Bears Blitz

Published by Bryan Dietzler on May 6, 2011
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

It’s interesting to compare drafts between teams and see which team did better. It helps to get a much better idea of how teams draft when compared to others, of course what players each team drafted and how much better one team did over the other.

Teams in the NFC North had pretty good drafts this year, but the Bears and the Vikings did struggle in their drafts. The Lions got remarkably better and the Packers did their usual best in this year’s draft.

So let’s compare the drafts of the other three teams in the NFC North, and see if they filled their needs and compare what they did.

Green Bay Packers: The Packers have had a lot of success in recent drafts and that has helped get them to where they ended up last year (with a Super Bowl victory). While they didn’t take care of all of their needs in this draft, they took care of most of them and positioned themselves well with needed depth.

Drafting Derek Sherrod will help give them a better combination on their offensive line, while wide receiver Randall Cobb and running back Alex Green will give them some much needed punch. They added some depth to their defense as well, in particular at the defensive back and linebacker position, and if these players can help add some depth to their already stacked roster this could be an even better team in 2011.

Minnesota Vikings: Does anyone think that the Vikings made a mistake by taking Florida State quarterback Christian Ponder early in the first round? The Vikings have basically put all of their eggs in one basket with Ponder and hope that he can carry them to the promised land. 

They did manage to make an attempt to add some depth at other key positions, including tight end and defensive line (with Notre Dame tight end Kyle Rudolph and defensive tackle/end Christian Ballard).

Minnesota also spent some time working on depth at the a variety of positions, including defensive back (by adding Utah’s Brandon Burton and South Florida’s Mistral Raymond), the offensive line (by adding Arkansas’ DeMarcus Love and Slipper Rock’s Brandon Fusco). This depth will certainly help them in the long run.

Detroit Lions: The Lions ended up having the best draft of any team in the NFC North. They added some real starting power on their defensive line, with Auburn’s Nick Fairley, and if he works out sitting alongside Ndamukong Suh, the Lions could have one of the best defensive lines in the NFL. You can be sure that the other three teams in the NFC North shuttered when the Lions picked Fairley.

In addition to Fairley, the Lions helped themselves on defense by adding Syracuse linebacker Doug Houge, while their offense was bolstered with the additions of Boise State wide receiver Titus Young and Illinois running back Mikel Leshoure.

This team was rising at the end of last year and with a few pieces of the puzzle gathered in the draft along with good health by quarterback Matthew Stafford, this team could make their way into the playoffs next year.

Comparing to the Bear’s draft, if you follow the draft closely and understand the talent, you will see that the Bears hit well on their first two picks (Wisconsin offensive tackle Gabe Carimi and Oregon State defensive tackle Stephen Paea) but struggled in the rest of the draft and didn’t take care of many of their needs on the team.

As a result, the other teams in the division have made themselves better and much more competitive (although the jury is still out about the Vikings draft) and could overtake the Bears in the division in 2011.

Here is how the drafts rank in the NFC North:

1.  Detroit Lions
2.  Green Bay Packers
3.  Minnesota Vikings
4.  Chicago Bears

Agree? Disagree? Please share your thoughts.

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