Now that the draft is over and we’ve had time to let it all settle in, here are my thoughts on who they picked and how it went for them as a team. And I wanted to get this out there before events happen that make much of this look really silly.
Round 1: I was not surprised by the Loveland pick. Pre-draft I heard several people characterize Warren as “a taller Cole Kmet” and other knowledgeable folks say Loveland was the better prospect despite Warren generally being ranked higher. When it came around to the Bears, picking Loveland made sense to me.
Round 2 was a bit of a surprise with the Burden pick. A WR?!? Listening to folks post-draft it sounds the Bears didn’t expect him to make it out of the first round so when he’s there for you, you take the best player available and leave it for the coaches to figure it out. Isn’t that what everyone says a team should do? It will be fascinating to me to see what Johnson does with the offensive weapons they have. Everyone says he runs 12 personnel more than anyone in the league. Well, that was with Detroit. Will he do the same in Chicago given who he has available to him? More 3 wideouts? Who knows. It will be fun to watch.
They finally take an offensive lineman in Trapillo at the start of round 2. Here’s how I see this playing out: They have 3 guys, Jones, Amegadjie, and Trapillo fighting it out for the left tackle position. That’s it. I don’t think you can write off Amegadjie just yet. With a full year in the league, a full off season and better coaching, they might just have something there. We’ll see. I won’t be surprised to see Trapillo win the job and the other two become swing/backup. Will be nice for them to have competent backups on the offensive line.
Also in the second round they address the D-line with Turner. People seem upset they didn’t upgrade their edge position, but I’m not so sure about that. I’ve heard people say Allen puts more emphasis on the edges compressing the pocket and containing the quarterback and less emphasis on speed-rushing to get to the QB. I won’t be surprised to see overall sack numbers for the Bears not be league-leading, but they’ll still have an effective D-line holding offenses to a lot of 3-and-outs.
Not much thought about Hyppolite, Frazer and Newman other than more depth and special teams folks. Who knows.
Finally, their last pick was RB Monangai. I’m still of the opinion the Johnson isn’t as down on Swift as a running back as most folks seem to think he is. I think there’s a big difference between looking at your roster and deciding which player you need to let go vs. actively going and getting a replacement. I believe Detroit’s GM picked up Gibbs because he was a weapon and when cut time came decided Swift was expendable. I think with Swift and Monangai the Bears have their version of “Thunder and Lightning” and Roschon will be the odd man out.
Overall, I think their roster is improved over last year, though it seems the same can be said nearly every year. All we can do now is wait and see how Ben Johnson and the rest of the coaching staff make it all work.
That’s my $.02.
JIm