raw

Good list. I think right now, I'm at.... 9- Carter, Paris Johnson, Gonzalez Trade Down (12-17)- Van Ness, Nolan Smith, Anton Harrison, Darnell Wright, Witherspoon, Smith-Njigba, Wilson Not big on Skoronski (Guard), Jones (OT4 to me). Picks 2-4, I'd love to make 1 bold move in these picks, especially if they trade down and get an extra pick. I'd love to package picks to move up or take an outside the box position (like RB or WR, if not in 1st), even if they stay where they are, they could still do something fun, IMO. But they do need to take DL and CB probably in these picks. Of the names you list in this group, I don't like Ika (too big), Dexter (not a top 75 guy to me), White (not a fan of tweeners) or Bergeron (think he's a guard). But any 2 or 3 of those other guys and one of the 1st round guys would be a sweet couple days of the draft.

Thorn is good. Never thought of him as an "expert" on the OL, especially compared to a couple other guys who I cant remember at this moment off the top of my head. But I tend to agree with his thoughts on OL prospects. I want to disagree with the assessment that Braxton can't get better pass blocking, but I can't completely discount his opinion.

Hey Now!

Only 1 GB to 2nd though.

There's no way the Cubs finish behind these Brewers in the standings. They suck

IDK if anyone here watches women's ball, but man what a game South Carolina/Iowa should be

Sure, just as soon as we stop saying every free agent was actually offered more by another team, or that teams were surprised their guy was available when their turn in the draft came up, or that were ecstatic with our draft class. It’s a harmless catch all phrase that actually does have some meaning because there are definitely teams that will target needs above best player overall. Baseball teams do a version of this all the time, going heavy on pitching or college hitters or whatever else they might be lacking in their system. Not to mention purposely taking a lesser player for signability reasons rather than actually taking BPA. There is no such thing as a universally accepted best player available at any slot, but there are versions of it in every war room and teams either stick with that or let doubt creap into their minds and take the guy that might actually fit their situation instead. I just hope Poles takes the draft 1 pick at a time and takes players that will give 110% on every play.

Yeah, I'm thinking that's about the price. And it's probably the later 4th from Philly and not the first pick of the round/day 3. I think the theory is that they are in on trading for Deandre Hopkins, who's cap hit is about 17M for the team trading for him. They have like 9-10Mil in cap space. Oliver is a quick and easy way to clear enough space, while also allocating money/resources from defense to offense for them, where most of their stars are, and likely how they'll compete with the AFC's best. If that's the case, and Oliver trade would be a cost cutting move. I think in reality, he probably has a 2nd or 3rd round value. But based on his cap hit and this being the last year of his deal, I think that late 4th or maybe even one of the 5ths get it done. Maybe some conditional pick if the team re-signs him, but IDK if the Bears would re-sign him. He's not really the long, lengthy type of 3-tech that Eberflus seems to like (6'2", 31 1/2" arms) and hasn't taken the next step as a pass rusher. That being said, he is 25 until like week 15-16 this year and really had a lot of pressures this year that didn't end in sacks so a breakout could happen, in theory.

Bringing it back to the actual discussion, yeah, I'm 100% fine with "I don't like any of these receivers enough to pick them over other players likely to be available at No. 9." I don't pretend to be enough of a scout to have opinions on exactly how to slot the players in the back of the top 10 of the draft. I just don't think that the combination of Moore/Mooney/Claypool, two of whom are in contract years, would be enough to make me pass on a WR if that was who they liked most at no. 9. I got you. And that makes perfect sense. But it is certainly a big part of the equation as well. Diminishing returns. Moore obviously is going to be the lead dog. The team has said it wants to re-sign Mooney, granted the injury may have changed the urgency of that and if he doesn't come back maybe even the desire. But it also doesn't change what you have invested in them (Mooney just time so far, Claypool the highest possible 2nd round pick). And if you add a top 10 pick at WR to the mix, you are essentially pushing one of them to the curb (or sidelines) as you aren't going to play 4-wide very much and even if you do, there's simply not enough of Fields' 337 passes to go around to make those investments (top 10 pick, 20M for Moore, 3 years building w/ Fields for Mooney, and 32nd pick for Claypool) worthwhile.

BPA is in the eye of the beholder, so obviously need goes into it, even if subconsciously. But when you need a certain position, you can justify taking a that player by saying, "oh he was the best on our board" even if we know it's clearly nonsense. We saw the Cowboys draft board leak last year and they passed up their last guy with a 1st round grade, who was a safety (can't remember who, maybe Georgia kid?) and picked an offensive lineman who was their top 2nd round grade. Because position value came into play as well as need. My whole point about taking a WR at 9 is that I don't think any WR in this draft class would be the best player available with the 9th pick. And now that you added a WR by literally insisting he be included in the trade and it getting done ASAP instead of waiting anywhere near draft day, you don't have the justification to draft a WR at 9 who, IMO likely isn't even arguably the BPA in any scenario there.

This isn’t unique to WRs though, every position on the field is like this. Heck, Bijan Robinson is being pushed as a top 10 pick as a RB and I’d argue a stronger prospect on paper in Breece Hall fell to the second last year *because* he’s a RB You'd be wrong on that argument too.

While Claypool and Mooney are free agents after the year, WR is a position where there are guys that come out every year and put up great numbers right away. The Bears probably will draft a WR at some point this year, because they do need to hedge their bets against both Claypool and Mooney leaving, and they have enough picks to literally take every offensive and defensive position. But there's no reason to take a non-elite propsect in the top 10 when you don't have to. DJ Moore should afford you the ability to take the BPA at 9, or else why did insist on him being included? And IMO that best player won't be a WR, no matter how the top 8 unfolds. If they trade down to the mid-to-late teens, then that makes more sense. It's not a complete waste of assets, but I'd much rather go Bijan at 9 than JSN, and I love Smith-Njigba as a player and fit on this team.

DJ Moore is a top 150 player in the league. If your only desire is for the Bears to draft a blue chip guy in this draft, the only one available at 9 is possibly Bijan Robinson, a running back.

318 was easily the least amount in the league for any starting QB. DJ Moore averages 123 targets per year by himself. He's a year removed from 163 targets, that's over half of what Fields threw this year. If Moore is a true #1 WR they think he is, he should be getting around 130-140 targets. That leaves less than 200 targets for the other 3 WRs (if you draft one early), Kmet, TE2, all RBs, Velus, and St Brown. Now obviously, the Bears should be throwing the ball more than they did in a historically low passing year last year. But they aren't going to be the Chiefs, Bucs or Chargers and throw the ball 650 times to make it worth having high assets getting WR4 targets. Logically, it makes sense. Having more weapons is good. But there are a limited number of resources involved here (number or targets , not to mention draft pick resources for other needs) and there are diminishing returns the more weapons you add. It's not like DL where you can rotate a bunch of guys and keep them fresh. It's not like OL where there is a high level of attrition (despite Mooney, Claypool, and Pringle missing multiple games last year, WR is not an high injury position). At some point, you literally aren't going to be able to get all these guys on the field. Even if you do, you aren't going to be able to get all these guys the ball, which is the entire point of having multiple weapons.

:dontknow: I just assume there's so much noise in today's leagues (all the players are both good and not good depending) that the combo of being specific, having cap space, and having lots to trade pretty much makes everyone available. They're not short on picks, have two firsts in 2024 including one from a talented Panthers team in a weak division Quibbling about how long he's been bad aside, the point is that Poles would be making a mistake if trying to make the Claypool trade work is bleeding into the rest of the offseason. Another way to look at Claypool's 2022 is 2 different teams gave him an open lane as a 3rd year WR viewed with some upside and he came up with 43/450/1. I'm not the one suggesting dump him either, just that they aren't in a good place at WR, pass catching, or offense in general once you get beyond Moore and maybe that it's OK to not use a 2nd round pick perfectly Quibbling doesn't apply when arguing fact vs non fact. But anyway, I agree it's OK if Claypool isn't good. The pick was worth a shot that your QB had help last year and into this year.. But if it was worth a shot middle of last season, it's definitely worth a shot for this season with a full offseason, camp and with another weapon taking the focus off of him to see if he can provide some value. Taking another WR at 9 (who isn't a top 10 player in this draft, IMO) just compounds the issue. You'll never get your answer on if Claypool was worth it because won't be enough footballs to go around. And you won't get to capitalize on the potential that he reaches his potential and the benefits of what happens if he at least shows his rookie season promise and gets paid handsomely by another team. There's a ton of WRs every year. It kinda defeats the purpose, IMO if you insist DJ Moore be included in the trade, just to spend your top asset on another guy at his same position. If JSN is worthy of the 9th pick, he should be worthy to build your WR corps around and then that 2025 1st has much more value than Moore, who while he wouldn't be redundant, also would not be worth the loss of the pick because JSN would serve the same purpose to allow Fields to take the next step.

I’d day they should already be there. Claypool’s been legit bad for two years now. At this point he’s basically Denzel Mims but Bears, a standout athlete for the position but not a top 3 WR on a quality depth chart (maybe they luck into one with Jones and Mooney). I can’t imagine there’s any stress about pushing Claypool down the depth chart with his very cheap deal Personally my Plan A for the Bears would be to walk out of this draft with all 3 of Johnston (top WR), Robinson (top RB), and Kinkaid the TE to compliment the more prototypical Kmet…Grab some late round IOL in a strong C/G draft, one of the late round QBs I listed for the Jets, and really see what Fields has with an offense that can attract next year’s top available NFL QB if things go south 2 years? He's only played 3 years. 2020 was a pretty good rookie year. 2021 he duplicated his rookie numbers everywhere but TD catches, despite playing 1 fewer game and with Big Ben being an actual corpse. 2022 he played with 2 teams, 2 completely different schemes, and 4 different starting QBs. I mean, he's probably not that good, but I don't think you can say he's "bad" based on that. I do agree with not stressing about pushing him down the depth chart because he's cheap, but it's also a waste of resources. I understand sunk costs and all, but you gave up the 32nd pick. Maybe they are turned off by him not learning the offense fast enough, but he had 125 snaps with Fields, then Justin missed the Jets game right when Claypool got comfortable in the offense (that week was his highest snap count w/ the Bears). The next week, he and Fields connected 5x in 1 1/3 quarters, Claypool got injured and basically missed every game until Week 18, when Fields sat again and Chase had his 2nd highest snap count. Like I said, maybe they didn't like his work ethic or fit or whatever, but there's otherwise no reason to dump him without really seeing what he can do in the offense. Also, not sure how you plan to pull off adding 3 first rounders to the offense this year.

- I miss all of the appeal of Smith-Njigba at 9, don’t see why he would be the guy - The Eagles used firsts on Reagor and Smith (pick 10) back to back, and then traded for AJ Brown with picks 18 and 101 in 2022. The Bengals famously have Chase, Higgins, and Boyd. Many (bad) teams would be happy to call the second best WRs on those teams as the top guy on the depth chart. As far as first division starting NFL WRs go, the Bears have Moore. Mooney’s not an outside guy as far as I can tell but seems alright. Just checked and he finished 2022 hurt. Claypool’s not good and, if there’s still something in the tank then all the merrier - All that said - I might be with anyone saying Robinson as high as 9 to the Bears makes sense. He and Fields would make a badass combo that’s pretty futuristic and Moore’s one of the better deep threats in the league. I’m on the wagon with him being a high priority guy for the Bears The Eagles traded for AJ Brown in part because Reagor was a bust of a pick. I guess you could argue the same with the Bears and the Claypool trade, but they also immediately got rid of Reagor, which is basically what I said they'd have to do with Claypool to make the pick even make sense at 9. The Bengals do have a lot invested in WR, but there was 4 years between the Boyd and Higgins draft picks. Chase was a true generational talent that was a sure top 5 talent in his draft, which JSN is not. But yeah, at this point, you might as well see if Claypool will put in the work this offseason w/ Fields, Moore and Mooney and become what the Bears thought they were trading for and the Steelers thought they were drafting. He's also a good source for a favorable comp pick formula as if he has a good year, he'll sign elsewhere for pretty decent money. They also have Velus too, FWIW. So they can "make due" with what should be a good WR group anyway this year and then go WR early next year, if needed. And they certainly will have the resources to add a WR early, where there is a ton of talent coming out every year.

I’ll keep popping in to say one *should* be the pick at 9 (Quinten Johnston!) I'd venture to say Fields has probably lobbied for JSN at 9. I say go it, weapons, weapons, weapons, can never have enough, while Fields and a terrible OL contributed to his high sack rate. I'm guessing the lack of weapons also played a part most especially after Mooney and Claypool were out. Who'd give a second thought to defending a WR room headed by Saint-Brown, Pringle and Pettis? I wouldn't HATE taking JSN at 9, though it wouldn't be my first choice (or 3rd). He isn't the 9th best talent in this draft, but he's probably close enough to top 15 that it wouldn't be a huge reach. That also seemingly will go for a lot of the players I project to be there at 9, so if the Bears feel a huge conviction to draft him, I'd understand. That being said, that's an awful lot of resources spent on WR. That would mean spending a 1st, giving up the chance at a future 1st to get DJ Moore, the highest possible 2nd, and maybe even an extension for Mooney (not to mention Moore's contract). If they trade Claypool and get a decent return for him, I'd be all for JSN. He is a true slot guy, which they don't have on the roster right now. But the way to go if they go weapons, weapons, weapons is to draft Bijan Robinson who is certainly a top 5 talent in the draft, just plays the most replaceable position on the field. And even then, I'd want to get something for Herbert if that's the case.

I appreciate a GM sticking to his draft board, but you gotta draft for need at some point. Like you can't wait til Day 3 for OL and DL this year. You just can't ignore the positions for 2 free agency rounds and then not pick BPA at a position you clearly need. Everyone says BPA, but BPA is based on need or else you'd have teams with QBs picking QBs all the time, and not just because they are old or A-holes (see Packers x 2).

It's not going to take a miracle to finish out of the bottom 1/3 FFS Goes for Carolina as well. They get 14 games vs. their division, AFC South and NFC North. The playoff teams from last year they face have Tua at QB, Geno at QB, or are the 9-8 Jags and a partially torn down Vikings team.

Yeah, sounds like Poles believes he could have gotten a 2024 FRP from Houston and potentially some additional picks this year. But I think the package from Carolina lessens a decent amount from 1 to 2. And I'm guessing that meant no DJ Moore or possibly no 2025 2nd round pick. The 49ers gave up 2 future 1sts and a future 3rd to move from 12 to 3. And they may have paid a premium with Miami assuming they'd be a playoff team in 2022 (which that picked turned out to be 28th, no chance Carolina's is that late). So, even with a similar deal you're looking at: 9th pick, 2023 3rd from Carolina, 2024 1st from Houston, 2024 1st from Carolina, 2025 1st from Carolina vs 9th pick, 2023 2nd from Carolina, 2024 1st from Carolina, 2025 2nd from Carolina, DJ Moore Of course, the Houston deal could have included another 2023 pick as well. Obviously, that Houston pick next year looks very enticing, but I think it's a huge assumption they would have given up a future 1st. And if they would have, it wouldn't have been much more than that. So basically, it comes down to DJ Moore and 2025 1st for a 2024 1st and a 2025 2nd + the proverbial "bird in the hand". Houston could have changed their minds. Carolina could have changed there's or the package. It's obviously a fine deal, which I'm sure Bears fans will completely be rational about when reading the article.

Wow. Pretty sad to see the most improvement in the league on paper, and still only a 6-win team. That'd be good for another top 10 pick.

I was wondering this throughout the Big Ten Tournament. I don't get it. Oh man, thank you! I thought it was just me being bitter because he beat IU both times this year, but he does this ALL the time, including last night. He got called for putting his hip into a defender trailing his guy on a handoff look, but he could get called almost every play. I noticed a bunch of other guys using the off arm to push also, and it was never called, so I guess....more power to them to use it.

Should be a good short yardage back. Herbert isn't special there. And could carry the load if Herbert is hurt. It's a very role specific RB room now. That comes with disadvantages, but the roles that are covered are all pretty strong I think. Has it's advantages and disadvantages for sure. I think they'll be about as even a split as they come in terms of carries, assuming both are healthy. They are almost the exact same type of runner, except Foreman is bigger and breaks more tackles. I think if one wants to get the bulk of the work, he'd better be with a JUGS machine and a blocking sled all offseason.

And that’s by choice so the people that made the choice should be held accountable. They have an outside chance of being a dangerous offense with a variety of weapons. It seems like the goal is to overwhelm the opposition with competent skill position guys. You won’t win 12 games that way, but you can compete in every game. 4 top 64 picks should net you 4 starters. It won’t, but it should. There may be 4 starters, but they may not be 4 good starters. Getting homegrown starters hasn't been the Bears issue. Getting 4 good players out of that will not happen, especially in the 2023 season.