A Draft Gamble That Worked
When you bring up Devin Hester in a conversation with Bears fans you will find it hard to get them to stop. Many of us, myself included, are outraged he didn't get a first-ballot Hall of Fame, though I'm sure he will still get his spot. But the night of the 2006 draft, Devin Hester was a gamble for teams due to his jack of all trades, master of one skill set.
In college, at the University of Miami, Hester played corner, nickel back, wide receiver, halfback, fullback, and return man. He didn't overly excel at any, outside of his returning abilities. His overall skill levels were great enough to warrant multiple teams to look at him in the second round. All revolving on his amazing return ability.
The Bears took a chance and drafted Hester at number 57, with their second of their two second-round picks; Danieal Manning was their first at pick 42. But that was almost too late. In an interview with Sports Talk Chicago, Hester said he had actually gotten a call from the Titans that he was going to be their pick at number 39. They were on the clock. They called Hester to say he was their man. Then he said "They told me, 'Devin, we got five seconds, we're going in another direction.' Just like that and hung up." The Titans then traded down to pick 45 drafted running back LenDale White from USC.
Lucky for us we will never have to know the what-if scenario of Devin Hester's rookie season as a Titan instead of a Bear. But it also shows that our second-round pick is important, you don't need huge stats to be relevant, and not every expert is all-knowing.
Sometimes it just takes a gamble.
