The Chicago Bears 2022 NFL draft was, for the most part, a success. General manager Ryan Poles added two starters to the secondary in the second round and secured a potential long-term fix at left tackle in the fifth round. And even if Kyler Gordon, Jaquan Brisker, and Braxton Jones are the only “hits” from Poles’ first draft class as a general manager, it will go down as a positive result.
But the Bears’ 2022 rookie class wasn’t the best in the NFL last season. Not by a long shot. In fact, according to a recent ranking of every team’s rookie class by NFL.com’s Eric Edholm, Chicago’s first-year players ranked 17th. Essentially, it was a middle-of-the-pack group.
“Missing the first-round pick from the Justin Fields trade (which ended up being No. 7 overall) had to sting a bit for first-year GM Ryan Poles, but the Bears managed to check off some important boxes on the offensive line and in the secondary via their Day 2 and 3 selections, as well as the undrafted free-agent pool,” Edholm wrote.
