Thread: NFL Draft Scouts Player Rankings........

Originally Posted by GermansbombedPH

this is what I meant.

Trade our 1st for PIT 1st and their 3rd
Something like this

I don't have any problems with that if they've identified a guy they want and can get 5 or 6 picks later. There's good depth in this draft and a number of positions and we'd have 5 picks in the top 100 players. Not a bad spot to be in when we need younger players for depth and to develop into starters a couple of years down the road.

Originally Posted by soulman

Sayin' it don't make it so. I think whoever wrote that should check his stats because I don't understand how a team that rushes for 1700 yards and averages 4.6 ypc can do that behind a line that blocked poorly. That means only 281 runs actually gained yardage and their average then climbs to 6.1 ypc. Barber was the only back to average less than 4.0 ypc mostly because he got the majority of the short yardage carries and Forte had the longest run from scrimmage, 46 yards.

Even if we accept that as being true where's the catastrophe? They gained yardage on 76% of their plays, averaged 6.1 ypc on those plays and had a top ten rushing offense. I wouldn't call that a catastrophe. I'd say somebody had to be blocking someone some of the time. My guess is that he's including the yardage lost on sacks and the number of sacks in his calculations. Those are not rushes. They're charged against passing yardage.

My calculations are based on just what the three RB's did. I didn't include QB scrambles where the average ypc on those runs would tend to be higher because it doesn't measure the efficiency of the run blocking. I question the accuracy of Seifert's report. He's grinding his axe over Webb and the rest of the line gets unfairly drawn in and he goes looking for data to support his position. Sorry but the true stats don't jive. When a team runs for 1700 yards and averages over 4.5 ypc run blocking can't be "catastrophic". The Bears run blocking was okay. It was the pass blocking that sucked. Even Webb is fair run blocker.

Correction, soul. The Bears rushed for 2,015 yards, good for 4.4 yards per carry.

I will also agree with soul and call bullshit. This offensive line was excellent at run blocking, and, in fact, the team finished eighth in the league in rushing yards and ran for 2,000+ yards for the first time since 1990.

Originally Posted by WindyCity

I think that the more troubling point brought up by the stat is how good could we have been? We probably should have rushed for over 200 yards this season.

It makes me wonder how much better Forte and Cutler make our OL look at times, I know Cutler makes them look significantly better.

You worry too much about the Oline. For the most part they aren't very experienced playing together and at the start of the season 4 guys were playing in positions they had either not played or hadn't played for an entire season. Personally I think the running yardage was okay considering or top back missed four games. I think it was the passing yardage that was deficient.

I forgot who wrote the article you quoted but if he'll kindly give us figures for the other 31 teams it would be easier to evaluate. I watched the Broncos get stuffed a lot too until Tebow started running an option offense and they finished on top of the heap but their RB's only gained 92 yards more than the Bears. Tebow was their second leading rusher with 660 yds.

The line will get better. We lost Carimi for the whole season, CWill for about half of it, and Forte for a quarter of it and our RB's still put up 1702 yds rushing. That's not bad for a bunch of second stringers and two 7th round draft choices. There's no way their problem is with run blocking and they will get better with more experience playing with each other.

At this juncture, soul and Windy, we may just wind up taking a WR in the first round because of the poor showings Mike Adams and Peter Konz have had at the Combine. Adams in particular bothers me because if what he says about himself is true, we're just getting another J'Marcus Webb, only he will get paid more than Webb because of his draft status. He probably won't be ready to play LT immediately coming into the league, and we really don't need another RT.

I shudder to think that we will wind up taking Michael Floyd in the first round, though. I'd rather have Mercilis than him.

Originally Posted by WindyCity

I agree, I address the need at WR and DE before I get to the OL.

But it has been ignored for so long and we have made so many excuses. It would be nice to go into a game knowing that we are going to dominate the line of scrimmage.

You do have to prioritize those positions because we need immediate help in both if we hope to compete for a championship. We actually got to a championship with that Oline in 2010. That aside if we can fill that WR opening and a pass rusher in FA or if there is just no one on the board worth the pick taking a can't miss Olinman like Glenn or Konz isn't a waste. I don't think a good lineman on either side of the ball is ever a waste.