2024 Draft Debate and Discussion

[AZBearsFan]

3 minutes ago, Sugashane said:

To me it's just that Jones is already capable at LT, but there is a major lack of talent for the Bears' WR corps aftwr Moore.

I'd be happy with Alt or Fashanu, but only if there has been some serious additions to WR in FA.

I will be genuinely shocked if there isn’t a clear cut guy expected to be WR2 added at the beginning of FA. We realistically have 2 guys we’re sure will be on the roster at the position next year, and one of them is Tyler Scott who can’t be counted on to take a leap into a starting quality player. Not only do we need to add talent, but we need to add bodies too. Assuming we add Davis or Samuel or Boyd and then a lower tier guy like DPJ maybe, WR is still a need but not the dire need it is as of today.

If Ridley makes it to FA I would love to see him be our primary WR target (still think he ends up staying in JAX but we’ll see). He’s a bit older but he’s a better player than any of those other guys I mentioned too. If we go into the draft with Moore and Ridley plus another depth guy already on the roster then I think WR moves down the list of needs. That’s not to say we shouldn’t still take one at 9 (because holy **** if we had Odunze as our WR3 that’d be sick) but we’d have so much more flexibility both from a BPA and a trade down standpoint.

I like Jones and think he’s a capable LT, but I think Alt is gonna be great, and soon. I’d need to watch far more film on it (Poles & Co. obviously already have) but I wonder how much Fields’ elusiveness made Jones look better (or worse) than he actually is. I also don’t think Alt makes it to 9. I don’t think it’s out of the question for a team to fall in love with him and move up into the top 4 for him. 

[CWood21]

1 hour ago, AZBearsFan said:

The depth of this class is great given our WR neediness. Assuming we sign some starting WR in FA the fact that we can get a starting caliber WR in R2 or even R3 really opens up the potential for us to not take one at 9, with us either taking a different position at 9 or trading down into the teens and taking Thomas/Mitchell and adding a 2. The trade down scenario specifically gives us the ability to possibly dictate that if QB4 is still there at 9 that they don’t end up in MIN too. 

I'd be careful about assuming that.  We've seen 6 WRs go in the first round two of the last four drafts, and 5 WRs go in the first round three of the last four drafts.  Personally, I've got four WRs that are FRP locks (MHJ, Nabers, Odunze, and Coleman) plus another 2-4 that are potential FRPs (Thomas, Worthy, Mitchell, and McKinley).  But that SRP is going to be hunting ground for that next tier of WRs IMO.

[Madmike90]

 

Really interested to see what this guy can do.

[JibjeResearch]

My Top10 WRs;

MHJ, Nabers, ThomasJr, Odunze, A-Mitchell, (Franklin, X-Legette, McConkey, X-Worthy, Coleman--- these 5 can be rearranged based on preference).

Edited March 3 by JibjeResearch

[Madmike90]

 

Underrated center prospect

[dll2000]

I haven’t even watched him, but I have this hunch that Alt is Joe Thomas 2.0.  

Maybe just because he is converted TE too.  

[dll2000]

At this time last year we could draft D. Wright in 2nd or even 3rd in the sims.

[AZBearsFan]

5 minutes ago, dll2000 said:

At this time last year we could draft D. Wright in 2nd or even 3rd in the sims.

I remember consistently taking him like 71st last March lol. 

[AZBearsFan]

4 hours ago, CWood21 said:

I'd be careful about assuming that.  We've seen 6 WRs go in the first round two of the last four drafts, and 5 WRs go in the first round three of the last four drafts.  Personally, I've got four WRs that are FRP locks (MHJ, Nabers, Odunze, and Coleman) plus another 2-4 that are potential FRPs (Thomas, Worthy, Mitchell, and McKinley).  But that SRP is going to be hunting ground for that next tier of WRs IMO.

Totally. In my scenario we’re signing our 2024 presumed WR2 in FA plus a depth guy with some skills, meaning the starting quality WR I’m looking at need only be a WR3 early on. I’ve got more than a dozen guys I think can succeed at varying levels getting WR3 or higher reps as a rookie (at various levels) with WR1-2 longer term upside:

MHJ, Nabers, Odunze, Coleman, Mitchell, Thomas, Mitchell, Worthy, Corley, Franklin, McConkey, Wilson, Legette, plus maybe Polk, Walker, Pearsall, Rice and Cowing.

Beyond that, there’s also a lot of legit WR2-3 talent likely to hit FA next week. Even excluding Evans, Pittman, Higgins (locks for the tag) and Ridley (50/50 to hit the market IMO), there’s still probably 15 guys that walk into a top 3 WR role out of FA, so some of the teams that need to add starters won’t by late April.

[dll2000]

From SI:
 

• In dispatching his scouts to all-star games, Poles directed evaluators to ask about the 2022 Heisman winner when they interviewed Oklahoma or USC players, or others that crossed paths with Williams. The returns there were good. Sometimes, you can get awkward pauses, if players are lukewarm on teammates they’re asked about. It was the opposite in this case. The mention of Williams’s name brought about a lot of smiles.

• In interviewing then USC assistant Kliff Kingsbury for their offensive coordinator job in Los Angeles in January, the Bears did a ton of fact-finding. Kingsbury described a player beloved by his coaches and teammates, and also gave the Bears very real insight into Williams’s father, and how involved he was. The quarterback’s dad, Kingsbury told them, was sharp, and someone that Williams leaned on a lot business-wise. But the father left the football part to his kid; Kingsbury explained to Chicago he saw the dad maybe once last year at USC’s practice facility.

 

 

[dll2000]

Continued

• In dispatching his scouts to all-star games, Poles directed evaluators to ask about the 2022 Heisman winner when they interviewed Oklahoma or USC players, or others that crossed paths with Williams. The returns there were good. Sometimes, you can get awkward pauses, if players are lukewarm on teammates they’re asked about. It was the opposite in this case. The mention of Williams’s name brought about a lot of smiles.

• In interviewing then USC assistant Kliff Kingsbury for their offensive coordinator job in Los Angeles in January, the Bears did a ton of fact-finding. Kingsbury described a player beloved by his coaches and teammates, and also gave the Bears very real insight into Williams’s father, and how involved he was. The quarterback’s dad, Kingsbury told them, was sharp, and someone that Williams leaned on a lot business-wise. But the father left the football part to his kid; Kingsbury explained to Chicago he saw the dad maybe once last year at USC’s practice facility.

 

 

[dll2000]

Sorry for double 

On Wednesday night at 10:40 p.m. (the second-to-last window of the night), Chicago had its formal interview with Williams in the suites of Lucas Oil Stadium. Poles was joined by the five people who are the point men in the Williams evaluations process: head coach Matt Eberflus, offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, pass-game coordinator Thomas Brown, assistant GM Ian Cunningham and team president Kevin Warren.

What they saw from Williams in that setting was an easy confidence, a player who was very comfortable in his own skin and not concerned much with what other people thought of him. That last part is key, because the Bears have tried to drill down on making sure the person they pick first can handle the pressure and spotlight of the Chicago market.

Williams checked that box. The next one came Friday night, when the Bears brass got a chance to sit down and meet with the quarterback’s team, as a precursor to the 30 visit.

[dll2000]

Some random thoughts:

Getting a second from Fields opens up a lot of options in draft.  

We could get two starting WRs and add a good TE in some scenarios. This WR class is sooooo good.  

I have to remember Bowers and McConkey were hurt a lot of this year when watching them.  At their best when healthy they are really good.  

The GA center didn’t impress me much.  He isn’t bad, but is not a plus player.

[AZBearsFan]

2 minutes ago, dll2000 said:

Getting a second from Fields opens up a lot of options in draft.  

I think more than anything, not getting a 2 for Fields makes a trade down from 9 significantly more likely. There’s a ton of talent in R2 for IOL, WR and S which are, at least as of today, our top needs IMO.

That may not matter though - of the guys with any reasonable likelihood to be there (IMO Williams, Maye, Daniels, MHJ and Alt are locks to be gone by 9 IMO), only 2 guys are guys I would absolutely not pass on at 9 (Nabers and Odunze, in that order). If they’re both gone, I’m very open to a small trade down and would love to be the place to where a team looking to get ahead of MIN for a QB jumps (looking at you Raiders with 13 and 44). 

[AZBearsFan]

Counterpoint - who’s to say the Bears’ medical staff isn’t meeting with him today or tomorrow?