I'm with you on that. I think his bend is overrated as he can't get as low as he needs to if he wants to be compared with Von Miller.
Oh, shit - I didn't even mention my biggest takeaway: he missed a ton of tackles. Was just diving at the feet of QB's and running backs alike. The only plays that I saw him make genuinely good tackles were on plays where he was completely unblocked. It was really disappointing to see him fail to finish on play after play. Again, maybe it's just those tapes. But it really stuck out that he missed numerous opportunities to make a tackle.
He is outstanding don't get me wrong he has a ton of tools and a high ceiling, but when I see them make comparisons to Von Miller and I watch Von Miller bend and dip his shoulder Anderson can't get that low and and keep his balance to compare to that. I don't think you can go wrong with either Anderson or Carter, but right now Carter is my guy.
Yeah, the stupidity train has definitely left the station full speed ahead. Multiple pundits saying to trade Fields and then draft the top guy. My problem with this, is it only makes sense if you get ridiculous value for Fields. Equivalent to what the trade down would be, multiple 1sts, etc. I don't think any of these QB hungry teams wouldn't spend more for the #1 pick. What would Fields be worth on the open market? One 1st? That's probably generous. And there are holes all over this team that need filling. We fell ass backward into the top pick, make it count. Like you guys, I was also opposed to the distraction, but there's going to be almost all new players next year on this team, lots of interesting battles/drama, AND the knock on effect from hard knocks is that the media will suck your dick for the entire next season. See most recently, the Lions. I like how you're Carter over Anderson, and Pat is Anderson over Carter. I will be watching those guys for years to come to see who wins that one, heh.
lol I'll be watching those two regardless of where they go. I do have some reservations about Carter as well if there is any truth to the story that Todd McShay and only Todd McShay reported he may have some character issues inside the locker room. but damn fuck the media, how will the refs treat them? because Carter can be an offensive holding machine if they actually call them, and Fields life may depend on it holding defenses accountable for a change. This is going to be a fun offseason, I feel like a kid in a candy store after I returned a buttload of returnable bottles and have a pocket full of money.
Thats great stuff on Anderson dline. His size and fit for our D is a legit question imo. One of my biggest concerns is would teams run all over him, tho you suggest he me be more resilient to that than his pure size/weight numbers suggest. There have been undersized rushers who have achieved this, Leonard Floyd is one that springs to mind for the Bears. Carter's performance in the CFP is a problem to me. 3 tackles in 2 games. 0 TFLs, 0 sacks, not so much as a single QB hit in 8 quarters of football. Sure he was doubled a ton but come on. The hell you gonna do with a double in the pros if you cant handle them in college? I can make allowances for having a bad game, its unfortunate but its the nature of sport and why they're not all robots. But two games in a row where you don't show up at all? The two biggest games of your season/college career, where big players have to show up and you don't? That raises a lot of questions imo.
I would also like to see them on Hard Knocks and think there's a very good chance I do. I'd be very interested to see how Coach Cuddles interacts with the players in meetings/practise during the week etc. I remember watching the Dolphins on it years ago and seeing the way Philbin was and knowing his ass was getting fired at the end of the season. I think it might've happened in season actually. Not saying thats going to happen to Eberflus, not until i watch the show at least heh.
Very good point and another concern I had with him was his snap count and conditioning. I believe he plays somewhere around 60% of the snaps, and he openly admitted he has to work on his conditioning after he laid an egg in the OSU game, but I believe that his game and his value is one that doesn't often show up on the stat sheet. If he's constantly drawing a double that opens up a weakness to exploit along the line.
So you could tell in the TCU game, he was their Aaron Donald. The one game under Nagy where they took him out of the game/James Daniels best career game in a bears uni and nobody else on the rams d could get home (but Mitch still sucked, so did Goff)—saw a lot of chips, doubles, and a couple of triples. They respected Carter and wasn’t going to let him beat them, and no matter how overrated I think a guy is, if he’s getting tripled by a G/C and a halfback—the other 10 guys, particularly the front 4–has zero fucking excuses. So him being invisible on the stat sheet getting tripled is fine—because then the expectation is the other 3 DL have 1 on 1s and the guy getting tripled shouldn’t be expected to win, the other 3 guys with the 1 on 1s should. And fwiw, I’m not on the Carter train now and probably won’t be—because the Ohio State game was the final straw for me giving the kid a chance. They weren’t chipping or tripling him. Their 4 soon to be drafted OL starters just took him out of the equation, including the C/RG Carter has clear size/power advantages on. Carter will still get drafted high because there aren’t a lot of high caliber, penetrating/non-NT DT/5 techs this draft. The Clemson kid Bresee had full knee reconstruction surgery and doesn’t look like what he did a year and change ago. Oregon has a crazy athletic DT/5 tech Dorlus who has the motor, agility, first step, and initial hand placement (of of his biggest strengths is his ability to knock the G/OT off their set-step) you want you just have to polish some very raw pass rushing moves, but keep in mind the kid turns 22 in March. Dorlus is my favorite 2nd round/3rd round target for the spot or Tuli Tuipulotu from USC, but he’s more of a unicorn hybrid DT/down DE/stand up edge rusher at 6’4 290 lbs. Tuipulotu’s knock mainly come from ‘what if’s’ when a team looks to put him at DE/edge, where his length is questioned and edge-setting needs natural next level progression. After this, it’s a lot of bricks in a wall guys that don’t stand out who aren’t close to a complete package/finished product. Wisconsin has a guy Benton who is see as a 5th round steal in a DT heavy draft but he may go 3-4 this year given lack of talent at the top. Saw some early bears Bilal Nichols in him. I haven’t seen Von Miller comps for Anderson. Have seen Myles Garrett comps (obviously not as tall or long as Garrett) given he’s the most complete 2 way edge rusher since Garrett. I don’t know if it’s just pundits filling air time but Brian Burns is the other comp I’ve seen for Anderson. Anderson’s best game was last year against Mississippi state, where he made #9 overall pick in last April's draft, OT Charles cross his bitch to the tune of 4 sacks and more pressures. He definitely took his foot off the gas at times this year—which will be scrutinized. It will also be scrutinized there’s 2 other guys in the top half of the 1st round at edge, DEs Myles Murphy from Clemson and Tyree Wilson from Texas tech—who are 6’5 and 6’6 and have the length we wish Anderson had. Given draft pundit season, Wilson and Murphy will get a lot of contrarian air time And teams who miss out on Anderson in the 1st have contingency plans if looking at edge—whereas after Carter it’s a steep drop off.
I did not watch more tape early this morning, when I fed the baby. I found "Ice Crush" from Red Bull - basically four ice skaters racing on a crazy track. Nuts. My bad. Will do more tonight.
I believe that Ravens loss last night moved the Bears up 2 slots in the 2nd round, from 55 to 53. Not much but i'll take it. We should pull for the Bucs tonight, i think if they win the Bears move up another spot.
I am excited to get some extra picks in trading down. I am nervous if Poles will pick the right guys. Gordon and Jones looked terrible.
The one plaudit Jones has received i agree with is the achievement of playing every snap the whole season. From the mental/preparation standpoint over a long grinding season that is impressive for any rookie, let alone a late round rookie who wouldn't have gone into OTAs/TC expecting to be an immediate starter. But thats about it. The rest of the love Jones has been getting is confounding to me. Saw a stat that he only gave up 4sacks all season, that is straight up bullshit. Whether they cant count or the calculation method is nonsense i dont know, but Jones gave up way more than that( i thnk he gave up 3 in the last 2-3 games). He also gave up a shit ton of pressures and frequent penalties, both pre and post snap. One thing i will say about Jones: It was obvious that he is clearly lacking in power and the bull rush was the go to move to beat him, but he does at least seem to know this. When the media were in the locker room after the last game he was seemingly quoted saying that he's gonna be spending his offseason in the weight room. Thats good. If he can get stronger he may deserve to start, albeit at RT. No way do i want him protecting Fields blind side next season which he probably will be.
Well this is something. Damn. Gordon did at spots but he impressed me and I have a little optimism for him. Like your boy Buster Skrine, the beginning of the season gave me bad flashbacks of teams intentionally putting their best WR in the slot for a clear mismatch and they abused him. Then, even without a competent front 4 he got better bit by bit. Then Jaylon Johnson went down and he was thrust into cb1/cb2 spots, where he didn’t look good to start but got incrementally better until the end of the year with Jaylon 1, Jaylon 2, and Gordon all looked like nice starters with a better front 4 to look forward to at cb/nickel spots. I’d go on to say, if you buy into the post draft chatter with Gordon where Dallas and other teams had him ranked as a 1st round talent—I get why you’d be disappointed. But he got better as the year went on—and I’m a guy who hated him being drafted last April. Ev hits a lot of points on Braxton Jones. I don’t think he’s useless. He can bully dbs and lbs on sweep plays better than anybody—which is also a massive reason his PFF “grade” is hyper inflated. In addition to sucking against bull rushes, he also isn’t good against speed combo moves, (Matt Judon on NE bullied him and the RT with a lot of inside speed-rip). He can run maul, so as a swing tackle or back up/late season starter at guard I like him and think he’s got a place here. I think those calling him a hidden gem is nauseating and gives the bears a reason to walk into next season with him continuing to be a liability in pass protection.
I was actually talking about Velus Jones. As for Braxton I didn’t think he was terrible. I also don’t think he was as good as many are giving him credit for. Only 4 sacks is hard to believe and let’s not forget nobody dropped back to pass less than the Bears. Maybe Braxton improves enough to make him a strong starter maybe not. He shouldn’t be pencilled in as an automatic starter.
Ha, oh yeah that Jones, yeah he was terrible. But a good example of how talent evaluators in the NFL get blinded by fads/trends when they should be focusing on core skills first. All the talk about Velus being the most "Deebo" WR in the draft must surely have been what got him drafted so high, rather than the boring stuff like can he run a route or even fucking catch. He does bring a lot of positives to the team also tho. With Velus there's always a responsible head in the room. It does players good to have a team mate old enough to be their dad. Coaches probably come to Velus when looking for advice on tweaking their pension plan, getting insurance with great critical illness cover, or the best questions to ask when finding the right retirement home. Seriously tho, hard to think how Poles could've made himself look any worse as a talent evaluator early re the WR position.
Pat has it right, I have to ignore pundits for the next few months. I've now seen multiple mocks that all have the Bears trading down, with the Texans, Colts, Raiders, Panthers, you name it. I haven't seen any double trade downs, which honestly is still on the table, heh.
And still-living widows peak idiot Mel Kiper just said yesterday there will be 3 quarterbacks at the top of the draft, including his fav guy Will Levis, but the bears won’t be able to trade out of the 1st overall pick. Make it make sense. I’ve avoided bears Reddit and Twitter because some of these mock fantasies are just…absurd. The bears aren’t getting 3 firsts trading within the top 10. On a side note, for those of us hoping for a trade down, Indy has to be the team if village drunkard Jim Irsay is going to go through and keep Jeff Saturday, which he wants to do but a minority owner for Indy doesn’t. That’ll be a top 5 pick next year (hello Marvin Harrison Jr)—and Chris Ballard will be going ‘Ryan Pace with draft picks’ to save his skin, even if he doesn’t see the fallout/gets fired. Another thing to keep an eye on, maybe nothing because I could be falling prey to a shitstain clickbait artist—but a beat writer for WFT said yesterday ‘they’re not going to keep Da’Ron Payne.’
That's what scares me, unless the Bears show an active interest in QBs why would anyone want to pay up for the golden ticket? Unless of course, that team is fairly certain of whom the Texans are going to select as their guy and go full-on hard-on Ryan Pace style.
Outside of the 2 playoff games where Carter was a non-factor, I didn't watch much of either. And I realize they play different positions but just going off of statistical production, it's not close that Anderson has been much better in his career: Anderson: 3 years - 41 games, 115 solo tackles, 62 TFLs, 34.5 sacks, 5 PDs, 1 INT, 1 FF Carter: 3 years. - 38 games, 44 solo tackles, 18.5 TFLs, 6 sacks, 4 PDs, 0 INT, 1 FF Production has to mean something right? I realize interior DL don't put up traditional numbers but given Carter also doing so little against the best teams (as opposed to Anderson as Patg already pointed out) how can anyone favor him over Anderson?
