All-22uesday Recap: Cold Takes From The Bears’ Draft Class
5.15.24 pic.twitter.com/GBonqPhPDt
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) May 13, 2024
Keep an eye out on Social Media today, you never know what leaks may turn up…
The Bears held their annual Rookie Minicamp over the weekend, and if you’re like me the festivities of Mother’s Day Weekend meant that today is a catch-up day for minicamp news. Here’s what you missed:
Head Coach Matt Eberflus revealed that Amegadjie’s quad injury will keep him out of the entire offseason program. The news isn’t totally unexpected, but a bummer nevertheless — here’s wishing Kiran a swift recovery.
Matt Eberflus said that Kiran Amegadjie will not practice today, and Eberflus doesn't expect him to practice in the offseason program due to a quad injury.
Eberflus said the team knew about this injury. The hope is that he is ready for training camp.
— Nicholas Moreano (@NicholasMoreano) May 10, 2024
No arguments about quarterbacks.
No hand-wringing about (a lack of) pass-catchers.
No questions about the Bears’ future direction.
Instead, daily Bears conversation currently revolves around which cheap veteran EDGE/D-Lineman Ryan Poles will add to a 2024 roster that looks young, hungry, and ready to surprise.
It’s… dare I say, a comfortable time to be a Chicago fan. The Bears’ young core is exciting (on both sides of the ball!), their overall direction makes sense, and there’s enough veteran leadership across the roster to expect competitive Sundays while the rookies learn the ropes. On top of that, they’re up against the salary cap and aren’t likely to make any more major moves this offseason — their draft class will push them to within $8-$10 million dollars of the current cap ceiling, meaning that if we assume that Poles wants to keep a typical $5-10 million dollars on-hand for in-season signings next year Chicago’s cards have already been played.
The full 2024 NFL regular season schedule is expected to be released on Wednesday, May 15th, as @BenFischerSBJ said. Teams were informed today in a memo. pic.twitter.com/0SG1ioRxCt
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) May 7, 2024
Following Kevin Warren and the Bears releasing renderings of a new Chicago lakefront stadium last week, Governer Pritzker’s office responded with a statement yesterday that called the Bears’ proposal a “non starter for the state”. Full quote in the tweet below:
Not shocking to see Gov. Pritzker’s office call the Bears’ current stadium proposal a “non starter for the state.”
Secretary Alex Gough to @nbcchicago.
"In order to subsidize a brand new stadium for a privately owned sports team, the Governor would need to see a demonstrable… https://t.co/53Mul9S4Z1
— Josh Schrock (@Schrock_And_Awe) May 1, 2024
How will the Bears’ stadium project proceed? What are they going to do with their purchased Arlington Heights lot? We’ll have to wait and see.
Your Turn: What do you think about the Bears’ Stadium debacle?
This quote from a 670 The Score interview with Will Hewlett struck me yesterday — seems as if the Bears used the assurance that came from the #1 overall pick to give Chicago’s signal-caller a head start compared to most rookies.
Will Hewlett has "pieces" of the Bears' plays, Shane Waldron's "terminology" and the "basic route concepts in terms of depth and timing" of the Bears as he has been training Caleb Williams for the past 6 weeks.
— 670 The Score (@670TheScore) April 30, 2024
Given that he’ll need to be a leader in offensive meetings as soon as possible, I love hearing that the Bears are doing everything they can to help him hit the ground running. That extra time with the offense’s basics should make initial installs that much more effective.
Also, early reports from Bears’ throwing sessions are that Caleb Williams is throwing with anticipation during early work with his receivers. DJ Moore expands below:
Nick and I discussed the Bears’ draft in-depth on our latest episode of Bear With Us — I’ll have a fresh set of comprehensive draft grades done by the end of the week, but if you’re looking for analysis in the meantime feel free to check this out!
Your Turn: What did you think of the 2024 Draft Class?
Quick Disclaimer: I hate Draft Grades.
These flimsy ‘grades’ are built far too quickly and rely entirely on the grader’s (my) priors, ultimately boiling down to questions like these:
These questions leave far too much room for subjectivity and ask the grader to make too many judgement calls, often resulting in guesses and good vibes that include some context while leaving out others. Take for instance the grades handed out to Ryan Pace’s 2019 Draft, arguably the worst Bears draft in recent memory — would it surprise you that a draft without a 1st or 2nd round pick still received multiple ‘A’s and quite a few ‘B’s? What does any of that mean?
Maybe it’s my engineering background, but I want to measure Ryan Poles’ latest draft against something a bit more firm — I want to assess the ‘value’ he got out of the 2024 draft, and I believe that requires a new set of questions to measure Poles against:
With our criteria set, I think we can properly assess Poles’ 2024 Draft Class. Let’s dive right in with…
And apparently, they’re ready to get to work.
https://twitter.com/ChicagoBears/status/1783680998951072208
Catch up on our live reaction to the picks from last night’s stream here:
