The Bears could be looking the ever-elusive shutdown corner in the face if Marshon Lattimore is still available when they pick.
If you believe Adam Schefter (and you should) the Bears tried to trade up to get Jalen Ramsey last year. Then they went after Josh Norman prior to last season and Stephon Gilmore this offseason. They went 0/3.
Lattimore could be the best of the bunch.
Editor’s Note: Solomon Thomas is my favorite player in this year’s draft. And it’s not close.
Solomon Thomas has the potential to be one of the best pass rushers in the entire league.
Physically, he has everything you could want: size, speed, length, strength, quickness, agility and explosiveness. His SPARQ score was in the 93rd percentile, tied with T.J. Watt for fourth-best in this class and two percentage points better than Leonard Floyd tested last year.
Thomas really burst onto the scene with a dominant performance against North Carolina. When everyone was trying to watch Mitch Trubisky, Thomas kept exploding onto the screen. It was impossible to not notice him. In all, he had 61 tackles — 14 for a loss — 8.5 sacks and one forced fumble.
Throughout the offseason, I’ll be doing a monthly piece here at DaBearsBlog, helping fill the content void of the long offseason. Each one will be a numbers-crunching look at something Bears related in which I attempt to earn the “Data” moniker so kindly bestowed on me by the comments section regulars and, more importantly, answer a Bears question that I’ve been wondering about. If you have anything you’d like me to look into, let me know in the comments or email me at woodjohnathan1@gmail.com and I’ll see what I can do.
As all Bears fans are well aware, this is the offseason of QB change in Chicago. Jay Cutler is gone, Mike Glennon is here on three 1-year deals, and a fresh face is likely coming in the draft.
I have already looked a couple times at quarterbacks from a historical perspective, trying to identify where the best place to draft one is and what to look for in their college background. Today, I want to look at this decision from the perspective of what it means for general manager Ryan Pace.
Getting a good QB is absolutely essential in the NFL. Teams that don’t have one can’t compete for a title, and GMs who fail to acquire one generally don’t last long. Since very few GMs get a 2nd chance after being fired, Ryan Pace is staking his career on at least one of Mike Glennon or “draft pick to be named” panning out.
Or at least that’s the theory. I put it to the test to see if the numbers backed that claim up.
Any pass thrown in Malik Hooker’s general direction has a good chance to be intercepted. Do I really need to say more than that?
He has better range than any safety I’ve seen coming out of the draft and showed incredible hands in his one season at Ohio State. According to Pro Football Focus, 41 passes were thrown to guys he was covering. He either intercepted or defended 11 of them. He returned three interceptions for touchdowns while only giving up one score himself. His interception against Clemson was one of the best plays you will ever see a safety make.
For the Bears, that could be huge. They play in a division where two of the quarterbacks — Sam Bradford and Aaron Rodgers — avoid putting the ball in harm’s way at all costs. With Hooker on the field, the ball would almost always be in harm’s way if they threw near him.
Hooker played only one season at OSU and had two surgeries, including one for a torn labrum in his hip. Perhaps he’ll recover 100 percent, but he’s on the small side so I don’t think it’s irrational to be concerned about his ability to hold up.
The Bears haven’t had a good safety in so long. So so long. Jamal Adams is a pretty sure thing.
Adams fits what the Vic Fangio and John Fox have looked for out of the position because he can play in coverage and drop down in the box. Pro Football Focus rated him as among the five best safeties in the country at both disciplines.
The Bears three primary decision makers – Pace, Fox and Fangio – have all put a lot of value in the safety position with past teams and have a very good opportunity to do so with the Bears, early in the 2017 draft.
Editor’s Note: I hate writing about the draft. Andrew does not. Hence, Andrew will writing a shitload about the draft for the next few weeks.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a player in this draft who was more dominant in college than Jonathan Allen. And the ways he dominated translate to the next level.
Allen beat blocks over and over and over.
He had nearly perfect technique.
His ability to use his hands is already as good as anyone who is in the NFL.
Over the last two years he’s had 30.5 tackles for loss and 22.5 sacks, despite spending the 2015 season in Alabama’s deep defensive line rotation. In 2016, he showed he could handle a full-time load, finishing with 69 tackles, 16 for loss and 10.5 sacks. He’s considered by most to be a better prospect than either of the top defensive linemen the last two years, Leonard Williams and DeForest Buckner.
Over the last few weeks I have profiled the top four quarterbacks in the draft but the Bears are not likely going to get any of them.
The praising of Mike Glennon has been universal to the point where I don’t think the Bears are going to spend the third pick on a quarterback. I also think all four of the top guys will be gone before the Bears pick in the second round.
So, where does that leave them? With one of these guys…
Evans is my Jordan Howard of this year’s draft.
I really liked Howard last year and thought his value was going to be the best of any of the running backs, and that was when I thought he’d be a third-round pick.
Evans, like Howard, has only one year of major college experience and, like Howard, he was really good. His resume is pretty much the same as Mitch Trubisky and, physically, he’s pretty much the same as DeShone Kizer.
When you really think about the things that make quarterbacks great, you end up pinpointing traits Clemson’s DeShaun Watson has already displayed.
Being great in college doesn’t mean a player will be great in the NFL, but it’s the closest league we have to an apples-to-apples comparison and Watson was the single best player in that league last year.
Alabama was supposed to have one of the greatest defenses in the history of college football each of the last two years. They couldn’t stop Watson. His performance in the National Championship Game two years ago was impressive. And it pissed Alabama off. With one of the greatest defensive minds in the sport designing their game plan and a roster full of future NFL stars, Alabama was determined to stop Watson last year.
They couldn’t.
