AZ54

Highly doubtful in this complex offense. Aside from the extra demands from Ben's offense, rookie TEs always struggle to get up to speed in the NFL because there is so much to learn. Coleston Loveland was still learning things late into the season, and still missing assignments even into the playoffs. I won't mind if you're correct since it's means the offense will be in a great position. The good thing here is that Roush is a legit receiving target and has far better YAC potential than Smythe (and Kmet). For sure by the second half of the season I expect Roush to be getting more targets than Smythe was seeing, and on running routes not the stop here and turn around college plays. Then teams won't be able to key off him in terms of knowing who is blocking and who is running a route. Ben said it in the press conference when asked about how this helps the offense since we already had two good TEs: "We can go heavy or we can spread it out, however we choose to attack a defense." I think now even the easy plays around the LOS become more productive because these 3 TEs can do so much in space. Jet sweeps and WR screens with Zavion on the field? Not that we have to do a lot of it, more so that we can do it depending on how a defense is playing us. We're going to be a very difficult offense to prepare for each week because of all the options. We just need Caleb to take the next step in quicker reads and quicker accurate releases to the right player. After seeing the progress across last season I think he'll get there.

Kmet is a better receiver than Roush, wider catch radius, better hands, etc. Roush is better at blocking and running and is more dangerous with the ball in his hands. I doubt Roush could make that game-tying TD catch Kmet made in the playoffs. However, after seeing how many snaps a nearly useless Dylan Smythe got last year it's very clear Ben wants 3 good TEs. That said I can see a future where we move on from Kmet to free up money. Which means I won't be surprised if we draft another TE next year.

IMO comparing this pool video to Gilbert years ago is taking it out of context. Gilbert literally had almost no highlights to his production at a small school. He was drafted purely on a traits projection. Here we're taking a 6yr old video of a high school kid who was already focused on improving his athletic ability. At 240lbs he was still growing and had no idea what he'd grow into as a player. Watching his press conference, and seeing his work out numbers, it's clear his work ethic is still there to this day. He played in the ACC against good programs last year: Clemson, Georgia, Duke, BC, NC State, Pitt, and BYU and had production in those games. That's a lot better level of competition than San Jose St. Given the level of competition having an average depth of tackle of -0.11 is pretty good.

The value charts always assume a linear value to players and picks. Poles said they had excluded a lot more players this year and were very focused on finding "football guys". That narrow focus means there are going to be some big cliffs and valleys in players on their board throughout the process. Using OC as the example, the Bears led the workout for Sam Hecht. They said they were in on as many OC workouts via Roushar as they could be. They had a very good idea on which OCs fit their scheme best and that increases the grade and value of Logan Jones by a lot in their eyes. While the rest of the NFL draft world has him graded similarly to Hecht and maybe a couple others. They went and got their guy locked in early and that doesn't bother me as long as the evaluation is right. At the point of the trade down I saw your points analysis and agreed it was clear Poles well selling low to get the additional pick. As of today we lost on the trade value charts but if Malik Muhammad turns into a good starting CB2 for us then I'd say we won the value battle finding that talent in the 4th. Plus adding a good depth LB with starting potential on a pick we never had. Given the way the draft happened and this tight fit on evals makes me wonder why we avoided guys like Dani Dennis-Sutton. It's the late 3rd Rd pick on a WR where all this meshes into a WTF moment. Certainly if any of those Edge or DT prospects were one of Poles players we'd have grabbed them in the 3rd. Darrell Jackson Jr., Kaleb Proctor, Gracen Halton. In my mind, and in my mocks, several of those players were logical choices for us at that pick.

The haul: top 15 talent starting safety Starting center Best blocking TE in the draft and a talent who should be long term TE2 WR4 maybe future WR3 with elite speed CB with the talent to fit this scheme and starting CB2 potential LB who should be good depth with starting potential I think he ends up LB4 for us long term Freak DT DT4 floor to DT1 potential We had a good draft and filled a lot of needs with good players. Just not the draft I expected. This team got better. This is easily the best and deepest offensive roster I’ve seen in a very long time. Might end up being the best Bears offense we’ve ever seen this year or next. Defense is finally getting depth as well. DBs improved across the board. Both starting safeties are better than what we fielded last year. With CB starters returning to health being key but the depth behind them got much better. LBs improved a little bit. Dline will improve slightly but mostly just organically from player’s like Booker and Turner continued ascension. However depth player’s at DT are better than what we had last year. I really like Van den Berg as DT depth. Questions remain at LT of course but I figure Taylor Decker is the emergency call if needed. Overall I feel much better about the roster depth than I did at this time last year.

I agree. Van den Berg needs some good hard coaching. The fact he improved so much in his last two seasons under the former Falcons Dline coach versus the crap coaches at Penn State should give us hope he’ll continue that trajectory.

It shows in some of these players. Roush gym rat loves blocking and special teams. Thieneman clearly is a football addict very focused on improving his game Elliot gym rat won work out award (?) at ASU 3 or 4 semesters. Loves watching film credits it for the reason he can make plays behind the LOS.

Yes we got the freak.

Seems ok for depth

I’m just reacting to what you wrote which was that because they are paid millions of dollars they have credibility. Now you switch and say their credibility is based on last years results. I don’t agree that being paid a lot of money gives anyone credibility. I do agree that last years results give them credence to what they are doing this year.

Ben was publicly saying he wanted to add elite speed to the offense. He wants more home runs this year. DJ was fast but he wasn't fast enough to beat DBs with leverage on him. This guy is. For a guy who is not a "hands catcher" he reportedly has a drop rate of just 5%. If Jahdae Walker takes a step up into WR4 territory then Ben has an embarrassment of riches at his disposal. He can beat teams by spreading them out or going 13 personnel.

He is not DJ Moore as a receiver but he definitely replaces some of what DJ did for us around the LOS, WR screens, jet sweeps, and by lining up as a RB on occasion. He doesn't bring as much power but more explosiveness and agility. He's an upgrade over OZ and his ceiling is likely WR3. If he stays WR4 and proves to be a good returner then I'm ok with this pick.

Also I was happy to see the Bears pick announced by a Spanish fan. Brings the wife closer to being a Bears fan, although I still have work to do on that. . 🇪🇸

There will be no more s%# show in coverage. Pass rush?

We paid millions to Matt Eberflus and Phil Emery too.

And our TE is the grandson of Merlín Olsen’s brother who also played in the NFL Big football family.

That title isn’t meant to be snarky. While we’re all thinking, or at least I was thinking, we need to build a balanced roster. You know as in Caleb is good enough to overcome some deficiencies among the offense. Nope. Today made it clear Ben is determined to build an unstoppable offense with a full suite of weapons around Caleb. So it’s not going to be good offense and good defense. It’ll be great offense and good-enough defense. That’s the way the Colts ran all those years with Peyton Manning. KC did the same with Andy Reed for a few years and then just added in Mahomes. Never having seen a great offense in Chicago I don’t know how to feel about the effort to do this. I do like the three offensive players we drafted although the WR seemed like we could have drafted in the 4th. Being a Bears fan my focus has always been defense.

Several things appear to be true after watching us draft three offensive players in a row. First it seems like they feel Shemar Turner will fill the glaring void for a third DE. That would make sense for a guy who is a tweener recovering from a knee injury. He’d struggle to add all the DT weight Second by trading back that 5th Rd pick gives Poles enough to trade up to around the 10th pick in the 4th Rd. There are several good DTs still on the board, many who have been highlighted on our board. Talent varies from run stuffer NT like Capehart to 3 tech Gracen Halton. I like what Zxavian Harris can do on the field. Don’t like the off the field stuff so based on what Poles said about narrowing the list down to love of the game players I’ll guess he’s just not on our board at all.

I expected he'd try to trade back from one of the two 2nd Rd picks. Everytime I did that in a mock draft I always liked the picks I ended up with. We'll see how it goes. When I watched some of the hidden gems videos on da'tube, one thing about this draft is there are some lesser known names that are pretty good athletes at our need positions. I'm curious to see how this shakes out.

I expected he'd be a target for us but not that early. He seems to fit everything Ben likes in a center.

Yet so many of us wanted Thieneman. Coincidence? I think not.

Why draft a safety in the first round? Positional versatility. That’s why I’m really happy with this pick. DA will be able to bring pressure from anywhere and still have players to cover the gaps. QBs won’t be able to decipher coverage as well pre snap. Then there is just the sideline to sideline speed to close gaps quickly. In short, everything is on the menu.

Wow! Never thought he'd be there for us. That's a massive upgrade in the defensive backfield. I liked Byard but he was too slow in coverage to get to the sideline or to run with someone crossing his face. Brisker was a shell of what he used to be. Now we have Bryant and Thieneman. This is going to feel a lot different in coverage. CB gets beat deep on the sideline? No worries help can now arrive on time to breakup the pass. Dennis Allen can mix and match these two any which way he wants to keep QBs guessing. A+

I’d prefer Parker over Faulk. Faulk reminds me of Dexter with his lack of creativity in pass rush. He’s a slower version of Dayo. I’m no expert but I think he’s a better fit in 3-4 system as a DE if he adds a little weight.