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When mock draft season opened, a popular pick for the Chicago Bears at seven was Washington nose tackle Danny Shelton. Many scouts/draftniks thought that the 6'2, 339 pounder would be a perfect fit for Chicago's brand new 3-4 defense.
As the weeks trickled away, Danny Shelton started falling down the mocks, with the experts claiming a nose tackle didn't bring value at 7. "Value" has a different meaning for all 32 teams, but history tells us that nose tackles don't go in the top 10 very often. B.J. Raji went 9th overall to the Green Bay Packers in 2009, Dontari Poe went 11th in 2012 to the Kansas City Chiefs, Haloti Ngata went 12th to the Baltimore Ravens in 2006 and Vince Wilfork went 21st to the New England Patriots in 2004.
Wilfork is the player Shelton is compared to by both CBS Sports' Rob Rang and NFL.com's Lance Zierlein and if Shelton can have a career like Vince's, then 7 is as good a place to draft him as any.
If the Bears are thinking about trading back off of the 7th pick to grab Shelton, they may want to make sure they stay in front of the Cleveland Browns at 11. Because according to Shelton himself, the two teams that have shown him the most interest are the Browns and the Bears.
While a guest on the Dave Softy Mahler Show from Seattle's Sportsradio 950 KJR, Shelton said the following.
"If Chicago doesn't get me, I know that Cleveland will be there for me."
The Bears opened minicamp yesterday and they only listed one NT on the roster, Jeremiah Ratliff. All the other holdover defensive tackles are listed as defensive ends.
Is that a sign the Bears feel they need to add a NT in the draft?
A couple weeks ago Sam spotlighted Shelton in his draft targets series and he included a few videos for fans to get to know Shelton better.
We managed to get our hands on another Shelton video, this one titled The Most Important Thing I've Learned In The Game Of Football.
Would you be surprised to hear Shelton's name called for the Chicago Bears tomorrow night?