With the eighth-overall pick, the Bears selected Georgia Bulldogs linebacker Roquan Smith, reuniting him with 2016 first-round pick and former Bulldog linebacker Leonard Floyd. In 2017, the Butkus Award winner helped lead Georgia to the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship. In the second round, Chicago opted to fill the offensive positions as the team drafted Iowa center James Daniels and Memphis receiver Anthony Miller. In 2017, Daniels was honorable mention for the All-Big Ten Conference team as he helped lead an Iowa offense that averaged 190.2 passing yards and 139.2 rushing yards per game. Although he played center in college, the Bears elected to move him to guard to start his NFL career. Miller, whose selection was made possible when the Bears traded up to the 51st-overall pick in a trade with the New England Patriots that sent the 105th overall and a 2019 second rounder to New England, recorded 1,448 receiving yards and 16 touchdowns in the 2016 and 2017 seasons; during the latter, he averaged 3.47 yards per route run, fourth-best among receivers in the draft.