Dart hits a bull's-eye regarding Chicago Bears drafting record

Last year the Bears didn't have anyone on the list, either.

In fact, GM Ryan Poles didn't land anyone on that PFF list in 2023 or 2022. He wasn't GM before 2022.

Young talent must be the strength of a team and the last time a Chicago Bears player made this annual list it was DJ Moore in 2021. Of course, he wasn't a member of the Chicago Bears then. He was a Carolina Panthers draft pick.

"He doesn’t get the same acclaim as some other receivers, but Moore is just a consistently excellent receiver," PFF wrote then about Moore. "He has been incredibly consistent in almost all numbers over the past two years, but 2020 saw him blossom into a big-play threat, averaging 18.1 yards per reception on an average depth of target of 13.7 yards, two full yards higher than the year before."

Poles did bring him to Chicago but only through a trade and not in the draft.

There was a player the Bears drafted who did make the list the 2021 season. It was linebacker Roquan Smith, and Poles traded him away.

"We finally saw what Smith could do at the NFL level in 2020, as he realized the special coverage skills that jumped off his tape at the University of Georgia," PFF wrote about Smith then.

We're back into the Ryan Pace era and there's finally another Bears name that pops up on the list back in 2019 and that's Yannick Ngakoue. Of course, he played briefly in Chicago after he was 25 and was drafted by Jacksonville.

In 2018 another Bears name and he's still with the team: Kevin Byard. The Bears got him in his 30s as a free agent after he was traded by the Titans to the Eagles, long after this list came out.

You need to go all the way back to 2017 and Cody Whitehair before finding a drafted Bears player who makes the list PFF does every offseason of top 25 players under 25. That was Cody Whitehair at whatever position they decided to throw him in at that year, center or guard. This was in 2017.

Now, PFF obviously isn't infallible. They kept putting Ngakoue on their list and how did that come out? They had tight end O.J Howard on their list, a tight end who never made more than 34 receptions in the NFL. And they insisted on putting JuJu Smith-Schuster on the list multiple times. He had one 1,000-yard season and they left off numerous receivers with multiple 1,000-yard seasons who kept on producing as young players.

They even kept Eddie Jackson off the list after he matched the highest recorded PFF grade for a safety in a season ever in 2018.

To be sure, theirs isn't the only list like this one that comes out every year.

But normally the list is very impressive and by and large never includes young Bears players.

This is both an indictment of Poles and before him Pace. It reflects why they must rely on free agency or make trades for players like Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson, Grady Jarrett and Drew Dalman.

Considering Poles was the GM when they kept Matt Eberflus, and his staff reportedly did not even get Caleb Williams set up to watch film properly with NFL methodology, it hasn't been a strong past week for the Bears personnel boss—the one who still doesn't have a contract extension.

In his fourth year as GM, Poles did get one of his players signed to a second contract when Kyler Gordon got his extension.

The Bears can only hope more of this is coming in the future, especially with Ben Johnson now providing a guiding hand.

And maybe they'll actually have a young talent good enough to make a PFF top 25 under 25 list at some point.