Poles must have hated the EDGE and DI guys left. 

I was calling for Austin Booker for a while here. I love this pick.

8 minutes ago, SoxAce said:

I was calling for Austin Booker for a while here. I love this pick.

Seems like a late bloomer that has a ton of room to grow.  His arm length and variety of moves listed as big pluses 

 

https://www.nfl.com/prospects/austin-booker/3200424f-4f00-5373-700b-a9f16bc56e46

10 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

Seems like a late bloomer that has a ton of room to grow.  His arm length and variety of moves listed as big pluses 

 

https://www.nfl.com/prospects/austin-booker/3200424f-4f00-5373-700b-a9f16bc56e46

Only 21 years old. I was high on him coming in. It's a great developmental pick that can potentially strike gold down the road.

Gotta be the best draft in franchise history.  Some may laugh about the punter pick but he’s ridiculous and the Bears had one of the worst punters in the league with Gill.

Edited April 27, 20241 yr by WhiteSox2023

27 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Gotta be the best draft in franchise history.  Some may laugh about the punter pick but he’s ridiculous and the Bears had one of the worst punters in the league with Gill.

Apparently he was one the top 2 most important players for Iowa. If he's as good as advertised and able to constantly pin teams behind the 10, then this is actually an incredible pick that should pay massive dividends for the defense. 

31 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Gotta be the best draft in franchise history.  Some may laugh about the punter pick but he’s ridiculous and the Bears had one of the worst punters in the league with Gill.

Brugler had a 4th round grade on Taylor for what it’s worth

He was a weapon for Iowa 

Poles managed to fill all the holes/needs.  I wouldn’t mind seeing them pick up another DT if one becomes available.

 

2 hours ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Gotta be the best draft in franchise history.  Some may laugh about the punter pick but he’s ridiculous and the Bears had one of the worst punters in the league with Gill.

It's certainly the most exciting in my lifetime. Just didn't say multiple championship window. 

5 hours ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Poles managed to fill all the holes/needs.  I wouldn’t mind seeing them pick up another DT if one becomes available.

I wonder if they bring back Yannick back in on the cheap

7 hours ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Gotta be the best draft in franchise history.  Some may laugh about the punter pick but he’s ridiculous and the Bears had one of the worst punters in the league with Gill.

I’ll go with 1983. 7 Starters in their first 8 picks. It’s too bad they didn’t pick Marino instead of Gault, but they had McMahon in his 2nd year.

Covert, Gault, Mike Richardson, Duerson, Thayer, Dent, Bortz all major contributors for years. 2 HOF.

Edited April 28, 20241 yr by Middle Buffalo

9 hours ago, bmags said:

He’ll yess punter

Guys in the mock drafts were laughing at that pick, but I was constantly picking the punter with a fifth round pick in my drafts. Here he is!

11 hours ago, The Beast said:

Guys in the mock drafts were laughing at that pick, but I was constantly picking the punter with a fifth round pick in my drafts. Here he is!

I loved the pick. It's also one of those positions the Bears can afford to lock up for a couple contracts. It might not be a position that wins you games, but it can keep you in games and a horrible punter can lose you games. 

https://sumersports.com/the-zone/its-okay-to-draft-a-punter/

52 minutes ago, bmags said:

https://sumersports.com/the-zone/its-okay-to-draft-a-punter/

A solid punter is a different maker but even moreso for the Bears because Trenton Gill was so awful.

13 hours ago, Tony said:

I wonder if they bring back Yannick back in on the cheap

I wonder.  He must be healed from his broken ankle by now but he wasn’t very good when healthy last year (only 4 sacks in 13 ganes).  But they could use another pass rusher on the other side of Sweat so he doesn’t get all the attention.

Edited April 28, 20241 yr by WhiteSox2023

https://bearswire.usatoday.com/lists/2024-nfl-draft-bears-undrafted-rookie-free-agent-tracker/

 

11 hours ago, Texsox said:

I loved the pick. It's also one of those positions the Bears can afford to lock up for a couple contracts. It might not be a position that wins you games, but it can keep you in games and a horrible punter can lose you games. 

Brad Maynard flipped the field and was reliable for a decade for the Bears. Keeping teams in games in a battle over field position makes a difference.

On 4/27/2024 at 8:58 PM, Middle Buffalo said:

I’ll go with 1983. 7 Starters in their first 8 picks. It’s too bad they didn’t pick Marino instead of Gault, but they had McMahon in his 2nd year.

Covert, Gault, Mike Richardson, Duerson, Thayer, Dent, Bortz all major contributors for years. 2 HOF.

Good point, haha.  I’ll retract my statement.  It was the best draft in “recent history”.  They may have filled three positions (QB, WR, and P) for the next decade and also added two players at their remaining positions of need to develop.

On 4/28/2024 at 9:08 AM, Texsox said:

I loved the pick. It's also one of those positions the Bears can afford to lock up for a couple contracts. It might not be a position that wins you games, but it can keep you in games and a horrible punter can lose you games. 

Iowa won 10 games last year with an offense that no team in NCAA division 1 history, ever won more than 4 games in a season. Obviously a great defense, but a lot of it had to do with the punter.

2 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

Iowa won 10 games last year with an offense that no team in NCAA division 1 history, ever won more than 4 games in a season. Obviously a great defense, but a lot of it had to do with the punter.

As an Iowa fan like you, I recognize how great he was at just pinning the defense back and how he could just get the ball to die inside the 10. With that said - I can think of a number of punters drafted and it seems like correlation vs. the undrafted isn't that huge, so a lot of guys develop.

With that said - I tend to think Taylor is different than most drafted punters and he really has a unique skill set.  Plus he is still so raw that I would think he still has a lot of untapped upside.  

3 hours ago, Chisoxfn said:

As an Iowa fan like you, I recognize how great he was at just pinning the defense back and how he could just get the ball to die inside the 10. With that said - I can think of a number of punters drafted and it seems like correlation vs. the undrafted isn't that huge, so a lot of guys develop.

With that said - I tend to think Taylor is different than most drafted punters and he really has a unique skill set.  Plus he is still so raw that I would think he still has a lot of untapped upside.  

I posted above but that’s true for kickers but not punters, with the exception being punters in seventh round. For those drafted 4-6 round, they have been better than undrafted.