Sunday, April 26, 2009

Bears draft notes

After trading out of the first 2 rounds yesterday, the Bears first 5 picks make a lot of sense:

Rd 3 - #4(68) Jarron Gilbert (DT) San Jose St
Rd 3 - #35(99)Juaquin Iglesias (WR) Oklahoma
Rd 4 - #5(105) Henry Melton (DE) Texas
Rd 4 - #19(119)D.J. Moore (CB) Vanderbilt
Rd 5 - #4(140)Johnny Knox (WR) Ab Christian


I love the Gilbert pick. The guy is an athletic freak and he's good the speed and strength to make an immediate contribution alongside Tommie Harris. He's also got a good business sense - nothing will skyrocket your draft stock like a crazy-ass youtube video of yourself jumping completely out of a swimming pool:








This looks like some kind of X-Men preview. Put a cape on this guy and get him on the line - by far the best player available, projected as early as 1st round.

The other picks are logical: Iglesias and Knox are both solid WR's that will pull coverage off Hester and can thrive in a west coast offense. Good possession guys with speed. I'm sure Cutler will make one of these guys look a lot like Eddie Royal in Denver last season. Knox ran a 4.3 at the combine (which is really fast for those of you who don't spend your free time watching combine film).

I don't know much about Melton, but he looks good and adds depth. DJ Moore was a guy I was hoping we wouldn't take at 49 but I'm more than happy to have him at 119. He was the 5th ranked DB in the entire draft and top 50 overall.

Rumors were flying yesterday that we were wheeling for Anquan Boldin, but he was apparently too pricey and we dealt the pick instead. Looks like a good move, we got some great depth, but we still have some glaring needs in the secondary. 

We just took Marcus Freeman (OLB, Ohio State) and I've got inside word from my boy Andrew that he's the real deal.

So far so good for the Bears, loving the picks so far. Keep it up!


-KEG

2 comments:

haasi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
haasi said...

(begin rant)
I can't believe everyone's giving the Bears grades in the B to C+ range. They're clearly not including Cutler in the draft class, which they should be, because that's why we didn't have a first rounder. If they were including Cutler, I can't see how you would give us anything below A-. Yes, we sacrificed next year's 1st rounder as well, but we emerged out of the draft with the best quarterback on the board by a mile. People are giving the Jets an A because they traded up to get Sanchez; people who like Stafford are giving the Lions good grades. Tell me you wouldn't take Cutler over either of those two chumps in a heartbeat! He's a sure thing. He's already developed into a top QB. The other two guys, if their careers turn out very well, might end up being as good as Cutler. This is all not to mention our drafting of Gilbert in rd. 3, which everyone recognizes could be the steal of the draft.
(end rant)

The one downside to the draft is that we didn't pick up a great safety. Delmas, Moore, or even Mitchell would have been a huge pickup. I was originally horrified about the Raiders pick of Mitchell in rd. 2-- and then I was puzzled when I heard that we wanted him at 49-- but after watching some clips of him, I think he could be the real deal.

This just makes me think that the Raiders really are the Tank of the NFL drafting process. Everyone thinks they put together the worst draft, mainly because they draft way out of position, but then those players turn out by some miracle to actually be good. (Still bitter about fantasy playoffs, obviously.)