Let's Have Some Post Draft Fun; Who would you have drafted?.

I don't watch enough college football to have opinions prior to the draft, I am curious to see what the local draftniks say. It would be interesting.

Saw that DT only has a 1.8 mil cap hit if the Bears cut him after next season and that DT and TF have only played in 32 of 64 possible games as Bears. Are we sill convinced that these were good signings by Pace? Actual question, not trying to troll here.

Round One: Like Hurley by the time the opening bell sounded I had Nelson and Smith as my numbers one and two as well.  It was always gonna be a 50/50 deal that Nelson would fall anyway and based on on how it played out Smith was definitely the BPA on the board for me and a guy we needed at ILB.

Had Nelson fallen to #8 the rest of our draft would have looked much different and may have precluded trading up.  It's hard to say because we could have taken a WR or Landry in two or both if we did trade but overall I believe it fell as it was destined to and getting a top defensive playmaker for Vic will only add more benefit to the defense.

Round Two: Daniels was the third guy on my OL list behind Nelson and Ragnow.  Other than a need to add some weight and strength he has few flaws.  He's versatile as to position, a monster run blocker, a perfect choice for a zone scheme, and Iowa OL seldom if ever fail to become solid pros.  Plus after having let Sitton go and missing on Nelson OL was a major need and a run on OG was on from the very first pick of round two.

As productive as Landry was in college he was always a guy I hoped we might avoid.  He struggles as a run defender and there's just something about him that makes me suspect he won't be a great pro other than as a pass rush specialist.  I'm content we finally got a OLB who may fit our needs better.

Round Two: After the Daniels pick the run on WRs began and while I never cared much for Sutton both Kirk and Pettis were guys I once saw as possible second round picks for us.  All three were gone before we made the trade for Miller and I like both Pace's aggressiveness and the player who was also mocked to us by some.

Here again I think we got the right fit for us.  Miller is primarily a slot guy who can also move outside.  That should allow Nagy to use Gabriel even more as a deep threat or on quick slants where he has the speed to blow by tacklers for long gains or scores.  Interestingly enough that was also supposed to be one of White's strengths.  So provided White can finally stay healthy we may have two deep threats and WRs who can take short slants to the house.

Round Four: I was also looking for an edge guy here and actually favored a less typical one like Okoronko who I saw as better value than Landry for a pure edge rusher.  Sweat and Ejiafor were also guys I thought we might take because Fitts wasn't even on my radar so the Iggy pick surprised me a bit as well.  I would take taken Okoronko or Sweat.

That said once we took Iggy I began to research him and I get why Pace liked him so much as did other teams.  While he has the potential to be a playmaker at ILB and as a spot rusher I still think he's gonna be a Pro Bowler on ST first and foremost and after losing Jones and CWash in consecutive years we could use another top ST coverage guy with some size and speed.  I truly think he's gonna be a four phase ST a lot like Brendan Ayanbadejo and we need top coverage guys too.

Round Five: Nichols is another guy who was off my radar as later round picks usually are but after listening to his story and watching some game vids I like the pick.  We needed a 5 tech DE to replace Unrein so he fits.  I see a guy who can play the run well and has the potential to be a more effective rusher than Unrein was.

Nichols is the guy Bullard should be most concerned about.  Both may not make the roster and Bullard has not ascended like he should have.  That RDE spot is one Fangio also likes to convert to a 3 tech DT in some alignments so Nichols, Bullard, and RRH will all have a shot at it.  I might have taken Ejiafor here too but mostly because I was more familiar with him.

Round Six: I was like WHO??  Now that I've researched the pick I see the fit and I think Fangio does as well.  Fitts is another Aaron Lynch type project for Vic now that he's personally taken on working with the OLBs.  Fitts is quicker and has better moves as an edge rusher but he's more about speed off the edge vs Lynch whose more about power.  The two should compliment one another nicely.

While Fitts obviously has the strength (31 reps) he hasn't yet developed it into being a great run defender due to his lack of an ability to anchor and set the edge like Lynch can.  So that's at least one area where Vic will work with him and Lynch may be able to help.  I think any way you slice it he's a solid pick this late in the draft and actually graded out as a 4th or 5th round pick.

Round Seven: This one was more of a WTF ??  I couldn't see the need for another WR instead of a DB like Tolliver whose been an underachiever but has all the tool to be a very good CB if someone can motivate him.  We ended up signing Tolliver anyway and now I get the Wims pick and he's another guy who could easily have gone a couple of rounds earlier too.

50/50 Kevin White makes it or doesn't and Wims is the hedge against the failure part.  He doesn't have White's speed but then White has never shown he uses his anyway.  But Wims does have White's size.  He's sneaky fast more like AJ.  He's a big target with a huge catch radius who can go up and get it downfield and he does't come pre-injured.  So this works for me since other than a CB like Tolliver I wouldn't have known who to take anyway.

Freeman

Well Freeman ranked even better put it's sad to hear about his suspensions on top of his injuries because I think he's truly a good guy and a very good LB.  Luckily we didn't overpay for him and can slide out easily enough.

I think both were good FA signings but also an indication of why it's best to draft and develop our own LBs which we have typically done and are doing now.