Philosophy change

[AZ54]

In reading today's articles about JA's interview it seems he's changing his strategy a bit from what he's done in years past. Recently we've taken players who fell a bit due to injury. Of course everyone knows what happened with Williams last year. In the past we've taken Bazuin who I believe had a bit of an injury pre-draft that was aggravated in camp. Of course we took Harrison in Rd 3 and Bowman in Rd 5 who both fell due to injury concerns.

 

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http://blogs.suntimes.com/bears/2009/04/an...ss_2009_nf.html

"Angelo on drafting players with medical concerns after the Chris Williams experience:

 

JA: "Last year we made a conscious decision, we talked about it as an organization, we're going to be more disciplined in our approach to taking players with medical concerns. We hve to do a good job of being more disciplined because we have had some issues."

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It appears this year he's going to give more credence to medical flags and push those guys lower on the board. Reading the tea leaves a bit I also think he's going back the film more to evaluate players versus the combine numbers:

 

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JA: "It's a good nucleus of trait guys. I think it's a stronger group than in past years. You are really looking at the traits, the ceiling. If you're totally relying on the stop watch, that could be a misnomer. I only have to look at my bone collection to see that isn't an easy thing to do."

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We only need to look at his boneyard of athletes in Mark Bradley (also fits injury category), Danieal Manning (you don't draft a nickel back in Rd 2), and I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting to see that hasn't panned out very well. I'm not saying we won't take these type of players but it appears we're less likely to gamble early on them. I think that's a good thing. I have no problem taking a guy like Bowman in Rd 5. Just stay away from the Mark Bradley's in Rd 2.