BearFan PHX

no problem, just whoever we like best can be had for a pretty cheap one year deal, if we need them

Interesting tidbit: Darnell Weight played left tackle for his entire Junior year at Tennessee. He had like 13 starts there. And Trapilo played about the same number of games at left tackle in college too. Im not a fan in general of moving a guy out of a position hes playing well in, so I would be happiest if Trapilo shows promise at LT right away. But if we get into it, and it's not working, moving Wright is definitely an option. And if it works, it could be great for the future.

I dont really have any limits on Burden in mind, but i think we are underrating Odunze's ceiling. They each can be major stars. Odunze is going to look a lot better this year.

No one has inside information before the draft. She interviewed Jeff King (Bears director of Player Personel) and has some sources in Halas Hall that gave her insight to what happened in our draft room AFTER the draft was over. She was direct and did not condition what she said with any "I think" or similar as she does when shes predicting. She simply said, as fact, that the Bears wanted Jeanty, then the two OTs, and that Loveland was 4th on their draft list. Obviously the price to trade up was too high, and they liked Loveland. And it's easy to see why too, now that we know they were looking at TEs. I did predict a few months ago that Kmet was not as safe as he seemed. But that was based on him vs another player. I had not considered that Laporta is a totally different KIND of TE than Kmet and Johnson would want that kind to make his offense work. In fact he kind of threw us all off on that by declaring he wasnt going to run the same offense as Detriot. I took that to mean that he might use a slot receiver to do the things he used LaPorta to do. Thats why I was talking about McMillan before the draft. Now we got both. Loveland to play LaPorta, and Burden to play int he slot with a skill set similar to DJ Moores. I dont think that means they are redundant, I thinkj it means the defense is going to have its work cut out for trying to cover both, AND Odunze with Loveland running across the middle.

Chubb is a free agent

Actually Poles said things would start off with Trapilo at LT, and the three of them would compete. He didnt rule out moving Wright, but i think we all hope that someone emerges from the three to start at LT and Wright doesnt have to move!

well said. Roushar should be a godsend for us.

no, when she is giving opinions, she uses words like "I think" etc - she absolutely has many sources inside many NFL teams. She is a reporter, and when she says things as facts, she has definitely heard that information from a credible source. She named Jeff King, director of player personel for the Bears as one of them, who confirmed a bunch of this.

I doubt Braxton because he isnt sturdy or large in his base. He moves well laterally, and can ride rushers out, but when they bullrush him, he doesnt get his butt down, and he's not strong in his base, dropping anchor. One point for hope for Braxton is that Roushar had a similar LT in New Orleans, Armistead I think his name was? ANyway he was a similar player, and Roushar taught him to drop anchor better, et his butt down, and he became an All Pro player. Hopefully if Braxton is the choice at LT, he can teach him that. As to Braxton being a '3 year starter' it's true, but on a terrible offensive line, and he did get ridden back in the QB a lot. I just dont think hes up to the level of the others. But if he plays well, and wins the spot, then GREAT. But there's a reason they picked Amagadje in the 3rd round last year, and Trapilo again in the 2nd round this year. They wouldn't have done that if they were all in on Braxton Jones.

totally agree with you. and I do expect more trickery and fun stuff for sure.

For sure, all we know, from other teams, is that Poles was inquiring about the price to trade up. We can't know who he was thinking of taking had the price been right. Probably Banks at 3 LOL or Jeanty We did hear from Courtney Cronin, that the Bears has Jeanty above either OT and Loveland though, so it's not that hard to put together.

Also, while those kids of runs can replace yardage, they dont make the defense come down into the box in the same way, because those runs are generally to the sides and not up the middle. So you dont replace everything a HB gives you with those yards?

I definitely think leaving Wright where he is is best for him. I definitely think Trapilo is better as a RT than a LT. I definitely think Jones and Amagadje wont be good enough to start at LT. I definitely think the Bears drafted Trapilo in the 2nd round to project as a starter. All that tells me if Trapilo plays well at LT, then he will start there, and if not, theyre gonna move Wright. Im pretty sure theyre hoping Trapilo can play LT, but if he cant do it well, then what? You switch sides with even less time to get them acclimated? This is a bit of a cluster f*ck. Hopefully it sorts out. My GUESS is that Wright ends up at LT, and if he can do it, he might be very good there. But I hate moving guys around. I really do. Wish we'd taken Ersery instead of Trapilo and Stewart. But if the switch works, then we end up a DT ahead.

good analysis - I think you've got it right.

If you can believe what she said, they would have taken Banks ahead of Loveland, and that makes me feel a little better about them. Loveland is a great pick, and Johnson will be able to show his stuff with Burden and Loveland with Odunze and Moore. That's a lot to cover. She's also really articulate about how we played ourselves on our trade downs, and I especially liked the discussion about Trapilo and what it means to the OL. I really like TTNL and Courtney because they seem to look at things the same way i do a lot. Not always! I think Campbell is not as good as they do. And the GMs in the league agree with them and not me lol But yeah, the way Johnson was rocking back and forth, he clearly is tickled to have Loveland. Even if he was 4th on our list, he's still well worth the #10 pcik, and is gonna make a huge difference for this team. Pray that however the LT situation works out, it will actually work. If there is no hole on the OL, this offense could go far.

OK there's just too much good information here. I'm just gonna share it. If you watch it, do yourself a favor and start at 48:00 (48 minutes in) to avoid all the nonsense, and whatever. Courtney talking about the Bears draft starts at 48 min

So Courtney Cronin tonight on TTNL saying a bunch of things with authority in her voice. SHe usually says things like "could be" etc but these things she was definitive about. She said she spoke to Jeff King after the first round pick had been taken, and he said the Bears had several players highly targeted for the #10 pick. She later said the Bears definitely wanted Campbell AND Banks, and after the Jaguar trade, the price was too high to go up for Jeanty. She said she didnt know who the Bears had been calling, but it definitely wasn't the Browns. So this is specific information, instead of rumor or opinion, and she has always been credible as far as I know. She doesnt make guesses presented as facts. Could someone have lied to her? For sure. But I believe this is what she heard, and it makes sense. So it seems the order was Jeanty, Campbell & Banks then Loveland. I'm still watching and she literally just said "If Banks had been there at #10 he would have been the pick" I can still see why Johnson was shaking with excitement. Like many of us here, maybe we felt like we should be disciplined and do the right thing, take the LT, but when a shiny toy at TE who's NFL comp happens to be Sam LaPorta is available, its exciting to be able to get that guy. I personally felt the same way about Jeanty. I knew we should take the LT if possible, but my irresponsible heart wanted to see Jeanty in a Bears uniform and think about Payton, Sayers and Willie Galimore, who is why my jersey here is 28. Should I add Neal Anderson to that list? A lot of people dont know about Willie the Wisp.

Good times for sure. If they are gonna move people around, this is a good year to do it. Roushar will hopefully have the right answers and help guys with their roles whatever they are. I like the idea of depth at OG, but Im not sure thats a 2nd round pick, so I expect Trapilo to be in the serious competition at one of the tackles, along with Wright, Jones and Amagadje. Hopefully we can find two good starters from those four, and have the right skills sets playing the LT and RT spots.

I think when a GM calls around to multiple teams, and doesn't make a deal with them, those other teams talk too, and the info gets out. And like you say, calling and pulling the trigger are two different things. From the coaching hire, we know Poles is the type to fully investigate all kinds of scenarios that wont actually happen. So he might be an active GM in calling to figure out prices for trades up and down all the time. To Stinger's point, even if he was doing the due diligence Im talking about it doesnt mean that he was serious about consummating the trade, and it doesn't mean it would have been a HB if he had traded anyway. But as sports fans, we can read tea leaves and make guesses. It certainly doesnt prove anything either way; that he is fine with or not fine with Swift. But we can guess.

I agree. And it is possible that with Roushar's tutoring, Braxton Jones will be good. The Saints had a guy, was it Armsted? Anyway he had similar issues to Jones' and Roushar made him an all-pro, so if that's what happens, I'll be thrilled of course. But then I wonder why the 2nd round OT pick? No doubt tho your point remains - whoever is playing LT is going to be better with Thuney next to him.

Youre right of course. And if that's the standard of evidence around here that's fine by me, but we have to play by it equally I think the fact that we traded down right after each HB got taken in front of us is pretty good evidence, but it's circumstantial I agree, not proof.

but we have heard that there WAS urgency? Poles was trying to trade up for Henderson, and traded down a couple times right after a HB got picked, indicating we were probably hoping for that HB? Swift is decent, but I dont think our HB room is as good as our WR room, our TE room or our DB room? So it's natural to want to elevate the weaker part of your roster? One thing that should be said is that now we are becoming a GOOD roster, so the weakest links arent necessarily terrible players, they just arent as good as the guys around them at other positions, so they become the focus of the next upgrade. Swfit would start for a bunch of teams in the NFL, but he is not a top 15 HB. That's not hating, it's what happens when your roster becomes excellent?

I totally share your optimism. Assuming we get LT right, and i do assume that we will one way or another, we should be a formidable offense. From QB to playcaller, with all those weapons to throw to, and what is currently a decent HB room, we should be a real problem to defend.

hmmm I dunno. The coach probably gets a "what do you think" before you take a player, but not before a trade back, I think? It's an interesting question. id love to know the actual answer.

Yeah, I was saying Loveland was better than Warren all offseason after watching them both. I didnt think we would pick either one, but Warren is not the threat that Loveland is. Warren is more like Kmet in style, while Loveland is like more like a big WR.