AZ54

It's hard to watch these highlights, especially the receptions, and not wonder what Matt Nagy is thinking. Much of his highlights are against top competition, not the lesser programs Devin Singletary looks good against. The health concerns are real so I doubt we'd draft him in the 3rd Rd. I think we must add at least one player who can contribute somewhere, even if as a reliable depth player who could handle a starting role (OG, CB, S, TE). But in the 4th Rd I could forgive Pace for a taking chance on Anderson. Rodney Anderson vs. Roquan Smith...

He's an interesting prospect but he's not anywhere close to the athlete Aaron Donald is. In the NFL, once he gets in shape for it, he'll be a two-gap player who occasionally will take advantage of a mistake by the OG to get upfield for a big play. I think Nichols was better as a prospect because of his height and length.

I'm not big on Ximines he runs too hot and cold for my likes in the 3rd Rd. In the 4th maybe. Other than that I like the picks. This is the first time I've seen Nauta mentioned because I haven't done a ton of research on TEs. I like him especially in the 5th Rd.

Hard to see how a 3rd Rd pick costs too much, unless you're talking opportunity cost.

unsigned FA: Ndamukong Suh, Wilkerson, Ansah, Jernigan and more. I don't know what's left in the tank for many of them but we could find some help at least as a depth/rotation player if we wanted to. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/all/defensive-line/

Sanders I was high on but his fumbling problems make me nervous and so I lean more toward Henderson in the 3rd Rd. Singletary's lack of explosiveness is worriesome at the NFL level. It's one thing for a bigger back like Barnes to lack explosiveness because he has the strength to run through tackles. I feel like Singletary will be the second coming of Mizzell although he's quicker in his cuts. Beyond those few it's just a bunch of guys who all offer a slightly different twist but can be productive in RBBC roles. There has been little discussion of Justice Hill here. He's fast and can hit the home run at any time but when I watched him in a game he tends to run into traffic too often for my liking. For a smaller RB you'd like to see him take the soft edge on tacklers. That lack of vision is concerning for me. That said, he should still be in the mix for us on day 3.

Nichols had quite a few splash plays but he also got moved around off the LOS a lot last year. I like his future potential and he's definitely in the rotation but he has things to improve upon.

Interior Oline help is a definite possibility in the draft. I'm not a fan of Ted Larsen at all but I give him credit because he's 32 and has managed to scrape together a decent NFL career given his talent. We still have plenty of cap space and if we go through the draft without picking someone at OG then I think Pace picks up another FA veteran who gets cut after the draft. That could happen at S or CB. Last year in the draft he avoided reaching for OLB help when the draft didn't fall his way. Any way we slice up the picks having 4 in the top 150 adds good depth a several positions.

I'd love to see Pace draft him in the 3rd Rd. I don't view DE as a big need, much like I don't view OG as big need. There is some depth there but adding a player like Tillery would make our Dline stupid good. How do you even run against that front with fast ILBs in Trevathan and Smith right behind them. We've had some good defenses since 1985/6 seasons and they always get compared to that team but haven't measured up. IMO adding Tillery to this front 7 could put this defense in that category.

It's an unusual year without a pick in the first two rounds. I have to believe an extensive amount of work goes into grading players in the top 75. This year without the worry of sorting out all those players in great detail I expect they're spending more time focused on the players in the second half of the draft and in particular the potential UDFAs. Pace has often excelled in this part of the draft. With that in mind here's a plan to add 4 players in the top 150. Pace will wait to see who falls to him but if he doesn't find a target who falls to him (perhaps Hooker, Henderson, Sanders) I could see him trading back to the late 3rd Rd. Based on the trade value chart at Draftek if he drops back past 95 overall (NYG, NE, CAR, JAX) he can pick up another 4th Rd pick. Using the Giants at 95 we could get #132 in the 4th Rd. We then sit at 95, 126, 132, 162 (5th). It's not widely talked about but we're sitting with the following 2020 picks: 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 5th, 5th, 6th, 6th, 7th Two of the 5th are conditional but even if we have just one we still have 9 picks next year. I suspect Pace uses them to get another pick in the top 150. Using the Giants again we give them #162 and one of next year's 5th Rd picks to move up to #143 near the top of the 5th Rd. Now we have 95, 126, 132, and 143 plus our two 7th Rd picks. Let's go get some players This year's draft rankings have prospects all over the place. For RBs David Montgomery is either a solid 2nd Rd pick and the 2nd best back in the draft of he's a late 3rd Rd pick. I'll use a combination of Great Blue North rankings, Draft Network, NFL.com, Gil Brandt's top 150 and Drafttek. Nothing too scientific I just want some confidence a player will be available where I'm picking them. 95: TE Jace Sternberger Two years in a row Nagy has been knocked out of the first round of the playoffs. In both games he lost his main TE target. I'm betting he wants a little more insurance against that happening again in 2019. Shaheen remains a question mark at this point. 126: RB Trayveon Williams Jack-of-all-trades, master of none. He fits the versatility Nagy wants in his RBs and he joins the RBBC. 132: CB David Long He's our future starter at NB. 5'11" and under 200lbs but with 4.45 forty, 6.45s 3-cone, and 39" vertical he has the explosiveness you want inside. 143: S Malik Gant He has some limitations in coverage but he's sticky early on routes and he's a solid player in run support. Loves to hunt down the ball carrier and paired with Eddie Jackson covering things over the top he could develop into a solid starter. 222: OLB Justin Hollins Floyd-like quickness and speed. Floyd-like strength. He needs to spend a year in that new weight room at Halas Hall. If he dedicates himself to his craft he has all the athletic traits to develop into a starter but he should at least be a good backup. 238: S Nick Scott Why not add another S to the mix. He likes to hit and he has 4.4 speed so he should be able to compete for snaps on kick coverage. He has limited experience (1yr starter) but he could challenge for starting snaps down the road.

I don't think Davis is anything more than 1 year insurance policy to make sure we have good depth at RB, but not a #1. It's all RBBC and I have to think Nall is part of the plan here too. If that's correct Pace can grab a RB anywhere if the value is right, and he can even afford to take a chance on an injury risk like Love or Anderson on Day 3.

I like that draft.

That's a name I haven't heard in a long long time. Sorry to hear the tragic news but it's good to think about the memories.

He's ok and as a pick late in the draft he can fill a role but I doubt he'll ever be more than a #2 if not a #3. I don't think he's much different from Davis. We just paid Davis $3mil guaranteed. Rd 6/7 you can toss in Jalin Moore (App St) as a similar prospect. Myles Gaskin too but offers more power inside, Matt Colburn is a more compact version of Henderson with a bit less speed, and on the bigger side Alex Barnes.

There is that.

Comments above

I absolutely think this is the case in Rd 3. It's really the only way to get an impact player out of this draft except we pick so late in Rd 3 it's going to be tough to find that gem. It will not surprise me at all to see Pace trade up higher into Rd 3, maybe 5 to 10 spots, to grab someone who is falling. He'd then trade back later in the draft to recoup his pick. This is a rare year because we don't have to extensively evaluate the top end prospects. There will be scouting reports on them of course because you always want that for FA decisions down the road. That means more time can be spent on players outside the top 100 even all the way down to UDFAs. I expect Pace had his organization put in more time than usual on small school prospects. When you start thinking about the 3rd Rd what do they think of WR Andy Isabella? His long speed is legit and he runs routes all over the field.

Plan A I'm good with...essentially that's Nall. Plan B I don't like at all. We don't need to draft a RB a round earlier than they are graded. We have enough other needs to fill that we should be grabbing the best player at any number of positions. There is a plan C where they feel there are enough good prospects that we can let the draft fall to us and take the best of the remaining options at the appropriate draft slot. I don't think we get out the 5th Rd without having a new RB.

We probably gave him something up front in order to have him accept a 3 year deal. The fact we signed him after the initial AAF tryout indicates there was some negotiating going on behind the scenes.

I do. Nagy could have given those snaps to Cohen last year if he felt he could handle it and instead he gave them to Smokeless Mizzell. Surprisingly Nagy even gave 1 snap to Mizzell in the playoff game for -1 yards. All that just makes me think he used Cohen as much as he wanted to last year and stuck to his plan even in a critical situation. If he wouldn't change then I don't think Nagy will next season. I don't view Davis as the replacement for Howard either. I just don't think he can handle the workload. He may however be the piece that let's Pace/Nagy take two off-seasons to find their new starting RB. That assumes Nall can fill in for Howards snaps but even then I think we still draft one player at RB. It just might not be as critical a need as many (most really) think it is. That could let them feel good enough to take a chance on a player like Love or Anderson on day 3.

I don't see Cohen picking up 25% more carries without it affecting him. Plus he's still indecisive as a RB and makes bad decisions too often instead of taking what's there. He's tough but he's just not that big and gets rag dolled too often. I like what Nagy did keeping him outside the numbers more often than not so he has an option with the sideline to escape the big hits. The upside is his ability to make big plays so you want his versatility back there especially later in the game. I just think if we give him too much work load he'll lose some of that edge and won't be as explosive when the defense is tired late in the games, and really late in the season. We also want to keep him fresh for punt returns. I believe that's why we suffered through the few MIzzell carries per game last year when those carries could have easily gone to Howard. I think Nall is part of the plan or Pace wouldn't have cut Howard loose pre-draft. It's just not his style to have a glaring need.

I agree. Everything is on the table when Pace is drafting. Even if he's trading the pick he got in exchange for Howard to draft a kicker in Rd 7.

Myles Gaskin recently completed his visit with the Bears. I like him as a day 3 pick, 5-7th Rd depending on who's ranking him. He's not fast but he's pretty quick and has some ability to make the unblocked defender miss in the hole. He's not too slow either, he just doesn't have long speed so if he gets past the 2nd level he can get run down 30-40yds down field. He's got good hands but he's not big enough to handle 20+ snaps a game but for a RBBC approach he should be ok with 15-20. That size limitation shows up in pass pro as well, but on the flip side he runs hard between the tackles.

The main point in the Blount videos is that Doug Pedeson didn't care to use him much as a receiver. In 2017 Blount had a total of 8 receptions so production from his big back in the passing game is not something Pederson is worried about. If he were, he wouldn't gone out and signed Blount for a year. Now he's got Jordan Howard, a somewhat similar big RB who can get some tough yards but who doesn't offer much in the passing game. People keep saying the Eagles run the same offense as we do so why can they get something out of Howard and we can't? That's not the point and Nagy has already proven he can get production out of Howard. It's just Nagy feels he can get more production from the entire offense with a RB who is more versatile than Howard. Pederson has shown he's ok working with those limitations. Even in the same offense there are preferences for which plays Nagy or Pederson want to call to attack a defense.

What a difference a year makes. A losing team pays Aaron Lynch $4mil to play for one season. A 12-win team pays him $1.4mil. No wonder Lynch sounded a bit despondent after he re-signed. If he wasn't getting much of an offer around the league his best chance for a big contract is returning to the Bears for one season playing alongside Mack, Floyd, Hicks, and Goldman. If he puts up 10 or more sacks he'll get paid next year. Plus he knows Pagano is more aggressive going after the QB than Fangio was. Lynch isn't great off the edge but if Pagano uses more inside blitzes it will force QBs into Lynch's arms more often. Even those half-sacks add up.