Chicago Bears – 2014 Draft Recap
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Undrafted Free Agents : Grade B
The Bears signed my #1 available UDFA, LB Christian Jones out of Florida St. I broke down Jones and the rest of the Bears UDFAs here. Despite the fact that the Bears got my #1 player, there were 46 players available that I had given a draftable grade and the Bears only ended up with three of them. I’m not sure why the Bears spent about half of their UDFA roster spots on players with no clear NFL future, but at least they did well on the other half.
I have been worried about the Bears LB situation all off-season and I am glad to see that Emery finally addressed it by adding 3 LBs in the UDFA round. Two of which, Jones and DeDe Lattimore, I think have a legit shot to see the field this season. The Bears also added three more offensive lineman that have NFL potential. Ryan Groy (WIS) is a mauling run-blocker who combined with 7th round pick Charles Leno gives the Bears two promising guard prospects. Tackles James Dunbar (TCU) and Booth (TEM) both are raw, but have shown NFL athleticism and the upside of potential starters in a couple of years.
Jordan Lynch from Northern Illinois will be a popular pick considering all the Husky alums in the Chicago area, but it may be more than just a feel-good local pick. Lynch was a Heisman finalist and had the 2nd most rushing yards in CFB last year (Ka’Deem Carey was 3rd) and Emery plans to use him as a running back and punt-returner. He’s a long-shot, but I’m not betting against him.
The rest of the picks don’t provide much potential and seem like kind of a waste to me when there were so many quality players available. More disturbing to me was the fact that the Bears didn’t address the safety position at all in the UDFA round. There were quality safeties available like Kenny Ladler (VAN), Craig Loston (LSU), Dion Bailey (USC), Isaiah Lewis (MSU), and Ty Zimmerman (KSU) and Emery passed on all of them. Perhaps he is happy with the Conte, M.D. Jennings, and Brock Vereen group, but I’m not.
Summary: Grade B
This is the first draft of the Phil Emery era that I’m not upset about. It wasn’t perfect, I made my thoughts clear above about the Vereen trade / pick, but overall I am satisfied. Emery addressed all of the positions that I thought he should except for a late round WR. I would have picked a different safety and drafted a wide receiver, another safety, or a linebacker instead of a punter, but I’m nit-picking.
This is also the first year that I didn’t have any failing grades for Emery. In 2013 it was Jon Bostic with a D; I had him graded as a 4th rounder and had linebackers Arthur Brown and Sio Moore (who were both available) graded as 1st-2nd round picks and even had Khaseem Greene graded higher (3rd) than Bostic. In 2012 it Brandon Hardin with a solid F. It wasn’t that I wanted a different safety at that pick, it was just that I had a 7th round – UFA grade on Hardin. So I don’t come off as a know-it-all, I also gave Shea McClellin, Cornelious Washington and Evan Rodriguez B grades which seem a letter or three too high.
A “B” overall draft grade combined with an “A” off-season is a pretty impressive start to the 2014 season. Despite having limited cap room to work with, Phil Emery added some potentially significant play-makers (Houston, Allen, Fuller, Sutton), re-signed key veterans (Tillman, Ratliff, Jennings, Slauson, Collins), and added depth at weak positions (Mundy, Young, DJ Williams, MD Jennings, Ferguson, Vereen, Hayden). It was an excellent off-season and a very solid draft with 4-5 potential future starters and some intriguing developmental players added to the roster. I am confident that the 2014 Bears are better than they were last year.
Twitter: @MikeFlannery_