AZ54

One guy whose opinion I trust on WRs is Steve Smith. If he says 4 or 5 teams are going to take Aiyuk in the first round I believe it will happen. Even if not it would seem he'll be gone before we pick at 43. I wanted one of Reagor or Aiyuk in that spot. We'll see how it shakes it. If there is a run on WRs though it still benefits us because it's more likely someone like Delpit falls to us. http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-network-total-access/0ap3000001108491/Steve-Smith-Sr-One-2020-draft-WR-who-s-being-slept-on

Apparently crazy restructure made his deal so he only has a cap hit of $5.3mil this year. We still have $11.4mil in cap space per OTC. Spotrac still shows Foles with a $15.6mil cap hit this year. https://overthecap.com/salary-cap/chicago-bears/ Not restructured yet: ARob. If that gets done we could have even more cap space available plus we still have Shaheen and Braunecker on the roster. Aside from signing a FA Safety or some bargain shopping among Oline cuts but I'm not sure there's anything else we'll do in FA. Pace could try to sign someone like RRH long term. Instead of using Robinson's deal to free up cap space he could front load it a bit to make 2021 easier.

The ironic part is these are the people who criticize Ryan Pace for his drafts.

Then we better start writing in which S we are going to draft at 43. That's huge hole on our roster right now. I'm reviewing tape of Chinn, Dugger, Delpit, Davis, Winfield. We're not going to get McKinney so its likely among these options. As I've said before Delpit is my preference because I think he'll fit in immediately and be able to contribute. Behind him I like Chinn or possibly Davis. I like Chinn for his upside potential and he's a good fit for the downhill role we need right now. Plus he will be surrounded with veterans to tell him where to go on each play. That should mask his inexperience coming from a smaller school Davis is another athletic talent, might be more of a backend FS type but I don't think we'd be in a bad spot with either one. Winfield seems like a good prospect albeit with a lower ceiling. He's just 5'9" so that alone limits him against TEs, especially critical in the red zone. I think Dugger is going to be lost his first year as he transitions to NFL speed and plays. Athletically he fits the role but suspect special teams is where he starts his career.

It's impossible to know who we gave up by trading back so makes the value proposition a big unknown. One thing is clear from the comments we could have had Zach Baun at 43 and I'd have stayed put and taken him. He puts legitimate depth into our pass rush and he can help cover open field by dropping back into coverage which is something Quinn nor Mack are good at.

He sure sounds like a QB who plans on playing this year. https://www.chicagobears.com/video/nick-foles-excited-for-the-culture-in-chicago

RRH, Nichols, and even Goldman can all provide some pass rush in limited snaps. The issues we had last year was with the injuries, Nichols included, we had no depth and backups like RRH aren't build to handle the heavy snap counts like Hicks. Their effectiveness that we saw early in the season disappeared with the increased snaps. If we can get our Dline rotation going again we'll see lots of contributions from them again especially with Quinn taking a lot of focus from the LT it should open up opportunities for more effective stunts or even blitzes in the B gap (if I got that right) from NB Skrine or one of the ILBs.

If we go to the playoffs we're not getting a new GM. We'll go the route KC did with Andy Reed and let the GM/head coach combo pick the new QB. I'd much prefer that to starting over completely.

RG it is... Adam Jahns https://twitter.com/adamjahns/status/1246100465202483201 #Bears GM Ryan Pace said that Germain Ifedi will play guard. for line coach Juan Castillo. He'll compete for that RG spot.

https://twitter.com/AdamHoge/status/1246128764905553924 Adam Hoge "Nick Foles just said if he didn't agree to "a crazy restructure" the trade wouldn't have happened and he'd still be in Jacksonville. He wanted to be in Chicago and so he made it happen."

Realize we're all just hoping for average QB play.

I think all the Anthony Gordon hype comes from watching his highlights because it can't be because of all the bad throws/reads he makes. We have Foles and Trubisky...two backups if you will. We don't need a 3rd backup QB. That 5th Rd pick could easliy go to adding depth at OLB which we really need. Trevis Gipson, Trevon Hill are a couple and there are a few others. These are all backup type talents for sure. If you want a high energy guy who likely becomes a special teams stalwart go get Alex Highsmith.

Also by making the trade instead of signing a FA QB we stand to get a 6th Rd comp pick next year.

Did we get Foles for just $8mil/yr? It seems that way. We paid Daniel $5mil/yr the last two years. Moving to a Superbowl winning backup for just $3mil more per year seems like a coup. Pace wanted the cap space more than the draft pick. I think this is a very good deal for us. In a year with few picks giving up the 4th Rd pick hurt the day we made the deal. Looking at it now with these numbers the cap space in exchange for the pick enabled us to add more veteran depth to the roster. For a team with a Superbowl caliber defense having more vets as backups is much better than rookies, especially when talking about picks on the 3rd day of the draft. Say what you want about Artie Burns he's at least a known commodity more than any 4th Rd CB. https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1245381531289489413

The thing about someone like Delpit at S is his ability to cover TEs and RBs as well as his ability to play downhill on run plays. With that versatility we can more easily roll coverages toward Tolliver's side if we have to. But...there's a pass rush that teams have to worry about so that means we should need a CB who can be sticky for 2-3 seconds. As shown in the video I just posted it was clear last year we missed that downhill safety play with HHCD. I think it's obvious we all felt it based on the clamor for a better safety play to compliment Jackson's skills. If Schmitz is right and teams will be forced into the short passing game, then I'd say safety play is actually more important than the outside CB because the ball will be in that area of the field far more often (TE/RB/Slot WR/ or even inside slants from WR). Good play recognition and tackling should lead to more 3rd and long situations. Adding a smart veteran like Jefferson could be a good fit here as this area of the field was his calling card when he was in AZ. The problem is I'm not sure what he has left after the injuries and I never felt he was that good (relative to the $) when he got that huge contract. Certainly he had coverage issues when he was younger so I don't see that being any better. IIRC he got the big deal in a year when there were very few FA options at safety. Remind me why Stephen Denmark wasn't converted to safety? Or is he the reason we might not be too concerned at CB and let him compete with Burns/Tolliver?

I like Robert Schmitz' work. Listen to the end when he talks about how important having the right safety to pair with Jackson is. He said rule of 3, and that's true but we also have guys like RRH and Nichols who are capable of some good pass rushes at times as well, just enough to potentially cause havoc.

I like it but I'd likely swap out Adams for that SS we're missing. Trade the last two picks to move up and grab Adams when he's sitting there in the 6/early 7th.

I don't like it at all. I consistently see Dugger ranked around 43ish but making our first pick someone from a school nobody has ever heard of is not something I want to do. There are 4 safeties ranked in top 50 and I don't think Dugger should be one of them. IMO he's a guy who relied heavily on his athleticism against lesser talent to make plays. That won't work in the NFL so he has a steep learning curve. 43. Looking at who remains on MIller's board he's got Chase Claypool going 44, Jalen Reagor way down at 62, CB Kristian Fulton at 46. For me it's a toss up between those 3 and I think I prefer Reagor despite the fact Miller has him way down the road. 50. Kmet is ok here but there are OTs on the board and while people aren't happy with Graham being paid that much money, he's still a viable TE for us. There's a good chance Leno once again will not be a viable LT for us. Massie is more consistent on the other side but has his issues and is not likely a long term option for us either. Lucas Niang and Isaiah Wilson both go a few picks after us. We should take one of them. They could even be RG starter for a year to get their feet wet. 163 CB Dane Jackson Pitt 196. I don't think Runyan's ever going to be more than a backup and not at OT. We could find better prospects here but I've already taken an OT. RB Rico Dowdle 200 OT Trey Adams why not take a shot here 226 ILB Jordan Mack We need to replace Kwit and I like the idea of having one physical LB on the roster if only for goal line situations. Kwit runs over RBs, Mack runs over OGs. It's all good. 233 TE Jacob Breeland

This board finds a lot of players who turn out to be good in the NFL, even those who go on Day 3.

We're starting to see some nearly final draft boards. There are some surprising changes or maybe wide variance in player grades from one to the next. Rotoworld has Chase Claypool list #26 overall! He was 4th Rd prospect 2 months ago. Josh Jones OT and a favorite of sorts on the board for our 43rd pick is listed #19 overall. Denzel Mims another 2-3rd prospect is #12 overall. Antonio Gibson RB/WR another oft mentioned 4th/5th Rd target for us is listed at #39. His production and lack of a formal position (meaning he couldn't win either job) moves him way down my board. https://www.rotoworld.com/article/nfl-draft-preview/norris-nfl-draft-rankings-top-50-0 Bleacher Report has two safeties ranked ahead of Grant Delpit. That could bode well for us if he's a target, or I suppose if you really value the other two they ranked ahead of him (McKinney, Winfield). https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2883386-nfl-draft-400-matt-millers-latest-2020-big-board-with-1-month-to-go#slide12 Without the normal visits and pro day info, where I think a lot of rumor mill stuff is picked up, this is going to be one interesting draft.

Plenty of people working from home I see no reason front office personnel can't do the same.

I think the medical red flags drop further than normal unless a team is in a position where they can absolutely take on the risk. We aren't we need higher floors on our prospects.

I like Evans and Gibson. I hadn't seen anything on Dowdle but he's a good player, runs with a little fire. He's not going to get much on his own but he knows how to find the crease and get north in a hurry. Not bad for Day 3 option. He makes some Alabama players work for their tackles in this game, and he played hard right to last whistle.

This is how we want Tarik Cohen to run but he's at home happy with his 4ypc. I'm not saying we should draft Taylor because his pass protection isn't that good and he's undersized so his pass catching radius (like Cohen's) isn't the best but he's a tough runner who will get north/south very quickly and he's not afraid to knock a defender down. He runs a 4.61 forty at the combine but his film shows he's faster than that. With that slow time he'll definitely be available on Day 3 and possibly even UDFA.