Post Draft 2018

   With the draft over I can see now that evaluating talent is one thing and predicting what teams want or need is another. Everybody knew the Browns needed a QB, but until days or even hours before the pick there wasn't that many who believed that Baker Mayfield would be the pick, most believed it should have been Sam Darnold like myself and some people I don't understand what they where thinking had them picking Josh Allen so the need was obvious but what they wanted wasn't. Then the Browns with their 4th pick didn't need a DE but could have gotten arguably the best player in the draft in Bradley Chubb but instead went with need again and reached for Denzel Ward letting Chubb land on Denver's lap like it was their birthday. Then came Chicago's pick selecting ILB Roquan Smith, who didn't necessarily fill a need, the Bears needed at least to address the position with some depth, but went with the best player available, something that Ryan Pace has said to be his motto and finally showed it this year. Honestly I really didn't like the pick that much, I can understand the pick and any other pick at that spot with the players available would have been considered a reach for the Bears in terms of need, so basically their best move was to trade down which I would have preferred but if there aren't any decent offers well then the only option left is to pick value. Smith comes with a very high ceiling but great concern, I like his awareness and showed he can read plays, he is fast to go side to side and strong enough to tackle RBs on his own. He isn't good shedding OL blockers and can be eliminated from plays completely, so I really hope Vic Fangio can help him with that because if he does then this guy is going to be very good and should push Nick Kwiatkoski to the backup role. 

   Biggest reach in the fist round should go to the Steelers picking up S Terrell Edmunds, I think he is an average player and had him going in the 5th round at least, they took the spotlight away form the Seahawks with their own questionable pick of RB Rashaard Penny, there where more options at RB than S at this point so this one could be more of a headscratcher. The Saints and Raiders really reached for their guys but at least Oakland didn't give picks to get him but instead got picks by trading down, although the 49ers maybe are to blame for possibly screwing them by picking the T they wanted. There really wasn't a pick I loved, but Indianapolis trading down and getting the best ranked OL player in Quenton Nelson to protect Andrew Luck was awesome. I wont call the D.J. Moore pick by the Panthers a reach yet because I did read a lot of hype from a lot of people about him, I don't really see anything really obvious that tells me he is special but seems I'm missing something then. I did decent in my rankings i believe, I did though do horribly on my TE and S list but well still it was pretty fun doing the lists although it really time consuming even if I just scraped the surface of a real player analysis.

   Bears second rounders James Daniels and Anthony Miller are really good picks, I really like Miller's play and attitude. Daniels fills a big need for the Bears and hopefully he will eliminate the problem at LG if he is able to play as he did C at college. Fourth pick Joel Iyiegbuniwe (got it on my third try... first time didn't even write what I thought to write) was a reminder that Pace is the Bears GM and he is picking his small school prospects, I'm getting used to it and giving Pace the benefit of the doubt on these type of players given now his brief history of late draft picks that have worked but having guys like Lorenzo Carter go some picks earlier or Josh Sweat still on the board is hard to digest. Fifth pick Bilal Nichols, another small school prospect, will play the 5Tech and hopefully bring depth to the position. Finally in the sixth round Bears address the pass rush picking Kylie Fitts who I had as a seventh rounder, supposedly Fitts had a long run of bad luck getting injured most of his college carrier but has what it takes to be a good OLB, this position of not the first at least the second most important need the Bears had and to try and fix it with a sixth rounder feels like a big gamble. Seventh round WR Javon Wims will battle for a backup spot and he wont have it easy. As a result from this draft the Bears came up strong at ILB with a possible upgrade as a starter and dreat depth, no DBs selected this year means same starters and depth from last season most likely which isn't bad, no OT improvement meaning that Bobby Massie will start one more season (sigh), WR is loaded and most likely almost everyone that makes the team will have a role, TEs set, RBs set, DL set and yes finally QB set so its rookie minicap followed by OTAs then 2 months of no one getting charged, arrested or suspended so we can get to the nightmare that is August with training camp and the pre-season praying no one gets a mayor injury and we can start the season, almost there. 

   There were many players I had going before the third round that didn't even get picked, so yeah whatever I may have gotten it wrong, only time will tell, but guys like Simmie Cobbs Jr and Holton Hill not getting picked was unimaginable for me, I was checking the URFA list to see if the Bears picked them up, unfortunately they didn't although they did pick up Kevin Toliver that seemingly has personality issues but I had him as a third rounder. 

   So I have something to look back to and see if how I looked at things works, even if there is so much more things that impact a players success like scheme,  team chemistry, all around team talent, injury, etc. Vven so, if I got something right it wont stop me from going I KNEW IT!