AZ54

Anquan Boldin and Braylon Edwards will go a long way to deciding what happens with WR in the draft. In Edwards case if he leaves Cleveland I think it's clear they'd draft another WR very early in the draft to replace him. In Boldin's case the Cards wouldn't be likely to pick a WR early because they've already got their top 3 WR in place once he leaves and he will leave. That means we'll likely to see one less WR taken before us. I can't say that means we'll see all of the top 7 gone before we pick or not but if I were industrious enough I do a sampling of mock drafts to see on average how many WR were taken before us. Then subtract 1 and see what we get.

Nobody knows what is a weak schedule and a tough schedule until midway through the season.

I'd rather have Cook than Matt Jones.

Absolutely, Briggs knows his way around town.

If it'll make you feel younger .... my daughter graduates from ASU in May.

We need to draft two WR so he'd be a good option in the later rounds but he needs quite a bit of work, especially catching the ball: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players/584314 Run After the Catch: Cook can get to top speed in an instant after he secures the ball after the catch, but that is also a problem, as he does have concentration lapses that leave the ball on the ground (29 of 70 passes thrown to him he failed to secure in 2008). You can see on film his ability to turn it up hard after the catch. He is not your typical one-cut runner, like most tight ends on deep routes, as he is faster and shiftier with outstanding speed and good hip wiggle. GRADE: 6.5

I would gladly take Mike Thomas over Rashied Davis hands down. He'd out perform him even as a rookie. I love his athleticism and he's one of those guys that is just a good football player. Thomas also has kick return ability so there'd be no loss there either and more likely a gain because he's a shiftier runner than Davis who is just a straight ahead guy.

Amazing how stupid these guys can be.

Freeman isn't ready to be a starter in the league. If he did win a duel with Leftwich it would only show how poorly Leftwich plays.

Don't worry, Hester is exactly why Harvin won't be around when we pick. Some team out there is going to want a guy like him (Hester) on their roster and they'll choose him before we see him. Harvin was more accomplished in college than Hester too so that should help his cause.

Williams has experience at RT, and said the move isn't that big of a deal. I think he'll be fine in pass protection, far better than what we had last year with Tait. Run blocking I'm not sure about but then again we had no push whatsoever on the right side last year. That shouldn't be hard to match if not improve upon.

I hope Pace is listening!

The fact Ruben Brown came in at his age and was our best Olineman didn't say much for the talent he lined up with. Not to diminish what Ruben did here, he played great for us. At some point we have to start plugging in an occasional older vet with some younger studs. That's a plan I can live with rather than relying on the end-of-career vets to be the cornerstone for us.

Read today's article in the Sun Times about Rashad Johnson and the concerns over his size...around 185lbs. I watched the Path to Draft highlights of him and he doesn't look very fast. Of course with highlights being what they are he always seemed to get a great jump on the ball. His INTs and passes defensed is impressive but what I'd like to know is how good a pass rush Alabama had. It's a lot easier to defend passes if you know the ball is coming out in 3 seconds or less. Also were they playing zone or were these nice plays in man coverage? Similar comments were made about Steltz although not to the same high level but he was just another average college cover guy working behind a great Dline. All this is leading me away from taking a FS with #2 pick and just focus on WR. I like the idea of trading slightly up to get our guy, if none of our top guys are there trade back a bit and see if we can get another late 4th Rd pick or 5th then draft the best of the 3rd Rd WRs. http://blogs.suntimes.com/bears/2009/04/fo...april_10_a.html "Some consider him a possibility in the second round and others say he will be around into the fourth round. Here's why--he's small. One scout we spoke with said that Johnson played at 185 pounds last season. He was up about 10 pounds at the Senior Bowl and then checked in at the combine at 5-11, 203. It wasn't good weight, a lot of water weight, according to the BodPod, which measures body composition. The scout believes Johnson is a guy who will wind up playing at 185 in the NFL. That's probably too small and that would definitely give you concerns about durability"

What is interesting about Massaqoui is that he's supposed to be an excellent run blocker and he's a very good student of the game, lots of film study, and scored high on the Wonderlic. So from a character standpoint he's JAs type of player. He supposedly improved a lot in the last year although still has a way to go to improve his receiving skills. I know his value isn't near where we pick in Rd 2 but I'll say this: I like taking him with our second round pick a lot better than I liked taking Mark Bradley with a second round pick.

I don't think we'd be trading up that far, perhaps 5 places no more. However, it's possible JA is gauging interest in moving more players off our roster. In that case who knows. I can't see who we'd trade except Kellen Davis because of our need for a blocking TE which we could draft in the late rounds.

While I'm not a Harvin fan based on what we need, if he's there for our 2nd Rd pick take him. I think it's fair to say you can never have too many playmakers and this guy is definitely one of those. We'll have to fill the need for a bigger possession WR later in the draft or next year. For now we'll be relying on Olsen to fill that role.

I agree, Leftwich is going to look for greener pastures where he has a better opportunity to end up as a starter. With Cutler here he might get two games which is not nearly enough to showcase yourself (if you truly think you are starter material). One thing that's telling about Leftwich is that Minn didn't even look in his direction. I personally think this guy is still living on his college reputation (with fans) more than his NFL rep which is what teams seem to focus on. I say that not to dis folks on the board, but it just seems there is more to the Leftwich story than what we know. Good backup QBs are always in demand, heck Shane Matthews always found a job easily. Especially if one of them might have starter potential. Now it's two years in a row and this guy has dropped to the level where he's competing with Grossman for a job.

I'm only telling you what league officials say when they are out here. Weather is a big deal for them. It's not just being outdoors for the NFL Experience but you gotta get there too. That includes thousands of people flying in from all over the country during Superbowl week. Not just major airlines, you get enough private jets to fill up the tarmac at several regional airports. People don't want to spend thousands and then have their flight canceled or delayed.

I guess we know now why he hasn't flourished yet.

All I can tell from the video is that he seems to be able to track the ball in the air but he doesn't have blazing speed. Good speed, yes, but he doesn't pull away from guys like Maclin does, and that was before the injury.

The Hanie question has to be decided early on because if they are intent on him being our #2 he needs all the reps he can get in OTAs, training camp, and preseason. I still think it's likely we see a low tier FA vet being brought in for competition of some sort but it likely is more of a #3 with possibility to step in to the #2 role. A guy like a JT O'Sullivan for example.

It is refreshing to hear a young player with a big name and big contract openly admit he's still working to improve and willing to learn from veterans.

I wonder if somewhere in Minn Bernard Berrian is sitting in a corner counting his money and wondering what if it would be worth it to count a couple million less while catching passes from Cutler in a Superbowl.

Plax only becomes a Bear after he serves his time, whatever that may be. Probably including the league deciding what suspension he'll get although I believe he'd have to be a on a roster for that decision to be made. Once he's served his time JA can get up on the podium and give us the speech about how repentent Burress is and he's learned his lesson blah blah blah. Point is quite simply Burress is exactly the type WR we need on our roster and we'd be one tough offense with him. I'm not even sure how a defense would go about stopping us. There are guys you gamble on and they are called difference makers and there are a lot of guys you don't. As much as I support getting good character guys on the roster Plax could easily put this team deep in the playoffs if not the Superbowl. That's with our defense being average like last year.