I had a little time on my hands so I looked up all the guys the Bears have taken with their second pick excluding Grossman since he was in the first round.Here is the list:

 

2002 Roosevelt Williams Tuskegee actually a 3rd rounder.What's he doing now?

 

2003 Charles Tillman Louisiana Lafayette

 

2004 Tank Johnson Washington

 

2005 Mark Bradley Oklahoma

 

2006 Devin Hester Miami he along with Daniel Manning were picked in the second round with Manning actually being the Bears top pick.

 

2007 Dan Bazuin Central Michigan What's he doing now?

 

2008 Matt Forte Tulane

I had a little time on my hands so I looked up all the guys the Bears have taken with their second pick excluding Grossman since he was in the first round.Here is the list:

 

2002 Roosevelt Williams Tuskegee actually a 3rd rounder.What's he doing now?

 

2003 Charles Tillman Louisiana Lafayette

 

2004 Tank Johnson Washington

 

2005 Mark Bradley Oklahoma

 

2006 Devin Hester Miami he along with Daniel Manning were picked in the second round with Manning actually being the Bears top pick.

 

2007 Dan Bazuin Central Michigan What's he doing now?

 

2008 Matt Forte Tulane

 

As poorly as Angelo has tended to do with his first overall pick, this is really a pretty solid track record. I count one legitimate bad pick: Williams in '02. I'm not crazy about 40 times, but you don't draft a corner who runs a 4.63.

 

Two of the other picks, Bradley and Bazuin, were pretty big gambles, neither of which panned out. They both had a lot of potential, but Angelo seemed like he was betting that they'd get over their knee injuries. Neither one did, but I think a GM has to make those kinds of gambles once in a while (though maybe not as often as Angelo tends to.)

 

The other 4 are all solid picks. Tank Johnson, character issues aside, is a good 4-3 nose tackle. If you're wondering how important that is, check out how much worse the Bears' line got when we cut him and started Dvoracek. Tillman is our best corner, and he's been solid ever since we drafted him. Hester and Forte are awesome, enough said.

 

If either Bradley or Bazuin had been able to recover from injuries, we'd be talking about 5 starting-caliber players out of 7 picks in the 2nd and 3rd round. Even as it is, 4 out of 7 is pretty good. Look at Ozzie Newsome's second picks over the same period:

 

2002 - DE Anthony Weaver

- steady, but very unspectacular player. He's a product of the Ravens' system, but wasn't even that remarkable in their system. Certainly not as good as Alex Brown, who Angelo took in the 4th round of the same draft.

2003 - RB Musa Smith (Kyle Boller was actually the second overall, but he was a first-round pick, so I'm excluding him a la Rex.)

- injury-prone change of pace back. Tons of physical ability, but his best season was 2007, where he still only averaged 16.5 yards a game.

2004 - WR Devard Darling (third-rounder, Ravens didn't have a first that year)

- hasn't contributed anything to speak of. Last season he got run down from behind by Deltha O'Neal. That's bad.

2005 - DE Dan Cody

- Played two games in three seasons, was injured the rest of his time with the Ravens. Released after 2007.

2006 - C Chris Chester

- Undersized swingman. He backs up the guard and center positions, and they put him in as a blocking tight end in some packages. He's very athletic, and could still develop into a starting lineman.

2007 - WR Yamon Figurs

- backup wideout and kick returner. He's stupid fast, but frequently injured and has a fumbling problem.

2008 - RB Ray Rice

- looked really good as a change of pace to McGahee and McClain. Should be in for a good year in 2009.

 

Newsome's generally considered a good GM, but I don't think you could argue that he's done better than Angelo with his second picks.