defiantgiant

Depends on what you mean by "good in coverage." Everything I've heard about him is that he's got good range and instincts in coverage, but he tends to break up the play or drill the receiver, rather than make a play on the ball.

Longshot developmentally, but he's got a lot of upside.

Even if he stays at DE, I'm OK with him competing with Wootton. If you can get one real contributor out of 2 4th-round picks, that's not bad at all.

Yeah, I'm inclined to trust Tice. He has a great track record of developing young guys, and we have a lot of young guys with potential. Also, maybe now that Omiyale's been moved to RT, Beekman will get a legit shot to lock down the starting LG job long-term. At this point, his production pretty much speaks for itself - he's not an elite guard or anything, but he's steady and gets it done.

I'm hesitant to get too worked up about a 6th-round pick, but really, a backup quarterback should have been the last thing on Angelo's list.

Yeah, this is it right here. He was mediocre in the run game and got abused in pass protection. Beekman's the better option. 2008: Beekman allowed 1.25 sacks in 16 starts. Faneca allowed 7 in the same span. 2009: Bears left guards allowed 2 sacks (Both by Omiyale...Beekman allowed ZERO) in 16 games. Faneca allowed 6 in 16.

Faneca made the Pro Bowl on name recognition alone. He's graded out terribly for the past two seasons, and that's when he was playing between a solid LT and arguably the best center in football. Profootballfocus has him graded as one of the worst handful of guards in the NFL the last two years, significantly worse than Beekman and Garza. I don't want him, I'd rather they lock Beekman in at LG.

Yeah, I do like that, especially with the Wright pick. We haven't had a real drill sergeant in the secondary since Mike Brown. Especially with Manning's problematic instincts, we need more guys who can make sure everybody's on the same page.

Josh Moore, DB from Kansas State is the pick. Scouting report from CBS: Overview Wearing jersey number 4 at KSU takes chutzpah, as Terence Newman was a star in that jersey during his career in Manhattan. But Moore's honorable-mention All-Big 12 play on the corner the past two years certainly showed he has pro potential. Moore led the team in tackles as a sophomore with 76, and then finished second with 64 in 2009. His five interceptions and 23 pass breakups during that time also show his ability to get a hand on the ball and bait quarterbacks into throwing to his side of the field (where he is usually on an island on the boundary side). He redshirted the 2007 season, however, after his suspension for being named in an academic fraud case. Lacking great size, Moore might struggle to handle bigger receivers at the next level. But his speed and exceptional change of direction ability make it conceivable that he jumps up some teams' boards into the third round like a similar player, Auburn's Jerraud Powers, did last April. Analysis Read & React: Very quick to read runs or receiver screens, so much so that teams take advantage of that aggressiveness to suck him in on play action. Must improve his reading of routes and be more aware of double moves. Man Coverage: Can play off his man or on the line, although he doesn't get a hand on his man immediately. Excellent speed to turn and run with receivers, whether down the sideline or trailing over the middle. Changes direction quickly, mirrors jerk routes extremely well. Could improve his contact with receivers down the field instead of relying on recovery speed. Zone Coverage: Typically plays off in zone with his hips open inside. Does not backpedal a lot but has the flexibility to do so. Inconsistent handing off his man to get to underneath route. Closing/Recovery: Straight-line speed allows him to recover quickly if beaten. Good closing speed to the ball, able to knock the ball away even when a couple of yards behind his man when the quarterback starts his delivery. Finds the ball in the air. Must be more consistent in his plant and drive so receivers cannot lose him on a quick move. Run Support: Extremely active, attacks the line of scrimmage once sniffing the run. Despite his small stature, he has the upper-body strength to punch receiver in the chest when he sees run, then come off to grab ballcarrier. Wraps up in space when in zone. Ducks his head often, but somehow gets enough of the ballcarrier to slow or stop him. Tackling: Lacks great strength, but is one of this draft class's more aggressive corners. Throws his body into tackles, wrapping up on the island with length and want-to. Likes to lower the shoulder, can put it on the ball to cause force fumbles. Will take incorrect angles to the ball when catches are made in front of him. Gives up on plays when another defender is in contact with a ballcarrier. Intangibles: Strong leader in the secondary despite his youth, directs his teammates on the field. Aggressive player with physicality teams like at the position. No major character issues, although teams will ask about the academic issue that led to his suspension.

Bears are on the clock now. Pick should be in shortly.

What o-linemen are left, though? The next OL guys off the board after Wootton were Joe Hawley, Jacques McClendon, Jason Fox...none of those guys are going to be first-year starters.

Definitely, and the 4th and later is when you can start taking some risk/reward picks with medical issues. Wootton took a long time to recover from that ACL, but I read that he came on strong late in the season. I was looking at Clifton Geathers in my mocks, but Wootton is close to the same size-speed combination and he's infinitely more polished and pro-ready. I like the pick.

Yeah, he also has problems moving laterally and tackling in space. He'll lay out a receiver who's flat-footed or looking the other way, but if the ballcarrier sees him coming, Mays struggles to break down and make the tackle. He's basically a straight-line hitting machine. I think the best fit for him is going to be as a situational pass rusher at outside linebacker, honestly.

Haven't seen this posted anywhere else yet. Bears' 4th-rounder is Corey Wootton, DE from Northwestern. If he's over his knee injury, he could be great value in the 4th.

The Gators played him almost exclusively in deep center and Meyer had apparently promised some percentage of snaps to their up-and-coming FS, whoever that is. So Wright was technically the starter, but they were rotating at that position. I'm trying to suss out what percentage of the snaps Wright got, but I haven't found it yet. Before that (from 2007-2008) he was much more productive: 123 tackles, 77 solo, 5 interceptions, 4 forced fumbles, 1 blocked FG. He's also been durable, which is something we could desperately use at safety.

Yeah, I don't know what we could get for those dudes. Kirk Morrison went for a 4th, right? He's only 28 and an extremely productive starter. Sounds like a buyer's market for LBs.

Yeah, Suh's a monster, but they still don't have anyone at corner, and they gave up their 2nd-rounder to draft Jahvid Best. Even with Suh helping out their pass rush, that secondary's still going to be swiss cheese this season.

Would it really take next year's #1 to move up, though? I mean, if we were trying to get into the top of the 2nd, sure. But what if Allen falls to #60 or so? Couldn't we swing #60 for our #75 and next year's 2nd?

I think it must have been Sharper, but I could be wrong. If they thought they could make a move for Atogwe post-spending spree, I don't know why they wouldn't have done it back when he wouldn't cost a draft pick. If he was referring to Sharper, I can kind of see it - the guy's not ideal in the Tampa-2 system, and he wasn't drawing tons of interest. I wonder if this is all a smoke screen - if I were Angelo and were planning to move up in the draft to grab Allen or somebody, I'd be talking about how I didn't want to trade future picks, thought somebody would fall to #75, had plans to bring in a veteran free safety after the draft, etc.

To be fair, there's no telling if he could have been an every-down DE in a 4-3. He's basically a nickel pass rusher when the Ravens go to a 40 front. But yeah, I would much rather have had Suggs than Haynes and Grossman put together.

I think there are arguments for both sides. If Angelo thinks he's on the hot seat as much as Lovie is, then he's got to get a starter out of this draft, no matter what the cost. If he thinks he can save his own job for one more year, even if this season tanks and Lovie gets fired, then I think he stays put.

I said why in my second post: because from the way the Lions' coaches talked about Scheffler's role, it sounds like the guy he's going to push to the bench isn't Pettigrew, but whoever their #3 receiver is. From the sound of it, they're going to replace their 3WR-1TE-1RB set with a 2WR-2TE-1RB set. It makes sense to do that: Scheffler's a move TE even more than Olsen is - his whole skillset is basically the same as a big wide receiver, and that's how he played in Denver. You send him in motion, have him flex out or line up in the slot, and you treat him like an extra receiver. That's why McDaniels dumped him, because he wants to use the TE as an extra blocker, not an extra wideout. Scheffler's going to be stealing snaps from a slot receiver, not from an every-down TE like Pettigrew. That's the idea - it's just a way of comparing the players based on the same number of targets, so we can see how good they are relative to each other. I picked figures that I thought weren't crazy, but the point wasn't to predict their role in the offense relative to Calvin Johnson/Pettigrew/Kevin Smith. The number of targets isn't important, the assumption I'm making is that whatever Bryant Johnson would have gotten goes to Burleson instead, and likewise for Northcutt and Scheffler. It could just as easily have been 50 targets or 20 or 10 - the upgrade is still the same, proportionally. That said, Detroit could easily throw 100 times to Burleson and 70 to Scheffler. The Lions threw the ball 585 times last season. Even if they throw it to Calvin Johnson 130 times, that's only 300 throws to Johnson/Burleson/Scheffler combined. Assuming they throw about the same amount as last season, that leaves 285 passes for Pettigrew/Kevin Smith/whoever else. In 2009, they threw to Kevin Smith 56 times in 13 games and Pettigrew 55 times in 11 games. Assuming they're both healthy for 16 games next season, that's only 149 targets between them. So Smith and Pettigrew's roles in the offense could stay exactly the same, Burleson and Scheffler could get exactly the number of targets I was using for comparison, and there'd still be 136 pass plays left over. Vanden Bosch is a DE, not a DT. I like the parallel, though: I think he's actually a really good comparison for Burleson. Neither one is a player who's going to make a huge difference on his own, but either one should be good enough to make you pay for devoting too much attention to the impact player lining up next to him (I'm thinking about Haynesworth when KVB was in Tennessee.) That's the kind of upgrade I'm talking about here: not guys that you have to game-plan for specifically, but guys who are good enough to capitalize on a 1-on-1 matchup when you're trying to stop somebody else. At the end of the day, this is what I'm saying: last season they didn't have any guys who could capitalize when teams sold out to stop Calvin Johnson. This season they do. They're not players who strike fear into defenses, but they're good enough that you have to defend them normally. The guys they're replacing were so bad that you really didn't have to defend them at all. I agree that the Bears should still sweep the Lions this year. The Lions just have too many holes in the roster: at o-line, at running back, in the secondary. All I'm saying is that the addition of Scheffler and Burleson makes their receiving corps respectable. I can think of a lot of teams in the league with a worse group of passing targets than Calvin Johnson, Nate Burleson, and Tony Scheffler. And given how badly the Bears struggled to cover Calvin Johnson last year, having a respectable group around him is worrisome. You pointed out the impact Peppers could have, and I hope you're right, but remember that the Bears sacked Stafford 5 times in a single game last season. That didn't stop him and Johnson from lighting up our secondary. Having Pisa and Urlacher back will help the coverage out, but I think that Peanut and company could have their hands full trying to stop Calvin Johnson this year.

The thing that jumps out at me about that list: man, there are a lot of WRs and QBs. David Terrell and Rex Grossman aren't even the worst of them, not compared to guys like Mike Williams and Joey Harrington. Still, that trade that became Haynes/Grossman just looks awful in retrospect. The #4 overall pick that year could have been Kevin Williams, Terrell Suggs, Jordan Gross, Troy Polamalu...any of those guys would look pretty good in a Bears uniform right about now. Hell, even after the trade, Angelo did the wrong thing: if he hadn't dealt down from #13, the Bears could have had Ty Warren. Can you imagine Ty Warren and Tommie Harris as our interior d-line? And the pick they spent on Grossman could have been Nnamdi Asomugha. Peanut and Nnamdi would be one of the best cornerback tandems in the league. Instead, we picked a QB who had questions about his decisionmaking, consistency, and ability to handle pressure, then a DE who was just a product of the talent around him on the d-line (Jimmy Kennedy and Anthony Adams, who were both big-time college players and high draft picks.) Ugh.

Before this, I've generally had a problem with Goodell suspending players before they've been charged with a crime or convicted. I know it's allowed in the league bylaws, but in general, I'd like to see Goodell be a little more hesitant about disciplining players who haven't had their day in court. You look at cases like Cedric Benson's, where everybody was worried he'd get suspended, but all the charges ended up being dropped (mostly due to some very questionable police tactics.) In general, I think the league ought to wait for the criminal justice process to play out. But in Ben's case, though, I'm 100% in favor of the league getting involved even without a conviction. Even though Ben's never going to have a trial to determine what he's guilty of, if you just look at the facts that neither side disputed, they demonstrate completely despicable behavior on his part. The undisputed stuff alone justifies a major suspension for Roethlisberger, and I think Goodell's totally right to hand it down.

Today is just Round 1, I thought. Rounds 2-3 are on Friday, and 4-7 are on Saturday. The Bears won't have a pick until Friday night.