Remydat Draft Thoughts

remydat

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So going into this draft, I was pretty gung ho about improving at WR and OL. So I can't say this is the draft I would have went with but perhaps it was the draft we needed. So let's get into each pick.

R2 (39) — CB Kyler Gordon, Washington - All the WRs I would have wanted here were gone and CB is a massive need so I was pretty content with this pick.

R2 (48) — S Jaquan Brisker, Penn State - I was not happy with this pick as I fundamentally do not like drafting S that high given you can easily find them throughout the draft and they are one of the cheapest positions to fill in FA. Having said that, I really was not fond of Pickens given his injury and character concerns and while I probably would have leaned Moore here, he was not one of my favorite picks. So preferences aside, the fact is Poles most likely got an instant starter for the D so in the end, this is just a difference of opinion on draft strategy.

R3 (71) — WR Velus Jones Jr., Tennessee - Boy I did not like the idea of a 25 year old rookie and VJJ was not on my radar in the 3rd. So really hated this pick at first. However doing some digging, he was the 2nd fastest WR at the combine and more importantly at the Senior Bowl when in pads. He also led CFB in YAC so he fits a clear need. Part of Fields development is going to be learning to get the short stuff and part of selling him on that is going to be having goes like VJJ who can take the short stuff and consistently bang out 4-5 yards of RAC. So I expect VJJ to catch his fair share of slants and underneath routes and to also be able to go over the top if defenses try to cheat on the short stuff.

R5 (168) — T Braxton Jones, Southern Utah - I probably was looking at different OL prospects but thought this was a fine pick. He had ideal length and athleticism to play T and just needs to get stronger in his base as he is high cut. But perfect guy as a developmental T that can hopefully emerge as a starting caliber player that can compete if Jenkins or Borom

R5 (174) — EDGE Dominique Robinson, Miami (OH) - Think he is one of the steals of the draft for me as I mocked him quite a bit to us. Again he has ideal measurables for Edge and just needs coaching and experience. If he develops he also makes a Quinn trade more feasible.

R6 (186) — T Zachary Thomas, San Diego State- Again, I was probably leaning for another OL but this is another athletic tackle who I think fits as reliable back-up who can play both G and T but probably more of a guard at this level.

R6 (203) — RB Trestan Ebner, Baylor - Again this pick is all about saying to Fields take the checkdown if it is there and let your guys make a play. Ebner is really a WR playing RB so will be interesting to see how he is used by the Bears. I expect a 3rd RB role and some gadget plays at WR essentially filling the Cohen role. In other words, a solid contributor that can beat LBs and S on WR type routes out of the backfield.

R6 (207) — C Doug Kramer, Illinois - Not on my radar at all but this is Poles adding another athletic lottery ticket to the OL depth.

R7 (226) — T Ja'Tyre Carter, Southern University - Seems obvious that part of the strategy of acquiring more picks was to load up on OL in a draft that Poles indicated was deep at OL. And again Poles keeps going back to the athletic lineman well with the hopes that at least 2 of these 4 guys develops into a solid contributor in the NFL.

R7 (254) — S Elijah Hicks, California - Depth piece but remember when I said S can be found throughout the draft. Hicks is a solid two way safety prospect as not afraid to drop down and hit. He also has enough coverage skills to play in the slot so he is a versatile S prospect who will provide depth to the S position.

R7 (255) — P Trenton Gill, North Carolina State - Part of the beauty of adding all this picks was having the luxury of taking the punter with the 3rd best punt yardage in CFB last year. More importantly he gets better hang time on his punts than Punt God so less likely to out punt coverage teams.

So all in all certainly not how I would have approached the draft. In terms of players especially at the top of the draft I would give Poles a C+. However, in terms of how he went from having the first number of picks to tied for the most I would give him an A. He worked the draft to perfection in terms of accumulating picks and being able to then leverage all those picks to load up on OL and fix the P position cheaply. So I would say this draft averages out to about a B for me.
 
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I think they end up with 5 immediate starters out of this draft with one of them being the punter. They began the process with six picks.

Gordon, Brisker and Jones Jr. will start. I won’t be shocked if Thomas comes in and wins the RG job. Other guys like Robinson and Ebner will carve out roles.

Jones Jr. will most likely return kicks and punts and will start on O if they come out in 11 ( 3 receiver set) on offense.

Braxton Jones will come in and compete with Borom and Jenkins. Poles brought in a group of young, athletic o-lineman that fit the scheme and have the nasty mentality he’s looking for up front.

This is the start of building through the draft and creating a culture of winning. I believe this regime will weed out guys collecting a paycheck quickly. They’re bringing in fast, athletic players that play hard and love football.

I think next year Poles will get Fields the weapons he needs to excel. There was no way it was going to happen in one off-season. I’m encouraged.
 

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You forgot to add ebner also was a kick returner so there will be competition between him and jones. Maybe one is punt returner and the other kick returner. Either way there is competition there. I agree with most of what you said. Still think the third round pick was meh
 

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You forgot to add ebner also was a kick returner so there will be competition between him and jones. Maybe one is punt returner and the other kick returner. Either way there is competition there. I agree with most of what you said. Still think the third round pick was meh
I don’t like Jones Jr.‘s age, but his SEC highlights are eye opening. He’s incredibly fast and runs like a running back in the open field. He’s not easy to tackle. You want YAC guys in this scheme. They’ll get him the ball and he’ll create chunk plays. You can see why some scouts comp him to Deebo. If he’s 21, do you think he’s a third round talent? They wanted the skillset and if they didn’t grab him at 71, he would have been long gone by their next pick.

I‘m not trying to convince you, but I can see why they coveted him especially with the scheme they’re putting in place.
 

remydat

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I think they end up with 5 immediate starters out of this draft with one of them being the punter. They began the process with six picks.

Gordon, Brisker and Jones Jr. will start. I won’t be shocked if Thomas comes in and wins the RG job. Other guys like Robinson and Ebner will carve out roles.

Jones Jr. will most likely return kicks and punts and will start on O if they come out in 11 ( 3 receiver set) on offense.

Braxton Jones will come in and compete with Borom and Jenkins. Poles brought in a group of young, athletic o-lineman that fit the scheme and have the nasty mentality he’s looking for up front.

This is the start of building through the draft and creating a culture of winning. I believe this regime will weed out guys collecting a paycheck quickly. They’re bringing in fast, athletic players that play hard and love football.

I think next year Poles will get Fields the weapons he needs to excel. There was no way it was going to happen in one off-season. I’m encouraged.

Well I would say VJJ is part of WR rotation. I wouldnt discount Moore or St Brown getting opps as well as they know more of the route tree. I would expect VJJ more to have a package of plays he plays in rather that outright the 3rd WR.
 

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Well I would say VJJ is part of WR rotation. I wouldnt discount Moore or St Brown getting opps as well as they know more of the route tree. I would expect VJJ more to have a package of plays he plays in rather that outright the 3rd WR.
Moore? Oh, David Moore. Got it...
 

remydat

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You forgot to add ebner also was a kick returner so there will be competition between him and jones. Maybe one is punt returner and the other kick returner. Either way there is competition there. I agree with most of what you said. Still think the third round pick was meh

Yeah like I said Brisker and VJJ not initially fond of but willing to see how it plays out. If those picks fail then question will be if learns from it.
 
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I don’t like Jones Jr.‘s age, but his SEC highlights are eye opening. He’s incredibly fast and runs like a running back in the open field. He’s not easy to tackle. You want YAC guys in this scheme. They’ll get him the ball and he’ll create chunk plays. You can see why some scouts comp him to Deebo. If he’s 21, do you think he’s a third round talent? They wanted the skillset and if they didn’t grab him at 71, he would have been long gone by their next pick.

I‘m not trying to convince you, but I can see why they coveted him especially with the scheme they’re putting in place.
Those highlights took 6 years that’s the problem. We aren’t getting a 25 year old ready to rock the nfl like when we drafted Kyle long. This guy is still developing.
 

didshereallysaythat

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I think they end up with 5 immediate starters out of this draft with one of them being the punter. They began the process with six picks.

Gordon, Brisker and Jones Jr. will start. I won’t be shocked if Thomas comes in and wins the RG job. Other guys like Robinson and Ebner will carve out roles.

Jones Jr. will most likely return kicks and punts and will start on O if they come out in 11 ( 3 receiver set) on offense.

Braxton Jones will come in and compete with Borom and Jenkins. Poles brought in a group of young, athletic o-lineman that fit the scheme and have the nasty mentality he’s looking for up front.

This is the start of building through the draft and creating a culture of winning. I believe this regime will weed out guys collecting a paycheck quickly. They’re bringing in fast, athletic players that play hard and love football.

I think next year Poles will get Fields the weapons he needs to excel. There was no way it was going to happen in one off-season. I’m encouraged.
I think they need to develop Jones and he is not a day 1 starter. It's not easy for WR to be high impact right off the bat.
 

rayer kay

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So going into this draft, I was pretty gung ho about improving at WR and OL. So I can't say this is the draft I would have went with but perhaps it was the draft we needed. So let's get into each pick.

R2 (39) — CB Kyler Gordon, Washington - All the WRs I would have wanted here were gone and CB is a massive need so I was pretty content with this pick.

R2 (48) — S Jaquan Brisker, Penn State - I was not happy with this pick as I fundamentally do not like drafting S that high given you can easily find them throughout the draft and they are one of the cheapest positions to fill in FA. Having said that, I really was not fond of Pickens given his injury and character concerns and while I probably would have leaned Moore here, he was not one of my favorite picks. So preferences aside, the fact is Poles most likely got an instant starter for the D so in the end, this is just a difference of opinion on draft strategy.

R3 (71) — WR Velus Jones Jr., Tennessee - Boy I did not like the idea of a 25 year old rookie and VJJ was not on my radar in the 3rd. So really hated this pick at first. However doing some digging, he was the 2nd fastest WR at the combine and more importantly at the Senior Bowl when in pads. He also led CFB in YAC so he fits a clear need. Part of Fields development is going to be learning to get the short stuff and part of selling him on that is going to be having goes like VJJ who can take the short stuff and consistently bang out 4-5 yards of RAC. So I expect VJJ to catch his fair share of slants and underneath routes and to also be able to go over the top if defenses try to cheat on the short stuff.

R5 (168) — T Braxton Jones, Southern Utah - I probably was looking at different OL prospects but thought this was a fine pick. He had ideal length and athleticism to play T and just needs to get stronger in his base as he is high cut. But perfect guy as a developmental T that can hopefully emerge as a starting caliber player that can compete if Jenkins or Borom

R5 (174) — EDGE Dominique Robinson, Miami (OH) - Think he is one of the steals of the draft for me as I mocked him quite a bit to us. Again he has ideal measurables for Edge and just needs coaching and experience. If he develops he also makes a Quinn trade more feasible.

R6 (186) — T Zachary Thomas, San Diego State- Again, I was probably leaning for another OL but this is another athletic tackle who I think fits as reliable back-up who can play both G and T but probably more of a guard at this level.

R6 (203) — RB Trestan Ebner, Baylor - Again this pick is all about saying to Fields take the checkdown if it is there and let your guys make a play. Ebner is really a WR playing RB so will be interesting to see how he is used by the Bears. I expect a 3rd RB role and some gadget plays at WR essentially filling the Cohen role. In other words, a solid contributor that can beat LBs and S on WR type routes out of the backfield.

R6 (207) — C Doug Kramer, Illinois - Not on my radar at all but this is Poles adding another athletic lottery ticket to the OL depth.

R7 (226) — T Ja'Tyre Carter, Southern University - Seems obvious that part of the strategy of acquiring more picks was to load up on OL in a draft that Poles indicated was deep at OL. And again Poles keeps going back to the athletic lineman well with the hopes that at least 2 of these 4 guys develops into a solid contributor in the NFL.

R7 (254) — S Elijah Hicks, California - Depth piece but remember when I said S can be found throughout the draft. Hicks is a solid two way safety prospect as not afraid to drop down and hit. He also has enough coverage skills to play in the slot so he is a versatile S prospect who will provide depth to the S position.

R7 (255) — P Trenton Gill, North Carolina State - Part of the beauty of adding all this picks was having the luxury of taking the punter with the 3rd best punt yardage in CFB last year. More importantly he gets better hang time on his punts than Punt God so less likely to out punt coverage teams.

So all in all certainly not how I would have approached the draft. In terms of players especially at the top of the draft I would give Poles a C+. However, in terms of how he went from having the first number of picks to tied for the most I would give him an A. He worked the draft to perfection in terms of accumulating picks and being able to then leverage all those picks to load up on OL and fix the P position cheaply. So I would say this draft averages out to about a B for me.
Great post. My only real different in opinion is Brisker and the low opinion on S. One of the worst parts of last year aside from watching the O line get pushed around (befoee Borom and Jenkins were olaying much) was watching teams run through our secondary like a soft breeze. Brisker has a history of being a baller and not without skill either. We were lacking serious leadership and jam in the secondary. I think Brisker has potential to be leader the secondary and woth Flus new criteria the days of players standing and watching the play like a childrens AYSO soccer game are over. Culture and attitude is a big factor in winning teams.
 

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I don’t like Jones Jr.‘s age, but his SEC highlights are eye opening. He’s incredibly fast and runs like a running back in the open field. He’s not easy to tackle. You want YAC guys in this scheme. They’ll get him the ball and he’ll create chunk plays. You can see why some scouts comp him to Deebo. If he’s 21, do you think he’s a third round talent? They wanted the skillset and if they didn’t grab him at 71, he would have been long gone by their next pick.

I‘m not trying to convince you, but I can see why they coveted him especially with the scheme they’re putting in place.

6'0 SEC wide receivers who run 4.31's, had ample production (the YAC thing is massive) and don't have issues hanging onto the ball, with injuries or in their character would usually go somewhere in or near the top ten. The fact that he's going to be twenty-five and requires development tumbled him almost two full rounds.

People who say things like "I'd love the pick if he weren't so old" are totally missing the point. If Velus Jones Jr. was twenty-one he's probably going like tenth overall, the only reason the Bears got him is because of that red flag. Whether it proves to be crippling we cannot know, but I like the gamble.
 

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I thought it was an outstanding draft that would have the legitimate chance to be franchise altering had the Bears been able to draft Evan Neal seventh overall.
 

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Very good post. Yep, this is a draft we needed, not what most wanted. Poles was smart and sensible while sticking to his game plan.
 

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I thought it was an outstanding draft that would have the legitimate chance to be franchise altering had the Bears been able to draft Evan Neal seventh overall.

You would have traded valuable resources to trade up to get Neal?
 

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I thought it was an outstanding draft that would have the legitimate chance to be franchise altering had the Bears been able to draft Evan Neal seventh overall.
With Nick Foles at QB? Or did you want to keep Dalton? Having those two as our QBs of the future would be franchise altering. No guarantee on Fields, but we know the other two are not the answer.
 

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With Nick Foles at QB? Or did you want to keep Dalton? Having those two as our QBs of the future would be franchise altering. No guarantee on Fields, but we know the other two are not the answer.
Yeah I don't care if they ran Trevor Semien out there to start for a year. Last two teams to win a Super Bowl won it after the season after acquiring a vet quarterback. Bears could've built things up in 2022 and gone for it in 2023 off-season on the free agency or trade market.

Instead we get to watch Justin Fields fall over himself, fumble the ball and throw it to the wrong team.
 

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As most have noted, this draft really hinges a lot around what the WR free agent signings plus what Jones can do. Do we have enough outside of Mooney? I have my doubts, but maybe we'll get lucky. I have absolutely no issue with the DBs on the 2nd day. The secondary was horrid outside of Johnson. Jackson has been bad since signing the big contract. We had to replace the returners, so no problem there. Besides, Herbert is too valuable to be back on kicks so much. On the O Line, I don't see any of them as plug and play, but I do hope a couple can stick on the developmental side. I liked what little I saw of Borom last year. I have no idea about Jenkins and I'm not sure the coaches do, either. Frankly, we really need Lucas to play well and Whitehair to return to better form as a start. I don't believe the other starting guard is on the team yet. Robinson at DE was very good value. We can't stack enough good edges on the roster. Getting a punter with a big leg late is very practical when you need the competition.
 

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I think they end up with 5 immediate starters out of this draft with one of them being the punter. They began the process with six picks.

Gordon, Brisker and Jones Jr. will start. I won’t be shocked if Thomas comes in and wins the RG job. Other guys like Robinson and Ebner will carve out roles.

Jones Jr. will most likely return kicks and punts and will start on O if they come out in 11 ( 3 receiver set) on offense.

Braxton Jones will come in and compete with Borom and Jenkins. Poles brought in a group of young, athletic o-lineman that fit the scheme and have the nasty mentality he’s looking for up front.

This is the start of building through the draft and creating a culture of winning. I believe this regime will weed out guys collecting a paycheck quickly. They’re bringing in fast, athletic players that play hard and love football.

I think next year Poles will get Fields the weapons he needs to excel. There was no way it was going to happen in one off-season. I’m encouraged.
This just my thing, but I never refer to WRs as starters. Jones Jr might be in on the opening snap one week, but then the next they start off with a different formation and he's on the sideline. It's the same with how they rotate defensive lineman. It's more about the number of snaps, imo, and I imagine Jones Jr will see a lot of those.

Again, this is my own quirk, but I agree with your overall sentiment.
 

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