I know, I know, there's the crosstown series going on and I'm not saying anything about it. Well, personally, I've never gotten too into the series. First off, while I am a Cubs fan first, I've never held any hatred for the White Sox, and I even grew up watching the Cubs during the day and the Sox during the night. They represent the same city that I love, and they play in different leagues. It was minor enough when they played a whopping 6 games against each other, now it's down to 4. It's not a real rivalry, at best it's a novelty rivalry, and I really don't care too much about it. So with that to the side, what I'm going to try to do tonight is pull off the impossible and figure out who is going to be drafted by Emery in this upcoming draft. The toughest part of doing this is getting that guy the Bears will draft. Emery tends to draft a position that everyone knows he'll draft, but the player he drafts is always the surprise. So what I'm going to try to do is take guys that fit that Emery mold. A bit of a reach, but not a huge reach, and athletic or otherwise physically gifted. So here it goes!
First Round
Ideally the Bears are able to trade down for this one. Their best trade partners would be the Cardinals or the 49ers, trading down anywhere from 6 to 16 picks. If they trade with the 49ers, I'd like to see it be for a 3rd round and maybe a 5th or 6th round pick. The 49ers have 2 3rd round picks, so it's not unlikely that they would want to do this if there was someone they wanted still on the board at 14. For the Cardinals, the best thing about trading with them would be that they're drafting one spot ahead of the Packers. No, this doesn't mean that the Bears should draft based on what the Packers might want, but it would be a nice way to play some mind games. Anyway, in a trade like that I can only see the Bears getting a 3rd round pick, at best. So anyway, I'll go with the middle of the 3 situations (straight up draft at 14, Cardinals trade, 49ers trade).
So, now with the 20th pick in the first round, the Bears select ultra athletic linebacker, Ryan Shazier. Shazier had obscene combine. His least impressive number was a strong 25 reps on the bench press. Past that, he has a 42 in vertical, 130 inch broad jump, and ran a 4.36 40 yard dash at his pro day. The biggest knock on him is his size. He's 6'1" and 237 lbs. However, the difference between him and Ray Lewis at their draft days is 3 lbs. While he's a bit small, it's nothing that makes it impossible for him to play. Even if they do decide he's a bit small, he's a great candidate to move back to safety. Given his great speed, he's got more than the needed athletic ability to play safety. As an inside linebacker at Ohio State he had very good coverage skills and showed great instincts. So this pick would not only mean that the Bears would have a potential linebacker, but also a potential safety. Either way, all of the athletic skill is there along with very good instinct, it's just the size that has people worried, although that really hasn't shown with his strength, much like Aaron Donald, but as a linebacker.
Second Round
This is a bit tougher. I'm going to go through two scenarios here, so I'll have two potential picks for the Bears in this round. The first scenario is that Jimmie Ward is still on the board. If he is, then this pick is a no brainer for the Bears. Ward plays at a position of need for the Bears, and he's got a lot of what the Bears are looking for. Ward ran the 40 at his pro day in 4.47 seconds, a very good number, especially for someone with a rough foot injury at the time. He's incredibly versatile, being very good in coverage as well as against the run. His weakness seems to be a lack of strength, but his instincts are excellent, and as long as he's not being manhandled, he can be everywhere on the field at the same time.
The second scenario is if Ward is off the board. It's very tough to tell if he will be there or not. Most mocks have him dancing all around the Bears 2nd round pick, either just slightly before or slightly after. If he isn't there, the Bears have a nice consolation prize lined up in Deone Bucannon. Bucannon ran a similar 40 time, his at the combine, at 4.49 seconds. He has a 36.5 inch vertical, and he's got very good size at 6', 216 lbs. The knocks on him are worries about his coverage ability. However, on the plus side again, he's got a great makeup, coming from a military family. He's impressed scouts and GMs with his high character and great work ethic. Also, he's a hard hitter, which never hurts as long as it's within the rules of the game.
Third Round
With two picks in this round (after the Cardinals trade), I'm going to have the Bears taking Marcus Roberson and Justin Ellis. Both of these guys are players who might now have had great college careers, but were still good enough to gain notice. Both of them are high upside guys as well. Roberson has very good size, instincts, and fundamentals. The biggest weakness for him is that his durability isn't the best. However, he's almost the perfect guy to learn from Charles Tillman with a similar size and style of play, being a very physical player.
Justin Ellis is a very big boy. He's not especially fast, but that's not something overly important for defensive tackles. He's got good strength and has that size that will allow him to really plug up the middle against the run. I don't see him as anything special as far as pass rushing goes, but if he listens to guys like Ratliff, he can really maximize his potential, as Ratliff would be a great type of guy for him to pattern his play off of.
Fourth Round
Finally the Bears make an offensive pick here. I have them taking Marcel Jensen with this pick. He's got great size at 6'6" and 259 lbs. He has a 35 inch vertical to go along with that, and ran a solid 4.85 time in the 40 during the combine. He's got solid strength and very good hands that allow him to make tough catches, and he's actually not bad at all at blocking in the run game. There are some questions about his attitude and his agility as far as stop/go things go. He's still got great size and solid athleticism. He looks like a great candidate to put behind Martellus Bennett. Even though I made my feelings clear that I'm hoping for Onobun to succeed, it can by no means be counted on.
Fifth Round
Not being content with just one safety, I see the Bears go after another big and physical safety in Ken Ladler. If the Bears wind up with Ward or Buccanon earlier in the draft, Ladler is a safety who can compliment either one of them very well. Of course, in the fifth round you really don't expect to see too much out of anyone, but Ladler has a reasonable chance to become a very good safety, and would probably be better in coverage than Wright or Conte were last year (not saying too much).
Sixth Round
Another 2 pick round for the Bears, in the sixth round I see the Bears going with Oregon's De'Anthony Thomas and Larry Webster.
Thomas is a running back who reminds me an awful lot of guys like Darren Sproles. He's a small, quick running back, but at the same time he's a very good receiver out of the backfield. This is what has made Matt Forte so valuable to the Bears. Forte is a good runner, but it's his receiving ability that give him the advantage over other running backs. Thomas is another one of those guys. He could wind up being a very deadly offensive weapon, and with a sixth round pick that would be a huge steal.
With Webster you not only get another Emery type pick, as Webster is another ultra athletic type of player, but you get a guy who can potentially play a couple of different positions. He played defensive end in college, but he is fairly new to the game and hasn't been branded into any one spot. He is also a potential tight end given his size and speed. Still, at defensive end he was very strong last season. His numbers in the combine were not far off from where Clowney's numbers were. The big difference is that Webster is just so raw at this time.
So those are my, what turns out to be, 8 picks for the Bears, given Emery's style of drafting. They're not all the picks that I would make, but they're guys that, given what Emery has shown over the last 2 years, are guys that he's very likely taking a good look at. Then again, he could surprise us all and we could see a totally normal draft. We really don't know at this point, as the sample size is very small at this point, but given that small sample size, like I said, this is my best guess.
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