Bears
- Will Brinson at CBS Sports rates wide receiver David Terrell as the worst Bears first round draft pick in the last 25 years. I don’t see how he beat out Michael Haynes and Cade McNown but it must have been close.
- Hub Arkush at chicagofootball.com continues to claim that the Bears have a “screaming need” for a number one receiver. I’m not too sure that they don’t have one in Alshon Jeffery. In fact, I’m going to be mildly disappointed if he’s not. I look around the rest of the league at what other teams have and I’m not too sure the need at receiver is as great as some Bears commentators seem to think it is. Dan Wiederer at the Chicago Tribune agrees here. Don’t get me wrong – another playmaker would be welcome and you won’t hear any complaints from me if they draft one. But with Marquis Wilson and Eddie Royal, with Martellus Bennett at tight end and Matt Forte at runningback, I think that the Bears have plenty of receiving talent. The “need” might be for depth.
- Arkush has the Bears selecting runningback Todd Gurley in his latest mock draft. I would hope the Bears would desperately try to trade back if Gurley is their guy.
Arkush has been pushing runningback as an underrated need for the Bears for quite a while now. He’s got a point but this might be over doing it. The draft has plenty of depth at runningback and Stanford OT Andrus Peat, Iowa OG Brandon Scherff, Michigan State CB Trae Waynes and West Virginia WR Kevin White – picks 9-12 in Arkush’s mock – all look like better picks to me in that spot.
The guess here is that Arkush is just having a little fun with it and that he doens’t seriously believe that the Bears will take Gurley at seven.
- The Bears best free agent signing? For my money its linebacker Mason Foster, signed from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (profiled here by Adam L. Jahns at the Chicago Sun-Times). Foster wasn’t a great fit for the cover two but I think he’s perfect for an inside linebacker in a 3-4 defense. Football outsiders points to the Bears struggles at linebacker in coverage as a major problem in 2014, one that they think Foster could help solve. Jon Bostic in particular looked lost in space last year.
Elsewhere
- Rob Rang at CBS Sports says that the Dolphins are exploring the possibility of trading up into the top ten. The guess here is that the Bears would be a more than willing trade partner. They want a receiver and the guess here is that either Amari Cooper or Kevin White might very well still be there at seven. The problem that the Bears have is that the Jets are picking at six and they probably want to trade down, too.
- Chase Goodbread at nfl.com addresses the possibility that quarterback Marcus Mariota may fall a long way in the draft if he gets by the Jets. This is something I’ve also been thinking about for quite some time. Goodbread addresses the possibility that Mariota could go to the Saints, the Browns, the Eagles and the Broncos but not the Bears, who have at least as big of a need as any of those teams. I doubt Mariota gets past the Saints at 13.
- On the opposite side of the coin, first we had Mike Mayock moving Mariota ahead of Jameis Winston on his list, now Ron Jaworski thinks that the Buccaneers will pick Mariota first overall instead of Winston. Nobody knows until the party gets started, I guess. Via Darin Gantt at profootballtalk.com
- Lester Munson at ESPN does a good job of describing the closing arguments in the Aaron Hernandez murder trial. The verdict wasn’t known at the time. Hernandez has now been found guilty of murder.
- Former NFL scout Daniel Jeremiah and former Bears wide receiver Curtis Conway identify some diamonds in the rough for the draft. I know nothing about Illinois State tight end James O’Shaughnessy but presumably the Bears do. This is the only video I could find of him:
Its possible that if Illinois State is close enough to Chicago that O’Shaughnessy was invited to the workout that all teams are allowed to have local prospects attend. He might be a name to keep an eye on.
- Rams area scout Evan Ardoin describes the process of scouting E.J. Gaines for stlouisrams.com. This is a good article for those wondering how the national scouting services work.
- Somewhat to my surprise, the Packers have matched an offer sheet put forth by the Raiders for safety Sean Richardson. Richardson is strictly a backup and one year, $2.55 million sounded like a lot to me for that. Perhaps the Packers are planning to promote him sooner rather than later. Via Gantt.
- I’m sure the thought of the Packers developing quarterback Matt Blanchard after the Bears gave up on him thrills you as much as it does me. Via Mike Wilkening at profootballtalk.com.
- You just got picked in the first round of the NFL Draft and your Mom calls. She tells you that the bill for raising you was $1 million, and she wants it paid back right away.
Yeah, I’d say that Phillip Buchanon probably wasn’t raised in much of a nurturing environment.
One Final Thought
For those of you wondering what Brit McHenry did to get herself suspended from ESPN, the video of this media darling is below. McHenry’s car was towed by a company that is, by most accounts, pretty shady. Note that she is warned immediately that she is on camera.
I get that she’s upset and I would be, too. But taking it out on the employee at the front desk, especially in this manner, is not a good look.