bradjock

Put me down also for Vic Beasley. Of course I'm convinced we are targeting an edge rusher (although us shopping the black unicorn gives me pause.)

I don't think that applies anymore. That was huge when it was Tom Brady vs. Kurt Warner in the Super Bowl. When was the last time a guy who was drafted late became great? Tony Romo was underrated back in 2006. But since then . . . Russell Wilson was a 3rd round pick. About 2/3 of the leagues starting quarterbacks were first round picks. Most of the others were high round picks. If you want a franchise QB, you draft him in the first round.

Looking at the first round, based on my memory, this site has had three first round draft picks where we had pretty much universal agreement. Those picks were Chris Williams, Gabe Carimi, and Greg Olsen. The first two were busts. Olsen turned out to be good but it took him a while. He was injured most of his rookie season and mediocre the next. I only mention this, because every year while I pretty much worship the draft, by mid-season I'm wondering, "Why was I so worried about the draft?" With the 1st round, I get the impression we are all resigned to the fact we are likely to go LB or WR.

I keep wondering how Mariotta is not the obvious pick for the Titans. They have no quarterback and no options for getting one. Even if Mariotta is not that good, he's got to be one helluva a lot better than Mettenberger. And the Bears will eat some money and get a rookie who's not likely to be as good as Cutler for a couple of years.

Sheesh, why do we all assume that Alaskan is the ONLY Bear fan in his state? I'm sure there's at least a handful

Yep. He's skipped in the past and been okay. No way in hell he gets a new deal upfront with the new regime. Everything they have done indicates a "prove it" mentality.

I wonder how much of it was about money. I was really hoping we'd resign Tillman, but did you want him for 3 million? Granted we don't know have much of that is incentives, but that's a lot more than the 1.95 million Alan Ball signed for. Briggs and BM needed to move on because of some of the things that happened in 2014. The new staff immediately sends a message that this is about winning and "team first" not about "me first." We heard early on that Briggs would be gone and BM would likely be traded. We never heard that about Tillman. I thought we were trying to sign Tillman. It was a need, he was productive when healthy, and he's been a great teammate. That changed once we signed Ball for 1.95 million. That's starter money. We're already paying Jennings starter money and Kyle Fuller is a #1 pick. Tillman got paid and he gets to reunite with Chico. The brand new staff replaces one of the guys who has been here forever and replaces him with a guy 4 years younger. IMO this is a win-win for everyone.

With the 41st pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, the St. Louis Rams select Devin Smith, WR, Ohio State. The Rams were tempted to drafted Devante Parker in round #1 but went with the o-line. They had some good choices here at #2 with Nelson Agholor and Sammie Coates also available. (It makes me think the Bears will wait until round #2 for BM's replacement.) The Atlanta Falcons and Stinger are on the clock.

With Mettenberger as their QB, why wouldn't the Titans draft Mariota? I just don't see much upside in Mettenberger.

The thing is, there were rumors that we were offering Cutler and received few to no offers. Teams might have offered a 4th round pick and that was it. The problem was his huge contract and cap space. At the same time, there were rumors about Brandon Marshall and that we were going to cut him if nothing else. We ended up giving up him and a 7th round pick for a 5th round pick . . . there was some truth in that rumor. I'm guessing that with his cap hit and his coach killing capability, the rumor was close to being correct and Cutler is valued as a 4th rounder. No way a team trades the #2 for the #7 and a fourth rounder. To trade up to the #2 to get RG3, the Redskins gave up the #6, two more first round picks, and their second rounder. I concede I've done some speculating here, and Tennessee may not require the haul that St. Louis received, but there's no way in hell Cutler and the #7 gets it done.

Yeah, but every draft in every sport has that "what could have been" scenario. How many bad quarterbacks might we used with those picks if we hadn't traded for Cutler? If you go back to the 2000 draft, the players drafted before Brian Urlacher were Courtney Brown, LaVar Arrington, Chris Samuels, Peter Warrick, Jamal Lewis, Corey Simon, Thomas Jones, and Plaxico Burress. See any future hall of famers there?

Of course we need a good defense, but being run-first makes it more of a necessity. Green Bay's defense is mediocre every year but they can win a shoot-out. As for all the guys we have, my guess is that we don't have confidence in any of them. I think we draft a WR early, just not in the first round.

Agreed. The more important stat is how many core players we have and their ages. We signed several stop-gap players over the age of 30, like Rolle. We have several core guys on offense who are in their prime. On defense, we don't have much of anything.

With the 10th pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, the St. Louis Rams select Andrus Peat, OT, Standford. SCS and Minnesota are on the clock . . .

I think it's going with more of the smash-mouth mentality. One thing Garza was never any time good at was short yardage situations. How long has it been since we were able to convert a 3rd & 1 with any consistency? I'm thinking since Olin Kreutz left. Forte always took blame for that, but we'd bring in bigger running backs and still suck at short-yardage. If they started him the final 7 games in Denver and then brought him here, they must be satisfied with him. We've now added two o-lineman this offseason. While neither are that good, for both their strengths are their running blocking.

I LOVED that. I hope they can defeat the evil Dukies.

I completely disagree. Just because we sign a bunch of bad LBer's doesn't mean there is less of a need. The only sure LB we have on the roster that is even guaranteed a spot for next year is McPhee. And he's considered a good but not great LB. Yes I'd be surprised if we cut Willie Young, Bostic, or Jared Allen, but I think all 3 are a possibility. We still have a need with the front 3. If we go LB in round #1, IMO we move Houston to DE. Pace wants to build through the draft. That means it's not just about this year, but the future. Fox stated the most important thing for a defense is to get to the QB. Despite all of our additions, we still don't have that. If a LB is available that we feel will be able to get to the QB consistently. why would we hesitate. On a side note, we appear to be going towards a run first offense which means we need a good defense. Our defense is horrible and we haven't tried to run the ball for two years. Despite it possibly being best player available, can someone explain to me why we would draft a WR at #7?

No way. You are saying Pace and Fox give a damn about immediate public opinion. They know that it all comes down to wins and losses. If they go away from what they feel will benefit the team the most, their asses will be fired.

Agreed. Not to mention us pushing money back makes it even harder to cut him next year. It sucks that Jared Allen is owed 12.5 million. He gone if not for that. He seemed like a great fit at the time, but he appears to be a bad fit for this defense. The Bears have never given full support to Cutler and they've implied that there will be competition for his position. There is no way in hell they do anything that makes it more difficult to cut him next year. If anything, they'd probably rather move 5 million up to this year, swallow the pill, to make it more manageable if they want to cut him later.

Absolutely and that's exactly what I was thinking. I was really worried about what the hell we are doing with our front 3. Is it just me, or does this defense scheme not place much value in the front 3? More importantly, they are making a statement that we are not in a rebuilding mode, but that we can win now with the team we have. As for the draft, we need a building block player on defense so I think that's the direction we are headed. On offense, we have a bunch of guys who can be damn good starters for a few years. Our defense is still really old. I look for us to draft a linebacker or cornerback. I look for us to sign another cheap player in the secondary. Peanut would be nice. Draft two starters and we're in damn good shape.

The thing is, any team can call Briggs in for an individual workout at any time. You give him a plane ticket and he comes to you. It's rumored San Fran is interested in him and I'm sure they'll do just that. If they want him to run the 40, he'll run the 40. That's probably why there are no real successful football players on this list. Despite being a first round pick, Felix Jones never did much of anything. He was bad when he was 22, why would he be better several years later? Michael Sam is young, but there's a reason why the Rams and Cowboys both cut him. Harvey Unga spent 5 years with the Bears and might have been active for one game.

The NFL announced they were turning Chicago into draft-town or something like it. Does anybody here care? I could make it a point to at least visit the festivities if I wanted but I have zero interest. I love going to training camp each year. I'll be following the draft for 3 days straight. But I have no interest in visiting. Is it just me or does anybody here care?

I don't think he actually started. He did play. But I concede your point. Depth is huge.

Wisniewsk is supposed tone a better player. And younger. Royal will be 29 in May and Rolle 33 in December. As for being a better run blocker, I suspect that's what we value in the interior.

You just beat me to it. Does this increase the chances that Kyle Long is being moved to tackle?