Bears chances of going WR at No. 19 keep shrinking

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The apparently outstanding Pro Day on Tuesday for Notre Dame wide receiver Michael Floyd (and others) likely makes a Bears decision for them, if in fact it was one in the first place.

ESPN draft analyst Mike Mayock opined after Floyds performance that Floyd could well be off the draft board by pick No. 10 of the first round. Floyds size (6-foot-3, 220 pounds), production (271 career catches, 37 career receiving TDs) and speed (sb-4.4-sec., 40 at the Scouting Combine) make him the designer wideout that passes the eye test and just about every other one.

What it means for the Bears is all but no chance of taking a wide receiver with their pick at No. 19.

They are in what is generally the drafts dead zone for wide receivers. In the last five drafts, a handful of receivers have gone by No. 10: A.J. Green, Julio Jones last year; Darrius Heyward-Bey and Michael Crabtree in 2009; Calvin Johnson and Ted Ginn Jr. in 2007.

None went before 22 in 2010 and none at all went in the first round of 2008.

Jeremy Maclin was the Eagles pick at No. 19 in 2009 but he was the only receiver taken in the 11-20 range over the past five years.

The conclusion is that there is either clearly perceived elite talent thats worth a top-10 dice roll, or you dont commit a No. 1 pick below the 20s on a position with a high bust factor.

Interestingly perhaps, the first receiver after Green and Jones went last year was Pittsburgh's Jonathan Baldwin at No. 26 to the Kansas City Chiefsand then-college personnel chief Phil Emery.

Emery already has parted with two 3s for Brandon Marshall so he is unlikely to mortgage his first draft on a lunge up for Floyd. More likely, if all the deserving defensive ends and cornerbacks are disappearing before No. 19, would be a trade down to re-acquire picks and drift into that 20-30 range where nine wideouts have been taken over the last five drafts.

That leaves out Michael Floyd.

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