Consensus Mock - 8. Chicago Bears

[goldfishwars]

PLEASE READ THESE RULES BEFORE POSTING OR VOTING:

• Each poll will last 24 hours 
• There are two polls, one to cast your first choice, one to cast your second preference
• The player with the most votes from BOTH polls, will be declared the pick
• There will be no run-offs
• If you vote for the same player in both polls, your vote(s) will be disqualified

Before complaining about poll options, refer to this thread:-

https://forums.footballsfuture.com/topic/7055-consensus-mock-rules-and-feedback-thread/

Bears Needs from https://sports.yahoo.com/2018-nfl-team-needs-041500466--spt.html

Wide Receiver: Cameron Meredith’s (ACL) return will theoretically help, but the Bears can no longer operate as if Kevin White is a functional part of the roster. 2017 top receiver Kendall Wright’s contract is up. New coach Matt Nagy and OC Mark Helfrich are spread-offense advocates and will need to make use of more than two receivers. This position could be overhauled.

Cornerback: RCB Prince Amukamara, LCB Kyle Fuller, and slot CB Bryce Callahan formed one of 2017’s most underrated cornerback trios, but the first two are unrestricted free agents and the third is restricted. Coming off a breakout season at age 26, Fuller will be a high-priced commodity. Three-year, $16 million investment Marcus Cooper was among Pace’s cavalcade of 2017 free agent misses. 

Linebacker: Depth on both lines was also considered here, in addition to a veteran backup for Mitchell Trubisky with Mike Glennon likely to be cut. The Bears’ linebacker corps is tougher to sort out with OLB Pernell McPhee, ILB Jerrell Freeman, and ILB Danny Trevathan on bloated contracts and suspect depth on the edge. Keeping its pass-rush corps intact should be a priority for Chicago

Results:-

1.Cleveland - Sam Darnold [QB] USC

2.NY Giants - Josh Rosen [QB] UCLA

3.Indianapolis - Bradley Chubb [DE] NC State

4.Cleveland(From Houston) - Saquon Barkley [RB] Penn St.

5.Denver - Quenton Nelson [OG] Notre Dame

6.NY Jets - Baker Mayfield [ QB ] Oklahoma

7.Tampa Bay - Minkah Fitzpatrick [ FS ] Alabama

 

8.Chicago

9.San Francisco

10.Oakland

11.Miami

12.Cincinnati

13.Washington

14.Green Bay

15.Arizona

16.Baltimore

17.LA Chargers

18.Seattle

19.Dallas

20.Detroit

21.Buffalo

22.Buffalo

23.LA Rams

24.Carolina

25.Tennessee

26.Atlanta

27.New Orleans

28.Pittsburgh

29.Jacksonville

30.Minnesota

31.New England

32.Philadelphia

[Sugashane]

In with Edwards as my first option, and Josh Jackson as my second.

 

Edwards is a freak athlete that can line up and be developed as a passrusher or ILB, would be a massive chesspiece for Fangio. Jackson is the best CB in the draft. In this I am assuming we have Fuller and Amukamara both re-signed.

[Forge]

Even though the need is tremendous, I simply don't like any of the receivers enough to spend a top 10 pick on them. I think corner could possibly be the pick here depending on free agency,  though I like Ward for Fangio more than I do Jackson. 

[Epyon]

I went with Vea-DL > Ridley-WR

I'm nowhere near sold on Edmunds-OLB/ILB or Davenport-OLB

I flat out hate the options for corner here (Jackson is a zone corner who doesn't appear to have long speed, Ward is undersized)

The only things holding me back on Ridley as the better choice (who I think is a wonderful scheme fit) are his age, and his ceiling honestly.. He's not going to be an elite NFL receiver but he'll easily be our best guy, and it's probably our single greatest position of need (that or OLB)

In the end, I think Vea ends up having the massively high floor that Ridley does, but also having a pretty damn high ceiling ....... The value I see in in Vea is that our front 3 essentially becomes impossible to run against... Akiem Hicks (quietly one of the elite NFL DL this year), Goldman, and Vea is a 1000lb wall of "lol at your running game" with very underrated pass rush upside...  In addition, this addition should completely free up our actual OLB when they do come off the edge, since all 3 of those DL monsters are capable of commanding a double team...

 

Finally the old "Planet Earth" theory.... guys his size just aren't supposed to move like this (see below).... and I think he's the best player/prospect for any position on the board at this point.

 

[Superman(DH23)]

I went Jackson 1, Davenport 2.  Im not taking the 2nd best player at a position when #1 is available.  There seems to be some mistaking opinion that Jackson is a slug.  Dude ran a 4.43 last year at Iowa's proday on grass.  I cant fathom for the life of me how anyone watches tape of the 2 and comes away thinking Ward is a better player.  

[Rich7sena]

49 minutes ago, Superman(DH23) said:

I went Jackson 1, Davenport 2.  Im not taking the 2nd best player at a position when #1 is available.  There seems to be some mistaking opinion that Jackson is a slug.  Dude ran a 4.43 last year at Iowa's proday on grass.  I cant fathom for the life of me how anyone watches tape of the 2 and comes away thinking Ward is a better player.  

Ward is faster, better in run support, and has more experience playing man coverage outside and inside.

But I can understand why someone would rank Jackson higher because of his size, ball skills, and proficiency in zone coverage.

Ward/Jackson.

[DoleINGout]

I went Edwards first choice because he fits the edge and has versatility. Hurst was secons choice because he can rush from anywhere along the line and help set the edge if need be occassionally. Both would help the defense stabilize while sorting out the secondary and the contracts for the years to come. There are enough receievers in free agency hat the spread style offense can incorporate.

[BleedTheClock]

1 hour ago, Superman(DH23) said:

I went Jackson 1, Davenport 2.  Im not taking the 2nd best player at a position when #1 is available.  There seems to be some mistaking opinion that Jackson is a slug.  Dude ran a 4.43 last year at Iowa's proday on grass.  I cant fathom for the life of me how anyone watches tape of the 2 and comes away thinking Ward is a better player.  

You're on a lonely island with that take dude. Ward plays sticky man coverage. Jackson plays vanilla off zone coverage. Vanilla zone coverage gets picked apart in the NFL by good quarterbacks. Ward is going to frustrate the heck out of #1 WR's and not give up anything easy. If you want ball production, get Josh Jackson. If you want a lockdown corner, get Denzel Ward. Josh Jackson isn't fast. I don't care what his reported 40 time is. How often are those accurate? He's going to run considerably slower than Denzel Ward. If you run an off zone scheme Josh Jackson makes more sense. If you run a lot of man coverage (most NFL teams), you're going to prefer Denzel Ward all day.

I voted for Calvin Ridley. He's going to be a legitimate #1 WR in my opinion. I'd be all over him here.

[Soko]

Pretty dependent on their FA, given their corner situation. 

Ward - Vea.

[brownie man]

I went Ridley then Ward

Mitch is really accurate you want someone who can create separation quickly to take advantage of the quicker passing game 

[Superman(DH23)]

12 hours ago, BleedTheClock said:

You're on a lonely island with that take dude. Ward plays sticky man coverage. Jackson plays vanilla off zone coverage. Vanilla zone coverage gets picked apart in the NFL by good quarterbacks. Ward is going to frustrate the heck out of #1 WR's and not give up anything easy. If you want ball production, get Josh Jackson. If you want a lockdown corner, get Denzel Ward. Josh Jackson isn't fast. I don't care what his reported 40 time is. How often are those accurate? He's going to run considerably slower than Denzel Ward. If you run an off zone scheme Josh Jackson makes more sense. If you run a lot of man coverage (most NFL teams), you're going to prefer Denzel Ward all day.

I voted for Calvin Ridley. He's going to be a legitimate #1 WR in my opinion. I'd be all over him here.

So your penalizing Jackson bc for 2 decades Iowa has run vanilla zone coverage? This doesnt make any sense we should be comparing the talent level of the players not the schemes they played in.  Jackson didnt decide what coverage they ran anymore than Ward did.  Idc if Ward is a tenth of a second faster than Jackson which I doubt he is.  Jackson is the better football player.  Hes the clearcut #1 cb in the class on tape. 

[Forge]

2 hours ago, Superman(DH23) said:

So your penalizing Jackson bc for 2 decades Iowa has run vanilla zone coverage? This doesnt make any sense we should be comparing the talent level of the players not the schemes they played in.  Jackson didnt decide what coverage they ran anymore than Ward did.  Idc if Ward is a tenth of a second faster than Jackson which I doubt he is.  Jackson is the better football player.  Hes the clearcut #1 cb in the class on tape. 

Scheme is kind of an important factor though, and it leaves unanswered questions about how he transitions to the next level. I'm not saying you have to weigh that factor as heavily as some do, but you also shouldn't completely ignore it either. It's a legitimate question. Personally, I think Ward fits better with Fangio and the bears if he still runs the same scheme he did in SF, and Jackson would fit better somewhere like SF. 

[BleedTheClock]

2 hours ago, Superman(DH23) said:

So your penalizing Jackson bc for 2 decades Iowa has run vanilla zone coverage? This doesnt make any sense we should be comparing the talent level of the players not the schemes they played in.  Jackson didnt decide what coverage they ran anymore than Ward did.  Idc if Ward is a tenth of a second faster than Jackson which I doubt he is.  Jackson is the better football player.  Hes the clearcut #1 cb in the class on tape. 

What? Yes I'm definitely penalizing a dude for playing vanilla zone defense. The NFL is predicated on heavy man concepts with heavy blitzes attached to it. I know Denzel Ward can move up and press a good WR. I don't know if Josh Jackson can do it. He's got sloppy feet, gambles a little too much, and does not have the hips that Ward does. I like Josh Jackson a lot and wouldn't criticize a team for taking him in the top 10, but he's not better than Denzel Ward.

What does Josh Jackson do better than Ward? Get more INT's? So we should reward him for the QB making poor decisions? It sounds like I'm crucifying Jackson, but I'm really not. He's going to be a great zone corner. He's just not as sticky in coverage as Ward is. Plus Ward is more willing to tackle and significantly more athletic.

You're awful sure of yourself for someone that's wrong. Your take (Jackson over Ward) is not one shared by the majority of draftniks so just keep in mind that you're throwing out the hot take, not me.

[Damikeeeee]

2 minutes ago, Forge said:

Scheme is kind of an important factor though, and it leaves unanswered questions about how he transitions to the next level. I'm not saying you have to weigh that factor as heavily as some do, but you also shouldn't completely ignore it either. It's a legitimate question. Personally, I think Ward fits better with Fangio and the bears if he still runs the same scheme he did in SF, and Jackson would fit better somewhere like SF. 

As far as scheme fits it looks like Fangio likes long CBs with zone skills.  We don't blitz a lot and I don't know the stats on zone vs man but I'd guess it's far more zone or press man where taking the kid with big time ball skills and the height/length/ball skills projects more to what I think we want from our CBs. 

 

I also think it's a moot point since we're imo very likely to address the CB position before the draft. 

 

I went with Davenport/Ridley.

[Damikeeeee]

Just now, BleedTheClock said:

What? Yes I'm definitely penalizing a dude for playing vanilla zone defense. The NFL is predicated on heavy man concepts with heavy blitzes attached to it. I know Denzel Ward can move up and press a good WR. I don't know if Josh Jackson can do it. He's got sloppy feet, gambles a little too much, and does not have the hips that Ward does. I like Josh Jackson a lot and wouldn't criticize a team for taking him in the top 10, but he's not better than Denzel Ward.

What does Josh Jackson do better than Ward? Get more INT's? So we should reward him for the QB making poor decisions? It sounds like I'm crucifying Jackson, but I'm really not. He's going to be a great zone corner. He's just not as sticky in coverage as Ward is. Plus Ward is more willing to tackle and significantly more athletic.

You're awful sure of yourself for someone that's wrong. Your take (Jackson over Ward) is not one shared by the majority of draftniks so just keep in mind that you're throwing out the hot take, not me.

What the NFL is predicated on does not dictate what our DC likes to do.  We're not a heavy blitz scheme. 

 

His confidence is probably based off his knowledge of what our DC likes to run and how the 2 players fit into that.  Kyle Fuller excelled when healthy this year so saying a similar type of CB can't doesn't add up to me.  I'm a much bigger fan of Ward then most Bears fans seem to be but I still think that Jackson brings more of what we want to the table then Ward does.