Having depth along the offensive line is always going to be good. O linemen get injured all the time.
I would not mind taking a blue chip LT. Braxton Jones is good, but he's not elite.
this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2023
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I think I’d rather go WR.
I’d rather have Jones and Nabers than Olu and whatever WR falls to the third.
Mooney is also a Free Agent as well
I hope you’re assuming MHJ is already gone bc the Bears took him with Carolina’s pick
Had to scroll to far for the top comment
It makes zero sense to take a WR #1 overall when your team needs a QB.
Fashanu is considered by some as the best pass protecting LT prospect in at least a few years. Jones should not stop us from taking him.
Pass protecting ? Yes (Other than the Ohio State game this year)
Run blocking ? No, he’s average
It depends if either Braxton or Olu can play inside o-line. If one of them can play guard I can see why we would take Olu. That's where we need the most help right now.
Joe alt hands down, 1st pick mjh.jr, 2nd 1st h Joe alt.
Let’s go through our actual options assuming we are picking 4th, and the top qbs + MHJ are gone
- LT - this is a good draft for LT, and olu is very good. Alt is also an option
- TE bowers - we have kmet, highly unlikely
- WR Nabers or Coleman - MHJ is king of the class, but make no mistake, all three of these WR would have been wr1 in last years draft. I think WR is a sleeper pick here and definitely possible.
- DE Latu - I think this is ultimately where we go if we don’t take an OT. He may not be a blue chip DL prospect, but he’s the best in this class and still a great prospect with potential to end up a game wrecker.
All are interesting choices. The decision at LT is definitely fascinating. I do like braxton, but I do’t think he’ll ever be more than average. At the end of the day I don’t think you can pass on a franchise LT personally
Scouts and talent assessment sites say there are 5 elite ratings in this draft. Williams, Maye, MHJ, Olu, and Bowers. They rate as high as Jalen Carter.
As much as I may appreciate Jones and Kmet. You take elite talent when it’s there. Kmets contract makes him very tradeable if Bowers is there with our second pick and we should consider it. The floor for him is probably Kmet as he is today, the ceiling is Kelce.
No defensive player rates as high as those 5 and this is a weak class for DLine overall. Most of the talent wouldn’t have made the first round last year. So you would be drafting strictly for need, and if that’s the case, trade back and do it.
Not a deep draft it looks like (years from now we may say different, you never know) but as it stands if you are in a position to grab two of those 5 elite talents you do exactly that. Don’t overthink it.
You mean the Jalen Carter we shoulda woulda coulda drafted?
Coleman over Odunze? I dont think so
We will draft Cooper Dejean and you will like it /s
People are sleeping on Rome Odunze at UW. I think he’s a can’t miss NFL WR. DBs can’t stay with him without committing PI. He’s the reason Penix is a Heisman candidate.
I think WR > OT all day. You can’t rely on getting one this good in the 3rd round
Trade down for sure, maybe grab Nabers
Other than QB he's the guy I want. Braxton could be signed away and we'd get a third I think, which would be a win for us. Now if we have the chance to get MHJ and a QB then I'd be fine with that. But we'd need 2 top 3 picks for that. MHJ has played so well that I just can't ignore it anymore.
He may prove me wrong but I view Braxton as a "good enough" LT, more like a Charles Leno than a true franchise guy. Personally, I would love to see us take Olu if he's viewed as a perennial all-pro kind of player. The best and most consistent offenses in the NFL are almost always the ones with the most dominant O-Line, e.g. Eagles, Lions, Ravens & Cowboys in recent years.
If we were to add a true stud LT to our core of Wright and Jenkins, we can then have Braxton as a swing tackle or see how he can do at guard. We'd still need a C, but at this point our line goes from "good enough" to borderline dominant. Personally I believe this is what Fields needs to meet his potential (along with better coaching), but it is also a very important luxury for a young QB were we to go that route.
In a vacuum, the thought of Olu and Wright is intoxicating.
Resign Teven and draft the best C and our QB could bake a cake with all the time and space...
Our OL has been an absolute carousel. Braxton Jones is good enough to be LT. But he missed half the season so far with injury. Nate Davis missed games. Jenkins missed games.
Just because we take a top LT prospect in the draft doesn’t mean our OL will magically play all 17 games healthy each year. With how important LT is i would love to have true depth there
Agreed. Also from a cap allocation standpoint, LT is very expensive, so if you're riding with JF1, then having a "cheap" LT for 4-5 years can help offset the cost of having an "expensive" QB. Or if we go QB 1-2, it can help us allocate resources elsewhere.
I'm fine with Olu especially if it means no more Borom. Definitely need a center too. Sick of Whitehair and Patrick.
Bears fans really are totally cool spending a top 5 pick and 3 2nd round picks on DBs in 3 consecutive drafts, while we have a bottom 5 offense in the league for like the 40th year in a row….
It’s genuinely a mental disease.
I’m not against this, but how are the center prospects looking? I’d prefer a young, rookie center than buying one in free agency, but if this dude really is that good at LT, maybe we should just take him.
Braxton blows floppy donkey dick at pass protection and is mediocre at run blocking. He's a capable backup and nothing more. Which is great for a 5th round pick. Most 5th round picks don't even make a final 53. But still bad. If we can upgrade from him we absolutely should.
The reality of the situation is that we need difference makers on offense. Jones is not a difference maker. If they go QB at #1, then the next step is to surround that QB with as many difference makers as possible. If Olu is the only difference maker on the board, then they should absolutely take him. It makes the entire line better because now you have a difference maker at LT and a damn good swing tackle in Jones.
To me, this seems like a very possible scenario. If they pick a QB at 1 or 2 with Carolina's pick and miss out on MHJ (which, tbh, seems like the most likely route), drafting a potential star at LT and hopefully addressing center elsewhere in the draft or in free agency creates a very nice situation for a rookie QB to land in. On paper that's a very solid line and a decent skill position group.
It’s interesting how many people resist replacing year 3 Fields but would so easily replace Braxton who doesn’t even have one and a quarter seasons under his belt. I’d rather invest elsewhere than what is still only a potential, while maybe higlyyyy likely, upgrade at LT. Olu looked human against OSU and Michigan. Doesn’t mean he’s bad just saying he’s not invincible.
If Braxton is out LT then we go get a 3 tech or the top edge in the draft
If MHJ is off the board and we’ve taken a qb with the Car pick then wr is still very much a need and Nabers or Coleman should be considered towards the back of the top 10
Hopefully dexter can become that 3 tech
Yeah but we’ll have to see how free agency plays out
Draft speculation is so silly. The sheer amount of variables between now and then is insane.
Yes.
I prefer Alt, but yes either should be an upgrade.
It wouldn't exactly suck to have Jones as a backup swing tackle.
It depends on the rest of the draft , I personally think Braxton is good enough that you don’t hunt for a LT but also not good enough that if Fashanu is BPA you pass. With that said, I think impact of someone like Bowers or MHJ are going to be bigger than the jump up from Braxton to one of the OT prospects.
We are set with both tackles. Need a center!
I would go with Defense or Rome Odunze if MHJ is gone
Is this a serious question? He’s the highest rated LT prospect since Laremy Tunsil
If we leave this draft without MHJ, I will consider it a failure.
Here’s my draft strategy. First off, I question the whole premise of this post. They have two top picks, why are we morphing 1 & 5 into 4? Let’s say they end up with 1 and 4 or 5. I’m trading #1 to 2 or 3 and taking MHJ. Then I’m trading down the 4-5 pick to about 10 where the DL make more sense. Out of the those two moves, they get back two second round picks and at least one first round pick next year. I draft a DL in the first and use the two second rounders on a safety and center.
Then it’s all about adding depth. This gives me another year with Fields but gives you two first round picks in 2025 in case it doesn’t work.
To answer the original question. No, he’s not enough of an upgrade. People forget he was the best OT taken in the draft last year, not the best outside the first round, the best, period. He’s an outstanding run blocker and has a very correctable flaw in pass protection. He has the size, athleticism, arm length and feet to be an outstanding LT. I get really tired of so called fans who think that every player is a bust who isn’t a pro bowler his first year. He played well last year and so far even better this year. And no you can’t just move him to LG, that’s where Tevin Jenkins will be playing. They also have another up and coming guard in Carter and a decent swing tackle in Borom.