Let's talk TE prospects

Rusty Trombagent · Thu Feb 23, 2017 3:30 pm

is this the year that fendi onobun finally puts it all together?

crueltyabc · Thu Feb 23, 2017 3:35 pm

I love the prospects but also think it's worth getting a veteran FA. Rookie TEs have lots to absorb so I think of a draftee this year as Millers eventual replacement

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BamaBear09 · Thu Feb 23, 2017 4:11 pm

RustyTrombone wrote:is this the year that fendi onobun finally puts it all together?

Moriarty · Thu Feb 23, 2017 6:50 pm

Getting a top one -
Howard
Njoku
Leggett
Hodges
Butt
and possibly Shaheen

is a must for the Bears this draft

mmmc_35 · Sun Feb 26, 2017 9:36 am

Michael Roberts Toledo
- Watched a game and this guy is really good. He can clack and be a threat.

https://youtu.be/yWAdc8WAw_s

bearsfaninaz · Sun Feb 26, 2017 3:01 pm

mmmc_35 wrote:Michael Roberts Toledo
- Watched a game and this guy is really good. He can clack and be a threat.

https://youtu.be/yWAdc8WAw_s

I wouldn't mind him at all. Depends how he runs but he's definitely a big body that can catch.

bearsfaninaz · Tue Feb 28, 2017 10:09 pm

BamaBear09 wrote:
mmmc_35 wrote:Well the Bears may not care about TE but this is a damn good class. I will update the first post with prospects listed.

Adam Shaheen Ashland
- Basketball player turned noweresville TE. Pretty fucking legit though.

https://youtu.be/vDJLRgh2vp4
There are rumblings that he may end up in the first round after the combine and pro days.

Just came upon his highlights he'd be intriguing in 4th but he looks fast and big so he'll go higher I'm sure

alexwilkins · Sat Mar 11, 2017 2:43 am

Shaheen. Round 3. Howard is the only complete TE, but I feel you need a lot more pieces in place than the Bears do to take a TE in the 1st round. After Howard there's either recievers with little strength or blockers with average hands and routes. With guys like Mike Brown and Ben Braunecker on the roster, get another raw guy like Shaheen, and use Zach Miller as a sort of Player-Coach with the time he's got left.

DaSuperfan · Sat Mar 11, 2017 3:06 am

It's imperative they take a quality TE in this draft. This TE class is one of the best I've seen in years - we have to take a swing. I remember last year when the Bears were reportedly trying to trade up in the 2nd round to take Hunter Henry and couldn't strike a deal with Dallas I believe. Which is why we traded down a couple of times when the Chargers took him ahead of us and then took Whitehair later in the 2nd. Pace seems willing to upgrade the TE position and this is the class to do it in.

bearsfaninaz · Sat Mar 11, 2017 7:03 am

I'd love Evan Engram in 2nd with his size/speed he'd be a nightmare matchup for a lb s cb to cover IMO

BamaBear09 · Sat Mar 11, 2017 8:47 am

bearsfaninaz wrote:I'd love Evan Engram in 2nd with his size/speed he'd be a nightmare matchup for a lb s cb to cover IMO

And would compliment the blockers they have already

thunderspirit · Sun Mar 12, 2017 12:25 pm

alexwilkins wrote:Shaheen. Round 3. Howard is the only complete TE, but I feel you need a lot more pieces in place than the Bears do to take a TE in the 1st round. After Howard there's either recievers with little strength or blockers with average hands and routes. With guys like Mike Brown and Ben Braunecker on the roster, get another raw guy like Shaheen, and use Zach Miller as a sort of Player-Coach with the time he's got left.

I like Shaheen's physical gifts a lot, but it's hard to imagine Pace would go outside the Power Five on Days 1 or 2.
2015: White (West Virginia), Goldman (Florida St), Grasu (Oregon)
2016: Floyd (Georgia), Whitehair (Kansas St), Bullard (Florida)

It's admittedly a small sample size, to be sure, but the highest he's taken any non-Power Five guy is Deiondre' Hall at #127, and Northern Iowa is an FCS school, not Division II like Ashland University. If that changes this year I'd be really surprised.

karhu · Tue Mar 14, 2017 12:01 pm

George Kittle has become a huge sleeper in this draft. Much, much, much rather have him in the fifth or sixth than anyone discussed here in the second or third.

Tue Mar 14, 2017 12:04 pm

Cole Hikutini is my personal favorite TE in this draft. He'll probably go in the 5th-7th.

USSGlennon · Sun Mar 19, 2017 3:00 pm

John Fox likes TEs. If they are already a good blocker, that could help us with our inconsistant Ts in their blocking. And a good-hands TE is often his QBs best friend.
Would love to see us trade down a bit with that #3, and pick up Howard.

Middleguard · Sun Mar 19, 2017 4:45 pm

So far in this thread no one has mentioned the fact that the Bears signed Sims. Certainly that has to affect how much the Bears need to draft another TE and how their skills would overlap/compliment the TE skills the Bears already have.

DaSuperfan · Sun Mar 19, 2017 4:47 pm

The TE draft is too talented this year to not draft one because we signed Sims - who has been a career nobody up until this point.

Middleguard · Sun Mar 19, 2017 6:12 pm

So true, about this draft and about Sims. But does Sims alter who and when we pick?

IotaNet · Mon Mar 20, 2017 11:02 am

Saw this on another board as a 4-round draft for the Bears. The best scenario I've seen -- I would be very pleased with this:

Chicago Bears
3 Deshaun Watson QB Clemson
36 Evan Engram TE Ole Miss
67 Fabian Moreau CB UCLA
111 Justin Evans SS Texas A&M
117 Amara Darboh WR Michigan

Mon Mar 20, 2017 11:36 am

For the life of me, I don't understand these mocks. They literally just made a QB and a TE their marquee Free Agent signings and talked about how they were both ready to "break out", yet I keep seeing these two picks over and over.

IotaNet · Mon Mar 20, 2017 11:54 am

wab wrote:For the life of me, I don't understand these mocks. They literally just made a QB and a TE their marquee Free Agent signings and talked about how they were both ready to "break out", yet I keep seeing these two picks over and over.

Nobody considers these "Marquee" signings -- the Bears aren't even calling them that.

They're significant in that they fill serious holes but Pace has said time after time that he believes in building a team through the draft. Nothing in these signings conflicts with that.

Middleguard · Tue Mar 21, 2017 5:12 pm

USSGlennon wrote:John Fox likes TEs.

Fox might like TEs, but he clearly doesn't like TEs to catch passes. He might like TEs, but he clearly doesn't want to spend a high draft pick on one.

In the 9 years Fox was HC in Carolina, the Panthers were one of only 7 teams never to have a TE in the top 10 for receptions (twice he had one @14 but never another in the top 30) (and the first thing Carolina did after getting rid of Fox was acquire Olsen from the Bears). The only year Fox has ever had a 'top 10 receptions TE' was in 2012, the year Manning rescued him in Denver.

In his first 10 years as a HC Fox drafted a TE in seven (2 in 2011) (but none in his last 5 years). The average pick # was 158 (near the bottom of the 5th depending on comp picks). The highest he has ever drafted a TE is @ 76 (3rd rd) (and he didn't work out very well).

Fox drafted TEs much more frequently early in his career than he has lately and he doesn't want them for catching passes. The game, however, is going in the opposite direction. In 2002 (Fox' 1st yr as HC) the top 10 TEs had among them 546 receptions which was 53% of the receptions by the top 10 WRs (55% in 2003). Last year, the T10TEs had 738 receptions which was 76% of T10WRs (the year before, 70%).

Fox doesn't understand TEs.

Bonus question: which are the only 2 teams that haven't had a top 10 TE (receptions) during Fox' HC career?