Breaking Down the Chicago Bears First Round Pick: Georgia LB - Leonard Floyd

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. But let's break things down, starting with the Bears first round pick, Leonard Floyd, an outside linebacker (kind of) out of Georgia.

So, let me just be up front and say that this pick did not excite me when I first heard it. Grabbing an edge rusher who only manged 4.5 sacks seems like a pretty big gamble, especially when they traded up to do it. On the positive side, his athleticism is definitely there as he tested very well at the combine. I don't like to put a ton of stock in the combine, but I also think it's silly to ignore it. This was one of the most polarizing picks of the first round, so I took a look at his games against Auburn, Alabama, and Missouri to see if there was some hidden breakout potential, or if the Bears were just desperate to see something that wasn't actually there.

The first word that jumps out to describe him is long. 6'6" is really damn tall, and it shows up before his first play. But with that length, you can also tells how skinny he is. 244 sounds big, but on that sort of frame, he could definitely use some more bulk.

Once I started watching plays, it was pretty shocking how often he not only didn't rush the passer, but how often they had him lined up way away from the action to cover a slot receiver. That'd be fine if he was an asset in coverage, but he wasn't that good in coverage. At that point, the alarms are going off, because if he's not that good in coverage, but he's worthy of a top-10 pick as an edge rusher, you'd think the Georgia coaching staff would be, you know, smart enough to use him as an edge rusher. I mean, yeah, Mark Richt did get fired, but he also got hired by somebody else, so he can't possibly be that stupid. It seems the Bears are relying on the fact that Richt may be the worst coach in America, and that doesn't sound like the best plan to me.

I'm not going to dwell long on how he did against the run, as it usually wasn't pretty, and there was one play where Derrick Henry literally bowled right over him. Sadly, against Alabama, that was one of his more notable plays because it was one of the few times where he made any impact at all. Here's another chance for Floyd to square off with Henry.

Uh, yeah, that is not ideal. The Bears aren't getting him for his run stopping abilities, so I'd rather focus on where the Bears want him to win than where even the optimistic Bears expect him to struggle.

So, as for when he did pass rush, the issue that I had heard is that guys were able to lock onto him once they got their hands on him. And that definitely seemed to be the case against Alabama.

Here he is rushing against the right tackle, and once the tackle gets his hands on him, he looks absolutely helpless to break free.

Even the times where he successfully rushed the quarterback didn't inspire much confidence that this is a beast just waiting to bust out of his cage.

I mean, it shows nice hustle, and yes, you can give credit to his threat of speed for the tackle trying to drop that far back, but it's nothing that will work on a consistent basis.

One thing that I saw show up a few times was that Floyd did a really great job of exploding off the snap, to the point where I thought he was offside, but it was just really good anticipation on his part. It might lead to an occasional offsides call, but you like to see that sort of aggressiveness.

I had watched a lot of Leonard Floyd in a very short period of time. Honestly, it got pretty boring. It was so much ho-hum bullshit that I was losing interest. But my patience paid off with a "Holy shit" moment against Missouri.

Finally, I could see what the Bears saw. That is a sick ass spin move.

And since he is an athletic freak, all it takes is a simple speed rush to pair that up with...

And you start thinking maybe. Maybe this guy could be the double digit sack rusher that the team needs.

Although I can recognize that the potential exists, I'm still not sold. I feel like his age is a huge factor in prognosticating his potential. Floyd is going to be 24 before the first game of the season. I'm not against older prospects, but I am against older prospects that you expect to still blossom into something special.

I think it's pretty clear that I don't love the pick. Can you convince yourself that there's something there? Definitely, but asking for an older prospect to finally turn those tools into consistent production is not a gamble I would want to take with the ninth overall pick in the draft. The good news is that I feel a whole lot better about how the Bears followed up their first round pick, but we'll get to that in a couple days.

Scouting The 2014 NFL Draft: Christian Kirksey

It's time for another Hawkeye scouting report. There are three reasons I am doing this.

1. I wasn't a big fan of James Morris, and I would rather end on a positive note for my alma mater.
2. I found two guys that I really liked from Wisconsin, so I felt like I needed at least that many for Iowa.
3. I really like Christian Kirksey.

That third one is the most important, as Kirksey didn't have flashy numbers, but that was mostly due to the role that he played within the Iowa defense. He was three year starter, and he is a guy who did show improvement with experience. Thanks to Draft Breakdown, I was able to rewatch his game against Michigan.

Here is a play that illustrates why his tackling numbers trailed his linebacking counterparts.

He protects the edge and forces the run inside. If he tries to peel off from his block and make a tackle, the runner can bounce outside, but Kirksey maneuvers his blocker wherever he wanted and became twice as wide in blocking the outside options for the runner.

The biggest thing with Kirksey is that he moves very well. James Morris is a solid athlete, but Kirksey is a good athlete. He started as a very small linebacker, and although he is not big, he has put on some weight to alleviate most of those concerns. He is still by no means a big linebacker, but he should be big enough, and his quickness makes up for his lack of size.

With that athleticism, he was always Iowa's best linebacker in coverage which is going to be a key part of his contribution at the next level. Iowa likes to keep their base 4-3 in there unless it is a passing down. This meant that they often had to send Kirksey out wide when teams went three wide on first or second down. Iowa plays a lot of zone coverages, but Kirksey still was able to hold his own when he was asked to play man coverage on a slot receiver.

But even though he is known for his quickness and is not a big linebacker, he can still fill a hole when need be. These are the type of plays that give me a chub.

Michigan's left guard pulls to the outside to kick out Kirksey to open up a hole on the inside, and even with the momentum, the guard doesn't only not push Kirksey out of the way, but Kirksey, giving up about 75 pounds, pushes the lineman back and tackles the running back. When this play started, my computer was on my lap, it is now touching the ceiling. Football porn at its best..

If you are looking for negatives, he is not much of a pass rusher, so sticking him in that role would not be beneficial to the team that drafted him. Most of his sacks are hustle plays as opposed to legitimate pass rushing maneuvers.

With Kirksey, it's almost all positive, but without the standout features that make a first round pick. He's a very good athlete, and he's got solid strength in the hole. He does a good job in coverage, so he can be trusted in man and zone schemes. All of these things are areas he is good, but not great in. Still, a whole lot of good adds up, and for Kirksey, it adds up to a guy who can be counted on as a starter. For a mid-to-late round pick, that's not good, that's great value. 

Scouting The 2014 NFL Draft: James Morris

For Hawkeye fans, James Morris became Mr. Reliable. He was never outstanding, but fans were rarely left cursing his name. He got his first start as a true freshman and never relinquished the role from his sophomore year on. Still, it was hard not to want more from Morris. Don't get me wrong; he got better, but there was never a leap in production that everyone kept predicting. Without a doubt, his Hawkeye career was a huge success, but does his talent translate to the next level?

Iowa players are not known for their athleticism, but they are known for having the fundamentals. James Morris is actually more athletic than many people would expect as he has decent speed for a linebacker and moves fairly well. Still, he's going to make his money by being a very sure tackler. He's not a big hitter, but he's going to have proper technique when wrapping up the ball carrier.

Although athletically he is solid, he is not great at reading and reacting. Everything is just a split second slow, which means that runners who make quick cuts can make him look bad as he will fill the wrong hole, and a lot of times his zone coverage has him bouncing around on an island by himself.

He seems at least a little active in his zone on that play, but in the end, he moves about a total of two yards when the ball is thrown. He's likely not going to be able to make a play on that ball either way, but if he drifts back a few more yards, it gives him a much better opportunity. At the same time, it's tough to ever judge somebody in a zone, as his sole responsibility may have been to stop any drags across the middle and quarterback scrambles. Still, I would like to see the awareness to peel off that responsibility to drift into possible passing lanes while still keeping an eye on the quarterback.

The biggest problem with Morris is that he positions himself out of plays. When watching a player like Chris Borland, even if he didn't make the tackle, he was almost always around the play. Morris often makes decisions that put him far away from having any impact on a play. But then there's those times where he guesses right, avoids a blocker, and stuffs a runner in the hole. The problem is that it is a guessing game with him. Imagine the middle linebacker as the quarterback of the defense. A quarterback with a good accurate arm would look like they have the tools to succeed. If their first read is open, then they are going to look great. But if that first read is covered, they are going to make big mistakes that cost their team. James Morris is the linebacking version of this. He has the tools to succeed, but he often guesses wrong in his defensive positioning, and it costs his team.

Optimistically, he had a ton of turnover in both his linebacker coaches through his career which can make assignments confusing in some areas. Still, after watching him for four years, I like all the tools, but I just can't envision him becoming reliable enough in his instincts to become a starting linebacker. Because of that, I wouldn't feel comfortable taking him as anything more than a 7th round flyer.

Scouting The 2014 NFL Draft: Chris Borland

With my quarterback scouting series ending a couple months ago with Johnny Manziel, I took some time off since I had reviewed all of the quarterbacks that I was interested in (Sorry, Tommy Rees). But with the draft happening next week, I'm going to try to highlight players that I really like at different positions. These are not going to go nearly as in-depth as the quarterback reports, but they should still get you a good idea of what these guys bring to the table. I wanted to start off with a guy that I have liked since he played as a True Freshman. Even as an Iowa alum, there was no denying how much fun it was to watch Chris Borland play for Wisconsin. The guy was all over the field and made plays in every facet of the game.

The first thing you know you are getting with Chris Borland is a motor. This guy goes nonstop until the whistle blows. This is easy to see in his tackle numbers, but when you watch tape of him, you see that he is almost always close to making a play. That displays another quality that he has which are instincts. He knows how to always be around the ball by diagnosing plays, and he never gives up on anything.

One thing that people didn't see much of this season was his pass rushing ability, but it was something that really stood out for me a few years ago when he still played more outside linebacker. This is where he uses his small frame to his advantage. He does a great job of bending to avoid contact and makes it very hard on tackles without good mobility. During Watt's last year at Wisconsin, they did some nasty things with Watt at one end and Borland at the other on third down passing situations. Since he has played middle linebacker successfully these past couple years, I expect that to be his main position, but I would definitely give him opportunities to rush from the outside to take full advantage of his skills.

And even if he is permanently put in the middle, he still has pass rush skills, because even though he doesn't have great speed, he is extremely quick. There are not many players that can recover from a chop block and still almost get after the quarterback, but that's what makes Borland such a fun player to watch.

He's not known as a great athlete, but I do think that he knows how to best translate his physical skills to football better than 99% of players.

There are two concerns with Borland: Size and injuries. The former is only a slight concern for me. Many people worry about his size (especially with his shorter than ideal arms), because it will be tough for him to fight off blocks from offensive linemen. This would be more of a concern for me if he was a defensive lineman, but he's a linebacker, so he basically needs to avoid letting them get close to him anyway. It reminds me of Brian Urlacher who had fantastic seasons when his defensive linemen were occupying the offensive line's blocks and he was free to roam to make plays. When he lost that, he struggled, because it's really tough for a 250 pound guy to fight off a 320 pound guy, especially when the bigger guy knows where the play is going and the littler guy has to diagnose the play and react. That being said, he does get swallowed up on runs up the middle more than I would like to see, but he does a very good job of moving sideline-to-sideline on outside runs.

The latter is a much bigger concern for me. Injuries have cost him games here and there, as well as missing an entire season. His shoulder has caused a lot of issues, and that is something that should make teams hesitant to draft him. A possible move to an outside spot may help him take less of a grind, but at middle linebacker, although I think he'll be very good when he's on the field, I don't know how may full seasons you can get out of him.

I love watching Chris Borland play. He has been one of my favorite players to watch for five years now, and I am excited to see him at the next level. If he can keep his shoulder together, he'll make a great mid-round draft pick for a team. With in-depth medical reports, it would be easier to make a decision, but this is how I would handle things from what I know. In the second, the injury concerns are a little too much for me; in the third, I would strongly consider him; in the fourth, I'm taking him unless I'm stacked at linebacker, and if he makes it to the fifth, I'm jumping all over him no matter how much depth I already have.

Scouting the 2013 NFL Draft: Bears Pick Khaseem Greene

Well, it's been a while, but I am still going to try to get through all the Bears draft picks with decent YouTube tape on them. For previous installments, you can learn more about Kyle Long here, and more about Jonathan Bostic here. Since the Bears had no third round pick, it is time to jump to the fourth round and look at Rutgers linebacker, Khaseem Greene. Greene was somebody I liked from the limited information I had about him, so I was excited about the pick and his chances to come in early and make an impact. The guy is a great athlete, and he was somebody who made a lot of plays in college, two things that get me very excited. I took a look at his game against Arkansas to get a better idea about his skills.

One thing that he seems to do well is reading the quarterback's eyes to recognize where he should be dropping in his zone. This is a good example of him using the quarterback's eyes to figure out where he should be going in his zone. 

It's a situation where he may have some peripheral sight of the wide receiver, but the big key is reading Tyler Wilson's eyes and cutting off that route. He closed down the passing lane and made Wilson throw the ball away.

Even though he was good in zone coverage, it is not a wise idea to line him up on the team's best receiver in man-to-man coverage
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He may be athletic, but, yeah, that's not the team's best decision. Also, the safety did a really poor job on that play. Coverage wise, he's solid but not totally smooth in turning his hips and running down the field. I still think he has the speed to handle responsibilities in most coverage schemes, just don't line him up on receivers with no help.

For the running game, he has some work to do. He does a good job of reading plays, but he can get swallowed up by blockers since he is not a huge linebacker. I would like to see him be stronger on contact. Also, he doesn't always do a good job of finishing his tackles. This is probably the most egregious example of that:

That's a tackle that you need to make, and it cost his team about eight yards.

In this game against Arkansas, he really struggled to read plays and attack the hole. He always seemed a little hesitant on making moves. On this play, he just badly misreads the play. He vacates the hole that the running back was looking for on the counter, and it leads to a huge gain by the offense.

He moves to his right, but he isn't going to make a play on that side either way. Either he is just going to add to the pile, or the running back will try to break it outside on there. Instead, the running back cuts back to where Greene should have been and turns it into a first down. Greene is relatively new to linebacker, so it may be something that he can improve on, but right now, he is really just relying on pure athleticism to make plays.

One good thing that I saw a lot of was that he really tried to strip the ball from people when making tackles, which means he should fit in well with the rest of the Bears defense.

Overall, he is going to be a good coverage linebacker that has a good chance of at least getting third down snaps this year. His background as a safety really helps him there. Unfortunately, his lack of experience at linebacker could hurt him as he is just a split second slow at diagnosing plays. If he can improve that aspect of his game, he has the athleticism to be a solid outside linebacker.

Scouting the 2013 NFL Draft: Bears Pick Jonathan Bostic

As I stated during my live blog of Day 2 of the draft, I really wanted the Bears to draft inside linebacker Arthur Brown. He was ultra athletic and all the guy did was make plays. In their never-ending pursuit to try to make me root for another team, the Bears did draft a middle linebacker. Unfortunately, it was Jonathan Bostic out of Florida. I can admit that I knew next to nothing about him, so I checked out his game tape against Ohio State to find out more.

There is one thing that stood out for me when watching this game tape, and that is that I will probably never laugh harder watching film of a prospect. Here's him getting stood up by a fullback.


Here's him getting blocked by a center.


This one is my favorite, as is him just shuffling his feet and hands and then jumping on the pile a second after the runner was already down. I hope he got credit for a tackle on this one.

To be fair, it wasn't all bad, as this was a really nice play where he blew things up without getting any credit for it. 

To be even more fair, the tape is from his Junior year. Guys get better, so I took a look at his game against Vanderbilt to check for improvements.

The good news is that you can at least see the athleticism in the guy  in this Vanderbilt game.

I was honestly about to just stop watching, but then I saw something that perked me up.

I LOVE the bend he has on that pass rush move. That is a thing of beauty. The Bears are going to be switching up their defense somewhat. With that, he could fit in at outside linebacker better than he does on the inside. The Bears drafted a middle linebacker out of Arizona named Lance Briggs, and everyone thought they were insane, because they already had Urlacher in the middle. Well, that pick turned out okay for them.

He also looked solid in coverage, but diagnosing plays and making things happen from inside just did not look like his cup of tea. If they drafted him to be a middle linebacker, I'm not happy with this pick. But if they put him on the outside and show a willingness to blitz him, I can definitely see him surprising people and having an impact early on.