Smith Says Pre-Draft Roster is a Good One.................

Pre-draft roster strong, Smith says

http://www.trbimg.com/img-4f976d2b/t...120425-001/600 Bears coach Lovie Smith (Brian Cassella/Tribune photo) (April 24, 2012)

By Brad Biggs, Chicago Tribune reporter 10:16 p.m. CDT, April 24, 2012

As the Bears do every year the week of the draft, the team handed out Piccolo Awards on Tuesday at Halas Hall.

Veteran linebacker Nick Roach was heartfelt in reflecting on the honor he received, noting that like the former Bears running back, he also was an undrafted free agent entering the NFL. Roach, 26, also pointed out that Piccolo was the same age when he died of cancer in 1970. But as usual, it was an upbeat affair and NFL Charities came through with a $50,000 check for the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund, a worthy cause for money that is collected through the year from player fines.

"The sad thing is, this is my first football trophy," Roach said. "Need to work on the second one."

The Bears are looking to add help for the second one — the Lombardi Trophy — beginning Thursday night with the first round of the draft. Coach Lovie Smith is excited about the talent that can be added to the mix after a busy initial free-agent period.

"Going into the draft you want to have you roster as strong as it can be," Smith said. "We feel like we've done that. I can't see anything else we could have done to really improve our ballclub before the draft."

The Bears have added or re-signed a total of 15 players and one of the newcomers, wide receiver Brandon Marshall, is a sure starter. There are holes on the defensive line the Bears will look to fill with the draft before considering secondary free-agent options.

Defensive tackle Stephen Paea, the second-round pick a year ago, was the rookie recipient. Defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli praised the way he developed after being inactive for the first five games in 2011. Paea will be expected to play a much bigger role as Amobi Okoye has departed via free agency.

"Right now, we're really thin at defensive tackle," Paea said. "It would be an honor to step in and help the team to win. There are a lot of mistakes that I had last year ... from watching film from last year's season and to get better is just have that chemistry on the defensive line pressuring the quarterback and playing our keys right and everything will be good."

Roach figures to have some competition on the strong side now after Geno Hayes was signed to a one-year contract but he welcomes the newcomer. Roach cited how the team was fortunate to not have injuries at the position last year because there was a lack of experienced backups at the position.

"Whether you're competing against a guy that's in your room or competing against a guy that's on another team, they're watching the film (of him) in here," Roach said. "There's always somebody that's trying to make the grass greener. That's how you get better too is you're always trying to search for the next step."

The Bears are expected to attempt to make things greener on the defensive line where an end could be the first pick. General manager Phil Emery called the draft strong at end, defensive tackle and wide receiver. Marshall was one of three new wide receivers added, so that's another sign that points to defense.
"It's a strong draft at a lot of positions," Smith said. "We have a lot of good options. It's almost like the day before the big game, waiting for that time to come with a lot of excitement."

bmbiggs@tribune.com

FWIW I think this simply confirms our need to add a couple of Dlinman in the first few rounds of this draft. Not only are the DE and DT positions strong in this draft but the need is most definitely there.

We began camp last year with 4 vet DT's and a rookie. Now we have 2 vet DT's and a 2nd year man who played little his rookie year. So anyone denying our need to draft a DT must be looking at a different roster list than I am. If Paea remains at NT we'll need another UT to rotate with Melton.

We began camp last year with two vet DE's and a young developing prospect in Corey Wootton. After re-signing Izzy we still have two vets and a decent all purpose backup in Chauncey Davis but no idea of whether or not Wootton is or can stay healthy enough to play and even if he does we still don't know what we've got. He's another one of JA's poster children for guys with medical issues in their college careers.

Gotta have good pass rushing DE's to make this defense work and just our luck, there are a few of them to be had. Today as it stands I favor taking Mercilus even if he's largely used as a 3rd down guy for a year while he bulks up and adds some strength. If he's gone as much as I like what Irvin may bring we can't take a gamble of him in round one. So the two next in line of my list would be Nick Perry and Chandler Jones. Personally I think #19 may be a bit high for them but not by all that much and since either of them could play from the LDE spot where Izzy is winding down his Bears career I have no strong preference.

I see this as a perfect opportunity to add three young lineman in the first three rounds. One each at DE, DT and OG but not necessarily in that order. I trust Emery's skills at evaluating the best prospects at each position in each round so I'll leave the final decisions on who to him. But if we came away from the first three rounds with each of those bases covered I'd think we've gotten off to a great start at rebuilding our lines.

you also need another wr and more for the oline. The DL has way more talent as of right now then the ol. So it goes in all directions as far as needs. Its all about what talent is available to grab at 19. I hope they arent going for a situational DE at 19. Last time we tried making a starter out of one Mark Anderson destroyed our rush defense.

Im hoping for Coples as of right now

Losing Okoye shouldve confirmed our need for DTs Soul.

Quote:

Originally Posted by soulman

I trust Emery's skills at evaluating the best prospects at each position in each round so I'll leave the final decisions on who to him.

I'm sure he appreciates that. :thumb:

Well we do need guys at both DE and DT guys. Fortunately the pond is pretty well stocked especially with 2nd tier guys who may well be as good as the 1st tier guys another year down the road. I think we can get both plus get an OG and a WR and a LB all within rounds one through five. We can wait on the WR and LB since there's a lot of good mid round guys to be had but those lineman should probably come early is we want guys who can play now.

I don't rule out Emery trading around and doing some wheeling and dealing to get what he wants. I don't know that I want to lose any picks in this draft but I sure wouldn't mind picking another one up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Papa Bear

I'm sure he appreciates that. :thumb:

And he does PB. Gotta thank you note from him this AM. :liar: :rofl2:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jimmors

Losing Okoye shouldve confirmed our need for DTs Soul.

The real question is do we go for a 3tech or nt dt cause we also lost Adams. And this all depends on where they are playing paea. If we go for a nt I can see that coming from rounds 3 and up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by motownbear

The real question is do we go for a 3tech or nt dt cause we also lost Adams. And this all depends on where they are playing paea. If we go for a nt I can see that coming from rounds 3 and up.

Well they had Paea playing NT last year and assuming he stays there then we need a 3t guy. That we'll need to get a bit earlier but there are 2nd and 3rd rounders who could be a good fit.