dawhizz

Bears signed CB Nick McCloud. Basically a Jaylon Jones replacement except has a little more starting experience. That gives you six at least decent CB options with Johnson, Stevenson, Smith, Gordon, Blackwell, and McCloud. I don’t see us taking a CB in the draft unless there is a guy really high on our board late.

This is the tweet that I saw. Looks like Sweat is the one who had trained with him previously. Interesting that it shows four current Bears (Jarrett, Booker, Dexter, Sweat), one almost-Bear (Larry Ogunjobi) plus one Viking (Dallas Turner) and one draft eligible edge (Tyler Baron from Miami). Baron might be a name to keep on your radar if the Bears are still looking for edge help in the middle rounds and the brass gets good reports on him from the Bears players.

Seems like we just did the Campbell exercise with Peter Skoronski a few years ago. He was a well graded, fundamentally sound college LT that probably didn’t translate well to LT or maybe tackle at all. Campbell is taller, but has the same short arms problem. Cut to two years later and Skoronski is a very good guard but so obviously not a fit at LT that the Titans overpaid for Dan Moore. https://www.nfl.com/prospects/peter-skoronski/3200534b-4f46-7199-f435-c28e7b2fe41f https://www.nfl.com/prospects/will-campbell/32004341-4d67-0633-da01-28e834689a13

But I think we’ll have some indication leading up to. Like Darnell Wright pick was a surprise relative to where we were a month out from the draft, but that was kind of a tending pick in the days leading up to the draft.

Nolan’s a good pick. I guess if I have to go out of the box, I might say Luther Burden the WR from Missouri. He’s seen as more of a mid 1st/late 1st/early 2nd guy, but if you see DJ and Rome as the outside receivers, Burden might be the ideal slot guy in a Ben Johnson offense based on speed, hands, route running, toughness, and ability be be used in a number of different ways.

I think it’s very likely Banks will be available at 10. I know it only takes one but I feel like Campbell and Membou are both rated higher by most and the other teams taking an OT are probably not going to be quite as dispersing as the Bears regarding where an OT projects. Like, even if Campbell isn’t for sure an OT, he’s still going to be immediately startable somewhere on the line for a team like the Pats, Giants, Saints, and Jets.

I guess my feeling is that I don’t see one of these particular draft picks being better than Jones this year at LT. It would be different if there were a couple great players who definitely project well to LT, but I feel like we have a bunch of guys who don’t project so cleanly to LT and might be guards. I’m ok taking that risk with a second round pick on Ersery, Conerly, Zabel, etc. but if I’m taking another tackle at #10 I better be damn sure he’s a LT and I can’t say that about these guys except maybe Simmons who has the injury I’m wary of. Banks is the closest for me.

Not real thrilled with this completely unnecessary contract extension for a guy who was not very good last year and now has a $25 million cap hit in 2026. Let’s hope he lives up to it.

Another useful tweet with regard to the edge class, particularly for those considering Shemar Stewart or Mychal Williams.

I keep seeing Shemar Stewart, the edge from Texas A&M mocked to the Bears and while his size seems to fit the Dennis Allen mold, between his 4.5 TOTAL sacks over three years and this note on his run defense, I am fully out on him.

I don’t love taking a guy at OT who has already had a pretty major knee injury. Sprains and stuff are on thing, a torn patellar tendon is another.

I think there is an aspect of this where the mock draft pundits convinced themselves so fully that the Bears would be in desperate need of an O-line upgrade come draft time and just haven’t reconsidered based on their offseason additions. That’s not to say they don’t still have a moderate, more depth/future based need there, but I think if they actually thought about it more or reconsidered their initial thoughts, they would be less inclined to just pencil in O-line help.

Yeah. I don’t know how I feel about all that resource allocation to LB after signing Edwards and Edmunds last year and now committing a top ten pick to what is nominally an off ball LB, but it’s the easiest way for me to justify taking any of the edge players early if I think he can also offer early down value and move around and even be a nickel defender on TEs plus be a threat to rush. I don’t think you can take a small edge top ten and expect him to play every down in the Allen defense, and as I’ve said I’m underwhelmed by the production of the bigger edges being projected in the early first round. I’ll mention that I’ve heard Jihaad Campbell as a first round guy who offers a similar skill set to Walker so I’m interested to look more at him.

The more I think about it, the pick that would make the most sense to me conceptually is Jalen Walker from Georgia. With Sanborn gone, there isn’t a clear starter with Edmunds and Edwards, and Walker could be a LB in early downs and then rush from the edge on passing downs, plus could be a real asset as a pass rusher from the LB spot whenever Allen wants to deploy him.

Jordan Burch and Ashton Gillotte are also options in that range. I like what I’ve seen from Burch.