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The Bears offseason

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Derwood GOAT

Derwood

Old-Timey Member
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Okay, Pace knows he needs a safety and is just rolling the dice.

 

I feel like this is the twelfth William & Mary guy we've picked in the last 20 years. I know it's probably the second, but that school sticks out to me

UMFan83 GOAT

UMFan83

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Okay, Pace knows he needs a safety and is just rolling the dice.

 

I think this guy was a Special Teams pickup to be honest. ESPN said he had 9 blocked kicks during his college career.

toonsterwu ACL Cubs

toonsterwu

Old-Timey Member
Posted
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I've lost some interest in following the Bears over the past year, so I'm certainly not as up to speed on everything.

 

Overall ... while I thought Ryan Pace got a bit over-hyped ... I don't have any particular issues with this draft. Don't think it's some sort of home-run draft ... but it's a draft that made some sense.

 

They absolutely needed a pass rusher. I'm not huge on Floyd ... actually, I didn't particularly love a lot of the edge guys this year, but I don't follow the draft as much as I did back in the day. With the way the draft fell, some quality edge possibilities fell into the 2nd round, but they couldn't have predicted that. I'll say this - I sort of believe in Fangio's ability to assess the type of guys he wants, and Floyd had some of the best raw tools. The protective trade made sense, with uncertainty on the Giants.

 

After signing Massie, I didn't expect them to go OL that early, but Whitehair's a solid guy, and might as well add depth, with the other possibility being what, Slauson gets cut? He does seem a good fit for scheme. With what was on the board, I might've preferred adding, say, Cyrus Jones, who I really liked as a raw tools guy to develop, and focus on OL later, but Jones is a bit raw. I was fine with the trade-downs ... I read on another Bears site that they wanted Spriggs? Eh ... didn't love him enough to care that the Packers jumped us.

 

Love the Bullard pick. Physically, he seems like a perfect fit for Fangio's scheme. A bit surprised he fell to the 3rd - but he seems to really fit for us. Only time will tell, but that was a great pick relative to need and value.

 

Was actually sort of hoping that they would try to trade up for Connor Cook, but okay. That was a big price paid. I probably would've rolled the dice, as I think Cook's a good enough talent to roll that dice, but I sort of get why they wouldn't. Still, it's not like we've had Mr. Warm Fuzzy Leader at QB the past decade ... Cook would have to be an absolute prick for me to really care. As for the 4th round picks ... eh Kwiatkowski is fine. Just don't know if he stands out. We added depth, still have some guys like Jones around to compete ... eh. Would've loved Andrew Billings as added depth on the DL. I actually do like the two DB picks, Hall moreso than Bush. I think Bush is solid all-around and adds some depth on the squad, but I do sort of like Hall's chances to be a starter in time. Wouldn't want him being on an island consistently. I would keep him at CB until he can't. Vaguely reminds me of when we took Peanut back in the day, but obviously, Peanut was far better overall coming out of college.

 

Perfectly fine with Jordon Howard and Houston-Carson in the 5th and 6th. Howard looks like he could be a nice thumper, but really, in those rounds, these are fine enough guys to gamble on. I can sort of imagine that Howard could potentially be somewhat of a poor man's Alfred Morris in this run scheme.

 

Overall, so far ... they've attacked areas of need. I would've liked to see a TE or QB pick, but you obviously aren't covering everything, and fixing that defense was paramount. Not sure how much impact, long term, was truly had, but if they get a few pieces from this draft, it's a step in the right direction.

toonsterwu ACL Cubs

toonsterwu

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted
I still sort of like Glenn Gronkowski as a TE. He's never going to have the size to be a starter, but everyone's focusing on his warts - not a great blocker, not a great receiver, and so forth. I think he's a perfect H-back, 2nd TE, "move" TE type of guy, and his willingness to stick his nose in there for a block could offer some versatility in passing situations, as a protector and outlet for the QB on occasion. I think he'd be a nice UDFA pickup if he makes it through.
toonsterwu ACL Cubs

toonsterwu

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted
I find this draft to unusual in this regard - no one has really "slipped". I mean, I don't call projected 4th-5th round guys becoming UDFA's as a guy that "slipped". About the only guy that might fit that category would be Charone Peake, but dunno, never thought he was a great draft prospect, just an intriguing athlete. There were those complaints about small hands, and I'm guessing medicals might be an issue there, otherwise a raw athlete like this with some production probably gets plucked.
WrigleyField 22 Knoxville Smokies

WrigleyField 22

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted
I still sort of like Glenn Gronkowski as a TE. He's never going to have the size to be a starter, but everyone's focusing on his warts - not a great blocker, not a great receiver, and so forth. I think he's a perfect H-back, 2nd TE, "move" TE type of guy, and his willingness to stick his nose in there for a block could offer some versatility in passing situations, as a protector and outlet for the QB on occasion. I think he'd be a nice UDFA pickup if he makes it through.

Or the Northwestern TE/FB/H-Back. Did he go yet?

WrigleyField 22 Knoxville Smokies

WrigleyField 22

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted
The Bears just signed Hoyer

Very nice insurance policy on a Cutler injury.

 

On the UDFA front;

 

Updating....

TE Ben Braunecker (Harvard) - biggest get, both need and talent wise.

TE Joe Sommers (Wisconsin-Oshkosh)

CB Kevin Peterson (Oklahoma State)

CB Taveze Calhoun (Miss St.)

OLB Roy Robertson-Harris (UTEP)

ILB Don Cherry (Villanova)

OT Dan Bucholz (Duqesne)

OT John Kling (Buffalo)

OT Adrian Bellard (Texas St)

TE RJ Rickert (Northern Arizona)*

WR/KR Kieran Duncan (Colorado St Pueblo)*

*Rookie minicamp invite

 

I think I saw they had 8 open spots going into today, so some of these other guys could be invites too.

WrigleyField 22 Knoxville Smokies

WrigleyField 22

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted (edited)

Very early 67 man depth chart, not including specialists. So 50 roster spots to sort out. In addition to this another couple dozen futures contract guys and UDFA.

 

After the starters its a lot more fluid, so its not necessarily a true depth chart. Still a few starter battles to work out though.

 

QB: Cutler, Hoyer, Fales

RB: Langford, Rodgers, Howard, Carey, Perry

TE: Miller, Lee, Housler, Braunecker

WR: Jeffery, Royal, Braverman, Thompson, Meredith

WR: White, Wilson, Mariani, Bellamy

LT: Leno, Becton

LG: Whitehair, Larsen

C: Slausen, Grasu

RG: Long, Ramirez

RT: Massie, Fabaluje

DE: Hicks, Ferguson, Unrein

NT: Goldman, Gaston, Smith

DE: Bullard, Sutton, Washington

OLB: Floyd, Young, Acho

ILB: Trevanthan, Jones, Barrow, Timu

ILB: Freeman, Kwiatkoski, Anderson

OLB: McPhee, Houston

CB: Fuller, McManis, Callahan, Glenn

CB: Porter, Hall, Hurst

FS: Amos, Houston-Carson, Bolden, Jefferson

SS: Rolle, Bush, Jones-Quartey, Prosinski

Edited by WrigleyField 22
toonsterwu ACL Cubs

toonsterwu

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

I'm guessing, with Hoyer in town, they'll just go with 2 QB's.

 

Overall, the team looks intriguing, but maybe a year away.

 

The young defense should be better, but I'm not sure how much to expect out of Floyd in Year 1. If he's an impact guy right away, that defense could take a huge leap, but if they have some inconsistency opposite McPhee, they'll likely have their ups and downs, particularly in the secondary.

 

The offense looks like they should be able to pound the ball behind that OL.

 

Overall, they look to be "on-schedule" in the quick rebuild - a possible .500ish team next year primed for a push the following year.

WrigleyField 22 Knoxville Smokies

WrigleyField 22

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted
I'm guessing, with Hoyer in town, they'll just go with 2 QB's.

 

Overall, the team looks intriguing, but maybe a year away.

 

The young defense should be better, but I'm not sure how much to expect out of Floyd in Year 1. If he's an impact guy right away, that defense could take a huge leap, but if they have some inconsistency opposite McPhee, they'll likely have their ups and downs, particularly in the secondary.

 

The offense looks like they should be able to pound the ball behind that OL.

 

Overall, they look to be "on-schedule" in the quick rebuild - a possible .500ish team next year primed for a push the following year.

Fales is another guy who you would think is dispensable, but last year when the rubber met the road, they dropped Claussen to keep him. So they may actually like him. Not like Hoyer figures to be around long. But yea 2 QBs allows you a lot more flexibility.

 

Definitely an intriguing team. Defensively there are a lot of bodies for the secondary, and if you figure sub package at least 50% of the time, if not more, we may see a lot of bodies moving around- nearly all Pace guys too, except Fuller.

 

D-Line wise, this is a big make or break camp for a few of the remaining Emery guys- Ferguson, Sutton, and Washington. Washington can definitely play ST, so he might actually have the best shot to stay, despite having the least defensive work.

 

A lot of depth at WR too, and these guys got experience with all the injuries we had last year. I'm thinking Meredith and Braverman (if they don't get picked up elsewhere) as practice squad guys, with Mariani and Wilson winning out (though Wilson could be make or break too- he didn't exactly break out last year and hasn;t been healthy in his short career, yet still young at 24!) Any guy trying to stick around as a 6th WR though basically has to do so as a ST, so will be competing against a 4th RB, 6th S, 6th CB, etc.

 

I like our OL, but after the top 7 who I figure are your weekly active guys, things drop off a bit. 2 second year guys in Grasu and Fabaluje both probably shouldn't see the field yet, but figure to have a step up on the competition, and both with good potential. But after that it is a lot of basically unknowns. That 8th or 9th spot could be an area for a camp upset that knocks off Paces first draft pick bust.

 

Biggest true starter battle is probably LG and C with 4 guys competing. On defense while there are some spots where there isn't a true front-runner, everything is so package based that we'll see a lot of bodies anyways.

 

2nd weakest schedule hypothetically helps, but its the NFL and things an move quick, so who knows. I think a WC isn't out of reach though. Staying healthy and not having any drop off from Gase to Loggains will be key. The D will at least keep us in most games with coaching and with the talent infusion, could actually become the team's strength. Special teams... not as confident with that coaching but we have a lot more options at returner this year and we may finally have some decent experience from ST contributors.

David GOAT

David

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

2nd weakest schedule hypothetically helps, but its the NFL and things an move quick, so who knows. I think a WC isn't out of reach though. Staying healthy and not having any drop off from Gase to Loggains will be key. The D will at least keep us in most games with coaching and with the talent infusion, could actually become the team's strength. Special teams... not as confident with that coaching but we have a lot more options at returner this year and we may finally have some decent experience from ST contributors.

 

In reality, this is pretty much how I feel without my Cubs fueled sports bravado.

WrigleyField 22 Knoxville Smokies

WrigleyField 22

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted
Also not sure if it was mentioned during the draft, but I guess after the first trade down in the second, Spriggs was our guy. Once GB jumped us that prompted the second trade down. While Spriggs has LT potential, I like Whitehair better overall so I think that worked out well.

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