NFL Draft starts tonight

[NOLA]

Nice pick by the Giants. Toney could be a Percy Harvin type for Jones.

[Bertz]

Football Outsiders:

 

Justin Fields, QB, Ohio State

 

When Fields got a "C" on his report card in sixth grade, his father punished him by making him wear a shirt that was two sizes too small for him to school for three weeks. "That's kind of what's made me into the man I am today," Fields later said.

 

As a former teacher and father of two sons in their teens, I must make it clear to readers that publicly shaming a sixth-grader by making him or her wear weird clothes is unlikely to turn the child into an NFL quarterback. It's much more likely to produce a seventh-grader who rips the wings off houseflies for fun. Please just take your child's video games away until their grades improve. Thank you.

 

Anyway, a little junior high public humiliation may have inoculated Fields against what has happened to him over the last few months. Fields may have faced the toughest overall schedule in the nation over the last two years. He led the Buckeyes to the National Championship Game. He played injured at times. He was even at the forefront of the effort to keep playing college football during the pandemic. What did he get for his efforts? Anonymous whispers about his work ethic and passion for the game, naturally.

 

Fields became this draft's official Quarterback Prospect NFL Insiders Just Don't Like for Reasons They Swear Have Nothing to Do With Implicit Bias. As such, intense scrutiny of his game film is almost beside the point. Fields has the tools of an elite NFL starter and flaws typical of a prospect from a top program: pressure right up the middle takes him by surprise and often finds him without a plan, for example. But his NFL future will likely boil down to whether the Bears commit to him and give him a legitimate shot, or whether they start fiddling around with Garfunkel and Oates (Andy Dalton and Nick Foles) at the first sign of trouble. Given how much time they gave Mitch Trubisky to gestate, there's hope.

 

I had lots of Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy jokes pre-written, and the Bears just ruined them. This was a great decision at a critical moment for that organization.

 

Grade: A+

[UMFan83]

Football Outsiders:

 

Justin Fields, QB, Ohio State

 

When Fields got a "C" on his report card in sixth grade, his father punished him by making him wear a shirt that was two sizes too small for him to school for three weeks. "That's kind of what's made me into the man I am today," Fields later said.

 

As a former teacher and father of two sons in their teens, I must make it clear to readers that publicly shaming a sixth-grader by making him or her wear weird clothes is unlikely to turn the child into an NFL quarterback. It's much more likely to produce a seventh-grader who rips the wings off houseflies for fun. Please just take your child's video games away until their grades improve. Thank you.

 

Anyway, a little junior high public humiliation may have inoculated Fields against what has happened to him over the last few months. Fields may have faced the toughest overall schedule in the nation over the last two years. He led the Buckeyes to the National Championship Game. He played injured at times. He was even at the forefront of the effort to keep playing college football during the pandemic. What did he get for his efforts? Anonymous whispers about his work ethic and passion for the game, naturally.

 

Fields became this draft's official Quarterback Prospect NFL Insiders Just Don't Like for Reasons They Swear Have Nothing to Do With Implicit Bias. As such, intense scrutiny of his game film is almost beside the point. Fields has the tools of an elite NFL starter and flaws typical of a prospect from a top program: pressure right up the middle takes him by surprise and often finds him without a plan, for example. But his NFL future will likely boil down to whether the Bears commit to him and give him a legitimate shot, or whether they start fiddling around with Garfunkel and Oates (Andy Dalton and Nick Foles) at the first sign of trouble. Given how much time they gave Mitch Trubisky to gestate, there's hope.

 

I had lots of Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy jokes pre-written, and the Bears just ruined them. This was a great decision at a critical moment for that organization.

 

Grade: A+

 

The text leading up to the grade didn’t really make me feel like he was going to give an A+ pick

[UMFan83]

So the Bears really aren’t going to keep Fields, Dalton and Foles are they? What can the Bears do to get rid of Foles? Can they afford to eat some money and deal him for like a 7th round pick?

 

Also I’m interested to see when Fields starts. Is Dalton going to get the Glennon treatment? I’m thinking so with Pace and Nagy’s jobs on the line. Or maybe Fields even starts week 1.

[NOLA]

[Cubfanintheknow]

This has got to be one of the saddest paragraphs ever written in the history of sports journalism:

 

It is the sixth time in the Super Bowl era the Bears have drafted a quarterback in the first round and the first time since Pace traded up from No. 3 to 2 to take Mitch Trubisky in 2017. The Bears also selected Rex Grossman (No. 22 in 2003), Cade McNown (No. 12 in 1999), Jim Harbaugh (No. 26 in 1987) and Jim McMahon (No. 5 in 1982) in the first round since 1966.

 

https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/bears/ct-chicago-bears-nfl-draft-20210430-hzy2ia2q4ba6xnxasvclzc2d4e-story.html

[Brian]

2/5 played for the Bears in the Super Bowl so that's... something.

[raw]

Damn Vikings get a pair of 3rd round picks to move down 9 spots and still get my OT2 and top 10 player overall on my board. Hate this damn team.

[Derwood]

 

Patriots and Steelers consistently have Pro Bowlers fall into their laps in these drafts.

[WrigleyField 22]

So the Bears really aren’t going to keep Fields, Dalton and Foles are they? What can the Bears do to get rid of Foles? Can they afford to eat some money and deal him for like a 7th round pick?

 

Also I’m interested to see when Fields starts. Is Dalton going to get the Glennon treatment? I’m thinking so with Pace and Nagy’s jobs on the line. Or maybe Fields even starts week 1.

Just trade Foles for a conditional pick that will never actually yield. I think they can do that.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

*googles Justin Fields scouting reports*

 

*sees that his weakness is pre-snap reads and he's often been given one-read plays to let his athleticism do the work.*

 

*sighs*

[NOLA]

Elijah Moore from Ole Miss or the LB from Notre Dame. Make it happen Sean.

[jersey cubs fan]

Why are people pretending the Patriots routinely find under appreciated quarterbacks?

[OleMissCub]

Elijah Moore from Ole Miss or the LB from Notre Dame. Make it happen Sean.

 

Awful. Just freaking terrible. Moore and Kamara together would have been terrorists at the LOS.

 

We could have traded down and gotten this dude.

[champaignchris]

This has got to be one of the saddest paragraphs ever written in the history of sports journalism:

 

It is the sixth time in the Super Bowl era the Bears have drafted a quarterback in the first round and the first time since Pace traded up from No. 3 to 2 to take Mitch Trubisky in 2017. The Bears also selected Rex Grossman (No. 22 in 2003), Cade McNown (No. 12 in 1999), Jim Harbaugh (No. 26 in 1987) and Jim McMahon (No. 5 in 1982) in the first round since 1966.

 

https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/bears/ct-chicago-bears-nfl-draft-20210430-hzy2ia2q4ba6xnxasvclzc2d4e-story.html

 

Rex Grossman was the right move in 2003. It was a 1 QB draft (Carson Palmer). There wasn’t much difference between Grossman, Leftwich and Boller. The Bears traded down, got the last man standing and the one year he was healthy, the Bears went to the Super Bowl.

 

Where the Bears messed up is that with their other first round pick in that draft, they took Michael Haynes...

 

Instead of Troy Polamalu.

[minnesotacubsfan]

watching the Packers say "f-you Aaron, you have enough weapons) and drafting a CB might be the second-best thing to happen tonight

[raw]

Why are people pretending the Patriots routinely find under appreciated quarterbacks?

 

They got people to give up something of value for Jimmy G and Jacoby Brissett based on this fake narrative. Sickens me.

[OleMissCub]

Jags gonna get Lawrence, Etienne, and then Moore

[jersey cubs fan]

I forgot I took Bears first pick is a QB +400

 

Felt like easy money.

[CubColtPacer]

Why are people pretending the Patriots routinely find under appreciated quarterbacks?

 

They got people to give up something of value for Jimmy G and Jacoby Brissett based on this fake narrative. Sickens me.

 

The Colts had already seen enough of Dorsett to know that he was not good when they traded him for Brissett. And they have been proven right on that.

 

And of course, people talk that Jimmy G could be traded for just as much today.

[Splendid Splinter]

Pats also traded Matt Cassel (and Vrabel) for a 2nd. He did diddly squat outside of 2010 after being traded.

[jersey cubs fan]

I'm not saying the Pats haven't been able to convince people they somehow know how to find QBs. I'm saying the opposite. They have convinced people that they have some magic formula so everybody assumes if the Pats make the pick its the right one and then teams are willing to trade for guys who have no business being traded for that value. I don't get it. The Pats drafted Brady. That's it. 20 years ago when it was a different sport they stumbled on Brady. It's a one time thing.

[BigbadB]

I absolutely didn't want to trade up and spend a ton of draft picks. But, given that Fields fell to the 11th spot and isn't costing anything of great value beyond next year's 1st makes this a dreamy scenario. I don't hate Pace. I hated the trade up for Trubisky. I don't hate that he drafted Trubisky, but trading up was beyond stupid when there were two other QB's they could have settled for if someone was bold enough to jump the Bears with the 2nd pick.

 

Other than that, he hasn't done well with top picks, but he's been solid with late rounds and UDFA's. I wish there was a way to save Anthony Miller. Fix the Oline a bit more and draft another WR (maybe Schwartz) and see what you can do with Robinson, Mooney, Miller, draft pick, Goodwin and Ridley. Miller has f'd up plenty, but I still think with better QB play he could be an asset for this team. If they best you can get is a 6th, just keep him and settle your differences.

[Derwood]

watching the Packers say "f-you Aaron, you have enough weapons) and drafting a CB might be the second-best thing to happen tonight

 

NFL Network had some crazy stat about there being only one first-round pick that Rodgers has ever completed a TD pass to. The Packers front office has refused to draft him a receiver his entire career.

 

The best case scenario would have been the Packers trading Rodgers to the 49ers and then using that #3 pick on Chase :lol:

[UMFan83]

*googles Justin Fields scouting reports*

 

*sees that his weakness is pre-snap reads and he's often been given one-read plays to let his athleticism do the work.*

 

*sighs*

 

I've read several defenses of that and I've actually seen a scouting report that listed pre-snap reads as a strength of his ...you never know until he gets on the field. I am certainly a little concerned that if this is an issue, I definitely don't trust the Bears to coach it out of him.

 

But I was genuinely surprised they didnt pick Jones when I found out the Bears traded up since he seems to be the opposite. Lacks things that Fields is good at but the consensus seems to be that he is really good at reading the field and going through progressions. After the Mitch disaster I figured they'd go for a safe pick.

 

I'm personally happy they took Fields, definitely the higher ceiling and more explosive playmaking ability. But there have been many QBs that have all the tools and then struggle to pick up the mental side of the game. Defenses are going to be faster, schemes are likely going to be more complex.

 

FWIW Watson's scouting report listed weaknesses with "Field Vision" and "reading progressions". Dak Prescott's were "can be confused with complex defensive schemes" and "makes poor decisions". Josh Allen also had the "makes poor decisions" label. Not quite the same as pre-snap reads but in a similar category of the mental side of QBing.

 

We'll see

Edited April 30, 2021 by UMFan83