MrEpsYtown

They just don't play defense that way, with traditional strong safety-free safety. They are pretty interchangeable and they are typically in some sort of cover 2/3/or 4 palms coverage. When you play D that way, it is not their job to stop those screens.

I think its receiver or CB. IOL is not the value there. In the 2nd? Sure. To your point, if Crowder, Diggs, Davis get dinged who is next? Tanner Gentry? And so adding a dynamic receiver and stacking offensive weapons is the right idea. But I do think that there is a chance that need and value match up with a corner in round 1.

I think it is good to have young guys in the lineup with reliable old guys around. Peters, Riley Reiff, maybe a Bryan Bulaga, Kromer guy Kyle Long. Good dudes to have around as reserves and mentor young lienemen.

I like what the Bears are doing, but they don’t really have a left tackle. They gave a 2/8 million dollar deal to Lucas Patrick of the Packers. Intersting player but he has played a bunch for the Packers at guard. 34 starts, played in 74 games in 5 years. Bates has played in 41 games and started 4 in three years. I am not sure how you justify giving Bates more. The Bears probably offered him something like a 4 year deal worth 12 million with a 7 million dollar hit this year.

Yeah I think Turner, Hernandez. Maybe Devernay-Tardif. Ethan Pocic is somewhat interesting, not a RAS guy but has played a lot of center and guard. Maybe Billy Price has upside. My outside the box idea if Bates goes?Sign Riley Reiff to play some RG. Older guy, vet, but a former left tackle who would be a nice presence next to Brown. He is no longer a tackle imo, but he could be an effective guard. Yeah agreed. And it took Ike a long time to get to 100% when he popped the other achilles at Iowa. I think he misses this season completely.

Yes this is true. I think he played a bit there in the preseason as well

For context, Bradley Bozeman signed a 1 year deal worth 2.8 million. I am not a huge fan, but he has a proven track record of play at both LG and C. Not the athlete Bates is, but Bozeman plays very well in power/gap schemes.

I really like the linebacker group in the second round. Andersen, Muma, Smith, Lloyd etc.

I would like to commend everyone and mods for keeping most things in this thread. Been an enjoyable couple of weeks on here.

If we don’t make the super bowl this year, I think you have to consider blowing it up a bit yeah. They should start looking at safety upgrades in the next 2-4 years. They should be looking at backers in this draft imo. Wallace was by far the weakest link.

Yeah, he was little banged up at the end of the year, but Marquand McCall, all of 6-3 and 342 lbs of him physically beat Linderbaum up a little bit. So that is the concern, but he plays with such great leverage that he will hold his own against bigger guys. He will also be playing with better linemen, so won’t be on an island as much.

I think we see them trade up in the second. Not necessarily for Smith, but the value seems to be mid first to mid second. They can tray to get two players in that range. 8 players can’t make this team.

I think he would be fine at guard, but yeah I highly doubt he is the pick as he probably isn’t available and I don’t think they go IOL. I think they will draft one of these tackles, like Tulsa’s Smith or Luke Goedeke, Abraham Lucas, Logan Bruss, Cole Strange, etc etc and make them a guard. Smith is starting to grow on me the more I watch.

That may explain his positive relationship with Baker Mayfield.

Ad I go through Mock Drafts, 1 player always falls to me. Williams, Olave, Booth, Jermaine Johnson, Penning, Linderbaum, McDuffie. 1 of them always falls, never 2. And so while mock drafts are fun practice, it is interesting to see the group of guys who typically fall in the practice.

If you like nasty o linemen, here is a good link: https://ontapsportsnet.com/2022/03/24/2022-nfl-draft-nasty-offensive-linemen/ Not sure that I can emphasize any more how much I love Tyler Linderbaum.

I mean who has it? And who is that crazy? Texans? Lions?

If the Bears really like him that much, I guess it’s possible. Probably a long shot but possible.

I am surprised they have not leaked. If the numbers were absurd, I think the Bills would have leaked em so that the court of opinion would see why they would’t match. My guess is that maybe they are trying to free the cap to match or they could be working on a trade with the Bears in exchange for not matching. Also Bates signed the contract offer. So he either winds up with the Bills or Bears under those contract terms. Those are the only possible outcomes, so it is over.

I guess my thing is that JT28, and Mixon were non factors in the Super Bowl. The reason why we could not get to the super bowl was that Levi Wallace was too slow to keep up and we could not get anywhere near the QB. A running back isn’t putting this team over the top. A star corner and pass rush (Miller) does.

Little tidbit on Ariaza on holding. One of the things that makes Matt Haack so good as a holder is that he isn’t your typical soccer kid turned kicker. He was a really good wide receiver in high school who just happened to be good at punting. So he was working on ball skills in practice. Ariaza was a defensive back, playing a bunch of corner and safety in high school. So you have to assume he has some ball skills as it would have been a part of practice. He also kicked and punted, but because he was also a full time position player, he must have some ball skills. He was also a soccer and track star. Elite athlete, hurdler on the track team, sounds like left footed Moorman to me. Bojo is a soccer kid who played football. So never really had to hold or catch a football, or really use his hands at all, and to me, that’s why he is terrible at it.

I mentioned it. And the key thing in my mind is that they drafted Vernon Butler late in the first passing on Xavien Howard who went a few picks later in the second. They went quantity over quality and that was a poor move. We need a high quality corner to stick opposite Tre on a rookie contract plus a 5th year. It makes too much sense. That means first round corner in my mind.

Here are some interesting numbers: Strange is about as close as you can get to Bates in the draft this year. But an underrated thing about Bates is that he is only 25. Strange was a 5 year starter getting a 6th year exception for COVID. Which means he is turning 24 going into the season. Bates just turned 25 and has been in league for 4 years. Johnson has excellent numbers as well, but he is a bit smaller.

Agreed he won’t reach

If things stay as is, imo, they will not wait until the late rounds to draft a corner. In 2016 the Panthers had a pressing need at corner having lost Josh Norman. And they waited until their second round pick to address it with James Bradberry. He turned out to be a good player, they drafted Vernon Butler in the first because the corner value just wasn’t there. In the process they passed on Xavien Howard. Ooops. They followed that by drafting Daryl Worley in the 3rd and Zach Sanchez in the 5th. I can’t fault their process there, but they went quantity over quality, and I am not sure that is the right move. It’s going to come down to value and fit, but to me, the corner strength/value in this draft is between mid first to mid second. If you pass on a corner in the first, I think it could be a big risk and there may not be any left by the time you get to your second round pick.