defiantgiant

That's only 4 receivers. Every team in the league keeps 5, and some keep 6. If Barnes can play special teams, he's got a shot at the roster, even if he can't beat out any of those guys. Besides, how many of the WRs on your list were injured at some point last season? 3 out of 4 by my count. You need quality depth at WR, and I think Barnes could be that.

I had to read the Rotoworld post twice, because I didn't believe it the first time. This is awesome news! I always liked Jamar Williams' potential, but Chris Harris belongs as a Bear. He'll be a big upgrade over Steltz/Afalava/Payne...plus he's a real tone-setter in the secondary, the way Wright hopefully can be too. The Bears could have TWO competent safeties this year! And between Harris and Peanut, maybe we'll see some more of the forced fumbles that used to be the defense's bread and butter back in 2005-2006. As for who stays and who goes, I could see us moving Manning back to nickel corner (since I doubt the staff will want to bench a high-2nd-rounder) and keeping 4 or 5 safeties on the roster. I'd say it's probably Steltz as the backup FS, Afalava as the backup SS, and maybe Payne too. Bullocks should be gone.

Apparently the Dolphins are considering cutting Justin Smiley to make room for John Jerry, who they just drafted. Smiley could be another option at LG. He's only 28 and graded out much better than Faneca (a little better in run-blocking, WAY better in pass protection) in 2009. His health is kind of a question mark (I think he missed 4 games in 2008 and 1 game in 2009,) but if he doesn't cost anything to sign and he'd be willing to compete for the starting job, I'd be all for bringing him in.

Apparently LSU's left tackle, Ciron Black, still hasn't signed with anybody. I have no idea why the Bears aren't on the phone with him right now. His lack of agility and range means he's not a left tackle in the pros, but he could project to either right tackle or guard. The guy is seriously durable and consistent (made 53 starts for LSU,) and he's a good run-blocker with enough size/strength to help in the run game. I'm sure he wouldn't be able to hold up in pass-protection at left tackle, but as a developmental guard or right tackle prospect, he seems like he'd have a ton of upside.

Yeah, I agree that Wright's not going to be as successful jarring the ball loose from NFL receivers. From the little bit of tape I've seen on him, though, it's not like he's incapable of breaking up passes: he does seem to like to break up the reception by timing his hit on the receiver, but I've also seen him come flying in like he's going to make that hit, and then swat down the pass instead. What he doesn't seem to do very much is jump the route so he's positioned to actually make the catch like a receiver. Earl Thomas is fantastic at that, which is part of why he racked up a lot of picks. I didn't really see that from Wright: several of the INTs that he got in college were more of a tip drill kind of situation, or were just poorly thrown balls where the receiver was nowhere around. I didn't really see him position himself in the passing lane in front of a receiver and come down with the pick. So I'm not expecting a ton of INTs from Wright, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him be very effective in pass coverage nonetheless. From the little bit I've seen, he really does show a knack for breaking up pass plays, he just needs to learn that if he tries to hammer somebody like Larry Fitzgerald, Larry's going to make the catch anyway.

I'm 100% with you on Mays. The guy just can't do anything you ask an NFL safety to do. I'm torn about Earl Thomas. Pete Carroll acknowledged that he might end up a corner, but said they were going to try to use him at FS. I think there's a good chance that Thomas ends up playing CB - he's got the backpedal for it, and he's definitely better playing in coverage than coming up to hit a running back. If he stays at safety, I think it's a 50/50, but if he moves to corner, I wouldn't be surprised to see him have a good career. It's not like that'd be terrible for Seattle, either - having a good corner is at least as important as having a good free safety.

So was Anquan Boldin, for that matter. He ran like a 4.7, didn't he? You don't need speed nearly as much as change-of-direction to separate on those short-to-intermediate routes. I like what Barnes brings to the table. He's probably got a learning curve ahead of him, coming from a spread offense at a lower level of competition, but I could see him challenging for the slot receiver job down the road. If nothing else, his tape shows that he has downright obscene hands. Whoever Bowling Green's QB is, he was putting his throws all over the place, and Barnes was just scooping them up like it was no big deal. He doesn't have standout size, speed, or physicality, but man can he catch. EDIT: One thing I'd be interested to know, as far as measurables go, is what Barnes' 10-yard split was like. Boldin's 40 was incredibly slow (4.72) but his 10-yard split was actually a very respectable 1.62 seconds. Compare that to Jeremy Maclin, who ran a 4.45 in the 40 with a 1.58 10-yard split. Maclin clearly has some long speed that Boldin lacks, but they're about equal over 10 yards. For a possession receiver who makes his living going over the middle, a decent time in the 10 is probably all the straight-line speed you need.

Yeah, you look at what teams like the Patriots do: they love having late-1st round picks, and they stockpile 2nds like nobody's business. The best value in the draft seems to be in the late 1st to mid 2nd round, when you can still get blue-chip players, but they're much cheaper. Top picks won't get any less expensive unless the new CBA implements a rookie salary cap. The rookie pay scale is more like two monopolies negotiating than like a competitive free market economy: the rookies can't negotiate with any other teams, and the teams can't redo their draft pick if a guy holds out. So there's no labor market to set a rookie's market value, which is why it has to be set by the value of the contract in the same draft spot the year before, with a small percentage increase on top. It's more like the lockstep raises you see in employer-labor union negotiations, which is exactly the relationship between the NFL and the players. That's why those high picks are expensive, but it's something that has to be fixed in the new CBA, not by any kind of market forces. Market forces won't work because, like any bilateral monopoly, the rookie signing process is prone to negotiation breakdowns - as it is now, if a team decides that the slotted value is more than it wants to pay, it can't get a substitute good and the player can't find a substitute buyer. Instead, that player will hold out and the team will eventually lose his rights if they can't get him under contract. Then the player has to enter the draft again, and the whole process starts over with whatever team picks him next. So if teams started doing what you suggest, they'd just get a bunch of holdouts and risk wasting their draft picks entirely. They wouldn't get to sign their rookies any cheaper, unless the rookies themselves decide to forgo the chance to get redrafted by a team willing to pay the slotted value.

I agree that the safety positions aren't interchangeable, but I don't buy the scouting reports saying Wright would be better at SS. The guy is undersized to play an in-the-box SS, and that's not how Florida used him at ALL. Most of his college experience was as the last line of defense, playing the deep middle and preventing big plays. Also, he's not Steltz or Payne - neither of those guys could crack 4.6 in the 40. Wright ran an official 4.48 in a year where everybody's official times seemed too slow (Taylor Mays ran an official 4.43 and most people timed him in the low 4.3 to high 4.2 range.) Wright is actually faster, by a good bit, than Nate Allen or Morgan Burnett. Both on the track and on tape, Wright has speed and range comparable to Eric Berry or Earl Thomas, and I don't think anybody would argue that those two are strong safeties. What I'd question about him, compared to prospects like Berry and Thomas (or even Allen and Burnett) are his ball skills. By all accounts, he's pretty decent in coverage, but he tends to break up passes (or ) instead of making a play on the ball. That doesn't make him a strong safety, though, any more than having great ball skills makes Troy Polamalu a free safety. Some people seem to think that Wright could get better at playing the ball in the NFL, but even if he doesn't improve from college (meaning he gets about 4 picks a season,) I don't think it's the end of the world. I'm OK with a free safety who's more of an eraser than a ballhawk. Getting the turnovers is important, and Wright gets some, but Chicago also desperately needs a free safety who can stop the huge passing plays that have been killing the Bears' secondary. That's exactly what Urban Meyer asked Wright to do, and he did it pretty well.

I was really hoping for Deji Karim, but he went one pick before our 6th. I've never been a fan of Wolfe's.

Yeah, agreed - that one change makes it a significantly better draft. I mean, it's good to have an upgrade at the nickel or dime spot, but we have SO many options for that currently on the roster. Danieal Manning was a more than capable nickel, and with the addition of Wright, we could move Steltz to SS (to compete with Afalava) and move Manning back to the nickel where he's the most productive. Even if they want to keep Manning at SS, Corey Graham can play nickel pretty well. Then Tim Jennings could fight it out for the dime back spot with our other young guys (DJ Moore and Turenne) and whatever UDFAs we bring in. I just don't see where Josh Moore fits into the picture.

It's an interesting point about Williams' development. When he came out of UVA, Ferguson was a very similar player to Williams - great footwork, smooth pass-protector, but didn't have enough sand against the bull rush and couldn't drive-block in the run game. After a pretty rough rookie year, though, he corrected a lot of his problems, and pretty quickly, too. If Faneca had a hand in that, he might be able to help Williams out. I'm still concerned about how badly he's started to break down in the passing game, but at the end of the day, my main issue is that I just don't want another free agent getting the starting job based on name recognition or his paycheck. It didn't work with Pace and it didn't work with Omiyale...even if Faneca's better than those two, I don't want him starting until he proves he's the best option. If he'd be amenable to competing with Beekman and whoever else, then the team has nothing to lose from bringing him in. If he wins, we get an upgrade at a need position. If he doesn't, at least we have depth and a veteran presence. But this team hasn't hit on a veteran o-lineman like John Tait or Ruben Brown in a while, and it'd make me nervous to see them handing the job to another potential Pace.

Yeah, you hit it right on the head. Lovie's always tried to get some pass-rush from the one-technique spot, which (to me) just seems like a contradiction in terms. The one-tech is the one guy on our d-line who gets put in a really bad position on every play, just by virtue of his alignment. Even with a really good player there, you're not going to get tons of pass pressure. But Lovie really seems to want his one-techs to penetrate; even before Adams was in the picture, Tank Johnson wasn't a traditional one-tech either, he was more of a tweener three-technique like Marcus Harrison. Really, though, the one-tech is supposed to occupy blockers, and that's exactly what Henderson is good for. He could take the center and left guard out of the picture, which would put Peppers 1-on-1 with the LT, and would make the RT choose between doubling Tommie or blocking Anderson/Idonije. With a TE staying in to block, you could either double Peppers or free up the RT to double Harris, but if the offense is committing extra blockers against a four-man rush, you're generally doing pretty well on defense. Also, look at our ends for a minute: Peppers, Idonije, Wootton, and Gilbert if he moves out to DE...they're all 6'6" to 6'7" and 270-285 pounds. With Henderson in the lineup, we could actually have some size on the d-line for the first time in the Lovie era. That would fit a lot better with the increasingly blitz-heavy, non-Tampa-2 defense that Lovie's running. I've said it before, but he just needs to be honest about the fact that his defense is in the middle of a transition away from the Tampa-2, and then get some guys who can run the new scheme. Get some corners who can play man, get a free safety who can play Cover-1 or Cover-3, and get some big d-linemen who can tie up multiple blockers so the blitzes get through. If he wants to keep going back to the Tampa-2 on 3rd downs, fine, just rotate Adams and Anderson in. But we need guys who can make the first- and second-down blitzes work.

I think this is really the big part. Omiyale was decent in spot starts at LT in Carolina. Moving him to the right side and where he'll play between two effective veteran blockers in Garza and Manumaleuna can only help his game. Manumaleuna basically gives us a 6-man o-line, which should be a huge help.

Henderson doesn't offer much pass rush, but he's still very productive against the run...and I definitely wouldn't mind having a real nose guard on the roster. A d-line of Peppers-Henderson-Harris-Idonije would be pretty stout against the run.

Another UDFA signing, and a pretty interesting one: the Bears signed Vic Hall from UVA. He might be the most versatile player in this year's draft: he played quarterback, wide receiver, safety, and cornerback for the Cavs. He also covered kickoffs and returned punts. He got most of his playing time at corner, and that's probably where he'll play in the NFL (as he's 5'10" 185 pounds and runs a 4.46 in the 40) and I think he could be an interesting developmental player there. He missed most of 2009 due to injury, but he was actually pretty productive the last time he got significant playing time: in 11 starts at CB in 2008, he had 59 tackles, 2 interceptions, and 5 forced fumbles. Could be a good depth/ST pickup.

Cutler can take a beating. That dude went against SEC pass rushes with a godawful Vanderbilt line: he got sacked a ton in college and never went out. I think he can hold his own.

If they did that, I'd be totally down for the signing. But Faneca wouldn't take a pay cut to stay with the Jets (he was due $7.5 mil) so something tells me he wouldn't be amenable to a cheap, no-risk deal with his new team. If he is, that's awesome. But if he's going to want big money and a guaranteed starting job, I'd rather pass.

I'm not saying Barnes is going to challenge for a starting role or anything. But if he can play ST, I think he has a good shot to make the roster, at least. And on plays where we need both Bennett and another possession guy to go over the middle (like a 4WR set with opposite crosses/slants from the slot receivers) I'd probably rather have Barnes on the field than Iglesias. Barnes looks to have roughly similar measurables to Iglesias, with nicer route-running and much, MUCH better hands. I could see him making the roster based on ST, then contributing in specific sub-packages, like Jason Avant does in Philly (where they also have a glut of quality receivers.) Basically, we have three speed guys in the WR corps, but the only possession receiver who's shown anything is Bennett. We could use another possession receiver who can play special teams. I'm fine with cutting Rashied Davis and letting Iglesias and Barnes duke it out for the #5 spot.

That's interesting. Do you know whether the NFL's stats count runs behind the left guard as "left" or "center"? I just went back to footballoutsiders' stats, and I realized that their "middle" category includes both guards and the center. I'm inclined to think that the Bears' awful rankings running left may have a lot more to do with Pace than anything else. Last season, that guy was legitimately the worst run-blocking tackle I've ever seen. Meanwhile, the NFL's stats suggest that the Bears' line was actually pretty good on runs up the middle - they tied for the fewest negative runs in the league, they were 10th in power run success rate. The Jets were 23rd in negative runs and 18th in power success up the middle. I have to think that implicates Faneca to some degree. EDIT: Also, the same thing is true on Stats, LLC's site - Thomas Jones averaged 4.9 YPC running to the left side and 5.3 running to the right, but only 3.4 up the middle. Again, I can't find out from their site if they're counting runs behind the guards as "middle" runs. I would assume that at least runs in the A gaps fall in the middle category, but I don't know for sure. Of course, the whole comparison is a little difficult, since we can't get statistics for the Bears line after Williams took over for Pace, and since the NFL's stats don't go back to 2008, which means we can't look at the interior line when it was Beekman-Kreutz-Garza, as it's likely to be if we don't sign Faneca. In any case, even if Faneca provides some push in the running game, I don't think it's worth all the extra sacks and pressures he gives up. Cutler was running for his life badly enough last season. I don't want to see it get worse, not when Martz is going to be placing so much emphasis on the passing game.

If it works, it's a good pick. It'd be nice to be one of those teams like New England or Green Bay who can bring up their backup QBs for a couple of years, then ship them off for a higher pick than they spent to get the guy.

Sanchez wasn't the quarterback in 2008, and I don't think teams were daring Favre to throw. Faneca still allowed a ton of sacks, hits, and pressures. Also, I agree that the Jets had a great running attack, but they were the weakest running to the left by a long shot. I think their success in the run game may have had a lot more to do with Mangold-Moore-Woody than with the left side of the line.

I think there may be another reason we drafted him.

There's not something wrong, it's Cutler. Omiyale only allowed 2 sacks, but he gave up 4 QB hits and 12 pressures in just 13 games as a starter. The disparity in sacks-hits-pressures usually demonstrates that the QB has some escapability in the pocket. And we all remember how much Cutler was running for his life thanks to Omiyale. But yeah, Faneca's play has fallen off a cliff. In his last 32 games, he gave up 13 sacks, 12 QB hits, and 29 pressures. And even if Cutler were his QB and some of those sacks turned into hits or pressures, those numbers are still awful. I'd rather have Beekman.

Between Freddie Barnes and Earl Bennett, Bears have the NCAA record for single-season receptions (155) and the SEC record for career receptions (236.) That's pretty awesome. Here's some more on Barnes. From NFP's writeup on the Humanitarian Bowl: "Bowling Green has an intriguing prospect on the offensive side of the ball who might have had the most dominating season of any player in the NCAA not named Ndamukong Suh. Wide receiver Freddie Barnes currently ranks first in the nation in receptions (138), first in receiving touchdowns (16) and third in receiving yards (1,551). He isn’t the most explosive straight-line athlete and lacks the wheels to consistently threaten NFL defenses vertically, but he showcases a real feel for the pass game, has good balance as an underneath route runner and knows how to adjust to the ball. Barnes isn’t a guy with the athleticism needed to start on the outside in the NFL, but he certainly has the talent to fill out an NFL receiving corps." From SI's writeup on the East-West Shrine Game: "Barnes caught everything thrown his way each day at practice. He impressed scouts with the ability to consistently separate from defensive backs and find the openings in the coverage. Barnes proved to scouts that his record-breaking numbers in college had more to do with his skills rather than the offensive system at Bowling Green." NFP on the Shrine Game: "Is Barnes someone who will consistently be beat man coverage on the outside and escape press vs. physical NFL corners? No, but he’s a well-built kid with good body control who does a great job gaining initial separation and plucking the football. He’s not a guy who will ever be a star in the league, but if you need a wideout who can come into a game as a sub-package receiver and move the sticks from the slot, Barnes is your man." "Has the most impressive body of all the East wideouts. Possesses a thick lower half and good overall muscle definition through his legs. Doesn’t exhibit a second gear down the field but is a coordinated wideout who displays good body control as a route runner and adjusts well to throws away from his frame. Will struggle to beat press on the outside vs. more physical defensive backs but looks like a solid sub-package receiver in the Jason Avant mold."