AZ54

Love bringing in CB Michael Joseph. He plays physical at times, which I like, but he's got a lot to learn and will have to work hard to improve his functional strength for the NFL. Long term he has potential to be a contributor on the roster. Put Kevin Tolliver in the same sentence. Former 5-star recruit out of high school. Maybe one of them figures it out. RB Ryan Nall I like as well. I could see him as an h-back if we want someone in that role. I think he'd be more versatile than Burton is at FB. Or he's a backup RB biding his time on the practice squad.

I just see some surprises today. I think all the picks are good players but there isn't an Eddie Jackson type with year one starter potential. Iggy looks like a lesser version of Roquan with good special teams potential early in his career. I'd say Kwit sticks as the slow ILB on the roster and we say goodbye to Timu and the often-out-of-position Anderson. Might be some starter potential down the road. Seeing how things played out in Rd 4 I'd have put money down that we take either Josh Sweat or Dorance Armstrong or even Shaqem Griffin with this pick. Bilal Nichols fits the DE profile physically but I don't see much more than depth player potential in him. I doubt he even makes the 53-man roster this year. He was was mis-cast as a NT in that defense last year but likely was their best option there. He has a lot of work to do. OLB Kylie Fitts has the upside to be a solid rotation player at OLB this year and if he can stay healthy I think he could develop into a starter years down the road. This game he shows a little of everything.

Yes, I've seen this. He does need more lower body strength but this is not the 280 something Grasu coming out of college. He's over 300lbs and there's plenty of tape of him pushing DTs around. He just needs to use his quickness to win the leverage battle, but he usually does that. I suspect the Bears prefer him at OG this season to protect him from having to anchor against the big NTs he'd face at OC. Whitehair struggled with that quite a bit his first year. Handling some of the smaller quicker 3-4 DEs, or 3- techniques at LG should not be much of an issue. He's also good at pulling to get outside and seal the edge, or hitting LBs at the second level. I'm a little crazy because back when the Combine was underway I was watching the Olinemen performing their drills. They all do the little shuffling drills, side to side, kick step back into pass pro, etc. Most are big slow dudes, even the ones who have the quickness to play LT. Then Daniels ran the drills and it was night and day. This is one very athletic big man. He's just 20 years old and should build a more solid base to go with the athletic moves in the next year or two. Given the type of zone blocking we want he should become an ideal fit once he gains more strength. I never expected him to be there because everything I read had him going in the first round. Instead the Lions took Ragnow at #20 overall, the Bengals took Price right behind that. Of the three Price seemed the most stout as a blocker, with Ragnow the weakest. We're going to get to watch Ragnow and Daniels for several years to compare draft value. Now about the concerns with his knee, that I know nothing about. Pace said he checked out medically.

He's not as big as Meredith but the way he can run routes with quickness in his cuts is similar. He's bigger than I thought. I didn't watch much film on him before that draft but in the short draft highlights I can see his quickness to separate. Adding him in the mix with all the other talent we have is going to be a very good thing. I can see him becoming Trubisky's favorite target. That's in part because of the attention Robinson will draw, and Gabriel, and Cohen when he's out there. Miller is going to reliably get open and quickly, and we are going to be very multiple in the ways we can attack a defense. Our defense is going to know how different this offense is very early in camp.

There is an A, A, and an A+ here for the Chicago Bears. Not sure when I've ever seen that, if ever. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/draft-tracker/

Fix that RDE position, which will keep him clean, and we'll all be smiling, a lot, watching Smith play.

There are many good players at positions of need. Draft an OLB pass rusher (Landry, Sweat, Carter) and our front 7 is in the top 5 in the NFL. I really believe they'd be that tough to move the ball against. FWIW I feel pretty good about RRH at DE. OTOH, given the Oline talent still on the board if we draft an OG I think the offense is poised to take off. Given all the new pieces that might take us to top 15 and maybe better late in the season. Either way I"m happy but I love elite defensive play so my heart leans towards helping the pass rush at OLB.

That he is. Between Smith and Trevathan we have and excellent tandem for edge run support. It's going to be tough for teams to run any stretch plays and of course you have Floyd on one edge anyway next to Hicks. Find a bookend pass rusher opposite Floyd at OLB in Rd 2 and lookout, pass rush can come from anywhere at anytime. Almost every Oline has a weakness so we'll be better positioned to exploit whatever that is.

I like Carter and adding him would give us some incredibly athletic LBs across the front 7. It would also be an interesting case study in watching how a very good coach (Fangio) takes elite athletes and helps them play much better than they did when they had a bad coach (Mel Tucker at Georgia).

Since I'm always wrong, if I'm picking the surprise Pace will give us I'd say it'll be Davenport.

Edmunds easily is a day 1 starter, as is Smith. Both LBs are very good and either makes our defense better, probably quite a bit better. Likewise both have negatives and Smith is not a slam dunk in all aspects of play. I've read very few reports, if any of Smith being good handling traffic between the tackles to make plays. He's just a better fit as a weakside LB, similar to what Trevathan does well for us. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000928419/article/daniel-jeremiahs-top-50-prospects-for-2018-nfl-draft-40 Smith is an undersized inside linebacker with excellent instincts and range. Against inside runs, he uses his quickness to beat blockers to spots and is a firm, chest-up tackler. He does need to improve his hand usage because once blockers get into him, he struggles to free himself. He's at his best against perimeter runs. Smith brings outstanding recognition and covers ground quickly. I believe he projects best as a 4-3 WLB where he would be able to use his speed to run-and-chase without having to mix it up inside. Against the pass, he has the speed and agility to cover RBs and TEs. He's an excellent blitzer. Smith might lack the ideal bulk, but he's a playmaker against both the run and pass. http://draftanalyst.com/roquan-smith Neg: Does not take the best angles in coverage. Struggles to make plays with his back to the ball. Small and will need a free shot at the ball carrier at the next level. Analysis: Smith is a tremendous pursuit linebacker who plays with a violent style. He has size limitations and will struggle to cover tight ends but will be a very productive linebacker in the proper NFL system.

No secrets here. https://twitter.com/ChicagoBears/status/989308076162363392

http://draftanalyst.com/nfl-draft-notes-april-25 I slotted Derwin James to the Green Bay Packers in the first round of my most recentmock draft. I’m told the Packers would consider trading up for James or Denzel Ward if the opportunity presents itself.

Lots of talk the Packers are working to trade up. If true I suspect their target is Fitzpatrick or Ward. As reported on NFL Network, it sounded like they wanted to slot in somewhere around 10 overall.

I can't imagine the Giants get anything beyond a conditional 6th or 7th Rd pick for him. I'd make it conditional on him being a starter.

Could be right. If you take away the QBs then the top 8 players could include Davenport.

Most of what I've heard is that there are about 25 first round grades on players in this draft. That seems to be the case most years. IMO I'd probably replace Ronald Jones with Josh Allen, his physical talent is elite even if the game tape isn't there. At a position of extreme value that figures into it. I've also heard quite a few reports of Sutton having a 2nd Rd grade, supposedly even the Cowboys have him ranked there. Athlete, yes, route runner not yet. What Stinger said about all the different opinions, in this draft the top-50 players on boards seem to vary a lot.

Tremaine Edmunds... even if Nelson is on the board. My likes: Nelson, ......if both are gone (and unless Chubb or Barkley are there) I say we just trade down. I don't see a lot of difference between a player like Ward vs. Jaire Alexander. Fitzpatrick vs. James. Or even adding Ridley at say #15 and then perhaps an additional 2nd Rd pick (we might give back a 4th).

The LBs were in order: Rashaan Evans stats from 42 career games Leighton VanderEsche stats from 28 career games Tremaine Edmunds stats from 32 career games Roquan Smith stats from 38 career games When I started to put this together I expected to see far more passes defensed from Roquan Smith. Seeing just three total in 38 games was a shock to me. I expected he'd clearly be the leader in this stat among the top 4 LBs. The other surprise to me was the higher percentage of TFL that Edmunds has. For a player who is often said to be lacking instincts he is well above the other first round talents. Sacks are not counted in TFLs so when we add in his 10 sacks it further puts him ahead. If this is how well a player with no instincts performs what's he going to do when he really knows how to diagnose plays? Or flip it the other way...his floor is not nearly as low as some project it to be. In their careers Roquan Smith total tackles averages to 6.6/gm, Edmunds avg 6.6 tackles/gm. Based on the their TFL stats I would say the criticism of VanderEsche being a chase and tackle guy, meaning he's not ahead of the play, is probably correct. That doesn't mean he can't improve there with more experience. With the least amount of game experience his PDs, and FF standout but the level of competition isn't as high as others.

Sorry, these are all ILB.

Just based on career stats alone which LB would you take? I'm just curious with the healthy debate of how un-instinctive Edmunds is and that it's a liability early in his career. This is the stat line for the top 4 LBs in the draft (Chubb played DE). In a blind test this is about which numbers catch your eye in terms of what you want to add to our defense. (I have not posted a poll on this new site so I'm not sure on the formatting and if this is going to end up a double post.)

Could be that we swap picks again with the 49ers if they are desperate enough to get Edmunds. We need to throw out the old trade charts. Those values are no longer valid. Go back to the last few drafts to see what was given up for QBs, including what we gave up last year. What the Jets have already given up this year. Based on the trade chart this swap from 8 to 9 would only net 50pts but when you have elite top 5 caliber talent sitting there the value is higher. http://draftanalyst.com/nfl-draft-news-notes-april-24 In that recent mock, I have the San Francisco 49ers trading down with the Buffalo Billsand selecting Leighton Vander Esch. This won’t be the case if Tremaine Edmunds is available when the Niners are called to the clock, as he is the player the team covets.

I'm not changing and I still value Edmunds more than Roquan Smith. I went back and watched a game of each and I see the same mistakes people complain about with Edmunds made by Smith. He gets caught up inside at times mis-reading the keys. One thing is clear, if any blocker gets his hands on Smith he's out of the play unless he can loop back around for a tackle a bit further downfield. I watch Edmunds at the goal line at 1:05 against Clemson (seems like reasonable high level college competition) and he pushes off the block from the RG and stuffs the RB preventing a TD. Again around 1:20 Edmunds fends off the block from the LT and a WR crashing in on him to get into the outside gap. Both are plays Smith is not capable of. Edmunds isn't perfect either or he'd easily be a top 5 pick. At 1:40 he misses his assignment on the RB out of the backfield. Then again if you watch the Auburn game Roquan Smith makes the same mistake. If you continue watching Edmunds against Clemson you'll see he doesn't make that mistake again, and often picks up the RB out of the backfield. http://draftbreakdown.com/2017/11/13/roquan-smith-vs-auburn-2017/ http://draftbreakdown.com/2017/10/16/tremaine-edmunds-vs-clemson-2017/ I'll cede the fact Smith is the better LB in coverage but, there is not a huge gap here. Anywhere around the LOS in traffic, and especially in the redzone I prefer Edmunds. In fact I think Edmunds is the perfect compliment to Trevathan.

On that list of small school gems I do like the RB Trenton Cannon. He's got KR ability, can catch a bit (only see him on little swing routes out of the backfield). He's not very big but he seems more versatile than Smoke so if we're going to stash a RB on the practice squad he might be worth a spot.

Pace keeps things close to the vest before every draft so there's not a lot of chatter about the Bears. Nonetheless, I'd still like to have a thread where we can put all draft rumors. Technically what other teams do in the draft is Bears related. Let's start off with some Bears tidbits... http://draftanalyst.com/small-school-gems-offense Bears have interest in a small school QB, Connor Jessop, and a small school OG, Matthew Gono. Three NFC North teams are showing interest in Gono. I'd say Jessop is a UDFA candidate. I don't see much anticipation but he is accurate. Gono has some good raw talent and could be in play very late in the draft but it's always hard to evaluate against this level of competition. One thing we know is the Bears are putting a lot of effort into finding OG prospects this draft.