Bleacher Bums Forum

Someone on another board floated the notion recently that with Briggs, plus the signings of Williams and Anderson, we would now have enough quality LBs to run at least a situational 3-4 (with McClellin being the 4th i.e. "rush" LB).

We're still lacking the DL personnel to go to the 3-4 full-time, but it does present some interesting possibilities as far as mixing up fronts.

Not only that, you will restrict the pass rush of Peppers and Wooten as well as Melton by forcing them inside.   So McClellin and some other OLB, who I don't even know if he has 3-4 pass rush background or ability, get the outside rush.

Run the 4-3 and mix in more creative blitzes.

I'm thinking using him more like a Clay Matthews type of player would do wonders for him.

I'm starting to see the OG Cooper going to the Bears in a lot of mock drafts but for some reason, even though I think that would be a lockdown, brain-dead great pick for the Bears, I'm not seeing it.  In fact as we get closer I'm thinking more and more that if we don't trade down our 1st rounder is gonna be something a little off the wall... like a CB, a big DT or even a WR... positions where we do not have pressing needs but where someone with Top 10-15 talent could fall and present good value.   

The problem I would have with that approach is that while there may be "value", in our case not a single player drafted at any of those positions would likely be a Day 1 starter.  They would be spot players at best (e.g., McClellin), making them a "value" according to the draft board but not necessarily a value for us in terms of on-the-field ROI.  Whereas a stud OG like Cooper would be starting from Day 1 and contributing on every snap. 

I suppose it's possible that having an offensive minded HC may change Emery's priorities a bit but you have to look at the trends. Last year David DeCastro was the top rated OG and Emery passed on him for McLellin so I would be very surprised if we don't wait till at least the 2nd round to see the interior OL addressed.

Te'o ran twice at the ND Pro Day...  both were in the 4.7s.



There is a lot and I mean a LOT of steam the past couple of days about him possibly going to the Vikings with the lower of their 2 1st round picks  (25th overall IIRC). Still way too high for him IMO but if a team is gonna make a mistake on him it may as well be a division rival. 

I expect our 1st pick will be the one Emery thinks is the BPA more than need.

Me too, but at that point Emery is kinda talking out of both sides of his mouth cause he also said he wants his 1st round draft pick to be a Day 1 starter.

Assume for example we stay at 20 and take the CB Trufant. By all accounts a very solid CB albeit a bit small. He may very well be BPA at that point but are we gonna sit Tillman or Jennings so Trufant can be a Day 1 starter?  Not likely.  So then we've spent a Top 20 draft pick on a nickleback.  Very questionable.

Or another example.  WR Cordarelle Patterson. About the same size as Alshon Jeffery, but faster.  Do we put him in the starting lineup at Jeffery's expense (essentially giving up on Alshon after only 1 year)...  or does Patterson wind up being a guy that's only on the field 15-20 snaps a game? 

Same thing would apply to a DT or DE, who by definition are likely to be rotational players only in our system...  not full-time Day 1 starters.

That's what I'm wrestling with. 

I think with McClellan he saw a guy who could likely play DE or OLB (if there was a switch to 3-4) and he had 2 DE's that were on the wrong side of 30 and one that had never fully lived up to his potential.

I liked our 2 picks last year but figure we had bigger needs.
If we had upgraded OL we likely make the playoffs.

I expect Warmack  and Cooper to be both gone, but my outside hope is we draft Fluker then and play hm at OG. Even at 307 I think Cooper is too small to play OG at the NFL level.  Like where is the beef?