Eh. Draft grades are meaningless but I think if you're evaluating it on the NFL.com grades (or even the combination of major media grades) I'd say the Bears have earned a D so far.
Still, the only grade that matters is Pace's grade.
If these players fit what he's envisioning and if they pan out no one is going to give a crap about the initial grades.
670 pointed out that Cleveland got an A for drafting Trent Richardson and Car got a D for selecting Luke K. So ya draft day grades really are meaningless.
Eh. Draft grades are meaningless but I think if you're evaluating it on the NFL.com grades (or even the combination of major media grades) I'd say the Bears have earned a D so far.
Still, the only grade that matters is Pace's grade.
If these players fit what he's envisioning and if they pan out no one is going to give a crap about the initial grades.
670 pointed out that Cleveland got an A for drafting Trent Richardson and Car got a D for selecting Luke K. So ya draft day grades really are meaningless.
It appears to me that Pace is looking for players with higher ceilings rather than higher floors, and also, he is looking for long-term highest ceiling guys, more than immediate high-floor contributors.
This Shaheen looks like a player who could be a major building block for the future (think Pats Gronk here) but yes, he will not be that guy in 2017.
Same with Trub. He won't be much (if anything) in 2017, but his 10 or more year career here (think big picture) could be that he is the most important player the Chicago Bears have drafted in the past 50 years or so. Seriously. But no, he's not going to get Pace the A+ draft grades from the "expert" talking heads from ESPN and the others.
It is a gutsy approach by Pace.
It may alienate sports writers and many fans who can't grasp delayed gratification in order to build a team that can sustain winning for many years to come. This morning I was thinking back to how Jim Finks built that 1985 team roster (most credit him for building that team). It took years to build that roster. He wasn't even with the Bears when that team won the super bowl in '85.
It took time.
It is taking Pace time too. But I do like how he is going about this. He looks like he isn't being a politician here trying to please the "experts" or even the sometimes ignorant Bears fans, but rather trying to do this right. The right way in life is not always the easy way. And it often is not the popular way. I respect people like Pace who do the right thing anyway.
+1000
If you look at the 85 team, it took 7 years to draft all the key components of the team. I give Finks a lot of credit but the blockbuster draft for that 85 bears was Jerry Vanisi's 83 draft (done with Fink's scouts no doubt) ... Jimbo Covert, Willie Gault, Mike Richardson, Dave Duerson, Tom Thayer, Richard Dent and Mark Bortz. One HOF DE and three other multiple pro bowlers. Not bad for a single draft.
I agree with all of that. I'd rather the Bears do it right, rather than just slap some quick-fixes together. This team is really really young now. Pace has pretty much turned the entire roster over in 3 years... and there looks to be a lot of young guys with high ceiling potential. It is exciting, I think. No fun with a 3-win season last year, but I think those days are gone now and we can look forward to far better and better seasons ahead.
Eh. Draft grades are meaningless but I think if you're evaluating it on the NFL.com grades (or even the combination of major media grades) I'd say the Bears have earned a D so far.
Still, the only grade that matters is Pace's grade.
If these players fit what he's envisioning and if they pan out no one is going to give a crap about the initial grades.
+1 It will be interesting to see how they all fit into the Bears team vision. You see this with the Patriots. It's that "the whole can be greater than the sum of the parts" type of thing. You even see how they pick up rejects from other teams, and get good mileage out of them. Because they fit well into what the team is doing.
Its apparent to me that Pace is playing the "long game" here. The safe thing to do would be take something like Allen-Robinson (two high floor, lower ceiling types) in rounds 1-2 but its obvious to me that Pace is drafting for 2018 and beyond, not for this year. No one can accuse him of being John Fox's stooge and trying to save his job for 2017.
Oh, and BTW, don't pay any attention whatsoever to "draft grades". They are utterly meaningless and about as predictive as astrology.
Don't necessarily disagree, but when a team picks far off the radar - it has a bit of the Emery 'I'm the smartest guy in the room' feel to it. Maybe Pace is the smartest man in the room, maybe he just got all mad scientist this year. Time will tell. Fair or not fair though, I guarantee if the team sucks this year, it won't be just jj30 and @soulman looking to fire Fox and roar the statements of ineptitude on Pace. This board and most of Bear nation will be looking for another complete rebuild.
Its apparent to me that Pace is playing the "long game" here. The safe thing to do would be take something like Allen-Robinson (two high floor, lower ceiling types) in rounds 1-2 but its obvious to me that Pace is drafting for 2018 and beyond, not for this year. No one can accuse him of being John Fox's stooge and trying to save his job for 2017.
Oh, and BTW, don't pay any attention whatsoever to "draft grades". They are utterly meaningless and about as predictive as astrology.
Don't necessarily disagree, but when a team picks far off the radar - it has a bit of the Emery 'I'm the smartest guy in the room' feel to it. Maybe Pace is the smartest man in the room, maybe he just got all mad scientist this year. Time will tell. Fair or not fair though, I guarantee if the team sucks this year, it won't be just jj30 and @soulman looking to fire Fox and roar the statements of ineptitude on Pace. This board and most of Bear nation will be looking for another complete rebuild.
Most people have this team as a 4-5 win team, so expectations are already low. Most have Fox getting fired regardless. Not sure to many will be screaming like JJ and Soul.
I don't think Pace went any further off the radar then other teams. In chat I had pointed out that I started to notice that a lot of teams were going off the radar; and it occured to me that by the mid 2nd, the talent had seemed to thinned out enough that scheme fit started to matter more then talent; that is only going to get exagerrated by the 4th and 5th rounds.
It appears to me that Pace is looking for players with higher ceilings rather than higher floors, and also, he is looking for long-term highest ceiling guys, more than immediate high-floor contributors.
This Shaheen looks like a player who could be a major building block for the future (think Pats Gronk here) but yes, he will not be that guy in 2017.
Same with Trub. He won't be much (if anything) in 2017, but his 10 or more year career here (think big picture) could be that he is the most important player the Chicago Bears have drafted in the past 50 years or so. Seriously. But no, he's not going to get Pace the A+ draft grades from the "expert" talking heads from ESPN and the others.
It is a gutsy approach by Pace.
It may alienate sports writers and many fans who can't grasp delayed gratification in order to build a team that can sustain winning for many years to come. This morning I was thinking back to how Jim Finks built that 1985 team roster (most credit him for building that team). It took years to build that roster. He wasn't even with the Bears when that team won the super bowl in '85.
It took time.
It is taking Pace time too. But I do like how he is going about this. He looks like he isn't being a politician here trying to please the "experts" or even the sometimes ignorant Bears fans, but rather trying to do this right. The right way in life is not always the easy way. And it often is not the popular way. I respect people like Pace who do the right thing anyway.
yeah, and as much as I like Pace, he is drafting on the dreaded potential. I don't like that. Most of the time it does not work well.
It appears to me that Pace is looking for players with higher ceilings rather than higher floors, and also, he is looking for long-term highest ceiling guys, more than immediate high-floor contributors.
This Shaheen looks like a player who could be a major building block for the future (think Pats Gronk here) but yes, he will not be that guy in 2017.
Same with Trub. He won't be much (if anything) in 2017, but his 10 or more year career here (think big picture) could be that he is the most important player the Chicago Bears have drafted in the past 50 years or so. Seriously. But no, he's not going to get Pace the A+ draft grades from the "expert" talking heads from ESPN and the others.
It is a gutsy approach by Pace.
It may alienate sports writers and many fans who can't grasp delayed gratification in order to build a team that can sustain winning for many years to come. This morning I was thinking back to how Jim Finks built that 1985 team roster (most credit him for building that team). It took years to build that roster. He wasn't even with the Bears when that team won the super bowl in '85.
It took time.
It is taking Pace time too. But I do like how he is going about this. He looks like he isn't being a politician here trying to please the "experts" or even the sometimes ignorant Bears fans, but rather trying to do this right. The right way in life is not always the easy way. And it often is not the popular way. I respect people like Pace who do the right thing anyway.
yeah, and as much as I like Pace, he is drafting on the dreaded potential. I don't like that. Most of the time it does not work well.
What does that even mean? Do we know that Trub has a lower floor atm than Mahomes? Do we know that Shaheen has a lower floor than Engram? Jackson than King? Cmon, thats just sheer crap
It appears to me that Pace is looking for players with higher ceilings rather than higher floors, and also, he is looking for long-term highest ceiling guys, more than immediate high-floor contributors.
This Shaheen looks like a player who could be a major building block for the future (think Pats Gronk here) but yes, he will not be that guy in 2017.
Same with Trub. He won't be much (if anything) in 2017, but his 10 or more year career here (think big picture) could be that he is the most important player the Chicago Bears have drafted in the past 50 years or so. Seriously. But no, he's not going to get Pace the A+ draft grades from the "expert" talking heads from ESPN and the others.
It is a gutsy approach by Pace.
It may alienate sports writers and many fans who can't grasp delayed gratification in order to build a team that can sustain winning for many years to come. This morning I was thinking back to how Jim Finks built that 1985 team roster (most credit him for building that team). It took years to build that roster. He wasn't even with the Bears when that team won the super bowl in '85.
It took time.
It is taking Pace time too. But I do like how he is going about this. He looks like he isn't being a politician here trying to please the "experts" or even the sometimes ignorant Bears fans, but rather trying to do this right. The right way in life is not always the easy way. And it often is not the popular way. I respect people like Pace who do the right thing anyway.
yeah, and as much as I like Pace, he is drafting on the dreaded potential. I don't like that. Most of the time it does not work well.
Every draft pick is picked on potential. There isn't one pick where people go, ya he's at his ceiling in college and won't improve; that gets drafted.