Thread: Okoye likely finished w/ Bears

Wish we could hold onto him but we just don't have the dollars.

*sigh*

Well, that means we need to draft a DE + DT. Let's trade down our 19th pick and accept a lower first-round pick and an additional second-round pick. Michael Floyd, Fletcher Cox and Whitney Mercilus won't be available anyway imo.

1st: DT Brandon Thompson [Clemson]
2nd: DE Andre Branch [Clemson]
2nd: WR Alshon Jeffery [South Carolina]
...
...

etc...

Let's grab two defensive linemen with our first two picks. They both know each other and know how to play together. Have a lot of potential.
Branch was the leader of a talented Clemson defense in 2011 and he's one of the better speed rushers in this year's draft. Plays with good effort. Isn't a lazy player.
Thompson does a good job of penetrating when he's asked to play one gap. Gets up to top speed in a hurry. Closes well with a lot of aggression. For such a stoutly built player, Thompson has much better athleticism than you'd expect. He fires off the snap incredibly well for a defensive tackle and is active against the run and the pass.

2012 Bears DLine:

Peppers, Thompson, Paea, Branch
Wootton, Melton, Toeania, Izzy

Sounds like a pretty good defensive line to me.

Funny, somewhere, somehow could have came up with the money for the corvette (Mario) and mortgage other positions and FA depth but not on a backup generator. Yep couldn't afford it.

Originally Posted by little bear

*sigh*

Well, that means we need to draft a DE + DT. Let's trade down our 19th pick and accept a lower first-round pick and an additional second-round pick. Michael Floyd, Fletcher Cox and Whitney Mercilus won't be available anyway imo.

1st: DT Brandon Thompson [Clemson]
2nd: DE Andre Branch [Clemson]
2nd: WR Alshon Jeffery [South Carolina]
...
....

Getting Alshon in the 2nd would be great. I know a lot of people are down on him right now, but I would snatch him up in a second, in the second. haha

Originally Posted by 4DaBERS

Well, the Mario Williams ship sailed a long time ago and the Bears spent the money elsewhere. Instead of cutting Spaeth (who is a star by no means, but is a better asset than I think many give him credit for), getting a more manageable deal done with our headline holdout (Matt Forte) could go a long way toward loosening the purse strings a bit also and giving us more cap space to work with.

Don't get me wrong, I would still like to get Okoye signed and have him remain a Bear. However, I think some might be over-valuing him a bit. As I said in a different thread, Okoye is a very good pass rusher as a DT, which is great to have, but he is not the best run defender and gets caught in the wash a bit more than he should. He does not control his gap as well as he should in THIS Defense, and that is likely the reason they (Bears) didn't want to over pay. I really think that if Lovie and Marinelli thought as much of him as many on here seem to, he would have never made it to FA, but if you trust in Lovie and Rod, then all will be well.

If we are successful in adding a DE with a high selection, then the DT's we have will likely look much better. I think letting Okoye walk says as much about the coaches opinion on the development of Paea than anything else. With Melton becoming a force, if Paea becomes as good as I think he will be, then we should be good with the rotation of those two, with Toe and perhaps another rotation guy either in the draft or later during some cuts.

Hey man, I'm back, at least for the time being! I've been busy keeping up with my Kentucky Wildcats in their quest for the program's eighth national championship, and I'm so happy that they won. Now it's just three more to go to tie UCLA's mark of eleven.

I was just perusing through some of the threads and noticed this bit on Amobi Okoye. I haven't been doing my due diligence and keeping up with the goings on in the cap for the Bears since they did the foolish thing by signing Michael Bush. I'm not saying that Michael Bush sucks, because as the manager at a local restaurant told me a few days ago, he's a bad ass at the position, but I would not have allocated the resources in his direction when there is still the RESPONSIBILITY of re-signing Matt Forte to a new contract. But, seeing as how the Bears did sign Bush, they are going to have one hell of a backfield next year provided that Matt Forte doesn't hold out.

But onto the topic at hand and not hijacking the thread. I think the reason that Emery let Okoye go was because he wanted to make room on the defensive line for Stephen Paea to either start or rotate out with Matt Toeaina. Remember that Paea was basically a non-factor last season due to recovering from that torn meniscus he sustained while he was still playing college ball (or was it at the Senior Bowl?). I think Emery, Lovie Smith, and Rod Marinelli look at this as the perfect opportunity to load up that side of the line of scrimmage and have the potential of a strong four man rush at all times assuming that the Bears do as Mel Kiper, Jr., projects and draft Whitney Mercilis in the first round. That still gives the Bears three defensive linemen, so I suspect that they will go for a defensive linemen at some point no earlier than round three since drafting a rookie is, as was mentioned earlier by someone though I know not who, less expensive. Stephen Paea has so much upside, and Marinelli, if everyone will remember, was just gushing over his raw talent and how he couldn't wait to get to work on developing him into a big time pro defensive tackle. Now the Bears have the chance to utilize him and not waste his talents just because "Big Toe" has seniority over him, for even though that's the case, Paea is far more talented than "Big Toe", which is saying something since "Big Toe" is a solid lineman.