Could have picked 165 to Ralph Smith, Minnesota cornerback.

All Big Ten honorable mention this past year.

34 tackles, 38 total.

Four and a half tackles for a loss.

Two sacks, two picks.

Very diverse stat line.

Bears scouts believe Smith has the smarts and the instincts to succeed in off-the-ball

coverage, which the Bears like to deploy in their secondary. He was a backup in 2019 and

2020, lost his starting spot at first freshman year at Minnesota, but regained the starter

role this past season.

The Bears believe he's ascending.

That's about it. We don't know too much about Smith, but I'll tell you what, those numbers are nice.

Tackles for a loss, sacks, interceptions, a lot of tackles.

And obviously, there is emotional maturity.

You lose your starting spot in college as this big-time recruit coming out freshman year.

A lot of people would say, you know what, I'm going to coach or not a good mood or I'm going to be relegated to the bench.

She did enough hard work to re-earn his spot and get an opportunity and showed out this past season.

So there's emotional maturity. There's an ability to overcome adversity there. And that's

something that you're going to need in the NFL. People get benched all the time. How do you

overcome it? How do you react to it? And somebody like Smith may react to it well and may work

even harder to improve. So that's something you could take away from it right off the bat.