That article doesn't mention it, but there is now a warrant out for his arrest. Complete idiot. BUT, that does mean now that if we trade to 4, the Cardinals are more likely to take Anderson than Carter I would think. And with something like this, I doubt the Bears draft him, so that double trade idea is probably the most attractive. I know it won't happen, but I still want your boy Skoronski, so if there's a way to trade down and still get him, I'd be all about it.
Unbelievable. The biggest couple months of his life so far, where he's on the cusp of life altering money, and he does something like that. Mind blowing.
News of Carter’s involvement means we and Poles have likely dodged a bullet. Let the Raiders take him, he’d be a perfect fit for them. Seems like it will now come down to Anderson or Skoronski.
Ok… Is there something I’m missing here? Isn’t Will Anderson like 238 pounds? Where are they going to put him? They’re not switching to a 3-4 I wouldn’t think.. so what am I not understanding here? He doesn’t fit. Wouldn’t it be smarter to trade down, acquire more picks, and draft a more traditional 4-3 defensive end like Myles Murphy?
Think the Cardinals are in on Anderson or a WR. AJ green retired, they’re about to deal Nuk Hopkins, leaving 2 smurfs, Rondale Moore and Marquis Brown—neither of which were needle movers, Brown was when he was with Baltimore but I think Kyler Murray is cancerous to be a teammate with and limits him. He’s my least favorite of projected 1st round WRs, but I can see them going Johnston from TCU. A 6’5 (and every time I watch him, painfully slower than molasses) jump ball guy is a need now that they’re about to lose the two they had. Of course, they also have to replace JJ Watt, their leasing pass rusher and 5 tech. Not trying to insinuate ageism, but I don’t think weight matters the way it did a decade ago. The game, from HS to college has changed so much. Kids are more athletic, lighter, faster than ever. I agree on principle of scheme, but that hasn’t stopped poles or Flus. I thought Trevis Gipson was a goner this time a year ago. Never played a 4-3 and has been a 3-4/3-3-5 edge since high school, yet he was on the roster. And I get I’m cherry picking, but 238 in college isn’t going to be his listed weight for week 1 of even preseason. Colts DE Yannick Ngokue is listed at 246, and they run a 4-2-5. 9.5 sacks over 14 games, don’t think that it matters if the talent is there. Myles Murphy or the Texas Tech kid Wilson is ideal at DE. Wouldn’t complain with either, since I presume Poles is going to continue to ignore the OL.
2023 Beat Writer Mock Draft: QBs go fast in Round 1 and Aaron Rodgers finds new home I don't have a subscription, but apparently Jahns traded the Bears down twice and picks up Skoronski, netting a solid haul. I would not be unhappy with that at all.
I share your concerns re Anderson. Ignoring some of the fundamental truths of the sport is how the Bears wound up with fucking She McLellin instead of Chandler Jones. I'm sure Anderson will be a better player than She, but in terms of scheme the point still stands. Like you i think targeting a more prototypical DE makes a sense in some ways. Cos of the scheme fit but also if it allows a bigger trade down then you're guaranteed a bigger haul of draft picks to rebuild more quickly.
The game has definitely changed and its had an effect on the kind of body types you see.....but thats also fairly position specific. WR? Absolutely. LB/S hybrid? Yep. DE? Thats an interesting position to examine actually cos there are some examples of undersized guys playing a 4-3 DE, im just not sure how many of them would be considered an actual success. You mentioned Gipson & Ngokue, those are better examples for Bear-man than you imo. Gipson was almost completely ineffective. Ngokue should be a hugely in demand DE given the sacks he always racks up, but he isn't. In fact the guy is on a different team every year it feels like. The reason? He is dogshit against the run. And thats the concern we get back to re Anderson. Really, who do you want holding the POA when you're going up against Wills or Conklin and Chubb is headed your way on an off-tackle run, the guy giving up 60lbs or the guy giving up 20-30lbs? Leonard Floyd was very much an outlier in that regard. Not saying Anderson should be off the board, but scheme fit will always matter and there's def a case for a more traditional approach.
Unlike Ngokue and Floyd (who had a myriad of other things he couldn’t/didn’t fix here vs what the rams asked him to do that made him successful,) Will Anderson’s scouting report says he’s a dominant run stopper (draft network) and lists him right now at 245 lbs, not 238 (I don’t know if that’s what he weighed in during the underwear Olympics this week/still ongoing or not). Again, we have a ways to go before week 1 or even preseason. We don’t know what weight he’ll be at, so for now—while it’s speculation/scrutinization season—it’d be disingenuous to write the guy off based on weight when we don’t know the final number. My point in bringing up Ngokue is that the 4-man front has changed. DEs aren’t coming in at 280+ anymore, unlike a decade and change ago under Lovie with Alex Brown, Adewale Ogunleye, The Bosas are in the low 260s, so are longtime Vikes DEs (before their change a year ago to a 34) in Danielle Hunter and Griffin as well as Hutchinson on Detroit. Ngokue is 246. Kayvon Thibedeaux is 255. Im not saying they gotta be lower weight. For context, Carlos Dunlap, Frank Clark, and plenty of other guys are in the 270s. Weight isn’t an indicator. It shouldn’t be. Even though I can point to Ngokue, one can quickly point to Bumass Mohammed a year ago who came in at 252. And I’ll take Anderson’s moves/ability over that. Will Anderson Jr. NFL Draft Scouting Report
That's good stuff. I don't know enough about the individual players to say whether the Bears should be taking Anderson or Murphy if they're hypothetically sat there at 4 with both on the board. 2 things i can say tho, 1: I would take either over Carter now and thats not a hard decision. He may go on and have a great career, but right now there's no question the red lights are flashing. 2: Despite 1(which is as much character based concerns as anything), scheme fit will always matter hugely to me. Pure athletic profile seems to almost take a little bit more priority every year with teams, especially this week of the year. I'm not on board with it and not gonna be either.
So, I enjoyed watching Kancey. Good recommendation. I watched his Tennessee game from earlier this season. They lined him up at multiple spots, so I had to watch some plays twice just to find him from the snap, but I felt like he was always noticeable after the snap. Now, I will say that I don't know anything about him other than the tape I watched - no idea of his measurables or what he did at the combine. First, it's clear that he's a smaller dude at the position. However, he really held his own at the LOS. His lateral agility / foot quickness was outstanding - I mean, genuinely impressive. And he showed that he had some solid moves with his hands, stacking and shedding reliably, swim move, etc. I think that a focus at one spot would help him. He is not presently a Micah Parsons-type talent, nor do I think he has that high an athletic ceiling. More often than not, he was just bullrushing (granted, it worked), and I think more dedication at one role will help him develop his moves / speed at that position. He has a tendency to stand up a little too quickly, wanting to stack and shed his man, so he could be more consistent at keeping his pad level low. I see why his tape is exciting. I'm not sure yet that he has the next-level get off or ability to split blocks the way you want out of an elite 3tech, I'd have to watch more. But there's some real potential there.
While I’m utterly perplexed at two of them, the big money deals of Geno Smith, Daniel Jones and Derek Carr only help the bears in the qb market. Teams are going to want cheap options as opposed to paying a 1st round bust now journeyman 33.3 mil a year, while Carr, who we assume is a ‘franchise starter’ making 37 and change mil. And how the fuck Daniel Jones just got 40 a year from NY I’ll never know. Parsons plays the same role Bruce Irvin did for Seattle during the legion of boom (and the way the Vikings should have used Anthony Barr but never did) because that’s how you make him effective, Dan Quinn has shown—already having two proficient DEs (Cliff Avril Michael Bennett in Seattle and Demarcus Lawrence/Dorance Armstrong and Dante Fowler now) and interior DL and using your best athlete/one of your best athletes at any time to pressure further, seal the edge, rush the passer, be an extra man in the box, or make an open field play until Irvin got too old and settled at edge/DE while Bobby Wagner took over being the rangy athlete. I don’t have faith Alan Williams can do that with Anderson. Maybe Flus could, especially if the defense is still a steaming pile of ass halfway through next season if he were to take over calling plays. That I don’t know. How long is Alan Williams’ leash? Lots of bears writers gave him a pass for this past season. I’d feel better if we still had Vic, or at least the scheme.
Ok, so if we are going to play the metrics game then I guess we should take Skoronski off the table with his 32 1/2 inch arm length. Personally I wouldn’t but there are a lot more elite edge rushers the size of Anderson than there are LT’s with 32 1/2 inch arms.
Skoronski is a Illinois-born Packers fan? I get his Granddad was a packer, but still, the meatball in me says no thanks now, heh, and I hope he goes to some shitass team and has a terrible career. I read a bunch of reports today that a deal is "close" for the #1 pick, with multiple offers on the table. I'm curious what they end up getting. I'm a little surprised it maybe happen this far in advance of the draft.
Geno doesnt surprise me at all. Carr does only in as far as his destination. In a weak division i can buy the concept of this aquisition making them a playoff team, but the Saints have 1 and done written all over them. They've put off the rebuild to be a barely-above-middling team. But Carr getting paid is no shock at all in a QB starved league. The guy's a 4 time pro bowler, and while he's not as good as that may sound, he's never been as bad as he's been talked down much of his career. Jones straight up fleeced the Giants, i'll laugh my ass off if he goes back to being shit next season. But all of this does the Bears no harm at all, quite the opposite in fact. The only thing thats about to annoy me is the Pukers getting good draft capitol for Erin. 1 more year and his value would've fallen off a cliff. I could've lived with 1 more year at this point. This is a good point. I have no faith in Williams next season with a D that will undoubtedly have more talent. I don't rate him. I think its highly likely he is off the Bears board for this very reason, which would be the wrong move, even considering varders perfectly reasonable meatball angle heh. If the Bears make a deal soon, or basically anytime in March, its gonna be huge. Yeah it would be useful to know pre FA where you stand, but basically no GM has ever known that where big draft trades are concerned so its not a big deal. Poles can run this right up to draft day if he needs to, its not him that the pressure is on. He was right when he said publicly that a team will have to pay extra for the privilege of an early deal.
With the run of tags being applied right before the deadline the RB market looks to have taken a turn away from Poles/the Bears unfortunately. Saquan, Jacobs & Pollard all gone. This will do nothing to help the Bears get a deal done with Monty, not for a team friendly number anyway i feel. Poles had a prime 2 month window there to get it done. He gave Monty some love with public comments showing he was wanted, but at the same time career low rushing numbers and a flooded RB market meant the Bears were clearly the ones negotiating from the position of strength. Either Poles got too cute with the lowballing or Monty has been asking for way too much money. Hard to imagine the latter given the above reasons. Also, if that was the case then you'd really expect some kind of leaks appearing in the media. When teams feel player demands are unreasonable thats often what happens. We've seen a load of it with the Ravens & Lamar. The Giants tried to do it too with Jones' demands, tho they eventually unbuckled and bent over anyway. With Monty there's been barely a whisper. This feels to me like a deal that shouldn't have been too hard to make. Have to wonder if maybe Poles has overplayed his hand with this one.
I think it’s the wrong move too. Slater, who he replaced and did just as good if not better as, had 33” arms. I can’t see how that 1/2 inch makes Skoronski a guard. The Bears still have their starting RB on their roster in Herbert. If Monty was resigned it would be in a complimentary role at best. Poles has the money to let Monty test the market and out bid anyone if the price is right. Think about this. Why would Minty resign with the Bears before hitting the Market? If poles was offering him starter money he is a fool. Keep drafting rb’s in the mid to late rounds.
So, my watch of Calijah Kancey was a 2 AM phone session while I burped the baby. I plan to watch more tape, because I'm not sure how I feel about him yet. Myles Murphy, on the other hand, I think I have a good feel for. Watched several tapes on the laptop this week. Long story short, I think he'll be "good to very good", but I have a hard time seeing "great" - at least, in Chicago's current front. He LOOKS the part. Tall, heavy, strong, and has a phenomenal get-off. He has decent hand work with one or two solid moves (ex: rip), and enough lateral quickness to punish OT's who get stupid. HOWEVER, he doesn't show elite speed or bend on outside rushes. And he can get upright too quickly, allowing people to get their hands on him and lock him up. He doesn't really have any moves other than those one or two, so once he's locked up, he has a hard time getting off and making an impact. And he hasn't shown the ability to fight off OT's hands consistently, if they're quick enough to match his get-off. I would say that, if he can develop his hands and a counter move or two, he'll have a solid career as a physical DE. If he can show the ability to convert speed to power, keep his pads low, and develop a reliable strong arm to keep people's hands off him around the edge, then there's the potential for an elite rusher here. But that's a lot to ask. I see a guy that you can take as a late first or second round pick and feel happy about it - he's a physical rusher who can be problematic on the right team. Again, that get-off is outstanding. But I don't see a player comparable to other elite 4-3 DE's in the league, and would not draft him ahead of Anderson Jr, even with the body type to fit the scheme. And I have my reservations about Anderson's fit in Chicago. The search continues!
