Braxton Jones Has Regressed & Bears Drafted Kiran Amegadjie

I have no problem spending high draft picks on offensive linemen (and hope they do next year).  The upside is having a young low-mileage player on a cheap rookie contract.  The downside is that usually there are 1 or more seasons where the guy will be learning the game at the NFL level.  If it is a good player he can still be really decent (maybe even better than that) the first year or two as he gets better and better.  My favorite center from last year's draft was Zach Frazier from West Virginia.  He slid almost to the 3rd round and the Steelers drafted him.  He was a day-1 starter.  I don't follow the Steelers, but I've read multiple articles about how Frazier is tearing it up at Center this season as a rookie.  He has not allowed a single sack through 6 games so far.  Not one.  And his pass-pro score is decent at 63.8.  His run blocking is a mind boggling 84.1.  They say he is an absolute animal blocking, a holy terror beating up D linemen.  They say he's just one savage dude.  Can you imagine what our OL would be like right now with him at C, and on a rookie deal for 4 years?

Centers seem to be a great R.O.I. pick due to the fact the best ones can usually be drafted in the 2nd round.  Frazier was at #51 overall in the draft.  This year's two top centers are projected as 2nd round picks.  And my early favorite is Georgia's Jared Wilson who is projected as a 3rd round pick... but every different draft source seems to have these guys listed differently.  This one is from Walter Football (LINK).  So the actual draft order for centers could be very different.  

This is why I do get frustrated with the Bears regarding the C position.  Compared with may of the other team positions, the C is fairly easy to get a great one.  And they can play for 10 or more seasons.  The return on that kind of draft investment is amazingly good.  Why wouldn't you fix the C position before this?  LT is much more difficult to fix and much more costly in draft resources.  And it's so much more difficult to get a good one.  

Maybe that is the best route.  I have no clue.  Speaking of having no clue, I go back and forth on Braxton Jones.  He is a great athlete, and also he comes across as a very bright young man... sharp guy mentally.  He has great quickness and can get out to the 2nd level with ease on plays.  But he does struggle with bull rushes.  I just don't get that.  You'd think that would be easier to clean up than most of the other issues OL struggle with.  Quickness, fast-twitchy stuff, high football IQ... those are things you really can't improve.  Not by much anyway.  But strength/technique against a bull rush (I would think anyway) would be something fixable.  He is 6 games into his 3rd season.  Hopefully he finishes these last 11 games looking like a player worth keeping at LT.  

Brax has looked better in recent games.  And he only had the one game where he looked totally bad... and that was uncharacteristic bad for him.  Maybe he was playing with some nagging injury or something.  He also cleaned up the penalties and hasn't had any in a few games now.  The entire OL looked rough in the beginning of the season so it wasn't only him having troubles.   

Top LT's are getting $25 to $26 million dollars a year right now.  While I'd love to have the best at every position on the team, that is not going to happen.  If Brax is an average LT, not a bad one but a decent guy in that 12th to 16th ranking range.  Then it may make sense to keep him with an appropriate level contract... looking over the LT contracts for this year, that would be somewhere around $18 mil/year for that level of LT.  Maybe that route makes sense if Brax finishes these last 11 games looking as good as he has these most recent past 2 games.

I have a feeling we won't be drafting very high this year in the draft... maybe in the middle of the round area.  I'd be tempted to use that 1st round pick on a guard if there is one that looks special.  Then with that high 2nd round pick we have, grab the best C in the draft.  Let Pryor and Murray fight it out for the other G position, assuming Jenkins is a goner next year.  

I still think (hope) its all by design to get a better deal from Arlington Heights.