Thanks for the info, Rob. AM670 in Chicago this week said after his deal the bears are sitting at roughly 6-8 mil in cap remaining before cuts/other moves, so I imagine his bonus will be sizable. So as I've mentioned a couple times, picking at the end of the 3rd round right now is a pretty tough spot to start projecting. As I mentioned a few times, I'm looking for guys who are/were higher grades dropping for any reasons. I've mentioned Bryce Love several times, the RB from Stanford. 6'0, 197 lbs (info pre-injury, he's been training for combine and will try to work out, I imagine he'll be at 210 lbs range). He was the best RB in college football in 2017, and should have won the Heisman. He blew Saquan Barkley out of the water. Had he come out last April, many believe he was a 1st round pick (he only averaged 8 ypc and rushed for over 2000 yards), but he stayed at Stanford. Primarily a runner in 2017, his career as a Cardinal he fluctuated being a receiving back, heavy on his Freshman and Senior/2018 years. His Freshman and Senior years he was used as a dual threat/out of backfield. Sophomore and Junior years? Stanford had that Christian McCaffrey for that. Some fans/pundits think his low receiving totals for those years matter. Again, Christian McCaffrey was the guy he split time with who did the pass catching out of the backfield. He tore his ACL in November, after having a slight step-back of a season, because Stanford lost several starters, including the right half of their OLine going into 2018. Johnny Kaspers, their RG/signal caller being gone hurt, as his splits running off the RG/RT took a hit from 2017 to 2018, which is why his 2018 pre-injury numbers look pedestrian at 5 ypc. To the tape. Versus Notre Dame in 2018 You see what I mean right away, a zone run off the RG to start the game, and ND has 3 guys in the backfield before Love can go anywhere because the RG got blasted by the 5 tech. He has to earn every yard. I like early how he throws himself in front of a charging 5 tech to give his QB time to throw, chip-blocking him. Stanford's offense tend to be more pro-style, however you see a lot of RPO looks and inside zone runs to Love, which entices me with his flexibility and belief that this kid will fit easily into Nagy's system. You see it all there on plays he's catching passes out of backfield or has any space. The vision, the cut ability, balance, shiftiness. I'll get to his 2017 tape in a second to see more of the good, but you can tell this is the kind of guy where if the 10 other guys do their jobs for 1-2 seconds, he's gone. The 40 yard TD run at the ~1:40 mark of the tape is something to marvel at. Just a simple misdirection from QB zone run off the C/RG. I like how Stanford shows multiple looks. Pro-style where QB is lining up under center, then RPO/Nagy style where Love goes horizontal before he goes vertical for big gains from jet sweeps or bubble screens. When we talked about the coaching searches post John Fox and Juicebox, David Shaw was a name I/several mentioned. THe coach of Stanford knows how to put his guys in position to get to the next level. He's a guy ND, a solid team (2nd or 3rd tier, Notre Dame had no business playing Clemson in the college football playoff) flat out respected. RPO fakes three guys chase him, including an ILB, which open up the play action fake to a wide open guy where the ILB of ND's 3-4 should have been. ND deserves a lot of credit for this game. They won the LOS. WHen Love is getting hit in the backfield, its typically 3 guys. #72, stanford's Olineman (LG or LT, cant tell) does his best J'Marcus Webb on a lot of plays. The 'oh, that was my guy I just let walk by.' ND bottled him up a lot in the backfield. But the plays they dont? Look out. Second game tape. 2017 versus University of Washington Huskies. I picked this game because in 2017, the Huskies had a top defense in all of college football and had 5 defenders drafted (Vita Vea, 2 LBs, 2 DBs.) You can tell Shaw again knows and understands the game. You see guards pulling/linemen shifting to take out Vea, the highly drafted 5 tech this past April. You can immediately tell the difference in right side of Oline for Stanford. Love has no problem on busted plays getting 4 yards. You still see the same techniques, chip blocking LBs and blitzing SS, even a Dlineman. You see the vision, Vea (#50 with the hair in white) busts a double team from Olinemen but Love cuts and gets around that impending disaster and moves the chains. ~40 seconds in. Watch further and you see it all. Elusiveness, effort, vision, break tackle, understanding of his role and adjusting (you see the guard/tackle whiff a couple of times and he shifts to chip the incoming defender to give the QB more time). So what's the knock? Durability is the obvious one. He tore his ACL in November, which is by no means a career ender. Some also chide him for missing cutbacks when running off a guard into a nose tackle (most Pac - 10 teams run the 3-4 or 3-3-5). From a former NFL scout: Stanford RB Bryce Love projects most favorably as part of a stable of backs, his lack of durability is a significant barrier to featured success. In addition, Love struggles to consistently follow his blockers in power rushing concepts and can be passive pressing the line of scrimmage. As a result, his speed to the perimeter would be best implemented as an outside zone back and regular rotation of snaps. Does not play through lateral contact well. So he's not a power runner, and with the knee injury, obviously durability will be questioned. Regardless, this to me is pretty simple. If he's there at the end of the 3rd, and medicals check up fine--you take him in the 3rd round, because this is a 1st round talent. Everything is of course, subject to change, and also--there's a solid chance he may not even be there come when the Bears pick. Higher talents that have been injured still have gone high. CBSucks ranks him the #11 back, with some guys I'm kind of questioning above him, but I understand again with the injury. WFB ranks him 13. This isn't a draft with a workhorse/do it all guy like Barkley last year or Melvin Gordon/Todd Gurley in 2015, or Zeke Elliot in 2016. Josh Jacobs is the ranked #1 guy right now, and his 5'9 frame (even though he's a Bama back) isn't workhorse. Most of the top RBs this draft are 5'10 or shorter, sans the kid from Oklahoma, Tony Pollard, the kid from Michigan State, and Love.
I'm sure most of us expected a pretty tame offseason, and the bears showing just that. So far at the combine they've met with a handful of kickers and running backs. The RBs include Bryce Love, Benny Snell from Kentucky, James Williams from Washington State, and Miles Sanders from Penn State. The noteworthy back here is Williams, who had 83 receptions in 2018, also 122 rushes for 566 yards. Sanders and Snell are run heavy backs (24 and 17 receptions in 2018). They've also met with LG Alex Bars from ND. Bars is a 2-3 round projected guard, but can't stay healthy, and many have written him as a 'buy low' candidate. Doesn't play tackle though.....
LAOJoe and RTTRUTH's 10th Annual Collaborative Mock Draft would love to have a knowledgeable Bears fan making GM decisions for their favorite team. Participation is actually quite easy. It begins Tuesday April 9th. Any of you interested in participating? They are a ton of fun for anyone who follows the draft. You get to make the selections for your favorite team and then imagine them winning the division and making a deep playoff push based on your expert decisions. Who's in? patg006? You seem like a guy who appreciates the relevance of every decision a GM makes during draft time. Love the Bryce Love breakdown by the way. Saddest injury this year.
