Smudge said: “Some teams build through the draft. Some tend to acquire big name players when they hit the open market. Some do both”

We do neither.

Pretty sure that the point of this post was to refute the notion pos[t]ed by Seejay that the Bears have done a brutal job of drafting and developing their players into starters.

Sorry but all the optimism (or statistical maneuvering) in the world isn’t going to change the fact that we went 7-9 and haven’t made the playoffs for 3 years, largely due to the FAILURE of this team to draft and develop players (and then “promote from within”), while refusing to pay market value for players in free agency.

More blame should be placed on the coaching staff imo. I think all and all we have done quite well in the draft; but like you said, the developmental aspect of our young players is a failure or least suspect. There are a few examples of players that I do think came quite a ways this past year: Chris Williams, Johnny Knox, and Al Afalava. I still would have liked to have seen more Iglesias and Moore, especially considering the circumstances. When it comes to FA’s, our organization has not done a very good job at all since Lovie has been here. I am not a big fan of Omiyale so far and Kevin Shaffer still hasn’t won me over, eventhough they can both change my mind next season with solid play. KJ was a big mistake imo from the very start. I liked that they picked up Pisa, just bad luck due to injury. At the beginning of the season, i really felt that we had the best LB’ing core in the league, injuries killed us. With our situation in the draft presently, I sure hope they go out and pick up FA’s heavy this off-season. We are not far away from being damn good, a few key aquisitions can make all the difference in the world imho.

Assign negative points to a player depending on which round he was drafted: highest round has the most negative points, lowest round the least negative to reflect expectation based purely on round drafted (I was thinking a range of -700 to -100 in order of highest to lowest draft pick might be appropriate). Higher draft picks have more expectation, therefore more to prove. Then start adding positive points for defensive production. e.g. # of tackles/year =1 point, int./fumble recovery/year = +2 pts, sacks/forced fumbles +3 pts…etc. Since this is Friday Night Drunk Blogging (+5), this system probably isn’t perfect but could provide a basis for deeper analysis.

Anyway, I’m not going to compile the data (I wouldn’t wish that on anyone), but it’s interesting to think about. But the expectation I have is that an average draft pick would end up around zero, better and worse picks would be plus and minus, respectively. This scheme is probably skewed toward making lower round draft picks look better then they may be, but it’s a start.

I changed the wording in the post to help clarify it a little more. Hope it does.

thats funny as hell

He did make the ProBowl after his first large deal and he’s been injured for most of the second contract. How he comes back in 2010 will speak volumes to his dedication. With that said, and I hate to beat a dead horse here, this all comes back to Lovie’s lack of leadership and not holding players accountable. I get the feeling he treats his “stars” like they don’t have to prove anything anymore. While they do deserve some preferrential treatment, no one should be handed anything or you’ll end up with a lot of guys are are fat and happy with their money and don’t feel the need to prove themselves all the time.

That’s the danger of this “he treats us with respect, like grown men” attitude these players have toward him. That would be fine if they acted like grown men and earned respect but, unfortunately, a lot of them don’t. To a certain extent, you can’t expect it because they’re very young men, most of whom have come from meeger beginnings and have had things handed to them because of their athletic talent. It’s pretty unrealistic to expect that type of upbringing to automatically bring a sense of responsibility with it. They need to be held accountable until they realize for themselves what a privilege it is to be a professional athlete and will take it upon themselves to maintain their performance. A coach has to help build that environment around them and also be astute enough to make a change when it’s clear any individual doesn’t hold himself to a high enough standard to make the team successful.

I seem to have misplaced my broken record, and it appears that you have one.

That said… I agree that these numbers don’t look good for the organization. Not with the play over the past three years. I like the build through the draft, promote from within philosophy, but they really do need to get better at scouting and developing and coaching and on-field discipline and etc, etc…

It would also be nice to have a healthy defense for the majority of the season.