RealGM

Bears terminated the contracts of DT Tommie Harris, LB Hunter Hillenmeyer and OL Kevin Shaeffer today.

As expected. Tommie is the only significant name but his performance doesn't justify that roster bonus. I expect us to keep Adams and definately go DT very early in the draft now.

ChronicKerr wrote:As expected. Tommie is the only significant name but his performance doesn't justify that roster bonus. I expect us to keep Adams and definately go DT very early in the draft now.

Word up. Jeff Dickerson was on ESPN1000 today basically confirming that we're going to take at least one defensive lineman in this draft.

Heard from someone who would know that the Bears are desperately hoping Corey Liuget falls to them. He won't. IMO the Bears are in an odd spot at #30 because the premium DTs will be gone and that seems high for the next tier. Maybe Muhammad Wilkerson but he plays awfully tall to be inside. Then again so does Idonije and he's come along nicely. That's too high for Drake Nevis or Jurrell Casey or Kenrick Ellis. Phil Taylor is a 1-technique, ideally a 3-4 nose. Paea isn't a penetrator which makes him a poor schematic fit. It might make sense to wait a round or two and get a Jarvis Jenkins or Casey or Christian Ballard or Lawrence Guy.

With both HH and Pisa gone I wonder how aggressively the Bears will address LB depth. It's not a most pressing need but Urlacher isn't exactly in his prime anymore either. Have to do more digging there...

Icness wrote:Heard from someone who would know that the Bears are desperately hoping Corey Liuget falls to them. He won't.

What would be the chances that we like him enough to trade up? And how high would we have to trade up?

Icness wrote:IMO the Bears are in an odd spot at #30 because the premium DTs will be gone and that seems high for the next tier. Maybe Muhammad Wilkerson but he plays awfully tall to be inside. Then again so does Idonije and he's come along nicely. That's too high for Drake Nevis or Jurrell Casey or Kenrick Ellis. Phil Taylor is a 1-technique, ideally a 3-4 nose. Paea isn't a penetrator which makes him a poor schematic fit. It might make sense to wait a round or two and get a Jarvis Jenkins or Casey or Christian Ballard or Lawrence Guy.

Probably not too odd a spot; we would (hopefully) just end up taking a quality offensive lineman with the intent of plugging him right in.

Icness wrote:With both HH and Pisa gone I wonder how aggressively the Bears will address LB depth. It's not a most pressing need but Urlacher isn't exactly in his prime anymore either. Have to do more digging there...

Cliff Levingston's thoughts as well. Considering the more pressing needs on the D and O lines, backup RB, WR, CB and possibly safety, we might have to wait a year and cross our fingers that Urlacher and Briggs can both turn out close to 16 games again.

Liuget will go in the 15-25 range, probably closer to 15 than 25. He's got the kind of feel that Tyson Alualu did a year ago, a player the NFL likes more than the draftnik or fan communities. It actually wouldn't shock me if he went to Minnesota at #12.

I talked to a Bears scout for quite a while one day at NFLPA game practice and he was looking at lower-rung RBs and CBs there, but one guy to keep an eye on that I know he liked was Fordham CB Isa Abdul El-Quddus. He's a more finished product than expected in coming from Fordham, good size, and he can tackle. 7th round potential. The point there is that I think they're going to take care of RB and DB late in the draft or also in free agency. Those two positions are the most likely to strike gold with UDFAs.