Similar question but with Draft Grades. Is an A for a great pick overall or for a great pick given what’s available? The latter would make much more sense when determining how good a job they did. But if that’s true, there are so few As. Also if that’s true, they should say who they would have chosen for the A.
Unfortunately I had to do family shit today and couldn’t act like a complete degenerate as is my ken. Looking over the Bears Day 3 takings…I’m not thrilled. Lets quickly run through the Bears draft in total.
Round 1 (25) - Dillon Thieneman
Enough has been said about him, but this is widely considered an excellent pick. He’s a potential steal based on consensus grades at a position of extreme need. chefs kiss
Round 2 (57) - Logan Jones
We traded for a Center in the offseason, so Jones isn’t necessarily expected to walk in as the starter, but in the wake of Dalman’s unexpected retirement this pick is logical. I might quibble a bit with the value here, Center being considered a low value position and Jones wasn’t exactly thought of as some elite, generational talent, but at the end of the day if the Bears loved his tape I’m sold. Hard to be pissed drafting a Iowa OL, especially when he was voted the best Center in the country. However, he wasn’t the consensus top prospect at his position, for what it’s worth. Bro also get s a lifetime supply of Ketchup, so winners all around.
Round 3 (69) - Sam Roush
And here’s where things start to go tits up. Roush is a quality prospect, no doubt, and he had a 3rd round grade, so I don’t have a major issue with the value. He’s considered the best “Y” tight end in the class - as opposed to a “Move” TE - so that may bolster his relative value if that’s a hole you’re trying to fill. But the Bears not only drafted Loveland in the 1st round last year they just handed Kmet a big contract. While I will always advocate for BPA, this creates a bit of a log jam. Was this a pure BPA pick, or does the team have issues with Kmet filling that inline TE role? There’s chatter around the league about innovative play callers really leaning into 13 personnel packages. The Bears don’t have a 3rd guy you want to count on, so I suppose this suggests that we’ll be seeing 3 TEs on the field a lot. Or at least we better if we’re making this pick.
We traded back out of the 2nd round and added a 5th round pick to land this pick.
Round 3 (89) - Zavion Thomas
This one feels like Velus Jones 2.0. Just a ridiculous selection. WR is a secondary need at best, and Thomas had a 7th round grade according to multiple sources. Brugler has him as his 34th WR prospect. He’s undersized, a poor route runner and has questionable hands. There was a bit of a crazy run on WRs ahead of this pick, so we got pretty deep into the well, and Thomas is one of the fastest players in the draft. He’s also considered an A+ character guy and hard worker so the intangibles are there. But for all his speed and strength he wasn’t very productive on deep balls. This looks like a primary PR/KR and a offensive gadget guy. He’s got experience coming out of the backfield, so I think it’s a safe bet that BJ tries swapping him in for a lot of DJ’s plays this year. But damn, he would have been there in the 5th.
Elijah Sarratt was available and went to the Ravens, of course. Sarratt was a highly technical route runner and hugely productive deep ball receiver. This is going to be the one that got away.
Round 4 (124) - Malik Muhammad
Getting back on track a little with this one. We definitely needed help at CB and Muhammad had a 3rd round grade making this a modest value. Muhammad is a skinny but long CB with nice traits and lots of experience. He will compete with Stevenson for a starting spot and if he’s able to add some play strength he could be a valuable addition. Looking forward to watching his tape, at Texas he definitely played some real competition. We traded up 5 spots to get him, so clearly we liked what we saw.
Last year’s fifth round pick Zah Frazier disappeared for “personal reasons” and missed his entire rookie year. Will be interesting if Muhammad pushes him off the roster entirely this year.
Round 5 (166) - Keyshaun Elliott
Unsurprisingly, the rankings this late in the draft get pretty volatile. ESPN has him as a UDFA, Brugler has him as the 3rd rounder. NFLN splits the difference and has him as a 5th rounder. So hard to gauge the value here. He’s a bruiser who sounds like a downhill LB who can bring the wood. There’s questions about his speed and agility and his pass coverage is a work in progress, which may be generous. We have a hole on the strong side so maybe Elliott can fill that role on early downs. Our run defense was atrocious last year, so we need the help, but will he get picked on with play action? Elliott, like Thomas, is supposedly a vocal leader, high character and work ethic guy, so that seems like a bit of a theme for this new staff.
Round 6 (213) - Jordan Van den Berg
The Bears waited about as long as possible to do anything with the Defensive Line. Which is nuts and the meatballs will be talking about this the entire offseason. This kid seems like a physical freak and once again, he’s a elite worker and high character guy. He’s got an interesting background and came to football late in life. He’s a COVID guy so he’s been playing college ball for 6 years making him an older prospect, but he has been productive in the last couple seasons as a starter. He’s not a total project and he definitely has the physicality to thrive in the NFL, but he’s a little light and a little short for a DT. He had a 7th round/UDFA grade and the Bears packaged 2 7ths to move up into the 6th to grab him.
So all in all, a scattershot draft at best. This is a weird draft class and I suspect a lot of fans are feeling pretty confused about their team’s picks, so maybe this is just par for the course this year. The Bears are graded as have the most athletic draft class, so Poles continues his trend of really valuing athletes above all else. He’s also favored locker room leaders, which is maybe Ben Johnson’s influence on the team. Can speed and intangibles overcome a lack of proven production?
Thieneman and Jones should end up a starters by year 2 at least, and probably as rookies. Thomas will return kicks and eliminate the need to roster a Duvernay-type player. If he gives us anything on offense that’s gravy. Muhammad and Elliott could surprise and win a starting job, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Roush is a wildcard, if he’s getting starts it means something has gone sideways, but he may be a rotational piece. If he flashes that might make Kmet expendable next offseason.
Don’t think about it too hard. While Mock Drafts can be silly and random, the people producing them actually try to make them coherent. Draft Grades on the other hand are entirely worthless dreck. Few graders demonstrate any consistency of thought. It’s pure vibes.
Agreed. It’s basically nothing more than “hot takes.”
I hope you’re ashamed of yourself.
One thing I love to do is check out different draft reviews and see how different “experts” have completely opposite takes for the same picks.
In case you missed it.
Some thoughts now that the draft is over:
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I agree with @Omniscient that draft grades are all but useless. Whether it’s every team getting at least a C to only looking at meeting their pre-determined team needs (hint: every fucking team usually hits their needs by the end of the draft) to slanting grades to the teams that had more early picks (the Jets had 4 picks in the top 50 thanks to tanking/trading assets last year, so they’re at the top of almost every draft grading. Same goes for the Giants), it’s ridiculous.
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By my count, there were considerably less trades of next years draft than there were any of the prior 3 years I checked. Only 10 teams trades this year involved next years’ draft, compared to 17 in 2025, 20 in 2024, and 17 in 2023. I think this jives with the conventional wisdom that this years’ draft lacked high end talent, and even depth. Next year should be interesting.
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The Giants defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson and John Harbaugh have a great opportunity to change the face of NFL defenses starting next year. With the massive investment in Edge players (#3 Arvel Reese, #3 Abdul Carter, #5 Kayvon Thibedeaux, and trading a 2nd and 5th for Brian Burns), and Reese’s and Carter’s versatility, the Giants have an opportunity to really embrace creative pass rushing and disguising coverages. Should be interesting.
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I was surprised there were not many player trades and no big names. I thought Brandon Aiyuk, AJ Brown, maybe George Pickens would have been traded before or during the draft.
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It was yet another huge “Meh” draft for the Packers. They overdrafted Chris McClellan, Jager Burton, and, by a massive amount, Trey Smack. Yes, the fucking drafted a fucking kicker, but not only that, they traded up to do it. I’ve now officially lost confidence in Gutenkunst. His inability to find talent in the middle rounds (2022 excepted) is incredibly depressing. I do like the Cisse pick, and love the Dani Dennis-Sutton pick, and they got J. Michael Sturdivant as an UDFA which I love, but the bill is coming due very soon for all of his missed opportunities in the draft.
In fairness, the Giants acquired 1.10 “honestly” by trading Dexter Lawrence for it straight up. Their 1.05, 2.05, 3.05 etc… picks, however, fit your characterization perfectly.
I think they’re just going to play them as OLBs in a traditional 3-4 defense, which of course has the creative pass rushing built in. I’ll be shocked if my conservative Giants come up with something groundbreaking.
On a personal note, my great irony is that I really don’t like 3-4 defenses, strongly preferring 4-3. Ironic because the Parcells Superbowls were both 3-4, and that’s the era I became a fan. The Coughlin Superbowls were much more my style having a strong emphasis on the 4-3 with Strahan/Tuck/Umenyiora dominating the line.
obviously he wasn’t paying attention to SF mistake in doing that
In addition too this draft being viewed as historically weak top to bottom, next year’s draft is expected to be very loaded. I suspect the 49ers may have been hoping to get a 2027 pick for #33 Thursday night/ Friday morning, but didn’t.
I’m still shaking my head over Niners drafting Kaelon Black with the 3rd pick, who wasn’t all that and a bag of chips! And then Kyle saying, presumably with a straight face, that "you need to have more than one starter " when we–and he–knows he will NOT ever utilize anyone to rest CMC., especially when he also proclaimed that CMC is key to offense. We’ve seen what happens when he goes down and offense sputters (2024)
and then bringing in a kicker after signing EP to extension
As an undrafted free agent? Teams very frequently do that; even if they have a kicker (or punter) whom they absolutely believe will be their guy for the upcoming season, they’ll still bring in a training-camp body at the position. For one thing, kickers and punters sometimes get the yips, and suddenly lose their groove, but for another thing, if your specialist gets hurt during training camp, it’s good to have a backup already in place.
Yes, agreed, bringing in a UDFA kicker is routine and a total no-brainer.
Or you trade two seventh round draft picks to move up to the sixth to draft a college kicker while ignoring the WR, TE, and RB position.
I’ve heard it both ways.
Yeah, the Packers’ move there was a headscratcher, even if they have concerns about McManus getting his groove back. It may come back to smack them in the butt (pun intended).
Trey bon, comment @kenobi_65.
Hey, be glad it was only a 6th rounder–it could have been a wasted 3rd rounder on a Moody like Niners
Yeah, maybe you can’t count on later round picks to fill positions but there absolutely are gems that occasionally work out great, and it’s not like anybody (sane) blames you if they don’t pan out.
Weird to trade up to get a kicker in that position
Everybody gets one
Especially this one. Got a feeling Packers fans are going to get sick of the puns soon enough
Ha!
Not as bad as the Jets history with kickers in the draft, but of course it’s not as bad because Jets. Remember Mike Nugent? On the one hand, the Jets were smarter in that they traded down to draft him instead of up. On the other hand, the pick they traded down was their first rounder and they drafted him in the second round! He wasn’t even a particularly great kicker. I mean, he was fine, but he was UDFA fine, not second round pick fine.