Ryan Pace first round drafting strategy can be a tricky beast. The Chicago Bears GM always does a fine job each offseason of throwing everybody off the scent. By adding several free agents each month preceding the draft, it becomes almost impossible to identify the position and players they're certain to target. Given how prickly this regime is about secrecy that shouldn't be a big surprise.
Learning is difficult when the teacher wants the lesson kept secret. Pace freely admitted on a number of occasions that he does this. It's just part of common draft strategy. The less other teams know about his intentions, the better his odds of getting a player or trade value he desires. Understandable if still a bit annoying. As fans everybody craves information about the favorite team. So here's the question for the thousandth time.
Who is the Ryan Pace first round target?
Several experts have come forth with the popular names like Jonathan Allen or Jamal Adams or one of the top quarterbacks. All for their own perfectly logical reasons. However, some of them aren't taking the rules into account. What are the "rules", you ask? Think of them as the guidelines that each of the previous two first round picks the Bears have made follow. Here are all five of them and why they must be taken into account. [video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://www.sportsmockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Kevin-White-West-Virginia-WR-2015-NFL-Combine-highlights.mp4"][/video]Rule #1: He must be an exceptional athlete
Yes, yes, yes. It's well understood that intelligence, heart and leadership can dictate so much of finding success in the NFL. However, like any professional sport most of the greatest players were often the best athletes or really good athletes with elite intangibles. Such types are just able to do more on the field, which leads to success for the whole team. Both Kevin White and Leonard Floyd were considered premier athletes in their respective drafts. Just look at their combine numbers. Floyd was 6'3" and ran a 4.35 in the 40-yard dash. Floyd delivered a 4.60 at 244 lbs while also notching a 39.5-inch vertical jump. It was plainly obvious these guys were physical specimens.Rule #2: He must be productive
If a player could produce against his competition in college, why should anybody think it will be different in the NFL. So stats and impact plays definitely play a part in whom Pace will target. White had 1,447 yards and 10 touchdowns his final year at West Virginia. His highlights were beyond fun to watch as it didn't seem to matter if he was covered or not. Most will argue that Floyd wasn't productive at Georgia but that's just not true. Sure his sack total wasn't ideal at 4.5 in 2015 but delve a little deeper. He also had 72 tackles, 8.5 of them for a loss, three passes defended and returned a fumble 96 yards for a touchdown. It didn't matter he wasn't used much as a pass rusher. He still put up good numbers. [video width="1920" height="1080" mp4="https://www.sportsmockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Leonard-Floyds-introductory-press-conference.mp4"][/video]Rule #3: He must have clean character marks
When we say clean, we mean squeaky clean. It was clear from the moment he took over that Pace intended to change the locker room culture. A big part of that was targeting players with high character. What does that mean? For the most part it means no off-the-field issues, no problems involving confrontations with teammates/coaches, glowing marks for work ethic and a love for football. White fought his way up from junior college just to get a scholarship at West Virginia. From there he kept working until he became the seventh pick of the 2015 draft. Only a man who loves football would deal with that sort of difficult path. Floyd by all accounts was a humble kid from Georgia. He never once got in trouble at school and even referred to most people as "sir." Suffice to say if a top prospect in this 2016 class has a character flag of any kind, cross him off the list of possibilities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SfBCKv3NeI&t=39sRule #4: He must have met the team privately
This is a pretty straightforward rule. So far through two drafts the Bears have both times taken a player they met privately in the weeks leading up to the action. One thing that has become apparent is Pace is a man of details. He does his homework on each and every player he plans to sign or draft. That's a big reason why a number of his undrafted free agents and late round picks have had success. Men like Jordan Howard and Cameron Meredith. Private meetings are a great way for him to get more of an in-depth feel for how a player might operate within their system. Not to mention how he interacts with coaches and displays his personality. Keeping that in mind, here are the known players the Bears have met with privately.- Patrick Mahomes*
- DeShone Kizer
- Alvin Kamara
- Tarik Cohen
- O.J. Howard*
- Evan Engram
- Kenny Golladay
- Garrett Bolles
- Cameron Lee
- Jonathan Allen*
- Myles Garrett*
- Dlyan Donahue
- James Onwualu
- Rueben Foster*
- Marshon Lattimore*
- Ezra Robinson
- Malik Hooker*
- Jamal Adams*
- Josh Jones
Rule #5: He must fill a need
Look, don't be fooled by the rhetoric Pace puts forward about taking the "best player available." It's never that simple. Tom Coughlin explained it in a much better way. When head coach the New York Giants they had a board filled with players. Each player had a grade. Of course if one player had a way higher grade than the rest, he would be selected. However, if several players held a similar grade on the board when the Giants picked, the team would prioritize their biggest need. That's likely how the Bears do it as well. In retrospect it shouldn't be a surprise either White or Floyd were the targets their respective years. Chicago had just traded Brandon Marshall to New York in 2015, leaving a huge hole in their receiving corps. In 2016 they had no pass rusher college more than 8.5 sacks for the season with one of them, Pernell McPhee suffering a bad knee injury. Again, Floyd should've been a more obvious target due to his obvious pass rush potential. So feel free to look at the "best players" expected to be available at #3 overall next Thursday. Just best put them in the order according to the biggest need.Comments
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