- Mike Sando at The Athletic quotes unnamed league execs on the draft for all 16 NFC teams. Here’s what one exec said about Minnesota’s draft:
“I can buy trading some future picks if you are going to be contending and you are going to get a potential starter,” one exec said. “But the Vikings are not even close to contending. What they did, or even what the Bears did in giving up a (2025) fourth (for a fifth this year), I would not be doing that if I were those teams.”
As I have said before, I 100% agree with this as far as the Bears draft was concerned.
As far as the Vikings go, I was initially impressed by their draft. I thought waiting for J.J. McCarthy to fall to them was great work. And they certainly needed pass rush and got their guy by trading up for Dallas Turner.
But then I saw what they gave up for Turner and my stomach turned cold. The Vikings traded a 2025 second round pick to Houston before the draft to get up to the #23 pick, then traded 2025 third- and fourth-round picks to Jacksonville to jump from 23 to 17.
Its one thing for the Bears to trade a 2025 fourth rounder away to take a flier on Austin Booker. That’s at least a debatable move. But to kill your 2025 draft, leaving your self just 3 picks, for Turner, who is far from a sure thing, seemed extreme.
- Chareen Williams at Pro Football Talk writes that the Raiders have signed almost their entire draft class.
Some of us stil remember a time when the Bears used to be the first to get all of their picks signed. But Ryan Poles doens’t seem to buy into this philosophy.
That’s too bad. For fans, its nice to see your draft picks get under contract so you can stop worrying about the admittedly small chance that a hold out will ensue.
- Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions:
Who wins the right guard spot out of camp? Will it be Nate Davis or will another player emerge? — @ebrown1481
This doesn’t look to me like a job that’s legitimately open for competition. Yes, every player has to compete for his job, beginning in the voluntary offseason program and carrying through training camp and preseason. But the Bears made a significant investment in Davis when they signed him a year ago to a three-year, $30 million contract in free agency. His $8.75 million base salary for this season is fully guaranteed, so I can’t imagine there are plans to potentially push him aside.
Davis wasn’t great last season and I think the Bears would say as much. His training camp was interrupted some because his mother was ill, and when she passed away early in the season, he missed time. The hope has to be with more consistent preparation this summer that Davis will be in a better spot when the season begins.
I have to agree here.
Although Biggs doesn’t mention it here, it’s been my assumption that Davis didn’t show up for voluntary work last year because his mother was ill. It will be interesting to see if he shows up for voluntary workouts this year.
I’d certainly like to see it given his under performance last year and it might not be a great sign if he doesn’t.
One Final Thought
Myles Simmons at Pro Football Talk on comments made by Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron about how they are bringing new Bears quarterback Caleb Williams along.
“I think for me, the things we’re pouring into him right now is just the understanding of the big picture of the game and all the intricacies and the nuances of, first of all, between college and the NFL and being able to start with that ground floor approach and build that repertoire of his up as we’re going,” Waldron said, via Josh Schrock of NBCSportsChicago.com. “For me, also being able to lean on [QBs coach] Kerry Joseph and the rest of the offensive staff, to me, this is always a collaborative effort, and it’s going to take all of us to help him along the way, and everyone has great individual strengths that they can bring to the table.
I have little doubt about Waldron’s ability to scheme up the Xs and Os and explain them to Williams. But as to the staff’s ability to do the other things that need to be done to bring a young QB along, I have my doubts.
In this respect, I’ve been thinking about the Bears offensive coaching staff.
- Shane Waldron, the offensive coordinator, is a former tight end who coached under Sean McVay, who undoubtedly did much of the quarterback coaching. He worked with veteran Geno Smith in Seattle as offensive coordinator but has never developed a rookie. He was a quarterback coach in name only one year in Los Angeles (2019).
- Thomas Brown, the passing game coordinator, is a former running back who has never been a quarterback coach.
- Kerry Joseph, the quarterbacks coach, was the assistant quarterbacks coach in Seattle. Waldron states that he will be doing the majority of the coaching in terms of the actual detailed performance and technique required on the field. He has never been an actual NFL quarterbacks coach.
- Ryan Griffin is an offensive assistant who retired as a player only in 2022 and has little to no NFL coaching experience.
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p>Much has been made of supporting a rookie quarterback by surrounding him with talent on the field. But my question is, who can they depend upon to coach him?