In the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft Phil Emery selected Florida linbacker Jonathan Bostic to come in and be the middle linebacker of the future.  Bostic ran the fastest 40-yard dash time at the NFL Combine and grades out as one of the most athletic linebackers in the draft.   Bostic is a bit under-sized for a starting NFL middle linebacker at 6-foot-1 245-pounds and on tape it's exposed quite often.  Bostic is not a physical player in the sense of being able to attack and hold up at the point of attack, he's known overall for his one big hit on QB Teddy Bridgewater. 

Bears general manager Phil Emery has loaded up on offensive line talent during this off-season adding five new players to the rotation.  There's  two long term starters in Jermon Bushrod and Matt Slauson, one player hoping to revitalize his career in  Ebon Britton and two rookies that were added in the draft.  Only two of the new players added to the roster are guaranteed locks, first round draft pick Kyle Long and Bushrod who was signed to be the franchise left tackle.

Phil Emery may have gotten the best talent in the draft in the back end of the 2013 NFL Draft thanks to players like Marquess Wilson and Cornelius Washington from Georgia.  Washington is an explosive pass rusher who shows a tremendous first step and speed to the outside.  Washington has the length, the size and speed to be an effective base 4-3 defensive end in this scheme.  He's not a versatile player, Washington is pure talented DE who could position himself to push Shea McClellin for playing time.

With the departure of Nick Roach and the choice to not pursue Brian Urlacher, most everyone assumed correctly that the Bears would look to improve the linebacker depth in the draft.  Phil Emery did just that by reaching out and drafting two linebackers of the future in both the second and fourth rounds of the draft. 

Emery first addressed the middle linebacker position by drafting Jon Bostic from the University of Florida.  He then proceeded to address the linebacker position again in the fourth round by drafting Khaseem Greene from Rutgers.   While the Bostic pick raised some eyebrows with Arthur Brown still on the board these two picks essentially cancel each other out in terms of value. 

While some people didn't project Bostic as a potential second round draft pick, Greene was considered to be a second round pick who fell to the Bears in the fourth round.  If Bostic can be considered a third or fourth round value, then the value is evenly distributed within the draft.

While most of the hype every year surrounds each team's first two to three NFL Draft picks rarely can someone target where a general manager came up short.  In the case of Chicago Bears general manager, Phil Emery you can clearly pick out where this draft was an abject failure at an extremely critical juncture in this draft, the wide receiver position.  Emery did not address the wide receiver position until the seventh round of the draft when  he drafted Marquess Wilson a 20-year-old true junior from Washington State.

There was a collective groan that went up in Chicago when the Bears announced that they had selected offensive linemen Kyle Long with the 20th pick in the NFL draft.  The consensus on Long was that he was at best a second round pick, but by the vast majority of opinions he was not a first round pick.  There was a lot of better talent left on the board that the Bears could have targeted other important positions of need. 

After the dust had settled most analysts and fans tried to find the positives in Long's game and immediately brought up the fact that Mike Mayock had Long rated as his 29th best player on the board.  A few other analysts had similar projections to that of Mayock, but two aspects became the argument to defense Phil Emery.

The Chicaog Bears announced today that have signed 10 undrafted free agents to contracts for the 2013 season.  This list features three wide receivers, two cornerbacks, one center, two defensive tackles, one punter,  and one running back.  Currently not listed on the official Bears release is a quarterback, though it is being reported that QB Jimmy Coy of St. Xavier is being given a chance as well.  Here is the official list: 

                                    PLAYER                               POS                     UNIVERSITY

                                    Michael Ford                           RB                      LSU

                                    Mark Harrison                         WR                     Rutgers

                                    Demontre Hurst                       CB                      Oklahoma

                                    Josh Lenz                              WR                     Iowa State

                                    Patrick "P.J." Lonergan             C                       LSU

                                    Zach Minter                             DT                      Montana State

                                    Marcus Rucker                       WR                     Memphis

                                    Brent Russell                          DT                      Georgia Southern

                                    Tress Way                               P                       Oklahoma

                                    Curtis “C.J.” Wilson                 CB                      NC State

For the second consecutive year Chicago Bears fans and media alike are left scratching their heads about a Phil Emery draft pick.  With the 20th overall pick in the NFL draft the Bears selected offensive guard from Oregon Kyle Long.  Long played in 11 games but only started in four games for the Oregon Ducks in the 2013 campaign.  The Bears did address a position of need on the offensive line but likely drafted the fifth best remaining interior offensive lineman I had on my draft board. 

Long is a fine athlete with good length and speed and lateral movement, and as a player he could very well develop into an NFL starter, but he could have been drafted in the second round, quite possibly even the third round.  Brian Schwenke, Larry Warford, Barrett Jones, Dallas Thomas and Travis Frederick would all be players along the interior offensive line that I would grade out ahead of Kyle Long.  NFLDraftScout.com rates Long as the 56th best overall prospect in the draft which gives him a late second round grade.  That means at a minimum there were 36 players left on the board that were rated higher than Long. 

At this point in the draft there was absolutely no reason for Long to be drafted, he was a complete reach by any standard.  Alec Ogletree, Manti Te'o, Tyler Eifert, Sharif  Floyd are just some of the players that were left on the board when the Bears selected Long.  Players that fit in positions of need that were still highly rated by most NFL scouts.  Yet somehow, Long was taken ahead of these players while leaving the Bears with struggling to draft for a position of impact. 

This is by far the most baffling draft pick I would have considered at the 2oth overall pick in the draft.  Much like Shea McClellin was the most baffling pick a year ago and Marc Trestmann was the most baffling pick to be the head coach of the Bears after the firing of Lovie Smith. 

At this point, two years into his tenure as general manager Phil Emery has made one solid NFL draft pick, in Alshon Jeffery.  Each and every other draft pick can be questioned to the fullest extent of logic.  It's almost as if Emery's ego is getting in the way and he's trying to redefine the game of football to a set of standards he believes will make the Bears a successful team.  What logic and rules Phil Emery is playing by, to make this storied franchise a Super Bowl contender won't be determined until another eight months has gone by on the calendar.

The Chicago Bears wrapped up their three day mini-camp on Thursday with their final practice and one of the lessons learned was a sneak peek at the new rushing attack being implemented.  New offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer is in charge of design and coordination of the running game, and he's bringing in a new zone-blocking scheme that runs both inside and outside zone blocking concepts.  The Bears ran inside zone with Mike Tice when they wanted to work between the tackles, but when they went outside, they ran power.

While there’s a lot of attention being focused on what prospects are potential starting guards in the NFL Draft, consideration has to be given to the center position as well.  Roberto Garza isn’t getting any younger and you could start a center out at guard until he learns the offense then switch him inside to center after Garza’s contract expires.  Additionally if the Bears re-sign Lance Louis and Gabe Carimi works his way into the rotation as a starting offensive guard then getting a center of the future becomes a priority ahead of guard. 

Here’s a look at Brian Schwenke center from Cal who created a bit of a buzz coming out of the Senior Bowl week practices.