Bears eye combine receivers as they await Alshon Jeffery’s fate

INDIANAPOLIS — USC wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster felt the pressure Wednesday night.

He wanted to do well in his private NFL Scouting Combine interview with the Bears. They might need a receiver — and, plus, they’re his father’s favorite team.

And then the Bears spent their 15-minute interview pushing and prodding him.

“They were very hard on me — super-hard on me,” he said Friday at the combine. “They were just asking, like, background questions, but I didn’t have anything to hide. Basically clean.

“But we talked about ball. It was a great meeting.”

Clemson star receiver Mike Williams was hoping to say the same. He had a private meeting with the Bears scheduled for late Friday night.

“They need some weapons,” he said. “I’m going to talk to them and see if I can form a bond with them.”

The Bears don’t figure to invest their first-round pick in the 6-3, 225-pound Williams, or any wide receiver, two years after drafting Kevin White seventh. But they have reasons to turn a careful eye toward this receiving class.

Despite his promise, White has played in only four games and has yet to prove to the Bears that he’s reliable, much less a No. 1 receiver.

And the Bears might soon be in the market for a No. 1. Alshon Jeffery could be wearing a new uniform by Thursday afternoon after the team decided not to put the franchise tag on him. General manager Ryan Pace wouldn’t close the door on a reunion, but he has long been wary of free-agent bidding wars, and Jeffery figures to generate one.

Jeffery released a statement this week suggesting he was ready to move on from the Bears.

“Whatever happens there — whether it’s Alshon or whatever it is — we’re going to be improving at that position,” Pace said this week.

The Bears figure to look to free agency and the draft, in that order, to supplement a group that includes White and second-year pro Cam Meredith.

Don’t expect a reunion with Brandon Marshall, who was cut Thursday by the Jets, but the Bears figure to be in the market for a veteran. Eddie Royal, the elder statesman of the receivers room, could be on his way out. His $5 million contract for 2017 isn’t guaranteed.

It might be more difficult to sell a free-agent wide receiver on the Bears until their quarterback situation is settled.

“That comes up,” Pace said. “If I’m a free agent, there’s some questions I’d want to know. But with a lot of these things, it just comes down to the contract.”

Smith-Schuster, who could be available in the second round, has been compared to Jeffery. That makes him smile.

“He’s a very competitive person at what he does,” said Smith-Schuster, who led the Trojans in receiving two consecutive years before turning pro after his junior season. “He goes up for the ball, attacks it at the high point. He’s just a dog out there.”

Perhaps the draft’s second-best receiver, behind Williams, is hurt. Wheaton-Warrenville South alum Corey Davis, who played alongside the Bears’ Daniel Braverman at Western Michigan, had surgery six weeks ago to repair two torn ankle ligaments.

He won’t run at the combine or at his pro day in two weeks but hopes to be full-speed by mid-April. The 6-3, 213-pound MAC Player of the Year isn’t worried the injury will drop him down draft boards.

“My game tape is not too shabby,” he said.

The Bears need a few like him, particularly if Jeffery walks.

“Everybody highlights that we didn’t score enough points, which is fact, but we didn’t get a lot of long touchdowns, either,” coach John Fox said. “We just need more playmakers on both sides of the ball.”

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Email: pfinley@suntimes.com