For all the positive vibes around Halas Hall during the dawn of the Matt Nagy era, the Bears still have plenty of needs as Ryan Pace enters his fourth draft as the team's general manager. And those needs provide a rough outline of what Pace's draft strategy from round one through round seven this week.

Just because a position is a need doesn't mean Pace will use a high draft pick on it, given his larger strategy of taking the best player available. But the top needs on this list should be addressed by the time the draft wraps up on Saturday.

13. Placekicker

Current depth: Cody Parkey

The Bears guaranteed $9 million to Parkey in his four-year, $15 million contract and don’t realistically have an out for him until 2020, according to Spotrac. He’s their kicker, and we won’t see any realistic competition for him come training camp.

12. Tight end

Current depth: Trey Burton, Adam Shaheen, Dion Sims, Daniel Brown, Ben Braunecker, Colin Thompson

Given the investment in this position — a second-round pick in Shaheen and about $12 million against the cap for Burton and Sims — there’s not much room for another tight end near the top of the depth chart. The Bears value Brown and Braunecker’s contributions on special teams, too, so this depth chart looks relatively set in stone.

11. Running back

Current depth: Jordan Howard, Tarik Cohen, Benny Cunningham, Taquan Mizzell, Michael Burton

The big question here is what the Bears would do if Saquon Barkley were still on the board at No. 8. But no team is spending less money on running backs than the Bears are in 2018 ($1.96 million), and that’s with a 1,000-yard rusher in Howard and an explosive weapon in Cohen on the depth chart. Cunningham’s leadership and special teams skills are valued by those in the organization, from the front office to the locker room.

To tie it back to Barkley: While Howard may not be a “complete” running back in the way Barkley could be, he has plenty of NFL tape and should benefit from running the ball in a less predictable offense this year. The guess is the Bears are fine with their running back depth chart, and would pass on Barkley unless there’s a consensus in their draft room that he’s a Hall of Famer.

10. Quarterback

Current depth: Mitch Trubisky, Chase Daniel, Tyler Bray

Nagy likes having Daniel and Bray in place to work with Trubisky, given both those backups know the intricacies and language of his offense well from their time in Kansas City. The Bears could opt to draft a developmental quarterback with one of their final picks, or could target an undrafted free agent. Either way, the Bears will probably look to bring in at least one more quarterback, though we’re talking about a battle to be a third-stringer/practice squad guy at this point.

9. Punter

Current depth: Pat O’Donnell

The Bears re-signed O’Donnell to a one-year deal with only $500,000 guaranteed, so they could look to bring in a punter — either via the draft or the undrafted free agent pool — to compete with him over the next few months.

8. Defensive line

Current depth: Akiem Hicks, Eddie Goldman, Jonathan Bullard, Roy Robertson-Harris, John Jenkins, Nick Williams

Bullard is entering his third year in Vic Fangio’s defense, and showed flashes in 2017 of growing into the player the Bears hoped he’d be when they invested a third-round pick into him in 2016. Not re-signing Mitch Unrein — who was highly valued by Fangio and defensive line coach Jay Rodgers — could be taken as a sign that the Bears are ready to give Bullard a bigger role. But even if that’s the case, Bullard will have to earn it, and drafting some competition for him (and Robertson-Harris) could be part of the Bears’ draft plans.

7. Cornerback

Current depth: Kyle Fuller, Prince Amukamara, Bryce Callahan, Marcus Cooper, Cre’von LeBlanc, Jonathan Mincy, Sherrick McManis, Doran Grant

The Bears invested quite a bit of money into keeping Fuller and Amukamara, and given the structures of their contracts are all but locked into that pairing until at least 2020, per Spotrac. Unless the Bears absolutely love someone like Ohio State’s Denzel Ward or Iowa’s Josh Jackson, the No. 8 pick won’t be used on a cornerback. But while there are plenty of bodies at this position, the Bears could use better depth here and could find that in the middle-to-late rounds of the draft.

6. Safety

Current depth: Adrian Amos, Eddie Jackson, Deon Bush, DeAndre Houston-Carson, Deiondre' Hall

The solidity of the Amos-Jackson pairing means the Bears don’t have a pressing need at safety, but Amos is entering the final year of his rookie contract and is probably second in line behind Eddie Goldman to be signed to an extension, if he gets one at all. Alabama’s Minkah Fitzpatrick and Florida State’s Derwin James both profile as big-time playmakers, which this defense still lacks. Pace has drafted a safety in the fourth round (Jackson, Bush) or fifth round (Amos) in every one of his drafts, and doing the same in 2018 would make some sense either to add depth or try to find an eventual replacement for Amos.

5. Offensive tackle

Current depth: Charles Leno, Bobby Massie, Bradley Sowell, Brandon Greene, Travis Averill

Massie is entering the final year of his contract, and while he’s still on the roster now the Bears could still release him before, during or after training camp for a palatable cap hit of $1.5 million, per Spotrac. The No. 8 pick may be a little too rich for any of the tackles in this draft class, unless Harry Hiestand is pounding the table for Mike McGlinchey, his former Notre Dame left tackle. But a tackle could be in play in a trade-down scenario or as early as the second round to compete with Massie, who — it should be noted — was solid enough in 2017.

4. Wide receiver

Current depth: Allen Robinson, Taylor Gabriel, Kevin White, Josh Bellamy, Bennie Fowler, Tanner Gentry, Demarcus Ayers

Do the Bears need at least one more wide receiver? Absolutely. Is it the most pressing need on the team? No. Think of it this way: The Bears signed their Nos. 1 and 2 receivers in Robinson (X) and Gabriel (Zebra), and Burton will spend plenty of time lined up in the slot. If that’s how the Bears were thinking, it would fit with the decision to let Cameron Meredith sign for $9.6 million with the New Orleans Saints over medical concerns (in short: That might’ve been too much money to commit to a No. 3/No. 4 target with knee issues). Whether or not that’s the right thinking is another question, but it could be a signal that the Bears don’t view wide receiver as a desperate, significant need.

That being said, the Bears have invested so much into building the best structure possible around Trubisky that finding a “Z” receiver who can play both in the slot and outside is important in the draft. A second-round pick isn’t out of the question if the Bears identify someone worthy of that pick (like, perhaps, Memphis’ Anthony Miller).

3. Inside linebacker

Current depth: Danny Trevathan, Nick Kwiatkoski, John Timu, Jonathan Anderson

Fangio likes Kwiatkoski and Trevathan is one of the most important players on the Bears’ defense. But that pair combined to miss nine games in 2017, and with Christian Jones signing with the Detroit Lions there’s a baseline need for more depth at this position. But Georgia’s Roquan Smith and Virginia Tech’s Tremaine Edmunds both would represent upgrades here and could fit Pace’s best-player-available strategy.

2. Interior offensive line

Current depth: Cody Whitehair, Kyle Long, Eric Kush, Earl Watford, Hroniss Grasu, Jordan Morgan, Cameron Lee

The Bears like Kush and Watford, but both players have spent their respective four seasons in the NFL largely as backups. They’re both good pieces to have, especially with Long missing 14 games in the last two years, but may be better served as backups. Notre Dame guard Quenton Nelson would very much be in play if he’s on the board at No. 8, especially as the league may be moving away from devaluing interior positions in favor of valuing quality offensive line play no matter the position, which is becoming harder and harder to find.

If not Nelson at No. 8, the pool of guards and centers who could still be available with the 38th pick is deep. The Bears unearthed Whitehair in the second round of the 2016 draft, and given the prominence in Nagy’s offense of inside zone runs — which go off the outside hip of a guard — could opt to use a top-40 pick to solidify the interior of their offensive line.

1. Outside linebacker

Current depth: Leonard Floyd, Sam Acho, Aaron Lynch, Isaiah Irving, Howard Jones

As if the Bears needed a wakeup call here, Aaron Lynch’s ankle injury during Wednesday’s minicamp practice brought about this scenario: What if he and Floyd, who’ve combined to miss 28 games in the last two seasons, are out at the same time? Right now, that would put Acho and either Irving or Jones in starting roles, and it’s unlikely that pairing would result in much of a consistent pass rush.

The gulf between the need for outside linebackers and interior offensive linemen is significant. This is a position that needs to be successfully addressed in the draft, otherwise there’s the potential that the Bears’ outside linebacker depth resembles last year’s wide receiver depth.

Could Pace be aggressive for the third straight year and trade up to draft North Carolina State’s Bradley Chubb? Would Boston College’s Harold Landry or UTSA’s Marcus Davenport be “overdrafted” at No. 8? Could Edmunds actually be an outside linebacker? Those are all significant questions for the Bears in the first round, but identifying and drafting other edge rushers is a must throughout the rest of the draft.