I expected Edge/DL to be a focus and scratched my head while the draft went on.
Afterwards there was a pretty good explanation (on a post here, iirc) that the Bears had many players coming back from injury that they thought they would have this covered, and that the most desired Edge/DL picks were already off the board.
That said, our DL pick in round 6 sounds great, but how was he still available if that's true?? And trading up 2 from round 7 to get 1 in round 6 is kindof unusual. But hey, if the guy is a late round gem... Our starting RB is last year's round 7 pick.
The C pick was curious, because his review on the site I read said he may have won awards, but isn't that good for the NFL because (among another thing or two) he has shorter arms than desired. Yikes! I'd be ashamed to show up for family dinners if I had short arms! Then I read another site which was much more positive. His ratings varied significantly between these 2 sites, of course. I think I will trust our Coach on this one!
Jones (the C pick) is extremely athletic for a Center. Will almost certainly be great in the zone running schemes Ben prefers. The questions are with his pass protection. At Iowa they ran the ball on about 2/3 of their offensive snaps. Obviously, there is a LOT more tape of him in running schemes. When Iowa passed, it was often in OBVIOUS passing situations, making protection more difficult.
The Bears will use a lot of 3 TE sets, (hence the Roush pick)... but Ben tends to pass out of these sets more than most who employ them. This should help us protect as well.
As Far as DL, they spent a lot of money on Odeyingbo (Played in 1st 8 games, achilles), and Booker (Missed first 7 games) came on strong at the end of the year. We had both of these guys available for about one half of one game last year.
They also still have high hopes for Shemar Turner, who was basically never completely healthy last year. (injured his ankle on the first play of camp, came back played sparingly weeks 4-8, tore his ACL and was put on IR).
Van den Berg is a project, but he is a MONSTER athlete. He is from South Africa and was a rugby player. Never touched a football until 10th grade. Was a zero star, walk-on LB at Iowa Western CC, before he put on 40 pounds and went to Penn St, then GT.
At his pro-day at Georgia Tech he scored the 2nd highest all-time in the athleticism drills for a DT prospect. (10.0) Speed, strength, explosiveness, agility... the kid has it. He lacks balance and technique. Super intriguing prospect. Kid is known for his work ethic and motor. (His grandfather was a bodybuilder, and his grandmother holds several SA swimming records)
Hopefully, they can coach him up.
