Pace keeps things close to the vest before every draft so there's not a lot of chatter about the Bears.  Nonetheless, I'd still like to have a thread where we can put all draft rumors.  Technically what other teams do in the draft is Bears related.  

Let's start off with some Bears tidbits...

http://draftanalyst.com/small-school-gems-offense

Bears have interest in a small school QB, Connor Jessop, and a small school OG, Matthew Gono.  Three NFC North teams are showing interest in Gono.   I'd say Jessop is a UDFA candidate.  I don't see much anticipation but he is accurate.   Gono has some good raw talent and could be in play very late in the draft but it's always hard to evaluate against this level of competition.  One thing we know is the Bears are putting a lot of effort into finding OG prospects this draft.  

 

 

 

On that list of small school gems I do like the RB Trenton Cannon.  He's got KR ability, can catch a bit (only see him on little swing routes out of the backfield).  He's not very big but he seems more versatile than Smoke so if we're going to stash a RB on the practice squad he might be worth a spot.  

  

Nathan Shepherd/DT Fort Hayes State had a visit with the Bears 6'3 3/4"  315

I think if they add a RB in the draft it will be someone a little bigger to be able to handle a full load. Cannon is not very big. We still have Taquan Mizzell on the roster, the scat back type.

http://www.nfl.com/draft/2017/profiles/taquan-mizzell?id=2558716

 

He was a very productive college player. He has 4.36 speed

Connor Jessup went to college where I played football at, haha...He actaully transferred in from Virginia Tech

Could be that we swap picks again with the 49ers if they are desperate enough to get Edmunds.   We need to throw out the old trade charts.  Those values are no longer valid.  Go back to the last few drafts to see what was given up for QBs, including what we gave up last year.  What the Jets have already given up this year.   Based on the trade chart this swap from 8 to 9 would only net 50pts but when you have elite top 5 caliber talent sitting there the value is higher. 

http://draftanalyst.com/nfl-draft-news-notes-april-24

In that recent mock, I have the San Francisco 49ers trading down with the Buffalo Billsand selecting Leighton Vander Esch. This won’t be the case if Tremaine Edmunds is available when the Niners are called to the clock, as he is the player the team covets.

It is hard to know what teams really think of players. All of the draft gurus guess at values. When   a player is moving up draft boards, that just means draft gurus are just finding out what teams truly value a player. Its all a crap shoot.

4 hours ago, Stinger226 said:

It is hard to know what teams really think of players. All of the draft gurus guess at values. When   a player is moving up draft boards, that just means draft gurus are just finding out what teams truly value a player. Its all a crap shoot.

Exactly. We had 20 years of drafting off of the common wisdom, and every year we felt an amazing player fell to us. We picked one Stan Thomas or David Terrell after another.

The fact is that the good teams have their own values on these players, especially uncovering the hidden issues that we dont see from our perspective here on the sidelines.

And with the rare exceptions of the first five picks or so, they ALL need to project how they will be int he NFL after they grow, and that's not something you can just see from game film either.

We know a lot, but Pace and the staff know a lot more than we ever can.

NYC - You really are an excellent poster; As always agree with your overall analysis.  

Thanks! I think most of people on this board are smart, and reasonable. We've all seen enough football to admit that no one really knows anything for sure.

There are only a small number of dogmatic and myopic posters who get an idea and then wont let it go. most boards and sites are filled with them, I love this place, Im SO glad it's back. Thank you again for it.

Biggs reporting that the Bears secretly met with Davenport. Had Davenport not said anything to an "unidentified Chicago reporter," no one would know this. Interesting to note since we had a secret meeting with Trubisky a year ago.  

1 minute ago, DABEARSDABOMB said:

Biggs reporting that the Bears secretly met with Davenport. Had Davenport not said anything to an "unidentified Chicago reporter," no one would know this. Interesting to note since we had a secret meeting with Trubisky a year ago.  

Adding on to this, Davenport certainly fits the Pace draft pick profile. High upside potential, very good athlete.  Downside is he is clearly a raw player from a smaller school. Has the ability to turn into a force and I think Pace trusts the defensive coaching staff that we have to do that.  

Davenport must not want to go at 8 if he cannot keep his mouth closed.

I presume if we are in on Davenport, we might be trading down. I think Gabriel had mentioned something in the last day that he was predicting Bears would move down. Of course, it takes two to tango.  

He could be in play at 8 but Pace said he had a list of 8 and I would suspect he is 5 or 6 on that list.

7 hours ago, Stinger226 said:

He could be in play at 8 but Pace said he had a list of 8 and I would suspect he is 5 or 6 on that list.

Could be right.  If you take away the QBs then the top 8 players could include Davenport.  

Lots of talk the Packers are working to trade up.  If true I suspect their target is Fitzpatrick or Ward.  As reported on NFL Network, it sounded like they wanted to slot in somewhere around 10 overall.  

http://draftanalyst.com/nfl-draft-notes-april-25

I slotted Derwin James to the Green Bay Packers in the first round of my most recentmock draft. I’m told the Packers would consider trading up for James or Denzel Ward if the opportunity presents itself.

I slot a bag of d's to Green Bay.  I hope they choke on em...