I see where you are coming from but holliman is a true free safety something we haven't had since #30 retired... 14 ints... 2off of the potential #1overall pick... look up his stats... 14 ints last year... and in highschool he had 12 which i believe 5 he returned for tds... shore up the secondary and dline an it may cost 1st, 2nd, and maybe a 4th or 5th depending how far you have to move up... i've seen mocks where holliman falls to the second rd... idk we will see... either way, you can take your 3rd rd pick and trade down and get your extra picks.... we NEED a playmaker at safety and holliman could be it... i like hime more than collins that is for sure...

I would be fine with Holliman, Derron Smith, Anthony Harris, or Durrell Eskridge. The first three have ballhawking ability and Eskridge is tall and great run support. Smith might have the best leadership and smarts out of the 4. There is a chance we can get one in round 3.

I'm really starting to develop an Aaron Donald-esque man crush on Shelton. 98 tackles from a DT is just unheard of. He backed up those stats for me at the senior bowl.

Sign me up also, he is a dominate force in the middle. He will be a difference maker and make his teammates better. If they can get him and then somehow get an old teammate Marcus Peters at CB round two, I will be happy. Round three find your Safety in either Durrell Eskridge or Anthony Harris and our D has some players. Harris led the NCAA in INTs in 2013 and Eskridge has size and good tackling abilities.

I wouldn't HATE Collins as the SS if they pair him with a good coverage FS like McCourty or a Moore in FA. That said I think you can find a SS later on in the draft.

What's your thoughts on Brock Vereen getting a shot at FS?

Collins is ok as a safety but there will be better players available at #7. Then I see Bryce Petty in the 4th and that was it for me. I just don't like Petty at all. I can't see his game transitioning to the NFL and I think Fales is better and far more accurate so there is no need to draft Petty.

 

I still like that Terra was able to use the word fantastic in a positive way.

I just seen that Petty looked bad at the senior bowl, I'd pass at rd 4 too.

Agreed. I'm anxious to hear what Gase has planned. I really have seen much about what type of system he wants to run. He was a coach under Josh McDaniels. For the past 3 seasons he's been running the system Peyton Manning brought from Indy. I don't see either system utilizing our team strengths on offense.

This will be his first shot at developing his own offense. We will see if Martz was right when he said Gase is one of the top three offensive minds in the nfl. He was considered for head coaching openings, so the rest of the nfl was intrigued enough to run him through interviews. He is young, very strongly opinionated, and fiery. Players like playing for him because he is not just a fired up guy but likes to make it fun. I don't expect the greatest show on sod, but I think he can get the offense on track. Let him draft a qb like Grayson or Mannion day 3 to groom, and we will have Fales ready to step in also if Cutler struggles.

Two more prospects the Bears met with at the East West Shrine game:

Greg Henderson CB Colorado -5-11 181 4.52 Stout frame and fluid, steadily has improved each season

Dominique Brown RB Louisville - 6-2 232 4.62 spees, big physical back that can catch. Type of back I would like to see.

WHAT A SURPRISE.

I think alot of the BM hate come from jealousy. The guy will eventually go from football player to being in the national spotlight while our beat writers and radio host are stuck in chicago. I have no problem with BM being outspoken. I would like to see him stay out of NY on his days off and use that time to get his body ready for the following game. His ankle injury was bad enough that he should have missed a few games and missing valuable time getting treatment could have prolonged it.

If I knew how to posts tweets, Marshall just posted "congrats to my man Adam Gase" "it was fun laughing at the old days in Denver".

That is a positive sign in my books

Yeah, but Denver had Peyton Manning who is one of the best QB's in the league, called all the plays, and brought his offense from Indy.

 

Those numbers are skewed because the two youngest players, Mills & Wilson, may not be worth a damn. Do they even stick?

 

Matt Forte is ancient for a RB. Cutler turns 32 is April. But ultimately the ages don't matter. Gase has only been a coordinator with Peyton calling the shots. How does he fix this dysfunctional mess?

The first way is to establish the run and second is to have a pass game that beats the zone. The predictability of Trestmans offense never had defenses guessing.

Johnny Manziel 2.0

The QB I've read about that seems like a good bet is Sean Mannion. It would be sweet if he lasts to rd4.

Jeff Dickerson broke down how all the Bears d-lineman would fit in with a 3-4 system. According to him, the two that won't really fit are Steven Paea (he's too short) and Jared Allen. (He also said that Will Sutton appeared to be a bust.)

 

It makes sense Paea leaves. It will be interesting to see what we do with Jared Allen. We misused him last year and damn we owe him a lot of money.

I wonder if we can get a pick for Sutton? I think he still has talent, but doesn't fit what me may want to do.

That would be crazy. The dude wants to be a head coach. If he harbors ill will, that a. in't going to happen.

 

I still have concerns with how he will mesh with this aging offense that is ready to win now. He needs to rule with an iron fist, but at the same time, he can't go Josh McDaniels and having Cutler demanded to be traded (with not takers this time) and Marshall batting balls down.

 

That being said, I probably would have had those concerns with any OC. In Fox we trust.

Gase is the teams fire and Fox is the ice. Good combo imo. This offense has talent and it might take a fiery leader to wake them up, hold them accountable. I like this, we have two highly touted coordinators now and a very good HC.

Yep. I probably should have said "positions we plan to target in the draft" rather than who we get. The pressure is clearly on to make these decisions quickly. Does anyone know if they could go to Cutler and ask him to give up that guarantee in his current deal, maybe move that date back until September or something? That way he could prove himself to the new coaches while not killing the 2016 cap.

 

He could restructure, but he is not going to give any leverage. He would be crazy to make it easier to cut.

 

 

I'd love to have him smack dab in the middle of the D line, esp. if they do indeed plan on moving on from Ratliff for whatever reason. One thing to point out, was looking back at some Ego scouting reports, and there was a few that mentioned him as a 3-4 DE, not a NT (though I think he's capable of playing there.). Houston-Shelton-Ego could be a pretty nasty front 3. At this point I think it all depends on what they think of the OLB candidates we already have on the team. If the staff believes we need an upgrade then I can almost gaurentee Ray/Beasley/Gregory/Fowler would be the pick.

 

Not that he is linked anywhere with the Bears being interested in him, but I am intrigued in this guy. He is not a senior so more interest will arise at the combine. Maybe it is possible to draft Beasley 1st and then Phillips 2nd?:

 

Jordan Phillips NT Oklahoma

 

At 6-6 334, he has great burst for his size. 32 tackles, 7 TFL, 2 sacks, one pass deflected. Oklahoma plays a 3-4, so he knows the system. NT's generally do not put up stats, so his numbers compared to Shelton's will be different for having different roles on their teams.

 

 

I for one think with a good OL he'll do fine there. I truly believe the downfall here was once the OL lost stability he dulled down the offense a lot and that shit just didn't work. With Harbaugh controlling the lockeroom he won't have to worry about that aspect either.

 

Their system will fail in year 2 because he will still refuse to run the ball.

 

 

It is that time of the year again with the Senior Bowl kicking off. Time to link players the Bears are interested in.

 

1-Danny Shelton DT Washington - Interview at Senior Bowl

 

At 6-2 339, Shelton can be a 3-4 NT, he has burst to push the pocket and plays the run well. He finished the season with 88 tackles, 16.5 TFL, 9 Sacks, and two fumble recoveries. I take his sacks with a grain of salt, because 2 came week one against Hawaii, and then 4 against Eastern Washington.

 

The interest could be legit as Paea is UFA and Ratliff who is older missed portions of the last couple seasons and rumors have leaked out they may release him.

I'm guessing they chose Trestman over Gase because because of money. Trestman can be making a dollar and the rest of his salary comes from the Bears. Trestman is happy either way, he still gets paid and is still in the NFL.

Another name I don't care to hear again.

 

Peace

The best thing about these names we don't care to hear about is the big check mark next to their name that removes them from the Bears payroll. Sure Trestmans difference will be made up by the Bears, but it all helps.

I preferred Kyle Shannahan, but Gase was my second choice. It is hard to gauge Gase because he had Manning, but many experts say he is one of the top offensive minds in the NFL. I'm willing to see how it goes. The offense has talent, but with all the different personalities, it will take a great leader to get them on the right page. Maybe Fox can be that guy.

If we're going to a 3-4 scheme then sitting at #7 provides a couple good options for OLB. Better options IMO than what we'd see for 4-3 DE at that pick.

I would trade down if at all possible

Rd1 Vic Beasley OLB and then NT Jordan Phillips, good man cover CB, and S in whatever order

 

The biggest thing is the clean slate the McKaskeys gave us. None of the "you have to keep Jauron..and keep Lovie" bs we had the past 10 plus years. Ownership finally are figuring this out.

Its just media speculating. The problem would be Snyder could just offer him twice the money we would, and that would be a no brainer for him

Money is guaranteed, so if Gruden is likely to get fired a year from now and Fangio is not retained, he is still payed.

Maybe so but the raw emotion he showed on the sidelines and after the game is something I've never once seen from Jay. The kid cares and that's pretty important.

I don't know how many QBs would get away with crying in football besides Wilson. As Tom Hanks would say, "There's no crying in baseball"

 

It was one of the greatest comebacks or complete collapses I've seen though

Yep. One big thing that came out this week is how we misused Jared Allen. Instead of utilizing him as an up the field, get the quarterback DE, we often used him to contain and absurd the OT.

 

I'd be good with a brute force back, but we tried that previously with Chester Taylor, Michael Bush, and the guy from Dallas who refused to run out of bounds in the Denver/Tim Teboe game (I can remember that but I can't think of his name.)

 

What I love about Fox, is that he seems interested in utilizing the talent he has. How good can Carey be? He looked pretty good by the end of the season.

I think Carey will be alright, but have doubts him becoming Lacy, Lynch, or Murray type of back that can wear down a defense. Mariin Barber was the other back you were thinking of.

We actually are in a position to get into a bidding war for high priced free agents. I assumed we were screwed in terms of the cap because of all our bad free agent signings. But as per the bleacher report, we have 27 million available which is 10th most in the NFL.

 

I'd LOVE to take the Packers approach and keep our own younger guys as opposed to being players in the free agent market every yet. But right now, the only young guy we are worried about keeping is Stephen Paea. He's comparable to Henry Melton in terms of the success he's had with the Bears. If we want to franchise him for one year, I'd be good with that and we'd still have plenty of space available. If we sign guys to fill vacancies this year and draft well, we'll be in great shape in 2015.

 

In 2016, we'll have decisions to make about Alshon Jefferey and Matt Forte.

I like the approach of seeing the guys we have and how they perform with new leadership. This team has talent, it was just screwed under Trestman/Tucker and many injuries. Offensively, they didn't run the ball. Getting back to that will change alot. Maybe it is time to find a brute back and use Forte as a change of pace guy.