2024 Draft Prospects Thread

[beardown3231]

5 minutes ago, Madmike90 said:

A lot will change during the season but right now looking at our free agents and needs my top targets would be at...

1. Edge

 

2. Safety (Assuming E-Jax is released)

3. Interior OL (Teven isn't healthy enough for contract #2)

4. DT

 

5. WR (assuming at least one of Mooney or Claypool get resigned)

6. TE

7. CB (Assuming JJ gets resigned)

 

You can take care of #5 and #6 with Johnny Wilson. At 6'7 he's unlike most WR's but he's athletic as hell and would be too big for corners and too fast for LB's

[beardown3231]

 

[AZBearsFan]

4 hours ago, Madmike90 said:

2. Safety (Assuming E-Jax is released)

If Jackson plays as well this year as he was last year pre-injury I think there’s a better chance he gets a short extension than released. They clearly value what he brings to the team. 

[Madmike90]

4 hours ago, AZBearsFan said:

If Jackson plays as well this year as he was last year pre-injury I think there’s a better chance he gets a short extension than released. They clearly value what he brings to the team. 

I think that is possible but next year he will be in his 31 year old season and as we saw this off-season it was a pretty depressed safety market outside of the Falcons & Cardinals going crazy...a lot of good safeties like Thornhill, Bell, Hooker, Ward, Poyer & CGJ all signing for around the $7 million mark...not sure Jackson is coming down to that sort of range from $18 million for a small extension with us.

[Madmike90]

7 hours ago, beardown3231 said:

 

You could tell last night he had another off-season in the Florida State weight room...my biggest concern with him last year was his base power but last night that looked much better last night...couple of bull rushes where you could see he had been working on it and when he can add that consistently to his speed rush he will be a real danger at the next level.

[Ty21]

FSU’s Keon Coleman is moving up draft boards a bit after yesterday. Wasn’t going to get the hype at MSU, but the 6’4 WR went off against LSU yesterday with 120 yards and 3 tds. Transferring made him some money. 

[AZBearsFan]

17 hours ago, Madmike90 said:

I think that is possible but next year he will be in his 31 year old season and as we saw this off-season it was a pretty depressed safety market outside of the Falcons & Cardinals going crazy...a lot of good safeties like Thornhill, Bell, Hooker, Ward, Poyer & CGJ all signing for around the $7 million mark...not sure Jackson is coming down to that sort of range from $18 million for a small extension with us.

To be fair though if that’s gonna be the market for young effective safeties when he hits FA after 2024 he might want to take that if he can get it before he hits FA as a 32-year old. 

[Madmike90]

8 hours ago, AZBearsFan said:

To be fair though if that’s gonna be the market for young effective safeties when he hits FA after 2024 he might want to take that if he can get it before he hits FA as a 32-year old. 

Potentially...guess it just depends on how well he plays and how much he backs himself but as we have seen with especially CGJ the safety market is quickly becoming like the RB market...teams think they can find cheaper more effective scheme fits rather than looking for stars and would much rather pay CBs...and rightfully so.

[HuskieBear]

On 9/3/2023 at 1:35 PM, AZBearsFan said:

If the Bears win somewhere between 8-10 games this year (hardly far fetched with a 2023 that doesn’t have us taking a QB in the 1st) our own 1st rounder would most likely be right around that area. 

I keep thinking if JF looks like a guy, and Braxton takes the next step, DE with Car 1 (expecting that to be lower than ours) then a WR like Keon Coleman with ours (letting our other 6'4" wr CC walk) might be the move. Sign a top DE in FA and hope for year two leaps from GD and ZP

[HuskieBear]

Lets talk worst case scenario - we end up with our own pick at #3, fields ends up throwing for 2500 yards, runs for 800 with a 23/15 td/int ratio but still has a sack rate of ~10%. We miss out on Williams and Maye as they go top 2. Do we roll with fields again and draft a MHJ? what do we think we would be able to trade JF for in that scenario? I would imagine more than what SF got for lance, but probably not a 1st. a conditional 2nd? is that worth it?

[Sugashane]

22 hours ago, HuskieBear said:

Lets talk worst case scenario - we end up with our own pick at #3, fields ends up throwing for 2500 yards, runs for 800 with a 23/15 td/int ratio but still has a sack rate of ~10%. We miss out on Williams and Maye as they go top 2. Do we roll with fields again and draft a MHJ? what do we think we would be able to trade JF for in that scenario? I would imagine more than what SF got for lance, but probably not a 1st. a conditional 2nd? is that worth it?

I say let the new HC (hopefully offensive minded) scout the QBs and try to make a move for one of them using one or both 1st rounders if they loved them as prospects. If Fields isn't the guy then use him as a trade piece for it too. 

For a QB that has his two best seasons coming out with about 3300 yards of total yards each I don't think the market is great for him. I mean Daniel Jones almost eclipsed that total just in passing yards alone last year. 14 guys did pass for more than that. Hell Trubisky almost did in back to back years for the Bears and that wasn't good enough, so why would it be for Fields?

The TD/INT definitely raises some questions though. That would have put him at 8th in the league but tied for most INTs in the league last year. Maybe a better offensive mind thinks thy can cut down the dumb throws dramatically and make him more efficient. Maybe OAK wants to make that move after settling for Jimmy G as a placeholder again, Stafford may retire and the Rams would want someone to be exciting at least, Cards might want him as well as the picks to move up with, maybe the Bucs just want someone other than Mayfield, etc. 

IMO a conditional 2nd would be something that could happen, but IDK. This also comes with Fields going into his 4th year. So there is only that and a 5th year option before they would potentially need to franchise tag him. 

[Ty21]

If Caleb Williams truly did stay at usc after the season, Drake Maye owes him at least 5% of his signing bonus 

[Epyon]

On 9/5/2023 at 11:44 AM, HuskieBear said:

Lets talk worst case scenario - we end up with our own pick at #3, fields ends up throwing for 2500 yards, runs for 800 with a 23/15 td/int ratio but still has a sack rate of ~10%. We miss out on Williams and Maye as they go top 2. Do we roll with fields again and draft a MHJ? what do we think we would be able to trade JF for in that scenario? I would imagine more than what SF got for lance, but probably not a 1st. a conditional 2nd? is that worth it?

If Fields is doing that badly (again), I'd hope to hell we spent the last 6 games of the year giving Bagent a shot to know if there is anything there worth keeping.

The results for whether Bagent could play or not, would be critical to who I draft next offseason. Fields would be either traded or made a backup for his remaining rookie contract year (with no 5th year option)

Odds would be very high, unless Bagent had a miracle end to the season, that we'd be drafting another QB.

 

EDIT: The wildcard would actually be what we do with the coaching staff. I don't like how we've been getting a QB and then changing entire staffs the next season. I'd ideally like to keep both those swaps together..... so I could stand another year of Fields/Bagent if it meant that after next year they where firing the entire coaching staff (though at that point, you're still better off just firing all the coaches in the offseason as well... I can't say I'm really thrilled with either OC or DC right now)

Edited September 7, 2023 by Epyon

[Sugashane]

9 hours ago, Epyon said:

The wildcard would actually be what we do with the coaching staff. I don't like how we've been getting a QB and then changing entire staffs the next season. I'd ideally like to keep both those swaps together..... so I could stand another year of Fields/Bagent if it meant that after next year they where firing the entire coaching staff (though at that point, you're still better off just firing all the coaches in the offseason as well... I can't say I'm really thrilled with either OC or DC right now)

This is a point I've been saying as well. I want Eberflus and Getsy tied to Fields. If he makes big strides, then keep them, if he does mediocre and you are looking for a new QB then let an offensive mind help pick who fits what he wants to do. The Bears drafted Tru while Fox was a sitting duck, then drafted Fields while Nagy was a sitting duck, I genuinely hope Poles isn't stupid enough to do the same.

I had no issues with John Fox being the sacrificial lamb of sorts as the roster was remade after Emery/Trestman were fired, he got paid handsomely to help the culture improve and then get tossed away for a higher potential HC to come in. Pace just screwed the HC hire up there (and the QB pick the HC might have chose someone else). Hopefully if Fields really underwhelms then Poles gets his new HC involved into the drafting process. 

[Ty21]

10 hours ago, Epyon said:

The results for whether Bagent could play or not, would be critical to who I draft next offseason. Fields would be either traded or made a backup for his remaining rookie contract year (with no 5th year option)

Odds would be very high, unless Bagent had a miracle end to the season, that we'd be drafting another QB

You really gotta drop the Bagent superhero narrative. There’s absolutely nothing Bagent could do next year to deter us from drafting a qb if Fields fails. Bagent isn’t that guy. His ceiling is a backup qb. It’s such a Chicago bears fan thing to take an UDFA small school player and try to make him into an elite prospect in your head but he’s nowhere near that and no one ever is.