Month: April 2015

Bears

• Adam Schefter at ESPN reports that the Bears are “entertaining trade offers” for tight end Martellus Bennett. Bennett has been problematic for the Bears for some time and now isn’t showing up for offseason workouts.
• The staff at NFL.com propose draft day trades that they’d “love to see”. One involves the Bears trading this year’s seventh overall selection, next year’s first and second, Matt Forte, and Jay Cutler to move up six spots into No. 1. No way.

  This would be an awful trade for the Bears who arguably need those picks more than the Buccaneers do. I’m sure they’d love to have Winston but I can’t imagine they’d trade away even the near future to do it.

• Rick Morrissey at the Chicago Sun-Times pretty much destroys running back Matt Forte after he didn’t show up for the Piccolo Award presentation. I can’t say its entirely off base. As Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune points out, the Piccolo Research Fund has raised millions of dollars over the decades in support of cancer research. Not showing up to accept this award because your “training schedule” didn’t permit it really isn’t a good look.
• I find it to be interesting that Forte is taking the most heat for not showing up to these voluntary sessions when he’s the veteran with the best excuse – really any excuse – to skip them. His contract. No explanation for the absence of tight end Martellus Bennett or nose tackle/defensive end Jeremiah Ratliff has been provided and as far as anyone can tell, they just didn’t feel like showing up.
• Arthur Arkush at chicagofootball.com quote guard Kyle Long on quarterback Jay Cutler: “We love him here, and I really feel like Chicago will gain a new appreciation for Jay under this new regime. … He’s taking it upon himself to try and broaden his horizons as a leader from a vocal standpoint. He’s got the reins in his hands and we’re ready to work for a guy like that.” I’m open to it. But I’m not holding my breath.
• Scott Krinch at csnchicago.com predicts that the Bears will trade back in the first round. I would agree but in my scenario, a team trades up to get wide receiver Kevin White not pass rusher Bud Dupree.

Elsewhere

• Former NFL head coach Jon Gruden provides analysis on the players he likes the most in the upcoming NFL draft. Notably absent from his list is everyone else’s consensus best player Leonard Williams.
• Daniel Jeremiah at NFL.com lists the most over- and under-rated prospects headed into the draft. His most over-rated prospect? Bud Dupree and I couldn’t agree more. Low on production, he’s risen strictly based upon physical traits and a good combine workout. Only Vic Beasley may be more over-rated in my opinion.

One Final Thought

As if Matt Forte not showing up to receive an award in honor of Brian Piccolo weren’t enough, Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune reports defensive end Ray McDonald‘s statements on his run ins with the law last season. McDonald was unrepentant and said nothing indicating that he was accountable for what happened. Believe it or not, he sees himself as the victim, blaming the incidents on the people around him and bad press on the media. Again, not a good look for him or the franchise, which should be embarrassed.

Ian Rapoport and Albert Breer at NFL.com report that Randy Gregory‘s stock is falling precipitously as teams wonder if he’s got the mental makeup to make the jump to pro football:

“The situation for the Cornhusker All-American is like this: The natural ability is there; whether he can realize his considerable potential is another matter entirely. Those considerations, however, do not make Gregory unique in the draft nor in the league as a whole.

“‘It all depends on the organization, and what they have in place for him,’ said one NFC personnel exec. ‘There are quite a few players that have issues. It’s where you place football character over the things he can’t control. That’s the big thing to me.'”

“One NFC general manager said, ‘There are more negatives than positives.’

“And that’s remarkable, given that many scouts and execs spoken with during the past two months believe Gregory is the best natural pass-rusher in this year’s draft class.”

And I couldn’t agree more. The top four pass rushers past consensus top five pick Dante Fowler are Gregory, Shane Ray, Vic Beasley and Bud Dupree. Of the four, the only one I would have said belonged in the top ten picks based upon what you see on the field is Gregory. Now it looks like even he’s going to be a huge risk.

Many well respected media experts have the Bears taking a pass rusher in the first round of this draft. Here’s hoping that’s not the case. The guys I see have “bust” written all over them. That’s something the Bears can’t afford.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune doesn’t think the Bears voluntary minicamp, which starts today, will affect their draft much:

“It’s difficult to imagine that much of what happens on the field will affect plans for the draft. General manager Ryan Pace isn’t going to lay eyes on Jay Cutler throwing the ball and decide he needs to be in position to choose Jameis Winston or Marcus Mariota.

“Coach John Fox and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio aren’t going to size up candidates at outside linebacker and come to the realization they’re a young pass rusher away from being where they need to be. Draft preparations have been made, and those opinions have been shaped by long meetings and longer hours spent doing film work. Three practices leading directly into the draft are not going to turn the team’s board on its side.”

Patrick Finley at the Chicago Sun-Times says pretty much the same thing. One question neither bothered to answer is this: If it won’t affect the draft, why have it now? The Bears are the only team in the NFL having their first minicamp before the draft, not after.

I don’t have any doubt that all of the preparations have been made and the board has been stacked. But there is a reason the Bears are having that minicamp now. Fox has said repeatedly that he won’t really know anything about anyone until he sees the players hit the grass. Today, that’s what they’re going to do. It’s only positional drills but its live and they’re going to get to see them.

The Bears want a look at what they’ve got before the draft starts because it might affect what decisions they make in later rounds when they are choosing positions to make a priority. That makes the next couple days reasonably significant.

Adam L. Jahns at the Chicago Sun-Times reports that Bears defensive end Ray McDonald has been cleared of violating the NFL player conduct policy by the league office. The Bears signed McDonald after three runins with the law in seven months. The first was an incident which involved him wrestiling with his pregant fiancee over a gun. The second was a domestic violence complaint also involving his fiancee. The third was a sexual assault accusation from a woman who is not McDonald’s fiancee. The league hasn’t cleared McDonald on the third incident yet.

Bears ownership initially rejected he idea of signing McDonald despite the support of Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio:

“‘[Fangio] felt he was one of the leaders on the defense, him and [end] Justin Smith,’ [Bears head coach John] Fox said. ‘Teammates thought very highly of him, and you’re around your teammates a lot in this business.'”

Eventually ownership relented but only after McDonald sat down and talked to Bears president George McCaskey.

At the time the Bears signed McDonald, I said I would reserve judgement until some of my questions were answered. I think that no more information is going to be forthcoming so I can give my opinion now.

I make it a habit to judge people by their actions, not what they say. A lot of trouble could be avoided if more people followed that rule. People believe too easily what they want to believe and can be talked too easily into believing it.

The fact that Fangio and McDonald’s teammates were “shocked” tells me only one thing – that McDonald is a heck of a con man. If they were still shocked after it happened a third time then it tells me they’re stupid, as well. The fact that McCaskey relented based, not upon the facts in his file, but upon what McDonald said only re-enforces that opinion.

It’s obvious to me that McDonald is in a toxic relationship. It drove him to what amounts to two domestic violence complaints and one sexual encounter outside of whatever boundaries he’s set with his fiancee. As long as that relationship contiues, he’s headed for trouble. And given that she’s apparently had his baby, I’d say he’ll never really be extracted from it. And, of course, even worse is what that relationship uncovered – a tendency towards responding to bad situations with violence upon the weak.

I don’t know what McDonald has said and I don’t want to know. I want to hear what he’s done to clean up the mess he’s made of his life. Until I hear that, until I hear more than talk, I’m going to assume that his problems are going to continue.

I’m going to say up front that I’m a rare bird. Most fans in most places will forgive almost anything if the think it will help the team win. That includes Chicago, where fans once gave Scotty Pippen a standing ovation after an infamous incident in which he quit on his team and refused to enter a playoff game with 1.8 seconds left to play.

But personally, I’d honestly rather that the Bears were miserable at defensive end than have a guy like McDonald on the team. I think about rooting for McDonald this fall, a guy who apparently can’t keep control himself around women, and it makes me sick. That’s the way I feel.

Hub Arkush at chicagofootball.com makes me feel a bit better about the Bears transition to a 3-4 defense as he talks about the variations in the scheme:

“The original 3-4 defenses were very different from the 4-3 and even many of today’s 3-4s in that they were two-gap schemes while the 4-3 and many of today’s 3-4s are one-gap defenses.”

“In a traditional 3-4 defense, the nose tackle is responsible for both A-gaps, and the defensive ends, also known as five-techniques, are required to fill the gap between the guard and tackle on their side and to set the edge so that no running backs can get outside the tackles.

“When one of the three defensive linemen gets to the quarterback, that’s a bonus, as the principle pass rushers in the 3-4 are the linebackers, who will rush in various blitz combinations.”

“[Bears general manager Ryan Pace said] ‘[W]e’ll be base 3-4, that’s accurate and that’s what [defensive coordinator Vic Fangio is] comfortable with, but the best coaches, they find ways to maximize their players’ skill sets. I know Vic’s going to do that.'”

“What makes that possible is the evolution of the one-gap 3-4 schemes in which gap responsibility is spread between the three linemen up front and the linebackers.

“As an example, in this scheme the nose tackle will fill one of the A-gaps and the strong-side inside linebacker will be responsible for the other gap, which he will either shoot if the play comes through it, or flow in the direction of the play if it doesn’t.

“The key to this scheme is each player in the front seven must make a series of reads as the play develops. Gap integrity is a must.

“This scheme is primarily what Fangio used in San Francisco because he really didn’t have the traditional two-gap space-eaters there, either.

“Teams in the NFL today that play a 3-4 base scheme rarely stick strictly with one style or the other.”

Like many Bears fans, I’ve been able to find a fair bit of information about the traditional, two gap 3-4 defense. Finding information about the one gap form of the defense has been harder to come by. In that respect, this was a valuable article.

Until now, I’ve assumed the Bears would likely play one form of this defense or the other. But Arkush makes it clear that’s not necessarily the case. It seems that the Bears will slide in and out of the two different forms depending upon the personnel on the field. If Jay Ratliff is in as a nose tackle, he’ll likely be responsible for only one A gap while the strong side inside linebacker will take the other. If, on the other hand, it’s Ego Ferguson, they may have him two gap it. Indeed, its conceivable that the defensive linemen and linebackers up and down the line won’t all be playing the same style at once.

What this all means is that the Bears will be able to more easily adjust to the change in scheme than many would have you believe. The skills required to play the one gap style of the 3-4 are similar up and down the line to those required to play the style of 4-3 the Bears played last year. There are still problems but the Bears should be able to work around them. Add that to the fact that they’ll likely be in hybrid four man fronts in sub packages and the Bears won’t have too tough of a time adapting to whatever style Fangio decides to play.