AZ54

By the way I'm perfectly good with the fact we stayed put. I always felt we had a good chance to get a rookie who could be a legit starter at 43. And after Rd 1 it was clear that we had a great chance to get two ....and we did. In fact I think we did better than I ever anticipated with Johnson at 50. I thought we'd end up with someone like Chinn who might have been a starter but would have more growing pains.

I think they can do better on cap hit if they let him win the job and then just negotiate a new deal. He'd have to really light it up to make that a losing proposition and in that case they always have the franchise tag at their disposal. If he's just a bit better than Foles he's not going to get a huge deal and they could do something like a 3 yr extension. Of course if he can't beat out Foles then he's gone.

I think Horsted has the inside track as a backup U TE over Holtz who is more redundant behind Kmet and Harris. If we decide to keep 5 TEs that will all be based on special teams performance but cutting Braunecker says some money. Bears must still be hoping for that conditional pick for Shaheen.

I may have to stand corrected. Mooney says he's a good route runner and Matt Nagy said he's a good route runner. I'm ok with being wrong and it gives me a bit more optimism he'll be able to contribute part time this year.

I read a little bit on them and it seems there is some reason for optimism on both maybe to develop as backups some day.

Never knew about that Mon 4pm rule. Very interesting as Pace sees several decent FA Safety options still available and decides to wait for that 4pm bell to ring.

It's the offseason, people just aren't all that creative in what they talk about, so they find something simple and go after it. I don't care how many TEs we have in the offseason. I'm far more concerned with how many "good" TEs we have.

Voice of optimism.

That is the correct way to value the net result and it's not bad. 1 HoF player (who we drafted twice), a starter at TE, a starter at CB. A likely solid backup OLB and in the 5th a possible replacement for Gabriel as a 4th WR. Not sure I expect much from Vinder and I definitely don't expect anything from the Oline prospects.

I may have a personality disorder but not that one.

Little Mack has some good movement skills. He's not nearly big enough to play OLB in our scheme. I could see him with a good chance to develop into a special teams player and possibly a backup ILB. Someone more like Kwiatkoski than Trevathan/Smith. He has very little football background so he's definitely a practice squad candidate this year. He's already got some special teams coverage highlights.

Oline stands out a lot as being neglected this offseason. Yet Pace has shown a willingness to go after fixing a need (i.e. TE this offseason). I have to wonder with the new Oline coach if there is a sentiment that our talent level was better than we thought last year and it is more a lack of cohesiveness that caused the issues. That might be true on the interior but it still can't explain Leno completely whiffing on blocks. I think we'll do something soon in FA to at least find a vet backup like we did with Lucas last year.

I don't care about trade down vs. trade up...it's all about finding or developing pro bowl caliber players. Doesn't matter to me if you trade up in the 4th Rd for Eddie Jackson. Get enough of those players and the rest can be filled with JAGs, either FA or via draft, who know their role and play it well enough. Nor do I care if they come by way of FA ala Akiem Hicks. We traded two first Rd picks for Mack yet there is no doubt he instantly made our entire defense better. As seen on Reddit: Bears Receive: EDGE Khalil Mack + Giant Contract, TE Cole Kmet. Raiders Receive: RB Josh Jacobs, CB Damon Arnette, WR Bryan Edwards. Which side are you taking? https://chicago.suntimes.com/2017/4/29/18321326/bears-trade-up-draft-alabama-s-eddie-jackson

There is a big difference. Rodgers fell a lot in the draft. Love ended up being picked about where he was expected to go. Love has the physical talent to be a starter. We'll know years from now if he can overcome his bad habits.

Rashad Smith sure looks like a Safety to me. He's been playing ILB and looks decent in the role both in run support and coverage but he's way too small for the NFL. He seems to have good speed but I can't find anything for a forty time. This year with prospects like this they had no Pro Days to help them. We'll see if the Bears ask him to bulk up for ILB. A little background on him... https://www.upressonline.com/2020/04/analysis-rashad-smith-could-be-a-late-round-steal-in-the-2020-nfl-draft/

Why would any UDFA TE prefer to come here?

This Artavis Pierce has some good burst to his game. He doesn't have the jump cuts you look for and there isn't a lot of power to his game but I could see him growing into a role as the 3rd RB or potentially 2nd down the road depending on his hands.

Combine results for Gipson are below although he only ran and lifted. His 10yd split surprised me coming in at 1.63 just behind a guy named Mack who ran 1.64. Mack hit a higher top speed thus the better 40 time. IIRC for pass rusher we like to see anything around 1.60. Of course that's just one piece of the puzzle because you also need strength, bend etc. to get around the corner or you'll consistently get pushed past the QB on pass rushes. Or you end up like Leonard Floyd bouncing around waving your arms up in the air. Gipson at least has some physical traits needed to succeed. I tried to look up RRH 10yd split but all I can find is that he ran a 4.8 forty so it's not likely he was as quick off the line and might be why he was moved inside. https://nflcombineresults.com/playerpage.php?f=Trevis&l=Gipson&i=30115 https://nflcombineresults.com/playerpage.php?f=Khalil&l=Mack&i=10414 Found another thread on a Falcon's board with some background info from an NFL scout https://boards.atlantafalcons.com/topic/4053415-10-yard-split-and-pass-rushers/

Getting it's own thread ....because apparently I'm not the only one thinking this. https://twitter.com/greggabe/status/1254129003335729154?s=19

There is more to come, we haven't yet extended ARob's contract. We'll be searching the wire soon.

These are replacements for Alex Bars on the practice squad.

We did not address Safety at all which means we are either going to grab one of the remaining FA safeties and/or the coaches have confidence in Denmark converting to Safety. The FA has to happen IMO.

and another OG Lachavious Simmons. We're throwing darts at OG and the NFL.com site has literally nothing on him. NO GRADE LIKELY NEEDS TIME IN DEVELOPMENTAL LEAGUE .

OG Arlington Hambright Colorado. I know nothing.

I've liked him for many weeks and I'm glad we have him. I don't view him as a starter level player but he has enough ability that he might achieve that if he works hard enough. Given the poor depth we have at OLB he should see some snaps this year. NFL.com graded him as a potential future starter. The comp to RRH might be a realistic as he's not the fastest off the line. As we always say with Day 3 picks he'll need to get stronger to handle NFL OTs.