Chicago Bears 2022 NFL Draft: Tyquan Thornton Could be a Great Pickup

While most analysts figure the Chicago Bears should go for a wide receiver early in the 2022 NFL Draft, they could decide to wait and pick up a good one late. Tyquan Thornton would be a great pickup.

The 2022 NFL Draft is creeping up on us. In just 12 days, a litany of prospects will have their lives changed by teams like the Chicago Bears picking them up. Those teams hope that these prospects turn their fortunes around or help them stay on top.

Bears general manager Ryan Poles wants to rebuild the franchise. The Bears are a team with many holes and few picks to fill them. Poles has not exactly broken the bank in free agency. He needs to hit on the draft. He has two second-round picks so perhaps he trades one to acquire more picks.

One of the biggest needs for Chicago is wide receiver. The room now consists of Darnell Mooney, Byron Pringle, Equanimeous St. Brown, Dazz Newsome, Isaiah Coulter, and Nsimba Webster. That isn’t a murderer’s row of receivers.

The prevailing thought is that Poles will go for a receiver early in the draft. However, this is a draft deep in wide receiver talent. Nest year’s draft should also be pretty deep. Poles can look for a wide receiver later in the draft and still get a quality player. That way, he can fill some other holes. He can also find a good receiver in next year’s draft. Seeing as how this might not be too good of a team in 2022, the Bears could have a high pick and find one of the top receivers in the draft.

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Thornton could be a great late pickup

The Chicago Bears recently had former Baylor Bears wide receiver Tyquan Thornton in for a visit. That is notable because it could signal that the Bears just might look for a receiver later in the draft.

If so, Thornton would be a great pickup. One of the problems with the wide receivers corps last season was the lack of separation. They just couldn’t create space between them and the defensive back. Thornton could help change that.

Thornton can run the full route tree and the one thing you see in his tape is separation. He is a speedy receiver with great footwork and leaves defensive backs in his dust. At the NFL Combine, he ran a 4.28-40, which opened a lot of scouts’ eyes.

Thornton has great instincts. He can fool the defender and needs just that little bit of uncertainty so he can blow past him. Additionally, he has sticky hands and a high catch radius.

The knock on Thornton is his body. He only weighs 181 pounds. However, once he goes on a professional team’s conditioning program he should gain some pounds and muscle to better take the rigors of a 17-game season.

The Bears want to put defenses on their heels. To do that, they need a lot of speed. They have Mooney who supplies some of that. Thornton provides some more of it. Having them on the outside forces the defense to choose who they go after. It also opens things up underneath for the other receivers. If they make a mistake, there will be some big plays for quarterback Justin Fields to make.

The Bears want to make sure they give Fields some weapons to work with. If they pick Thornton up in the fifth round, they can go after a cornerback or even a tight end. Getting a tight end really helps Fields. He’ll then have two added weapons to target.

If the Bears go with a receiver late, picking up Thornton would be the right choice.