Chicago Bears: 5 draft picks they gave up on too soon

Most people including Chicago Bears fans often look at the NFL draft as purely black and white. Either you make a good pick or a bad pick.

There is no in-between. That is not the reality of things. Many times throughout history, for all teams, there have been cases where they made the right pick but failed to handle it properly. Most often it’s a case of not having the patience to let it establish before moving on. There are several factors that go into these decisions: injury, coaching changes, or the player having a down year.

This leads to the team moving on thinking he has nothing to offer anymore. Then upon reaching a new destination, the player rediscovers what made him so appealing in the first place and thrives to an even greater degree than before. The Bears have not been immune to these mistakes in the past. Here are the five biggest names they gave up on too soon.

05. Walt Harris

The Bears took Harris out of Mississippi State in 1996 with the 13th overall pick. They were no doubt hoping to team him with veteran Donnell Woolford to give them a pair of potential lockdown corners with Harris eventually being the heir apparent once Woolford moved on. It almost played out that way too. After a decent rookie year, Harris was the best corner on the team with five interceptions in 1997 and four in 1998.

However, changes in the defensive coaching staff under Dick Jauron saw his productivity dip. He only had four interceptions total between 1999 and 2001. Despite his steady presence, the Bears chose to move on in 2002. It seems rather fateful that a few years later in 2006, the same year they went to the Super Bowl, Harris had a career-high eight interceptions in San Francisco. Might things have been different if he’d still have been wearing navy blue at that time?