I hate doing the stereotypical post-draft "grading" system. Everyone uses the same formula:
1. What are the teams needs?
2. Did they draft players at those positions?
3. Did they trade up, even for a totally asinine pick? Trade ups=Good.
Basically then every team that filled all of their holes will get an A or B, and then when those players all suck no one will look back and say "wow, I guess they didn't deserve that A after all." People have long since forgotten it now, but I remember when the analysts said the Detroit Lions "won" the 2004 draft by picking up Kevin Jones and Roy Williams.
The Bears had very little to work with in the 2010 draft, and Angelo was determined not to give away any more future picks (Why not? If the team sucks this year you're probably gone anyway. Why not screw over your successor?), so the odds of trading up were very slim. This was mildly frustrating as there were some great players available in the second round that probably wouldn't have cost much to move up and grab (Taylor Mays, Jon Asamoah) that I was hoping for. Either way, the Bears did OK by staying put. Major Wright is a second round talent at safety that fell to them in the middle of the third. With any luck he can step up and play this year. Some free safety combination out of Manning, Wright, and Payne has to work well enough to not be a gaping hole in the secondary. With another year of experience for Afalava at strong safety I'm optimistic that they'll get competent play from that part of the secondary this year.
Wooten, the defensive end from Northwestern that they grabbed in the 4th round, was an odd pick. I think he's got potential first round talent, but I'm not sure defensive end was the biggest need in that round, although the talent at guard had dropped off precipitously by that point. Hopefully he pans out, but this was the only pick I had any major issues with.
Moore, the cornerback from Kansas State, is a guy I know very little about, but the team always needs help at that position, and the analysts seemed to like the pick (which means nothing).
The Dan LeFevour pick was a fine choice, and the reactions to it are hilarious. The comments on the PFT article are a goldmine, given that PFT is the most wretched hive of scum and villainy among all football blogs (also, Florio hates Cutler, which is why he posted an article about a SIXTH ROUND quarterback at all in order to stir up the Cutler hate). Some of the best:
"I think they realize Cutler=Mistake!"
"Cutler is fuming now! Cutler will be traded during next years draft"
"Cutler is not any good. A really strong arm doesn't equate to good NFL QB.Also, by all indications, in addition to being a pussy, he also seems to be quite a douchebag."
Guh. Personally I like the pick. Brett Basanez still sucks, so the team needs a third stringer. They can pay him a lot less than they'd pay Basanez or another veteran and he's got enough raw talent that he could develop into a mid-level starter someday (maybe even above-average if you factor in his mobility).
As for the 7th round, they drafted tackle J'Marcus Webb, a guy with NFL size who started his college career at Texas but left for "personal reasons," which I'm thinking may be a euphemism for "too dumb for an FBS school." He's a project. Hopefully he'll play well enough to stick with the team after training camp.
All in all the Bears drafted for good value with the picks they had. Hopefully they can take a look at a guy like Alan Faneca and see if he might be the stopgap at guard they need. That could make this a pretty good offfseason.
