Bears have met with 15 RBs

[southdakbearfan]

So how big of factor is the 40 time when a guy like Kareem Hunt ran a 4.66 and 4.62 at the combine?

[G08]

So how big of factor is the 40 time when a guy like Kareem Hunt ran a 4.66 and 4.62 at the combine?

Eh, not very. You want to see how quickly the back can identify and hit the hole. I think short area burst/quickness is more important here than long speed.

I think that's why we seem to be in love with Singletary and Williams.

[thunderspirit]

So how big of factor is the 40 time when a guy like Kareem Hunt ran a 4.66 and 4.62 at the combine?

Eh, not very. You want to see how quickly the back can identify and hit the hole. I think short area burst/quickness is more important here than long speed.

I think that's why we seem to be in love with Singletary and Williams.

Hunt ran better at his pro day, even with pro day adjustments factored in, FWIW.

The Bears run an inside zone scheme, so being able to run between the tackles is important. And Singletary has that. I see the vision you mention, but don't much see the burst.

I dunno. I'm no expert, just a passionate fan behind a keyboard.

[wab]

RB/FB (SHR= Shrine Game) (LOC= Local Pro Day)

Josh Jacobs (Alabama) PRI
Miles Sanders (Penn St) COM/PRI
Trayveon Williams (Texas A&M) COM/PRI/PRO
Devin Singletary (FAU) COM/PRO/PRI/WRK
RyQuell Armstead (Temple) WRK/PRI
Mike Weber (Ohio State) PRO/PRI
Alexander Mattison (Boise St) PRI
Bruce Anderson (North Dakota St) SRB
Devine Ozigbo (Nebraska) PRO
Myles Gaskin (Washington) PRI
Benny Snell (Kentucky) COM
Bryce Love (Stanford) COM
James Williams (Wash St) COM
Lexington Thomas (UNLV) LOC
Antoine Connor (Upper Iowa) LOC

Out of these dudes, and assuming Sanders is long gone (he will be), I like, in order:
Trayveon Williams
Bruce Anderson
James Williams
Devin Singletary

I am also not super in love with Singletary for all of the aforementioned reasons.

After those, I like Devine Ozigbo and RyQuell Armstead. But I feel like they are just more wiggly versions of Jordan Howard.

The wildcard is Love. Had we kept Howard, I would have been all in on Love as a redshirt. Now that the Bears may actually need to count on a rookie RB to play meaningful snaps, I'm not sure how I'd feel about drafting him.

[thunderspirit]

Yeah, Sanders would top my list. I have some concerns about him, but overall I think he's got the fewest warts. Weber is probably right below him.

I don't love Traveon Williams, but would understand with the pick and could see him, if everything breaks right, maybe turning into a poor man's LeSean McCoy. I do really like Dexter Williams and think he'd fit, but the character red flags in his past could scare the Bears off, and it'd be hard to blame them for it.

After that, my list would be something like: RyQuell Armstead, Ty Johnson from Maryland, Alexander Mattison, Devine Ozigbo. James Williams in a cluster.

From FCS, I like Dom Bragalone III (Lehigh) more than Bruce Anderson. Less productive last season (though their 2017 seasons are more comparable) but a better athlete.

The wildcard is Love. Had we kept Howard, I would have been all in on Love as a redshirt. Now that the Bears may actually need to count on a rookie RB to play meaningful snaps, I'm not sure how I'd feel about drafting him.

Same, really. I can't figure out where I'd slot Love.

[Atkins&Rebel]

So how big of factor is the 40 time when a guy like Kareem Hunt ran a 4.66 and 4.62 at the combine?

Eh, not very. You want to see how quickly the back can identify and hit the hole. I think short area burst/quickness is more important here than long speed.

I think that's why we seem to be in love with Singletary and Williams.

Hunt ran better at his pro day, even with pro day adjustments factored in, FWIW.

The Bears run an inside zone scheme, so being able to run between the tackles is important. And Singletary has that. I see the vision you mention, but don't much see the burst.

I dunno. I'm no expert, just a passionate fan behind a keyboard.

Hunt also dropped weight a little to help gain some quickness

[southdakbearfan]

So how big of factor is the 40 time when a guy like Kareem Hunt ran a 4.66 and 4.62 at the combine?

Eh, not very. You want to see how quickly the back can identify and hit the hole. I think short area burst/quickness is more important here than long speed.

I think that's why we seem to be in love with Singletary and Williams.

Hunt ran better at his pro day, even with pro day adjustments factored in, FWIW.

The Bears run an inside zone scheme, so being able to run between the tackles is important. And Singletary has that. I see the vision you mention, but don't much see the burst.

I dunno. I'm no expert, just a passionate fan behind a keyboard.

Hunt also dropped weight a little to help gain some quickness

Yep 4.57 pro day time.

It wasn’t a knock on Hunt, it was to show quick 40 times or slow 40 times don’t necessarily mean anything. It was more a knock on the 40 times being the end all for runningbacks in the draft. It has to be at a certain level for sure, something 4.6 or south but I would rather make a judgement off of film than 40 times and all the pundits keep bumping up guys based on 40’s vs production.

[The Marshall Plan]

So how big of factor is the 40 time when a guy like Kareem Hunt ran a 4.66 and 4.62 at the combine?

Combine scores don't matter according to this study: (Although on page 12 there does appear to be a correlation between 40 yard dash time and running backs oddly enough.)

https://www.stat.berkeley.edu/~aldous/R ... l_Park.pdf

Anecdotally this makes sense to me.

All of these players have accumulated statistics that made them worthy of being invited to the combine and then drafted. How many QBs that were dominant in college got drafted in the top ten and then became busts? A lot. I doubt they forgot how to throw a football given how they did in college. It has to be more of a function of being drafted by a bad team with presumably bad coaching because that's how they got that high draft choice more often than not to begin with.

So much of it has to be scheme fit, work ethic, being at the right place at the right time, strength of schedule, etc. etc. etc.

[Moriarty]

Walter's list of everyone we've met with:

SR - Senior Bowl meeting.
EW - East-West Shrine meeting.
COM - Combine meeting.
INT - Interested.
VINT - Very Interested.

And then suddenly I lost interest

[Atkins&Rebel]

Walter's list of everyone we've met with:

SR - Senior Bowl meeting.
EW - East-West Shrine meeting.
COM - Combine meeting.
INT - Interested.
VINT - Very Interested.

And then suddenly I lost interest

I think the timing of each meeting is important vs when we signed Davis. I'm still wondering if we draft a RB before round 7.

[DaSuperfan]

How about Bryce Love? I think if his medicals pan out (and I trust our medical staff now as they correctly assessed Meredith) - he could be a steal sort of how Pace stole Eddie Jackson in R4 back in 2017. Jackson was also coming off an injury, didn't do any pre-draft workouts and was sort of a forgotten guy in the draft.

When Love is healthy, he's a legit back IMO that has near R1 talent.

[G08]

https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/d ... -nfl-draft" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[DaSuperfan]

https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/d ... -nfl-draft

Exactly my thoughts. It all depends on the medicals and if the Bears medical staff can evaluate his injury correctly. If his medicals are in the clear, he should be considered in R3 or R4 - and you most likely won't have to trade up to get him.

[G08]

He claims to be ready by the middle of training camp, which I think is aggressive. Draft him if you feel like his medicals are clean and PUP him until week 6. That would put him around 10 months with his rehab and I'm of the opinion you can get by with Davis/Cohen/Whoever

[southdakbearfan]

He claims to be ready by the middle of training camp, which I think is aggressive. Draft him if you feel like his medicals are clean and PUP him until week 6. That would put him around 10 months with his rehab and I'm of the opinion you can get by with Davis/Cohen/Whoever

Maybe, but only if he really drops in the draft. You can't count on a 10 month recovery or even a full recovery with ACL's. Look at Meredith.

[G08]

FWIW Love said he expects to be full-go by July 8th.

https://twitter.com/mattschneidman/stat ... 2566183936" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[thunderspirit]

The question is, how much risk are you willing to take on?
What if he's not ready to go?
What if he never is?

On the flip side, what if he does come all the way back?

I like Love a lot. I think he fits what Nagy wants of his backs nearly perfectly...if he's the same guy we saw before his ACL.

Ordinarily, I'd be okay with rolling dice on that kind of risk in Round 4.
But ordinarily, the Bears have more than one Day 2 pick to mitigate that kind of gamble.

[G08]

The question is, how much risk are you willing to take on?
What if he's not ready to go?
What if he never is?

On the flip side, what if he does come all the way back?

I like Love a lot. I think he fits what Nagy wants of his backs nearly perfectly...if he's the same guy we saw before his ACL.

Ordinarily, I'd be okay with rolling dice on that kind of risk in Round 4.
But ordinarily, the Bears have more than one Day 2 pick to mitigate that kind of gamble.

That's the rub... my opinion is all contingent upon the Bears liking his medicals.

Nagy doesn't want or need a feature back so this kid, theoretically, doesn't need to be active until after week 6. You can live with giving the bulk of the carries to Davis/Cohen/Patterson. Tricky thing is if the Bears put Love on the 53 and he's active on game days he's going to need to be contributing heavily on special teams.

[wab]

If you draft Love in say...R4, you almost have to draft another RB in the 7th.

[DaSuperfan]

If you draft Love in say...R4, you almost have to draft another RB in the 7th.

Just as long as that 2nd RB in R7 isn't Rodney Anderson.

[alexwilkins]

Can someone breakdown Miles Sanders for me? I don’t get the hype at all...

[thunderspirit]

With Sanders it's all about projecting his traits and flashes. He's been productive but hasn't done what he'll be asked to do with the Bears consistently. The risk associated with him is that he won't be able to do what you need. He has the traits, though, and flashes them frequently.

His shortcomings are less physical athleticism than others.

[The Marshall Plan]

Can someone breakdown Miles Sanders for me? I don’t get the hype at all...

https://walterfootball.com/scoutingrepo ... anders.php

https://walterfootball.com/draft2019RB.php

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNCXEx-ns5c&t=77s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmuYS11-4Ls

If the RB position was valued more in the NFL he would be drafted higher than current projections (rounds 2 to 3 per Walter Football). Not much wear and tear on him at all. Only one full season as the starter due to playing behind Barkley. From what I can find online (I have not watched any Penn State college football this past season.), Penn State runs a zone blocking scheme which matches what the Bears tried doing last year. Penn State also runs RPOs. The transition to Nagy's offense should be pretty smooth. I don't see why he couldn't be a three down back for us.

With us having 10 picks next year it wouldn't bother me at all if we used some of that and traded up for him this year. I think what could happen is that we trade up for him, a bunch of people complain that we overpaid, but in reality we don't need 10 picks next year and its worth making a trade up to get our guy.

[BR0D1E86]

Can someone breakdown Miles Sanders for me? I don’t get the hype at all...

https://walterfootball.com/scoutingrepo ... anders.php

https://walterfootball.com/draft2019RB.php

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNCXEx-ns5c&t=77s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmuYS11-4Ls

If the RB position was valued more in the NFL he would be drafted higher than current projections (rounds 2 to 3 per Walter Football). Not much wear and tear on him at all. Only one full season as the starter due to playing behind Barkley. From what I can find online (I have not watched any Penn State college football this past season.), Penn State runs a zone blocking scheme which matches what the Bears tried doing last year. Penn State also runs RPOs. The transition to Nagy's offense should be pretty smooth. I don't see why he couldn't be a three down back for us.

With us having 10 picks next year it wouldn't bother me at all if we used some of that and traded up for him this year. I think what could happen is that we trade up for him, a bunch of people complain that we overpaid, but in reality we don't need 10 picks next year and its worth making a trade up to get our guy.

I have no problem with Pace using one of next year’s picks to get his guy this year, but I don’t want to waste them. They can always trade for a 2021 pick and stock up on future pics that way too.

[SC Bear]

Mattisson from Boise either 7th or FA

[mmmc_35]

Sanders has all the traits you would expect with a top tier RB. I have heard some say he isn't eplosive off a cut but I disagree. He has rarely good vision, balance, good hands,
and can make his own yards. Realistically without Barkley herw would have had an amazing career.

[DaSuperfan]

With Sanders I see a back that is decent in most traits but he doesn't possess one trait that "wows" you. Jack of all trades, master of none IMO. I don't think I'd trade up for him. If he's there at 87, sure pull the trigger. But I wouldn't trade future picks to get him.

[thunderspirit]

Mattisson from Boise either 7th or FA

I like Mattison quite a bit as well.

Don't think he'll make it to Round 7 (though stranger things have certainly happened), but I'd be happy with him as a Bear.

[G08]

Nice twitter thread on Singletary here:

https://twitter.com/DanDeYoung80/status ... 6788136960" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[DaSuperfan]

Nice twitter thread on Singletary here:

https://twitter.com/DanDeYoung80/status ... 6788136960" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Saw that, it was a good read. However, I'm not that high on Singletary in Nagy's offense. I think the Bears need a back that can take it to the house on occasion. Singletary has excellent vision but he's not that explosive. If the Bears end up going with him, fine, but I just can't see backs like him, Montgomery, Snell, etc. fitting into what Nagy wants to do at the RB position. I know they've met with him a couple of times.