Chicago Bears have 3 players in the 1st round of ESPN’s 2016 Re-Draft

The Chicago Bears were one of several teams to have multiple rookies make a major impact last season. In fact, they had 3 players who project has major building blocks for the future.

ESPN routinely does collaborative pieces with their NFL Nation and this week they released a 2016 NFL Re-Draft. This exercise offers each team a re-do of last year’s draft after having seen how they performed as rookies.

They had the Los Angeles Rams using the No. 1 overall pick to grab Dak Prescott who set the world on fire with the Dallas Cowboys. The Rams franchise as a whole would have a more positive vibe with Prescott in the mix.

ESPN has the next six picks the exact same as the actual 2016 draft. One of the major story lines from this exercise is that the Chicago Bears have three players in the 1st round.

More from With the First Pick

Their actual 1st round pick, Leonard Floyd, is still in the 1st round and still lands with the Chicago Bears. Cody Whitehair was sent to the Minnesota Vikings at pick No. 23 and Jordan Howard to the Green Bay Packers at Pick No. 27.

This is a great show of confidence on how well the Bears orchestrated the 2016 draft. They essentially landed 3 players worthy of a 1st round pick.

Another interesting point is that ESPN’s re-draft has Whitehair and Howard going to division rivals. The Packers and Vikings would absolutely love to have either of these players on their rosters. In fact, both teams would likely have had a more successful season with either in the mix.

The last thing that caught my eye was that Tyreek Hill made his way into the 1st round at pick No. 22 to the Houston Texans. Hill had a great rookie season and showed the big-play ability that every NFL team covets.

However, he still has the off-field issues that would’ve made it tough for any team to use a 1st round pick on him.