{"id":41116,"date":"2016-04-30T19:38:50","date_gmt":"2016-05-01T00:38:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=41116"},"modified":"2016-05-01T13:24:55","modified_gmt":"2016-05-01T18:24:55","slug":"matt-bowen-bears-pace-addressed-defensive-needs-in-2016-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/matt-bowen-bears-pace-addressed-defensive-needs-in-2016-nfl-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Bowen:  Bears, Pace addressed defensive needs in 2016 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Tolly Taylor and Shane Monaghan <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">Ryan Pace and the Chicago Bears front office were not apprehensive during the 2016 NFL Draft. The team made multiple trades en route to drafting nine players, seven of which were defenders.<\/p>\n<p>ESPN NFL staff writer Matt Bowen spoke with Medill Reports about why he felt the Bears addressed numerous needs and became faster and more physical on defense.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Round 1, Pick No. 9: Leonard Floyd, OLB, Georgia<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bowen said he sees Floyd playing an Aldon Smith type role for defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. \u201cWhen you draft in the top ten, you want to draft for upside,\u201d said Bowen. \u201cYou draft a guy like that cause you want to put the quarterback down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Round 2, Pick No. 56: Cody Whitehair, G, Kansas State<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is a versatile offensive guard,\u201d Bowen said of Whitehair. \u201cHe can play tackle like he did at Kansas State. I think he is a left guard for the Bears. He immediately increases the competition on the offensive line.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Round 3, Pick No. 72: Jonathan Bullard, DE, Florida<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Round 4, Pick No. 113: Nick Kwiatkoski, ILB, West Virginia<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe front seven now after free agency and the draft is completely different,\u201d said Bowen, referring to the Bears also adding free-agent linebackers Danny Trevathan and Jerrell Freeman. \u201cIt is faster, is it more athletic, it is physical. That is what they wanted to do going into this draft and that is what they got.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Round 4, Pick 124: Deon Bush, S, Miami <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Round 4, Pick 127: Deiondre\u2019 Hall, CB, Northern Iowa<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is going to be a lot of competition at that safety spot,\u201d said Bowen. \u201cYou have to have competition. You can never have too many defensive backs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Round 5, Pick No. 150: Jordan Howard, RB, Indiana<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Round 6, Pick No. 185: DeAndre Houston-Carson, S, William and Mary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Round 7, Pick No. 230: Daniel Braverman, WR, Western Michigan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bears training camp opens in mid-July, but according to Bowen, Bears fans have a lot to be excited about following the three-day Draft.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey addressed the safety position, you got faster as a defense, you got tougher as a defense, and you got an offensive lineman who can play multiple spots,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"featurecaption\"> Photo at top: Chicago Bears fans inside Auditorium Theatre eagerly await the team&#8217;s next pick at the NFL Draft.(Hannah Gebresilassie\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Tolly Taylor and Shane Monaghan Ryan Pace and the Chicago Bears front office were not apprehensive during the 2016 NFL Draft. The team made multiple trades en route to drafting nine players, seven of which were defenders. ESPN NFL staff writer Matt Bowen spoke with Medill Reports about why he felt the Bears addressed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":40887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2582],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spring-2016"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matt Bowen: Bears, Pace addressed defensive needs in 2016 NFL Draft - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/matt-bowen-bears-pace-addressed-defensive-needs-in-2016-nfl-draft\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matt Bowen: Bears, Pace addressed defensive needs in 2016 NFL Draft - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Tolly Taylor and Shane Monaghan Ryan Pace and the Chicago Bears front office were not apprehensive during the 2016 NFL Draft. The team made multiple trades en route to drafting nine players, seven of which were defenders. ESPN NFL staff writer Matt Bowen spoke with Medill Reports about why he felt the Bears addressed [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/matt-bowen-bears-pace-addressed-defensive-needs-in-2016-nfl-draft\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-01T00:38:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-05-01T18:24:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/04\/bears-update-feature-image.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"825\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shane Monaghan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shane Monaghan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/matt-bowen-bears-pace-addressed-defensive-needs-in-2016-nfl-draft\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/matt-bowen-bears-pace-addressed-defensive-needs-in-2016-nfl-draft\/\",\"name\":\"Matt Bowen: Bears, Pace addressed defensive needs in 2016 NFL Draft - Medill Reports Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/matt-bowen-bears-pace-addressed-defensive-needs-in-2016-nfl-draft\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/matt-bowen-bears-pace-addressed-defensive-needs-in-2016-nfl-draft\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/04\/bears-update-feature-image.gif\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-01T00:38:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-05-01T18:24:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/9ab6141006b7d8019458f22a17cf133a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/matt-bowen-bears-pace-addressed-defensive-needs-in-2016-nfl-draft\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/matt-bowen-bears-pace-addressed-defensive-needs-in-2016-nfl-draft\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/matt-bowen-bears-pace-addressed-defensive-needs-in-2016-nfl-draft\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/04\/bears-update-feature-image.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/04\/bears-update-feature-image.gif\",\"width\":1100,\"height\":825,\"caption\":\"Chicago Bears fans inside Auditorium Theatre eagerly await the team's next pick at the NFL Draft. 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