The Chicago Bears were a team last year that was bad on offense and not very good on defense, but they weren't very bad either. The team invested heavily in the offense during free agency and continued that with two of their first three picks. After that, the focus was clearly defense. They had already added two linebackers in the first four rounds, so in round five, they added some beef by drafting Delaware Defensive Tackle, Bilal Nichols.
Since there isn't a whole lot of tape of Delaware, I went to the tale of the tape to see how Bilal Nichols performed at the combine. When I looked up the numbers, one thing was clear: Nichols tore it up.
Maybe the most important thing is that Broad Jump number as that shows the explosiveness that he possesses as an athlete. Nichols is not a big player for defensive tackle, but with that explosion, he could be very valuable rushing the passer from the interior.
Luckily, and incredibly surprising, Bilal Nichols has game tape on YouTube. Not only that, it's against a legitimate opponent with his performance against Virginia Tech.
Although Nichols is a good athlete, he doesn't really have any pass rushing moves. It was mostly just push and hope for the best. Occasionally, he would just fall back and spy the quarterback. Part of this may have been that he was playing out of position as a nose tackle the majority of the time which is not a role I see him fulfilling at the next level.
Although he wasn't lighting it up with highlight reel plays, the positive was that he seemed to show good hustle throughout the game and seems to have a good motor on him. On this play, that motor paid off.
It's not exactly some great highlight as the center does enough on 99% of plays, but good on Nichols for continuing to work and finding his way to the quarterback.
Conclusion
Nichols is a good athlete with a good motor and not much for moves. Since he went to a smaller school, it may be likely that he didn't get the best coaching so maybe the Bears can tap into that potential. Also, the Bears will almost definitely shy away from lining him up as a nose guard which should give him more of an opportunity to be a playmaker. Right now, I don't see him as anything more than defensive line depth, but he could carve out a larger role down the line.
In anticipation of Vince McMahon bringing the fun back to football (more concussions, woohoo!), Lukewarm Jonah and I went back and forth to do an XFL Draft. Instead of breaking this down round by round, we are going to go by position groups. We hit up the glory boy defensive ends last time, so let’s work it inside with the grinders at defensive tackle. Defensive Tackle Jonah: Ra’shede Hageman, Will Sutton, Jared Odrick, Glen Antoine, Cam Thomas Joe: Brock Lesnar, Louis Nix III, Devon Still, Christian Ballard
Joe: Early on, I mentioned that Johnny Manziel was my first round pick. Looking back, it was a reach, but luckily, Brock Lesnar fell to me in round two. The XFL is not likely to have these wussified NFL rules, and I’m hoping that straight up brawls are not only legal but encouraged. If so, Brock is going to tear through all offensive lines. He worked on football for a few months and nearly made the Vikings, so with Vince paying him big money to fully focus on the sport, he’ll probably become the greatest defensive player in XFL history. Louis Nix III is a large body that I can use to fill up space. He was good at Notre Dame, so he should do enough to be a competent run stopper for my team. After that, we have Devon Still, a guy who was not only a very good defensive tackle at Penn State, but a guy who is easy to cheer for as well. He left the NFL in order to care for his young daughter who was diagnosed with cancer. Luckily, she is now cancer free, and Still can focus on getting his football career restarted in the NFL. Like I have stated previously, it’s nice to have genuine good guys on my roster, as they are far outnumbered by the scumbags I drafted. Finally, I picked another guy who could have been successful in the NFL in Christian Ballard but left the game by his own volition. He just wasn’t having fun playing the game (probably because he was stuck on the Vikings), and I know that this will not be an issue in the XFL, which will be fun for everyone. And yes, this is another obligatory Iowa Hawkeyes selection. Jonah: Ra’Shede Hageman is a young player who was successful in the NFL. He isn’t in the league right now because of a domestic violence charge. He didn’t throw his girlfriend onto a pile of guns though, so I’ll take a chance on him. Plus, if football really took domestic violence seriously I would have started a few games for the Dallas Cowboys over the past few years. Anyways, the guy is good enough to start in the NFL so he can anchor my line.
Will Sutton was a big time college football player at Arizona State being named an All American twice. I assume Joe was sad I stole a former Chicago Bear who underperformed in the NFL from him. He’s only 26 and just needs to be coached up to realize his full potential in the XFL.
Jared Odrick is a 30 year old veteran who had pretty good years in the NFL. He’s a former first round pick and actually performed. He hurt his shoulder over a year ago, but he’s healthy now. He was never a big numbers guy, but started and played well enough in the NFL. He’s a strong presence, and you have to rotate defensive lineman if you want to be successful.
Speaking of rotating defensive lineman, one of my favorite picks in the XFL draft Glen Antoine. A big run stuffing defensive tackle who I’m shocked didn’t get a look in the NFL. I watched him play at the great University of Idaho and eat up double teams all the time. Even with the double teams he was able to make a decent amount of plays, probably because he put up more bench reps than any defensive lineman at the combine. He’s the next Pat Williams and he’ll dominate the first two downs and any short running situations.
Cam Thomas is another big boy on the defensive line. He’s 31, but he can be very useful in running situations and eating up offensive lineman to let my talented defensive ends get to the quarterback. He has seven years of NFL experience and is an important veteran run stopping presence.
Joe: Well, at least Ra’Shede Hageman can fight, although when he is going up against Olympic level wrestlers or World’s Strongest Men, he might find slightly more trouble than when he is beating up women. I was none too pleased when you took Will Sutton from me. I loved him at Arizona State, and he did show some flashes with the Bears. I also like the Jared Odrick pick as it’s a nice little veteran addition.
Jonah: If Lesnar commits to football I think he would be a beast. He did make it to the final cuts of the Vikings roster and did that while recovering from a motorcycle injury. The question with Lesnar is will he commit? He seems perfectly happy living in a cabin in Minnesota chopping wood. Or will he get sick of offseason workouts and go fight in the UFC? Still and Nix should be good players and I know Christian Ballard well. He’s a versatile defensive player and he was in Minnesota during the Brad Childress era so I don’t think anyone was having any fun.
That’s it for the defensive linemen. Next time, we move onto the next line of defense with our linebacker selections.
Continuing my breakdowns of Iowa prospects, we move on to defensive tackle, Jaleel Johnson. Although he was never seen as Iowa's most important player, Johnson may be the best prospect going into the 2017 NFL Draft. This is because nobody on Iowa's roster had the raw physical tools that make Johnson so special. I wanted to look at his games against Penn State and Iowa State from this past season and a 2015 game against Purdue.
A lot of people are going to talk about Johnson's power at the line, but it's his explosiveness that really stands out and helps him make plays at the line of scrimmage. Here, Johnson stuffs a run play with what looks like no effort.
The left guard's goal here is to get to the inside shoulder of Johnson. It's not an easy job, but at worst, he has to get head on to at least get a push on him. Instead, all he can do is get to Johnson's outside shoulder, and he gets absolutely no push on Johnson, as he is shucked off like it was all 150 pounds of me trying to block him. The way that Jaleel Johnson explodes at the line of scrimmage would basically make a block like that impossible. I don't care if you have Marshall Yanda at guard, asking anyone to get to the far side of Johnson is an impossible task, and I suggest that NFL offenses do not scheme anything that would require an offensive lineman to do it.
But let's not forget about the power either.
Here, Johnson just totally overwhelms the offensive guard, which is pretty obvious since the guard ends up on his ass while Johnson sacks the quarterback. The key is that Johnson get his hands on the offensive lineman before he can get his hands on him. Once he has the punch to the inside, the guard is left grasping for something that he can't quite reach while Johnson uses one arm to big brother him, and throw him off to the side when he's ready to sack the quarterback.
So what's the problem? Well, it doesn't always show up. An example was the Penn State game where he just didn't have a big impact. And it wasn't just a Penn State scheme. Yes, he faced some double teams but even when he had only one blocker, he failed to create much penetration in the run or pass game. He has the ability to take over games, but sometimes he looks like he's fine to just hold the line. Some of that is likely due to Iowa's scheme and some is that he played every snap and a guy that big would probably be better in about 75% of those plays. But it still seemed that at times he would just up and decide to be unblockable and other games you wouldn't notice him.
Jaleel Johnson is going to be a guy who can make an impact right away for an NFL team. Although I struggle to see Pro Bowls in his future, I do see a guy who can be an essential piece of a strong defense. I see him as a Timmy Jernigan type player who may not get a lot of national publicity but is a key piece for the Ravens. Since he didn't generate great stats, he will probably be drafted in the 2nd-3rd round, but whoever drafts him will definitely be happy with their selection. Iowa fans are going to miss him.
The NFL Draft has come and gone, and it appears that the Bears have a plan in place. Did I agree with that plan at every twist and turn? No, not really, but I also really enjoyed some of their moves so it all balances out. And they were active, and that definitely made for an exciting weekend. But what's done is done. The picks I like will obviously work out, and hopefully my genius fails me on the picks that I didn't like. So far, I have had the chance to break down:
Today we break things down with the Bears third round pick, Florida defensive lineman, Jonathan Bullard. I think this was the most universally loved pick that the Bears had in the draft as Bullard arguably had first round talent, so to snag him in the middle of the third was excellent potential value for the Bears. He's also one of the most athletically gifted talents in the defensive line as shown by his SPARQ score, and he showed at the combine that he is explosive in every conceivable way. I decided to see if the hype was real by checking out his games against Alabama, Tennessee, and Ole Miss.
When watching film of the guy, you can tell that he has a motor and can make plays all over the field. Not only will he be an asset against the run game, but he has the skills to provide pressure from the inside and outside as Florida moved him inside and outside to best take advantage of his abilities.
It was weird, because early on in the Tennessee game, he wasn't very impressive. My optimistic viewpoint was that maybe he was just given trouble with all the misdirection that they run in their offense, but he really wasn't doing much of anything. He got absolutely washed out of a run play that turned into a 20-yard gain for the Volunteers. Starting with these plays, he decided to dominate everything in his path.
On this play, he completely blows up the line and immediately forces the runner to the outside where he is met with a bevvy of Florida defenders and the play goes absolutely nowhere. I obviously cut this play short, because good god, that is some impressive burst.
A couple plays later, on third and short, he more more than made up for his earlier struggles.
Bullard goes right across the guard's face whose only job is to not let Bullard do that and meets Jalen Hurd in the backfield before he can get the first down.
As you can see, Bullard is absolutely explosive off the snap, and there may be no better example of that as he causes havoc against opposing offenses.
Uh...yeah. That's not fair.
Just steamrolling a center on his way to the quarterback.
Yo 75, if 90 is coming, through, clear the damn way.
As for the Alabama game, there weren't many highlights as Bullard was mostly contained. When he went up against the right side of the offensive line, he was able to get penetration consistently, but that C-LG-LT trifecta is the truth for the Tide. The Center was drafted in the middle of the first round which is about as high as any Center is ever taken. The LT is projected to be a top-10 pick, and honestly, the LG (who committed to Iowa before flipping to Bama) simply doesn't mess up. Bullard fought valiantly, but he wasn't nearly as effective as he had shown in other games. Even with that, it's not like Bama had their way moving him around, but they were able to slow down the penetration and minimize his impact.
As you can probably tell, I am a huge Bullard fan. Florida was able to move him all over the line, and he was able to cause havoc no matter where he was. Using him as a 3-4 end on first and second before putting him inside to rush the passer on third downs will be a great use of his versatility. Honestly, had I seen him blowing up plays like this in the Mountain West or Sun Belt, I would have been pretty excited, but considering he was doing it against the SEC has me in a euphoric state of glee right now.
Bullard is going to be a beast for the Bears. Get pumped.
With the seventh pick in the second round, the Bears selected Eddie Goldman, a nose tackle out of Florida State. Since the Bears are transitioning to a 3-4 defense, nose tackle was one of their biggest needs, so on a strictly need basis, this pick makes a ton of sense. Still, reviews were mixed for Eddie Goldman, so I wanted to take a closer look and figure out exactly what the Bears got with this second round pick. Thanks to Draft Breakdown, I was able to watch his games against Florida and Louisville.
I had the following two thoughts after his Florida game:
1. The thing that most worries me about Goldman is that he is SLOW off the ball. Like everybody is moving, and then a beat later, he gets out of his stance. Offensive linemen were on him before he even had a chance to get any momentum going, and it was baffling to see. The ball is usually snapped right under his damn nose, and he was just hanging out in his three point stance, hoping a coach would bring him ice cream (no coach ever did in the games I watched).
2. When he finally got moving, he almost went to just stand straight up instead of plowing forward, so linemen got underneath him. For a nose tackle, I saw a single center or single guard take care of blocking him alone WAY too many times. The number one job of a nose tackle is occupying blockers to help others make plays. If he is getting handled by a single dude, he is really fighting an uphill battle to becoming a valuable asset. He's not going to make a ton of plays, but he has to be good enough to put his teammates in position to make plays.
I seriously thought he may be the worst player in the draft from what I saw in that game. It was shockingly bad. Then I watched his game against Louisville, and he was a completely different player.
He may have still been a hair slow coming off the ball, but it was nothing like the Florida game, and he was still able to get good leverage and power through offensive linemen. He got stood up and blocked easily in the Florida game, but he brought that ass in this game and just powered through Louisville's o-line.
And there was no lollygagging for him. He got after it. This play shows that hustle.
That's not just impressive hustle for a nose tackle, that'd be impressive hustle for a linebacker. He can't quite catch the running back, but he had a little help from his friends.
Watch what he does to the Louisville right guard on this play.
That is simply not fair. Unfair, some might say.
There was a little technique on that last play. You want to just see brute strength from him? Yeah, I can do that.
That center is absolutely helpless there. That's the kind of potential that Goldman brings to the Bears.
After taking everything in, I would say that his ceiling may be even higher than Danny Shelton's. When this guy goes, he GOES, and he looks like an unstoppable force. It's a ton of fun to watch. But this guy could also be released before his rookie contract ends if he is not motivated and shows more of that Florida-Goldman. If the Bears think they can keep him motivated, it should turn into a great pick. A nose tackle's job is take up space, but if Goldman isn't motivated, he'll only be a waste of it.
It is now round three of my look at the Bears draft. After looking at the Bears first two picks, I was less than enthused, but the third round brought a guy that had impressed me in limited looks, so I was pretty excited to take a closer look. Will Sutton is a classic 3-technique defensive tackle and will hopefully have a similar impact to healthy Henry Melton and early career Tommy Harris (although I do have dreams of Warren Sapp and Geno Atkins). Below are links to the Bears first two picks scouting reports:
Now it is time to take a look at Arizona State's Will Sutton. If there is one thing I always want my teams to acquire, it is undervalued assets. One way that teams consistently undervalue players is when a prospect's production drops off. Will Sutton was an absolute monster in his Junior year, and his Senior year simply did not meet expectations. His numbers dropped across the board, but the good news is that he had multiple reasons for this. Like Jadeveon Clowney, offenses geared their game plans towards limiting his impact. Along with that, he gained weight to help his chances at the next level, and the weight did not suit him well. Because of those factors, I wanted to take a look at games from both years by watching his 2013 Holiday Bowl performance against Texas Tech and his 2012 performance against Oregon State.
More important than numbers on a stat sheet is the impact that he has on a team's game plan. This is a nice look at how Texas Tech minimized Sutton's impact.
The latter is not as important as Texas Tech uses the wide splits to nullify all defensive linemen, but the first part was important as they made a point to put multiple blockers on Sutton as they knew he had the talent to blow up a play in the backfield.
Here are examples of what Sutton's ability to penetrate can do to a running game.
Even with his extra weight, he showed quickness off the line to cause problems for the offense. With the first play, he doesn't let the lineman get between him and the back and swallows up the back immediately. On the second play, he knifes through the offensive lineman, and gets to the running back before he can make it to the line of scrimmage. The gist of this is that the reports of his demise were greatly exaggerated.
With that being said, the second and third play of the Oregon State game in 2012 made my eyes get misty from tears of joy. Him at a lighter weight is a different animal. The first play is a nice job of reading a play and realizing that the best option is not just charging forward.
He drops back in a zone as he recognizes that they are setting up a screen and absolutely obliterates the running back.
I know that I said he obliterated the running back, but I'm struggling with that now. He definitely did obliterate the back, but now I don't know what to call what he does to the quarterback on this play.
Murder? Murder feels like the closest word to describe what happens on that play. Maybe a tad strong, but he basically made the quarterback look like a GI Joe action figure where the torso gets stretched from the middle groin part, but luckily the rubber band springs him back together. He hit him so hard that the quarterback dropped the ball before he got there. This may be evidence that Will Sutton has broken the space-time continuum.
Here is a play that Sutton does not make, and yet I love it almost as much as his highlight plays.
He could stand and let the play in, he could jump in on the pile, but instead he goes for the strip from the outside. He doesn't get it, but I love where his head is at on the play, as it's the kind of effort that could lead to a turnover.
From watching his play in 2013, two things became abundantly clear. The weight he added did not do him any favors either in performance or aesthetic appeal. The second thing was that even if he hadn't been circled in this cut-up, he still would have been the guy that jumped off the screen. He had four tackles in the game, but he was almost always the guy who got by far the most penetration out of all of the defensive linemen. He displayed good quickness and a nice club move that caused issues for the Texas Tech line. If the Bears drafted this player, it's a solid pick for them.
Meanwhile, watching him in 2012, he's Geno Atkins good (that is absolute ceiling, but ceilings for 3-techniques don't get much higher than that). Like, it's scary watching him, because there are plays where it looks more like a high school highlight tape where the guy is just outclassing his competition. If the Bears got this guy, they may have gotten the steal of the draft. I was happy when the Bears drafted him, but I am now elated. Thanks, Phil.
Now that the draft is over, I feel pretty good about things. I am basing this off of approximately 30 second of highlight videos, and that their final pick has a very famous pedigree.
I'm just going to assume that Jay Leno's real first name is Charles, and the Bears just drafted the Prince of Late Night.
— Hott Joe (@HottJoe) May 10, 2014
That's enough to go off of, right? Well, I'm unemployed, and that means that I don't need to settle when it comes to consuming sports, so I'm going to go through every draft pick that the Bears made to see what kind of talent they were able to bring in through the draft. So far, I have finished the following reports:
So the first thing that you have to know about Ego Ferguson is that he was not drafted to make plays. That sounds weird, but his job is much more to prevent the offense from making plays. He's 325 pounds, so he isn't going to be knifing through the line as the 3-technique. His job is much more to take up blockers and hold his ground. So expecting some mind-blowing highlights will probably leave you disappointed in Ferguson's performance.
He can get moving and penetrate if a team tries to stop him with a single blocker.
He doesn't make the play, but he does blow by the left guard who is unable to close the distance as the center blocks to his right. This may have been a miscommunication by the offensive line, but it shows that the big man can move, even if the final result is not ideal on the play.
The one thing to like is that he keeps his feet moving when he is engaged with a blocker. When he gets his hands underneath the lineman, he is able to manipulate him well enough. He's not quite Timmy Jernigan where he never really gives up ground, but as long as he stays low, he is tough to move without multiple blockers.
This is what happens when Ferguson is unable to do his job.
On this play, the lineman turns Ferguson's shoulders, and the running back has a huge lane to go through for a first down.
This is what it looks like when Ferguson is able to do his job.
He doesn't make the play. The quarterback even gains a few yards on the draw, but he occupies two blockers long enough where the guard can't peel off and take out the linebacker before the quarterback has no place to go.
I like the idea of Ego Ferguson more than what I actually saw from him in this game. The Bears run defense was awful last year. It was so bad that I truly don't understand why teams passed against them. So a person like Ego Ferguson was a necessary addition. But man, just three picks before the Bears took Ferguson, the Ravens got Timmy Jernigan, and that dude is a beast. After looking at the Bears first two picks, I am left thinking about what could have been. Had the Bears lost one more game, they end up with Aaron Donald and Timmy Jernigan in the middle of their line. That would have had me excited. Instead, I'm trying to give myself a reason for optimism, because from what I have seen Fuller and Ferguson are just fine. Still, Emery has made enough good decisions in his tenure to earn the benefit of the doubt. I just hope I'm not left dreaming of what might have been.
During the National Championship, there were many standout players, but there is one guy that jumped out whether he was on the field or on the bench. Timmy Jernigan was the engine that made Florida State's defense go. When he was on the field, he was raising havoc. Unfortunately, he got gassed causing all that havoc, and had to spend a significant amount of time on the sideline. Still, that is a pretty good sign that his presence is that valuable. I thought he would look good in a Bears uniform, but I wanted to take a closer look to decide how badly I wanted him in a Bears uniform, so I rewatched the National Title game thanks to JPDraftJedi.
His quickness is good, as he stays active and jumps around the sides of blocks to help make plays at the line of scrimmage. Still, his strength is where he really makes a difference. He was able to hold his position on the line without getting moved back and exposing large holes.
One reason that he got tired is that Auburn's offense has to be about the most tiring thing for any defensive line to face. With the high pace, lots of read options, and so many cutbacks, it is meant to get the defensive linemen to run around despite having a low chance of actually being able to reach the runner. It definitely wore down Jernigan, whose use of his hands ebbed and flowed throughout the game.
It's tough to shine as a defensive tackle, but when this guy is on, it is incredibly exciting. Watch these three plays, and you will see why it is easy to get hyped up about Jernigan.
The first play, he holds his ground against the offensive lineman before turning him and stopping a running back at full speed dead in his tracks and then drives him backwards.
The next play, he punks out the center with a rip and hurries the quarterback into an incomplete pass.
Finally, the coup de grace. He blows up this running play by running straight through the right guard , and stands over his vanquished opponent while destroying the running back in the hole. That is not fair, and that is something so very few guys can do.
When I watched Florida State's defense, the most noticeable thing was how much better they played with Jernigan in the game. When he was out, it changed their defense, as he allows others to make plays. Still, he can make his own plays as well. I still think Aaron Donald is probably the top guy in this class of defensive tackles, but Jernigan isn't a bad consolation prize for teams that aren't able to select Donald, as I definitely see the tools to make him an impact player at the next level.
