Getty Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy.
One name mentioned more and more in connection with the Chicago Bears is Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond.
The Bears will likely be looking to draft a quarterback this year, and considering the current shape of the NFL Draft, they won’t be able to nab one of the premier signal-callers available. Thus, it’s looking like a mind-round guy could be targeted by Matt Nagy and company. Enter Mond, who has been referred to as one of the more polarizing quarterbacks in the upcoming draft.
A four-year starter for the Aggies, the mobile Mond is solid in the pocket, and his four years leading A&M is an attractive quality. His timing and accuracy have been spotty, but Mond had a notable lack of weapons to work with during his tenure as with the Aggies, and he’s an intriguing potential project at the position with a decent ceiling. He also specifically mentioned the Bears when talking to the media on his Pro Day last week.
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Mond: ‘I Definitely See a Connection’ to Bears
“I’ve had a lot of interactions with the Bears, and I definitely see a connection. I don’t want to say any names, but I’m definitely excited, especially them being able to watch me in person,” Mond told Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times.
Mond also noted that he had scripted his own Pro Day workout, which is an unusual thing for a quarterback to do.
“Most quarterbacks and most players they have their own quarterback coach, receiver coach, a person who runs their own pro day, a person who comes up with their own scripts for their quarterbacks,” Mond said, via 247 Sports. “But I think just me being self-critical of things that I need to work on but also things I think I need to show the NFL, I thought that I could come up with my own pro day script and go out and execute it at a high level. So I came up with my own script, really just ran my pro day. I’m not going to say I’m the first one to do it, but I really haven’t seen it.”
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Mond Showed Big Improvement in 2020
Mond’s accuracy has been hit or miss, but his completion percentage did go up every year at A&M. In 10 games during his senior season, Mond completed 63.3 percent of his passes for 2,282 yards, 19 touchdowns and three interceptions. Over his four seasons with the Aggies, Mond completed 59.0 percent of his passes for 9,661 yards, 71 touchdowns, 27 interceptions and a rating of 132.0.
“I feel like I fit in every offense,” Mond said after his Pro Day. “Throughout my college days, almost 100% of my passes were in the shotgun so for me. In my Pro Day script, I wanted to show that I can play under center so one hundred percent of those were under center. I wanted to show my efficiency with my feet and also that can transfer my weight, spin the ball. I thought I definitely did that today.”
On Tuesday’s Locked on Bears podcast, analyst Lorin Cox spoke to Fansided’s Cole Thompson, who has covered Mond over the last few years down in Texas and had this to say about the 6’3″ 217-pound quarterback.
“He’s probably not the starter Week 1, probably not the starter for most of the season, but in the right system, he is going to be very successful,” Thompson said about Mond’s chances of succeeding in the NFL. “The one thing that you have to realize is he was very prosperous at making first reads this season, and waiting for plays to develop. He had a 2-to-1 touchdown to interception ratio in 2019. It went up to 6-to-1 in 2020. And this is without a lot of talent. He didn’t have a receiver go over 600 yards the whole year.”
The Bears aren’t going to reveal anything about their plans for the draft, but quarterback remains a primary need, despite the addition of Andy Dalton. Mond would be a decent fit in Chicago, but only if the Bears focused on being a run-centric offense first, while also sitting him for a season or more so he can learn from vets like Dalton and Nick Foles while also getting acclimated to the pro game. He’s projected to go somewhere in Rounds 2-4, so it’s a doable pick for the Bears if they choose to go that route. We’ll see if they do.
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