AZ54

DHB was much more of a 1-trick pony in college than White. I think Cooper will be the guy who has more receptions, more yards receiving and gets you to the redone. White will be the guy you see on ESPN plays of the week and have more TDs because of what he can do in the redzone. In this case the argument that Cooper compliments Jeffrey well has some validity IMO. While he will go inside Jeffrey is not a great move the chains WR. He just isn't quick enough out of his breaks and he's a long strider. Cooper is not as good on contested catches (not that he's bad) but he can work the inside and outside of the field equally well. That helps keep Jeffrey on the outside where he does the most damage.

This really makes me wonder what these so-called experts really see in him other than measurables. He's big and fast but beyond that what?

Killing time watching some video of safeties and figured I'd share my thoughts. Collins of course is a good player just don't think he's worthy of a top 10 pick. If we pick a safety I don't think it will happen until Rd 3 at the earliest and likely on day 3. I just watch some games on Draft Breakdown and read profiles. I'm off the Damarius Randall (ASU) bandwagon. He has good athleticism and coverage skills but he's soft and misses too many tackles. The number one skill I want from a safety is the ability to tackle. Mike Brown was slow but you knew if it was just him back there he'd make the tackle. Jacquiski Tartt…Samford. For his size/speed combination he's not as effective as I expected. Saw too many plays where smaller WRs just block him and he seems to give up on the play. IMO fighting off blocks, or at least attempting to get off the block to get in on a play is a passion you have or you don't. There are skills you can teach to help but if the effort and passion isn't there when you are showcasing your skills to the NFL then coaching likely won't help. The game just gets harder at the next level too. Draftek has him at 123 overall. Ibraheim Campbell…Northwestern. I like this kid. Plays with good effort works to get in on the plays. Has good enough speed and skills in coverage but he's not a FS. Solid somewhat physical tackler, can't really deliver big hits but he'll at least stick to the RB or WR and they won't get past him. DraftTek has him at 151 overall. Anthony Harris…Virginia. I like him. Tall and not that strong for size so he has room to add some bulk. He's more quick than fast but he's not afraid to get in the mix. Seen him take on Karlos Williams head on. Good quickness and breaks on the ball well. He likes to tackle high (i.e. grab shoulders) too often but some coaching and that can be fixed. Drafttek has him at 95 overall. Clayton Geathers ….UCF. Sometimes slow to react but he'll deliver some big highlight hits. Plays the game aggressively even in coverage working to bat the ball away. Has the build and mentality to be a solid SS. He plays coverage on special teams too which would only help him make the roster. Drafttek has him at 191 overall.

Killing time watching some video of safeties and figured I'd share my thoughts. Collins of course is a good player just don't think he's worthy of a top 10 pick. If we pick a safety I don't think it will happen until Rd 3 at the earliest and likely on day 3. I just watch some games on Draft Breakdown and read profiles. I'm off the Damarius Randall (ASU) bandwagon. He has good athleticism and coverage skills but he's soft and misses too many tackles. The number one skill I want from a safety is the ability to tackle. Mike Brown was slow but you knew if it was just him back there he'd make the tackle. Jacquiski Tartt…Samford. For his size/speed combination he's not as effective as I expected. Saw too many plays where smaller WRs just block him and he seems to give up on the play. IMO fighting off blocks, or at least attempting to get off the block to get in on a play is a passion you have or you don't. There are skills you can teach to help but if the effort and passion isn't there when you are showcasing your skills to the NFL then coaching likely won't help. The game just gets harder at the next level too. Draftek has him at 123 overall. Ibraheim Campbell…Northwestern. I like this kid. Plays with good effort works to get in on the plays. Has good enough speed and skills in coverage but he's not a FS. Solid somewhat physical tackler, can't really deliver big hits but he'll at least stick to the RB or WR and they won't get past him. DraftTek has him at 151 overall. Anthony Harris…Virginia. I like him. Tall and not that strong for size so he has room to add some bulk. He's more quick than fast but he's not afraid to get in the mix. Seen him take on Karlos Williams head on. Good quickness and breaks on the ball well. He likes to tackle high (i.e. grab shoulders) too often but some coaching and that can be fixed. Drafttek has him at 95 overall. Clayton Geathers ….UCF. Sometimes slow to react but he'll deliver some big highlight hits. Plays the game aggressively even in coverage working to bat the ball away. Has the build and mentality to be a solid SS. He plays coverage on special teams too which would only help him make the roster. Drafttek has him at 191 overall.

I like it. I will say this: This is a bad year for QB behind the top 2 options, and this is a pretty good deep draft in many other position groups. I think our team will be much better overall if we just give up on the idea of drafting a QB with that 4th Rd pick. 1) Like it or not Cutler is here through 2016 so we have a couple years to find someone after this draft. 2) We're not likely to draft any QB in the first two rounds and beyond that, regardless of who we get: Mannion, Grayson, etc. they are not going to be better than Clausen this year. Their long-term ceiling is likely just as a #2. They might be better than Fales but if we get to that point all we want is our 3rd QB to know how to hand off. 2) We draft early in 4th Rd and so we have a prime spot to find someone with a 3rd Rd grade who fell a bit. That talent could really shore up some weakness we have on our roster like Oline, CB, LB, or Dline. I can see a lot of ways to go here and if we did this I prefer to add depth to either Oline or Dline but I'd be ok with any BPA. Add a center in Rd 4 like Finney. Add a WR like Tyler Lockett or Jamison Crowder to beef up the return game and have some real depth and a future among our WR corps (yes, that'd be two WR drafted). Grab a guy like Marcus Hardison to shore up DE. Tackling machine ILBs like Dawson or Perryman could be sitting there.

Bad timing on Forte's part IMO but it all depends on what he is looking for. At his age the team is likely going to sit back and not want to commit big money. Is he willing to take less per year with more guaranteed, and if so, how much less? I think Forte has a couple good years left but he can't be the bell cow much longer. If he's reasonable both sides could find some common ground on say a 2yr extension which could give us some cap savings. I just don't see that happening with his salary already at $8mil this year because Forte will want quite a bit more than that guaranteed, likely $12-15mil. I can't see Pace committing that to a 30 year old RB.

Kelly would be giving us just a 2nd Rd pick this year to get a shot at a blue chip talent so I'd need more than that this year to close that deal. Whether or not we think Mariota is a blue chip talent selecting at #7 gives you a shot at that kind of talent in this draft because we'd be walking away from Amari Cooper. I like the draft except I'm not a big fan of McKinney and I prefer to grab our WR there. While he has some limitations I'd probably add Nelson Agholor at #52. He'll stretch the field for us, which we really need, and has the frame to add strength and raw skills to develop into a pretty good player a couple years down the road. I'm not content to rely on Carey and Rodgers to backup Forte, I think we're drafting a RB somewhere on day 3. In the 6th I take Karlos Williams. Big fast RB but needs more experience and time to develop. He's already a good special teams player so no reason he shouldn't be able to fill that role at a minimum his first year, and we do need help there.

I guess I'm the only one who likes Kendricks.

I still lean towards Sean Mannion over guys like Grayson or even Petty later in the draft. Petty has had some good press lately and I'm not sure why his workouts are suddenly "much better" than what we see on tape. Consider he has the exact same weakness as Mariota coming from a spread offense and yet that's still all they can talk about with Mariota. Why did this suddenly become less of a concern with Petty? That late riser stuff concerns me when it doesn't match in season performance. I'm not talking numbers here (for all the Graham Harrell fans out there); rather his tendency to have passes trail off or lose velocity as they arrive at their target and occasionally come up short. Traits like that worry me when you consider what usually happens when QBs see NFL pass rushers coming at them.

I wasn't solely fixated on his size. There are some smaller players who play big…Steve Smith does so as a WR. I merely listed that as the first statement and people ran off without reading anything else. I cited what I think is a credible scouting source showing he has issues with blockers. It fits what I've seen of him in college albeit in just a couple games, and what I see on that one game I linked to earlier. http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players...1/shaq-thompson Possesses a slim waist and narrow hips, making it unlikely that he'll be able to pack on significantly more muscle mass onto his frame without losing his quickness. Can get swallowed up at the line of scrimmage and is forced to take risky angles, at times, to avoid blockers. Wasn't often asked to rush the quarterback at Washington and shows limited technique in this capacity http://www.nfl.com/draft/2015/profiles/sha...pson?id=2552447 WEAKNESSES Scouts question his natural NFL fit. Needs more mass on his frame. Played under listed weight at times. Aggressive, but lacks the play strength to back up his intentions near the line of scrimmage. Fails to consistently leverage his gap when forced inside box. Too easily redirected as blitzer. Gets blasted out of gaps by pulling guards. Must develop hands to keep linemen off of him and improve at slipping blocks. Not fully utilizing explosiveness. Fails to fire downhill and attack on the other side of the line. -------------------------------- If we want to go with a quick twitch guy at ILB with our 2nd Rd pick I much prefer Eric Kendricks who, though he is small for the position, plays more like a LB. He has some of the same issues getting off blocks at times but he is more physical than Shaq Thompson in all aspects of the game. http://draftbreakdown.com/video/eric-kendr...-virginia-2014/

You fixate on size but it's not the best way to gauge a player's abilities. Someone else compared him to Mike Singletary. Watch the guy play against Oregon State and tell me how many run blocks he gets off of to make a tackle? http://draftbreakdown.com/video/shaq-thomp...gon-state-2014/ He's a good player but he's not that physical fighting to get off blocks. I see more SMC in him than I do Navorro Bowman or Mike Singletary. I'll stick by what I saw of him last season when I watched a few games. I think he's a better player in space than he will be as an ILB in the NFL. He'd be a bit of a project but I think he'll fair better as a SS. In any case I don't like him as our 2nd Rd pick. I much prefer a guy like OT Fisher or one of the DTs, or a CB, WR depending on which way we go in 1st Rd. It'll be interesting to see where he ends up. One place I'd put him would be doing what Briggs did for us as a WLB. I think he might play that LB role well but we don't run that scheme anymore. FWIW I think Randy Gregory will be one heck of an OLB at 235lbs. Then again he has long arms and is more violent shedding blocks than Shaq Thompson.

At 6'-0" and just 228lbs I don't see him handling NFL linemen very well at all. I think that is valid at either ILB or OLB. Look at all the guys we have put at OLB, or FA (Houston, McPhee) we signed they are all bigger. On the inside we went with Mason Foster who is a bit taller and carries 240lbs. http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players...1/shaq-thompson WEAKNESSES: Looks more like a safety than a linebacker and for some clubs will project there - a position he hasn't played since high school. Possesses a slim waist and narrow hips, making it unlikely that he'll be able to pack on significantly more muscle mass onto his frame without losing his quickness. Can get swallowed up at the line of scrimmage and is forced to take risky angles, at times, to avoid blockers.

I like Shaq Thompson, he's a hell of a football player, but he's not a 3-4 LB so he'd have to be a SS for us. Drafting a SS in Collins followed by another SS in Thompson makes no sense.

Mettenberger looked horrible last season. I can't believe Whisenhunt views him as the long term answer. I'm certain Whisenhunt would love to get Rivers in a trade. Second option has to be Mariotta and way down the list is trading for Cutler. I think he likes Mariotta's potential but isn't really wanting to wait that long for him to develop. I don't see the trade for Cutler happening because if it were it would have been done by now. I think the Bears have accepted Cutler as their best near-term option but are committed to moving away from him as the focal point and it's all about the run game now. Evidence: Two FA Oline signings who are good run blockers, not so good pass protectors. I expect more reinforcements to arrive soon including another RB. Signing Jacquizz Rodgers makes me think they don't like Carey. I don't see us going forward with 1 30 yr old RB, and 2 smaller RBs who haven't done much in the NFL. None of the three have breakaway speed.

A couple articles that I thought make good reading as we get closer to the draft. The first is an excellent data driven analysis of draft trends by position. Clearly shows how RB have dropped in average draft position over the last 15 years. http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-footba...his-years-draft Next up is worst 1st Rd picks by team. Lot of players competing for that title on the Bears list. http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-footba...team-since-1990

I'm with you on this and with so many needs in the trenches I'd go there on either line before I took a safety. As badly as we need a safety I prefer having someone who can make the tackle at the LOS, or get the early pass rush pressure, so we don't need the safeties to make the play every down. If we get a great deal to drop back to 15-20 overall then he's on the list.

I don't see Scherff as a tackle although I think he'd survive ok at RT, certainly better than Mills. Nor do I see him as a top 10 pick simply because I don't think he moves well enough to protect the edge in the NFL. Put him at OG and I think he's a perennial Pro Bowl player. Then kick the more athletic Long to RT and I agree we'd have one heck of a Oline. I think this should be one of our options if we decide to trade down a few places but I'd go WR or OLB if we stay at #7.

I'm still 50/50 on WR or Edge Rusher. We need both, and I don't care how many players we list at OLB not one of them is an elite speed rusher off the edge. I'm with Adam, just let the draft play out because we will get one of: White, Beasley, or Cooper.

Lots of info says Montgomery is a very good run blocker. Nothing at all says he is good at pass protection. Clearly a shift in mindset as the previous group prioritized the pass protection far more than the run blocking.

I like Damarious Randall's potential.

Again this is not an easy recovery and leaves his availability for early in the season in doubt. I think we are smart not to over-commit. http://www.hopkinsortho.org/labrum_tear.html The recovery depends upon many factors, such as where the tear was located, how severe it was and how good the surgical repair was. It is believed that it takes at least four to six weeks for the labrum to re-attach itself to the rim of the bone, and probably another four to six weeks to get strong. Once the labrum has healed to the rim of the bone, it should see stress very gradually so that it can gather strength. It is important not to re-injure it while it is healing. How much motion and strengthening of the arm is allowed after surgery also depends upon many factors, and it is up to the surgeon to let you know your limitations and how fast to progress. Because of the variability in the injury and the type of repair done, it is difficult to predict how soon someone can to return to activities and to sports after the repair. The type of sport also is important, since contact sports have a greater chance of injuring the labrum repair. However, a vast majority of patients have full function of the shoulder after labrum repair, and most patients can return to their previous level of sports with no or few restrictions.

I just read that he got $3mil. That is definitely starter money, makes it very clear we're going to more press coverage, and means they view Jennings as our slot CB. As SCS said, kick CB down a notch in the draft priorities but it's still on the list.

Torn labrum is a tough injury to recover from but if done right he can come back stronger. Doing that takes a lot of time and work. I'm not a doctor but I'd guess that in March it is way too early to asses how he's doing. He just had a visit with the Patriots. Hard to assess their level of interest this late in the game. The Patriots always look for bargains and I'm sure they are saying for the same price would you rather snap to Cutler or Brady?

McManis is the one guy I'd really like back. Very good on special teams and played decently at CB when we needed him there.

We're going to be in a 3-4 40% of the time, and a 4-3 60% of the time. I think with McDonald and Jenkins we've addressed it well enough to cover the 40% with our existing players. NT for the 3-4 front is a bigger concern of mine right now.