CrackerDog

I also couldn't agree more with LemonJ. His comments are spot on. It's been amazing to see all of the activity this off season with the laser beam focused on D. Can you pick things you like, some more than others, sure! But if Emery is anywhere near as successful with the D as he was with the O last season, it's going to make all the crybaby whiners here look stupid again, two years in a row. And that's the thing, why all the constant pessimism from certain folks here? Do I expect us all to sit around a campfire and sing Kumbaya? No. But god damn man, take a look at the forest every once in a while instead of the pine needles on every friggen tree. You'll see that things look a hell of a lot healthier going forward. It's brutal reading some of the folks here who harp constantly about basically everything the team does. And if it isn't negative, it's MEH. The guys running the team quite literally could never do anything to please certain folks here abive the MEH level. Oh, unless you drafted exactly who they picked in their mock, then I suppose they'd look silly bitching. Of course they'd still find something...

You can't know this for sure. I assume the same thing, that these guys will rotate in. But I also assume they'll be a big part of what happens on the field as they do so. Fresh young legs at DT, for example. And when they get to Bourbonnais, who the hell knows what'll happen? These guys could all be amazing, they could all suck. If they're awesome, we have new starters at a variety of positions, even if they're rookies. It could happen. The negativity out of you two dicks is stunning.

The Bears are coming off a season where massive injuries made them look significantly worse than they really were on D. As even Jason will recall, probably, we didn't start the season in "D Sucks" mode, we got there through attrition. So with the expectation that many of those injured guys will come back this year and contribute, it may have made perfect sense to grab a corner we expect to start for the next decade over a S we didn't feel as good about. But know-it-all Jason has all the fricken answers. He's got all the scouting reports that Emery had access to, he inteviewed these guys, he scoured their pasts... Oh wait, no, he didn't. Look, I wanted a safety in the first round too but unlike Jason I'm not willing to cry like a pussy every time I don't get something I want. It's my hope that the guys running things are making their best calls with each and every pick and that they'll work their vision in the short and long term to build a champion. You can't simply say we need a safety, grab the first one you see. It might work out and then again, it might be a short term fix that you then have to fix again in another year or two.

Look at you hedging your bet. Not a surprise. Now you can say, if this draft turns out to be as excellent as it looks to me, that you "always said it was one of the best drafts of the year." Of course you'll completely ingore all the pissing and moaning you did basically about each and every pick. And if it goes south, well, you have the zillion posts you made while it was going on, and you were wetting your panties, to talk about how much better of a GM you are than Emery. You've got all bases cover Jason. Well done!

I'd bet against Forte having a bigger year this year than last but that's only because it looks like Carey is the kind of runner that doesn't go down. We may finally have that "goal line" guy we thought we had these last few years. So while Forte will likely have a very productive year in terms of catches, yardage, etc, he may not score as much.

Ha. I think many here like the "experts" who support their opinions.

Thanks. That's a good sign. I was pretty happy with most of the draft myself but I'm not a "draft expert" so it's good to see acknowledgement like this.

Probably projects more as a guard. Maybe frees up Long to move outside at some point. Hell, there's probably a 80% chance he doesn't make the team being a 7th rounder.

Good pick this late. Also glad to see Sam get picked by St Louis.

Burner

We can play with 10 on punt teams!

Ego Ferguson was the WTF moment of this draft for me. Most others at least somewhat made sense when they were picked and we often got value. EF has potential but taking him in the second round was ludicrous.

Don't mind using a 6th on a P. Hope he's a stud (for a punter).

Fales it is. Trestman pick?

We may already have our KO returner on the team but wondering if any of you guys know of one that's still available.

Do you take him? Most needs are settled. Interesting.

Can he be a starter for this team?

Unfortunately it looks like we're going to end up with Conte at safety this year. EDIT: Vereen was picked. Can he start this year?

LOL

Possible. But I think you overstate your knowledge of the talent out there. Not sure I could prove it either way but regardless I will suggest that you'd have a tough time taking your observations and putting them into the framework of a "Top 200" list or some such thing that would allow you to head into a draft in an organized enough manner to make the picks you claim to be able to make. That framework for us fans is provided by the Mayocks and Kipers of the world. So it's easy for you to say, "Gee, the Bears really need a Safety so let's see, yep, Mayock rates Dix right up there, he'd be my pick here" And then... "Damn it! I'm all in a tizzy now because the Bears didn't take my guy!" Well, maybe he was your guy and maybe he was really a guy who just fit the suit. Now you may say that the GM's on the teams have a similar framework put together for them too by the media guys, their scouts, film, etc. But I premise that without the significant resources others have invested, you wouldn't be nearly as good as you think you are. And I'll also say that it's easier being you because there aren't any consequences. Sure, you might get made fun of by some other idiot on the board but at the end of the day, a GM loses his million dollar job, his wife leaves him, his kids see him as a failure, etc.

Ha!

If they go TE in the second round I'll eat the stapler on my desk with a little salt and pepper. I see almost no way that happens. You have to balance the money on your team and to invest that much in the TE position would be very out of character for the Bears. Now I could see them going RB if someone they love falls... I wouldn't like it, but I could see them doing it. Or O Line other than TE.

My point isn't that he got more of his picks right than anyone else. There's literally no way to tell which direction a draft is going to go given all of the personalities involved, etc. The point is what you said earlier in your post, that he has more contacts and is therefore better able, or at least should be, to evaluate the talent in the draft. Of course teams are going to see things differently but his top 25 list is pretty solid as evidenced not by the fact that historically all of his picks turn into great players (as DaWhizz was suggesting I was claiming) but rather by the fact that they typically go about 80% or so in the first 25 picks. In other words, he and others like his are the "collective wisdom" of the league, a consensus if you will. And therefore, I'm not saying that there's any guarantee on any player, just that based on that matrix he's just as likely to succeed or fail as the other guys somewhat around him in the list. And in many ways it's lists like his (I personnally think he does a better job than Kiper) that guys like you, internet sites, etc start off with as a baseline when forming your own opinions as to the relative value of the players available. Nobody has the time to see every player in every game. We watch the Senior Bowl, a game or two each week, etc. Maybe look up some video on YouTube, whatever. These guys have entire networks and staffs helping them peice this stuff together. The last thing ESPN wants to do is put Kiper out there as their expert and have him listing guys at the top of his sheet who all go in the second round! They'd look like fools. In that respect, I feel good that we got a guy who should pan out. And I trust that source material more than some dude I argue (in fun) with about almost everything on the internet. The only thing I was fairly sure about in yesterday's draft was that Manziel was going to fall. I got that one right. I don't waste my time putting together mock drafts and such although I got a kick out of the one done here. That was entertaining.

Even if the rumor is true, what I saw said Atlanta was the trading partner. So we'd need to sweeten it a lot since they draft well ahead of us today. And then there's the cap issue also mentioned in this thread. I think we sit tight and pickup a DT.

Excellent post.