After taking some time to research him, I’m liking the Emmanual Forbes pick a lot. Sure, he’s a beanpole, but he produced, against the best competition NCAA can offer. Samari Rolle wasn’t much bigger than him and he did just fine in the NFL.
Still, the skeptic in me wondered whether he got so many opportunities at balls because opposing QBs specifically targeted him. Then I looked at his stats:
2020 6 passes defended, 5 INTs, 3 TDs
2021 5 passes defended, 3 INTs
2022 11 passes defended, 6 INTs, 3 TDs
And I feel better. PD is not really a high quality stat, but it does seem to indicate that if he gets his hands near the ball, there’s relatively high chance he’s coming down with it.
Now, whether Gonzalez, Banks, or Porter outplays him in the NFL we shall see, but I’m not freaking out about the pick like some of my fellow Washington fans are. Maybe they made a mistake passing on Levis, but I don’t think they did.
Nah. He was mocked as a mid-late first quite a bit. Certainly wasn’t universal, but some people had him slotted there fairly early on. Keep in mind that 1st round picks get 5 year contracts. Later rounds only 4. If you like Hooker, you really want that extra year since he’s injured and relatively raw.
At this point it would be shocking if he went over Levis considering the injury and age. That would suggest a major character issue with Levis.
I really like that he’s a natural RT as well. We’ve been shuffling guys around the line for what feels like a decade. Jenkins is apparently moving to LG after playing just about everywhere else. If Wright locks down the RT spot for the next 5+ years, it will remove so much drama.
A 4th round pick next year, to be precise. So the Bears already have 9 picks next year.
I’m sure other teams were interested in Carter at #9, and would have offered Poles more (since he’d be trading back further). He must have been locked in on Wright and feared losing him after #10.
Yeah, I wonder what the other offers were. Wright wasn’t the consensus best OT left on the board and might have made it to like 15. But that’s a big gamble to make. In the end, I’m feeling really good that we addressed that spot and added something as a bonus.
Just spitballing via the Johnson chart, if the Patriots at #14 had been interested in moving up to #9, they would have had to offer their 2nd round pick (#46). That would have been a big gamble for Poles, considering OTs also came off the board at #11 and #14. He might have gotten one, but not necessarily the one he wanted.
Assuming someone else moved up to 9, the Bears would have to predict what the other teams would do.
The Eagles at 10 probably wouldn’t have grabbed a OT.
The Titans at 11 took Skoronski. Big gamble there, Wright played in their back yard and might have been higher on their board.
The Cardinals at 12 swapped picks with the Lions to draft Gibbs. Seems likely that this would have still happened.
The Packers traded up to 13 for an Edge and don’t really need an OT, so that probably would have remained unchanged.
The Steelers traded up to 14 to grab the last OT of the tier. The Pats really need an OT so it’s a bit strange that they traded out here, maybe they disliked Jones and would have stood pat for Wright. Or maybe the just didn’t value any of the OLs this high. Whatever the case, I don’t think you can trust that Wright gets past here.
The Jets are swapped with the Packers and really need an OT at 15. Everyone assumes the Steelers leapfrogged them because they knew the Jets were looking at OT. At this point, I think there’s no chance Wright slides past them.
Long story short, if the Bears liked Wright there’s no chance they could have trusted he’d slide further than 11. This was their only option. Even if they had an equal grade on Wright, Skoronski and Jones, there’s no chance that one of the 3 would have made it past the Steelers at 14.
Excellent analysis, and I agree. The easiest thing for Poles to have done was just to take Wright at #9, so even getting a 4th rounder next year is a cool bonus.
Goodell has certainly managed to steer into the skid on being the NFLs heel. Feels like we’re a decade away from him being the quintessential love-to-hate guy.
Looks like NFLN installed a new plexiglass panel to manage the background noise. Might be actually watchable.
My Dolphins finally showed up. With the 51st pick, we selected a Defensive Back.
I’m guessing this is a “best player on the board” pick (I just heard Mel Kiper say there was talk at one point that he could be a 1st rounder), since the team really needs a tight end or linebacker, and traded for Jalen Ramsey in the offseason.
