First Round Projections for NFC North Teams
Published by Andrew Dannehy on April 23, 2013
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
With the NFL draft less than a week away, teams are starting to narrow down the players they really want, players they’d be happy with and players they’d merely be satisfied with.
Chicago Bears general manager Phil Emery put it well in his pre-draft press conference when he described the classes of players as players they “would trade up for”, players they “feel will be available” and players they would be “looking for in a trade back.” Emery noted that they’ll have five or six players they’d be comfortable with, two or three that may drop and four or five they’d look for in a trade down.
Three teams in the NFC North have picks in the 20s, making it hard to project. The fourth, Detroit, is once again at the top of the draft, picking fifth. The Lions, obviously, have bigger needs than the other three teams and a better idea of who they could get.
The Vikings traded Percy Harvin for another first-round pick and could be on the move again, as NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reported. The Bears and Packers are in a position where they could do any number of things and could be good bets to trade back.
In his pre-draft press conference, Emery admitted to contacting teams about trading back and said “moving back is more attractive than moving forward.” Although he also said he’d “pull the trigger” on a trade up to get a guy who they know can make an impact.
In a story on the team’s website, Green Bay’s Ted Thompson cited his mentor, Ron Wolf, when discussing the possibility of trading back.
“It’s like Ron always said, it’s like baseball, you’re not going to get a hit every time you go to the plate, but if you have more swings, you have a better chance of getting a hit,” Thompson said. “I think in a general philosophy, I’d rather have more than less, yes, but at the end of the day I’d rather have more quality than anything. Quality and quantity both is a nice thing.”
While teams may want to trade back, they might not be able to. Since trade backs are nearly impossible to predict, I didn’t include it in this slideshow. Every team has to stay where they’re at and deal with the breaks that come their way.
So, as the draft nears, here is a list for all four teams. I’ve included three scenarios, players they’d love to fall for them, players they’d be happy with and players they’d merely be satisfied with.
