve liked, though be assured that within the Bears’ myriad draft scenarios was this one. But all’s well that ends well and Day 1 of the 2018 draft seemed to be wind up that way for the Bears. Teams always get exactly the guy they targeted all along (that’s a joke there), but the Bears in fact did get the consensus highest-rated player available for one of their foundational needs going into the Matt Nagy era.
Bears match 'best available' with 'need' in Roquan Smith pick at No. 8
