Bears
- Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune reports that the Bears held a local workout day for area prospects at Halas Hall Saturday. The Bears had scrapped this event several years ago:
“The Bears had gone away from holding the local workout day because many agents would not permit their players to actually work out. That left the team in a position where decision makers would then spend a few hours looking at players who were not going to be drafted or targeted as priority free agents. It wasn’t productive. Now, it appears the Bears must see value in holding the workouts again.”
- Dan Pompei at the Chicago Tribune describes the draft’s “solid” depth at corner.
“The Bears don’t have an immediate need at cornerback as they have several young corners with potential in Zack Bowman, D.J. Moore and Joshua Moore. But no team ever has enough and Charles Tillman, the Bears’ best, is 30.”
As I’ve said before, I think the Bear do need a third corner.
- Michael C. Wright at ESPNChicago.com has the Bears passing up higher rated prospects to reach for Marvin Austin to fill a defensive tackle need in his mock draft.
- Rob Rang at CBSSports.com says that the Bears, along with the Broncos, Titans and Redskins, are exploring the option of trading out of their pick:
“Considering the talent likely to be available at each of these positions, the Bears could have plenty of options staring at them at No. 29. As such, they could be one of the teams at the end of the first round willing to trade back to allow a club desperate to snatch up a quarterback before the expected run on the position begins in the second round. “
No one would be surprised if that run began earlier, well before the Bears picked in the first round.
- In an earlier post I noted a mock draft where an NFC scout had given the Bear nose tackle Phil Taylor. I agree with Bob LeGere at the Daily Herald that Taylor is a bad fit for the Bears’ scheme. But beyond that, I was surprised that Taylor fell so far. Now Rang is suggesting that there’s a problem with Taylor’s feet that might be causing teams concern. That would be interesting for a couple of reasons. First, nose tackle has become an extremely valuable position in the NFL. Second, Taylor is the only one anybody thinks deserves a first round grade. This could be bad news if you are a team that needs one.
Elsewhere
- Mike Florio at profootballtalk.com addresses the problem of players with nothing to do but get in trouble during the lockout. Specifically the case of Kenny Britt:
“Jack Britt believes that his son, Titans receiver Kenny Britt, needs to be out of his hometown of Bayonne, New Jersey and back in Nashville.
“‘I’m worried about him all the time,’ Jack Britt told Conor Orr and Matthew Stanmyre of the Newark Star-Ledger in an article that takes a thorough look at Britt’s history of off-field issues. ‘But my concern is not with Kenny, per se, it’s more with Kenny’s friends, and he knows that. He has too many friends with too much free time.’
“‘He needs to be around more positive people.’”
- Ben Roethlisberger tells Ed Brouchette at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he has an extraordinary source of motivation for next year. He quotes the Steeler’s quarterback:
“The day I got back, I took my nameplate from my locker — ‘Ben Roethlisberger, Super Bowl XLV’ — and it’s sitting underneath my mirror in my bathroom. I want to see that every day. It hurts a lot.”
- You think having a simultaneously younger and decidedly better Green Bay Packers team in your division is bad? Try being the Dolphins. Brought to you by Armando Salguero at the Miami Herald.
- Unless they trade back I would be very surprised if the Dolphins took Ryan Mallett in the first round. But Salguero asks whether they should do it or not anyway.
- Sheil Kapadia at the Philadelphia Inquirer doesn’t think the Eagles are actually looking for a quarterback even though they appear to be showing interest in some of them:
“Don’t get too carried away with all the workouts. This is just what NFL teams do in the months between the Super Bowl and the draft. Keep in mind that they’re doing their homework not only for this year, but for the future. Maybe three years down the road, the Eagles will be in the market for a quarterback, even if it’s only a backup. And maybe the homework they do now will pay off then.”
- Rang says that this draft has unusual depth at offensive tackle and running back beyond the first and second rounds.
- John McClain at the Houston Chronicle addresses the question of why running backs are not often drafted in the first round:
“’Good running backs are hard to find, but big people are (harder) to find,’ Packers general manager Ted Thompson said. ‘Other people, the good Lord just made more of them.’”
- The Denver Broncos are on the clock at ESPN:
- Lori Nickel at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel talks about what draft picks talk about at their press conferences after the big event:
“Just before Josh Sitton was drafted in the fourth round in 2008, he was in a mullet-tossing contest, in which people hurl the fish across the beach all as an excuse to throw a huge party.
“’Actually I just went and watched. I didn’t have the 20 bucks to enter it,’ said Sitton.”
I doubt its a problem now.
One Final Thought
Bear fans talk about a new and very unique strategy in this can’t be missed video: