Less than a week before the draft, nobody seems to know what the Bears will do with the third pick.

The NFL Draft is less than a week away and with that, the mock drafts usually start taking a little bit more shape. Sure, nobody does very well predicting the first round of the draft, but ordinarily, the first few picks start coming into focus as the draft nears.

With a week to go, every football website sends out mock draft after mock draft. You can’t look one direction without seeing somebody publishing their new mock draft, and at this point in the mock draft season, the nearly unanimous consensus is that the Cleveland Browns will draft Myles Garrett with the first overall pick.

That would put the San Francisco 49ers on the clock. For awhile, it seemed that the 49ers could go one of many different directions, but now the overwhelming favorite to be picked second appears to be Stanford’s Solomon Thomas.

The Chicago Bears are now on the clock.

That’s when things get interesting.

The Bears need help in multiple areas. They could use another body up front to pair with Akiem Hicks (Jonathan Bullard’s rookie season was underwhelming), they desperately need a lockdown cornerback and they certainly need help at safety. Of course, the obvious position of need is quarterback. Chicago could also use wide receivers, a tight end, and a tackle, but who’s counting.

When your needs are that plentiful, the pundits are going to have a hard time determining exactly who the Bears are going to select, and because of it, you see an extreme variety of ideas.

From CBSSports.com:

Rob Rang and Ryan Wilson see the Bears going with LSU safety Jamal Adams. Dane Bruger and Jared Dubin see the Bears taking Ohio State CB Marshon Lattimore. Pete Prisco goes with Stanford DL Solomon Thomas and Will Brinson thinks it will be Alabama’s Jonathan Allen.

Chad Reuter from NFL.com has the Bears taking Malik Hooker, the safety from Ohio State. SiriusXM NFL Radio has the Bears selecting Deshaun Watson. Others have speculated even taking Alabama TE OJ Howard, while many feel the Bears want and should trade down.

If there were higher level wide receivers or offensive lineman available, you would probably see those positions speculated as well, but fortunately for mock drafters, there aren’t any worthy of being a top 5 pick.

The bottom line is this, the Bears have a lot of needs and a general manager in Ryan Pace that doesn’t like to talk much. Pace keeps his thoughts close to the vest and the media has a hard time reading his poker face. The Bears needs are obvious, but would the Bears stretch and take a QB at number three or will they take a safer defensive player and worry about a QB potentially in round two?

It’s anybody’s guess what the Bears will do. One thing everyone can agree on, the Bears have a critical decision to make on April 27. It’s the type of decision that could determine Ryan Pace’s fate and could be the deciding factor if the Bears are able to turn around their issues within the next couple seasons. That’s all that’s riding on next week’s third overall pick, so no pressure or anything.