Notre Dame TE Tyler Eifert or Alabama G/C/OT Barrett Jones?

With the recent talk about Mant'i Te'o coming to a fever pitch, I wanted to make it known to people on the board that he now is being projected as a top-10 pick by WalterFootball.com as his stock continues to rise. He is now projected to go at #10 while we're projected to go in at #28. (Yes, ahead of the f**king Packers.) Below are two names that have been projected by the WalterFootball.com mock draft the past two weeks to fall to the Bears. They are:
Barrett Jones, G/C/OT, Alabama http://www.walterfootball.com/college/Alabama_logo.gif Peter Konz will eventually move to center and replace Todd McClure, but the Falcons will still need an upgrade at right guard. They'll also have to find help at right tackle if Tyson Clabo continues to struggle. Barrett Jones can play four positions up front. Pick change; previously Alex Okafor,
Tyler Eifert, TE, Notre Dame http://www.walterfootball.com/colleg...eDame_logo.gif Jon Gruden highlighted the fact that the Bears haven't had a reliable pass-catching tight end since Greg Olsen was on the team. They jettisoned Olsen because Mike Martz hates receiving tight ends, but Martz is long gone, so it's time for them to go back to that. Jay Cutler would really benefit from having a dependable target over the middle of the field.






...so, what do you all think about this?

Jones. Someone who can play well at several spots on the interior is a def. need. A really good TE would be nice, but we still got to figure out what kind of talent we have there; Davis has hit his ceiling, but the other guys we don't know enough about, yet.

We ( Bears) are drafting last in the draft this year. Will any of them be there then? What will the needs be for the Bears then? Who's staying/ coming back, who will be gone? Does someone have an injury thats going to take awhile to heal, if they CAN heal from it. Way, WAY too early for draft talk with the way the season is going. ENJOY the NOW, worry about tomorrow later.

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Originally Posted by Henry Burris

Jones. Someone who can play well at several spots on the interior is a def. need. A really good TE would be nice, but we still got to figure out what kind of talent we have there; Davis has hit his ceiling, but the other guys we don't know enough about, yet.

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You know, I'm divided on this topic, Henry. On one hand, every additional offensive lineman is a bonus, and this kid is like Carimi in that he did win the Outland Trophy last year. But on the other hand, there is this feeling I get where we may have a chance to shore up the final piece to the blocking/receiving up the middle puzzle with this Eifert kid. I don't know much about because I don't watch Notre Dame that often, but at the same time, jeez, he may be too good to pass up.

We seem to be doing well with Rachal and Louis as our guards. That much is certain. Spencer was killing us at LG, and Rachal has come in and shored up that position nice. Louis is playing like a potential future Pro Bowler, or at least a very solid, sturdy, consistent lineman. That leaves Garza, who we all know is aging. Bringing in someone like Barrett Jones would be a sigh of relief knowing that you can count on him to right away fit in and take over the playcalling duties along the offensive line.

But what about the TE? Do we know anything about Kyle Adams as a potential replacement for Kellen Davis? We seem to have forgotten about Evan Rodriguez, and even if we use him to be the tight end of the future, he is undersized at 6'2" and 239 lbs. So far, all we have seen of Rodriguez is that he's being used to replace Tyler Clutts in terms of blocking, and while Rodriguez is doing a good job at what he's doing when he's actually in the games for, he's not being used as a receiver like Tice said he would be. That makes me wonder whether Tice has any intention of using this kid this year, whether this kid has worked his way into Tice's and Lovie's doghouse, or whatever else one can imagine coming up with in terms of a case scenario. We need another taller (6'2" and above) receiver right now with Jeffery being gone. The option of going to Davis hasn't worked very well, and we haven't used Adams much at all as a receiver. This makes me interested in Eifert as a possibility for a first round draft pick.

If Jones can still play center in the big leagues, I'd rather have him over Eifert. You know I love my ND boys, but a rock-solid center would be amazing, and by then we'd pretty much have our line down for years to come (assuming we can lock up our guys to extensions and Webb continues at his pace).

Another thought: we could always just trade back if we wanted, and nobody on the board really fit our needs too much or the value wasn't correct. I thought I also read that this is a pretty deep pass rusher class. Maybe one drops to us?...

as of now, it's too early to come up with names. Just talk about the positions and then look at the Top3 players for each position.

OL or TE is what I want to see with the 1st as of now

Unless you can find a TE who can handle it all and I mean catching and blocking then he's not a good prospect for this offense. Greg Olsen still wouldn't be a good prospect for success with the Bears even if he was still here.

Davis can play the only question is will he ever live up to his potential. If he can then he's the prototype TE this offense calls for because he can do both. ERod gives us a Dallas Clark/Tony Moeaki kind of guy if Tice ever gets him out of the backfield and starts using him correctly.

It's senseless to spend a high draft pick on a TE until we start using the ones we have and see what they can do. We have four now on the roster and another (Eldridge) we just brought in so I don't think we need a sixth TE.

Jones or another like him might be a good pick late in the first. According to sox there are a decent number of good interior lineman coming out this year so that tells me we should get a shot at one even late in the first. I'm less than sold on EWill as the heir apparent to Garza and Spencer will be gone so if a guy is an OG/OC prospect he should be on our list.

Now would be a good time to draft and ILB too. If there's a guy anywhere near the top of the draft we think has the combination of skills it takes to play MLB in this defense then we should take a hard look at him. We can play him at SLB until he learns the ropes and Urlacher finishes his career. No sense waiting any longer on this one. We're aren't gonna find another Urlacher drafting near the end of the first round now or in the near future so it's time to find a guy we can massage into that spot while Urlacher is still around to help.

Pass rushers are always good no matter where you find them but that becomes a fall back if we don't get a shot at a lineman or LB. A young CB somewhere in the early rounds would look good too but not in the first just yet. As long as Tillman and Jennings keep playing the way they are there no place for him.

So interior OLine and ILB should top the list for the first two rounds. We don't have a third unless we horse trade into one so these first two picks will have to be good ones.

I keep hearing rumblings that Jason Witten might be a FA after this season. Unless there's a surprise at one of the positions we need, we should snatch him up. I read an interesting stat last night, that when throwing to Marshall or Jeffrey, Cutler was hitting about 60%, but with TE's it was in the high 40s. We get Witten, and I think things will get a lot better. Even if he's not a very good blocker, we still need a proven pass catcher. We could prolly get him on the cheap, too. With that said, I really think we should start working on building depth and competition on the o-line, because even tho Williams was supposedly fighting Webb for a spot, we all know that was a farce; obviously the better man won, but along with Spencer, there wasn't too much "push" there. Hitting on something you said, Soul, if all else fails (our "need" spots get filled) why not draft another cheap pass rusher? If Peppers were to start declining, and having Wooton and McClellan on board for a while, we draft another good young DE or DT, we could easily have the best DL in the league...

This team can always use pass rushers Henry. We've got that kid Ozougwu sitting out inactive because he can't get past the others to start but he looked good in the preseason. More of a strict pass rush specialist than McClellin is but the kid proved he could play.

Pep is aging and who knows what they'll decide to do with Izzy next year. We have some guys to extend and they won't come cheap so that money has to come from somewhere. It's gonna get tougher to hand on to some of this vet depth over the next couple of years.

Doesn't Witten have some injury issues or am I wrong about that. I hate the Cowboys and I really don't keep up with them at all. But if we absolutely had to plug a TE hole I'd rather see us do it with a proven pass catcher than draft another guy and do a poor job of developing him which is what I think a lot of our problems with them are based on. We didn't have that problem before Martz came along but now we do. Des Clark was one of the best we've had yet under Martz he spent almost an entire season inactive but still healthy and capable of starting. He was a good blocker and a good receiver.

I really think Emery will take a good look at linemen in the first round and if there's a guy there he feels we can use right away or very soon he'll take him. Or if the right ILB falls our way then he takes Urlacher's heir. Those are the two biggest needs that we can see right now but by next April who knows?

I personally would go someone like Barrett Jones or, to throw out another name of a player who is going to be available around where we are projected to draft, ILB C.J. Mosley out of Alabama. I think he's the second ranked ILB in the draft after Mant'i Te'o. I don't think there's a rat's chance in hell that we get Mant'i Te'o because he is now considered a top ten draft pick, but this guy is a real possibility, and as we all know, Nick Saban-coached players usually become dynamos in the pros.

Unlike you, soul, I find Eifert to be fascinating. Zelezo Vlk probably knows more about him than anyone here since he is a Notre Dame fan, so I want to know more about him if he's able to enlighten us with his take on the prospect. (By the way, congratulations on your Fighting Irish crushing Oklahoma in Norman last night.) I personally think that we'll keep Garza a couple of more years before he calls it a career because other than a couple of false start penalties the past couple of weeks, he's still playing pretty well. But I would put Eifert, Jones, and Mosley in my top three at this point in time, keeping in mind that it's early to boot.

Personally, I think the Bears need to draft on BPA. That works for teams like the Ravens, Steelers, Packers, Giants, etc.