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Chicago Bears Draft: Making sense of trade, Trevis Gipson pickRyan Heckmanon April 25, 2020 at 7:14 pm

Chicago Bears (Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images)

Chicago Bears (Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images)

The Chicago Bears traded up in the fifth round to select Tulsa defensive end Trevis Gipson. Why the trade, and how does Gipson make sense?

The Chicago Bears didn’t stay put. To no one’s surprise, general manager Ryan Pace traded up in the fifth round to select defensive end Trevis Gipson out of Tulsa at pick no. 155.

The terms of the trade include the Bears sending next year’s fourth-round pick to the Minnesota Vikings for this fifth-round selection.

If you’re like me, your immediate reaction might have been of confusion. However, that’s only natural if it’s not a position you would have expected. Sure, the Bears didn’t go after the offensive line, wide receiver or safety with this pick. But, let’s try and make sense of the Gipson selection.

Last season, the Bears had some injuries up front on their defensive line. We saw both Akiem Hicks and Bilal Nichols miss games at the exact same time, with Hicks missing a large chunk of the season.

In relief, Chicago plugged in veteran defensive lineman Nick Williams. Although Williams is a bit bigger and classifies mostly as a defensive tackle, he filled in extremely well at defensive end. In fact, he played well enough to earn himself a free agent deal this offseason with the Detroit Lions.

So, without Williams, the Bears had to find another defensive lineman to to add for insurance. To me, that’s what they did selecting Gipson in the fifth round.

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In 2019, Gipson registered 8.0 sacks and 15.0 tackles for loss overall.

If you know one thing about Gipson, know this: He’s got a motor. He has one speed, and that’s full speed. Gipson added a bunch of weight over his career at Tulsa in order to get bigger and pack on more muscle, but still possesses a lot of athleticism.

When Gipson gets his hands on you, he’s going to take you down. He rarely lets go, latching onto tackles aggressively. To wrap up well, it helps when you have long arms, and Gipson’s length is one thing that impresses you at first glance.

One thing I notice when I watched him on tape is that he doesn’t have a whole lot of technique when he rushes the passes, and that comes from simply playing so hard all of the time. At the NFL level, he will have to adjust quite a bit and become a more calculated pass rusher.

The positive, though, is that he is within a defense that boasts a ton of talent. He’s joining a group of guys who could be the top unit in all of the NFL, and being able to develop next to that type of talent is a huge advantage.

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Chicago Bears Draft: Making sense of trade, Trevis Gipson pickRyan Heckmanon April 25, 2020 at 7:14 pm Read More »

Chicago Bears Draft: What Kindle Vildor selection meansVincent Pariseon April 25, 2020 at 7:38 pm

MOBILE, AL - JANUARY 25: Cornerback Kindle Vildor #2 from Georgia Southern of the South Team during the 2020 Resse's Senior Bowl at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on January 25, 2020 in Mobile, Alabama. The North Team defeated the South Team 34 to 17. (Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images)

MOBILE, AL – JANUARY 25: Cornerback Kindle Vildor #2 from Georgia Southern of the South Team during the 2020 Resse’s Senior Bowl at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on January 25, 2020 in Mobile, Alabama. The North Team defeated the South Team 34 to 17. (Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images)

The Chicago Bears made another pick in the 2020 NFL Draft and Kindle Vildor is the next defensive prospect to come in and try and make an impact.

The Chicago Bears have made another selection in the 2020 NFL Draft. They selected Kindle Vildor with a fifth-round pick at 163rd overall. Vildor is a cornerback from Georgia Southern University and should come in fully expecting a roster spot. This is a loaded defensive backfield that Chicago has now, led by Eddie Jackson and Kyle Fuller.

He is the second cornerback drafted by Chicago as they took Jaylon Johnson from Utah last night. These are two strong picks for Chicago as they look to make their elite defense even better. Cornerback was a question mark heading into the offseason, but no longer should fans be worried. Both of them are going to try and take advantage of playing behind one of the best defensive fronts in the world.

This move is significant for Chicago for a few reasons. It is their fourth draft selection of 2020 so far and of the four, Vildor is the third defensive player taken. This offensive line needs help in order to properly protect Nick Foles or Mitchell Trubisky and they haven’t addressed it in the draft yet, as we speak. This offense needs to be able to score points more frequently but here they are drafting defense some more.

This news is also significant for a few players on the current Bears roster. Notably, Artie Burns probably really hates this pick. Vildor might be a guy who takes the spot away from Burns which might have him left off the roster by the time final cuts are made later in the fall. Obviously, the most important thing for the Chicago Bears is getting the best players on the field in order to help them win football games.

To win games, you have to have a strong defense. Pace is clearly loading up on defense for a reason.

Related Story: The Bears’ division rivals in the 2020 Draft

Vildor was a pretty good defensive back at Georgia Southern. He had 27 total tackles, two interceptions, and six pass deflections. That was a pretty good senior season and he was even better in the year before as a junior with 42 tackles, four interceptions, and 12 pass deflections. If he can bring some of that as a depth player on this Bears’ defense, they will be even more improved.

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Chicago Bears Draft: What Kindle Vildor selection meansVincent Pariseon April 25, 2020 at 7:38 pm Read More »

Why Darnell Mooney is a great draft pick for the Chicago BearsPatrick Sheldonon April 25, 2020 at 7:41 pm

Darnell Mooney (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

Darnell Mooney (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

The Chicago Bears added much-needed help to their wide receiver corps with their most recent NFL Draft selection of Darnell Mooney.

With the No. 173 overall selection in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Chicago Bears addressed a position of need with the selection of Darnell Mooney of Tulane University. While at first blush, it may not seem like a need, make no mistake about it — the Bears desperately needed to add to their wide receiver corps.

Once you delve deeper into the Bears’ current situation at the position, the reasons why this is a need comes into focus. Sure they have Allen Robinson, but he is an unrestricted free agent after this season. Although both sides seem to want an extension, that has not materialized yet. Javon Wims showed some promise but did not blossom last year the way some had thought he might. Anthony Miller continues to deal with a shoulder injury that has a high reoccurrence rate, and Riley Ridley hardly saw the field last season. The team also lost their burner/deep threat when they let Taylor Gabriel go this offseason.

As you can see, while there is a lot of talent amongst the group, there are few reliable options at this point, which is why the team needed to add another playmaker to the mix. In steps Mooney who brings the speed to be the receiver the Bears need to take the top off the defense, essentially replacing what they lost in Gabriel.

Mooney ran a blistering 4.38 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine and fits the profile of a Ryan Pace draft pick in the sense that he is an elite athlete, which Pace seems to favor. Mooney is a big-play threat who is a perfect complement to some of the bigger-bodied receivers the Bears have.

Next: Pace hoping history doesn’t repeat itself

After spending the majority of their first four picks on defense, the Bears needed to address the offensive side of the ball and give Nagy another threat to stretch the field. It appears they have done that even if they had to trade up to make it happen. At the end of the day, the offense needed playmakers and they got one.

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Why Darnell Mooney is a great draft pick for the Chicago BearsPatrick Sheldonon April 25, 2020 at 7:41 pm Read More »

Why OL Arlington Hambright is a solid draft pick for the Chicago BearsPatrick Sheldonon April 25, 2020 at 10:09 pm

Chicago Bears (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Chicago Bears (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

The Chicago Bears addressed a position of need with their most recent selection of Arlington Hambright in the NFL Draft.

The Chicago Bears have beefed up their offensive line with a developmental prospect, hoping to continue to build a solid foundation for the future with the selection of Arlington Hambright out of the University of Colorado with the No. 226 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.

The offensive line was one area that was not adequately addressed in free agency. While the Bears signed former first-round pick and current reclamation project, Germain Ifedi, he was released by the Seattle Seahawks for a reason. Perhaps the Bears have a plan to move him inside to play guard, but even still, he is likely not a long-term solution at either guard or tackle.

With the addition of Hambright, the Bears have added someone who they hope can develop into a nice rotational piece to add to their young nucleus of Cody Whitehair and James Daniels in the hopes that they will form the basis of a dominant offensive line for many years to come.

Let’s take a look at what Hambright brings to the table and how he fits into the team’s plans for next season.

Let’s be candid, players selected in the seventh round are a longshot to make the team to begin with, and the Bears seem to be taking a shot with two offensive linemen in the seventh round (Lachavious Simmons being the other). However, Hambright brings something that Ryan Pace has seemed to favor in his offensive linemen — versatility.

Hambright played tackle in college but projects to slide inside to guard at the next level. He has some nice athleticism but will have to clean up some of his technique if he is to have any real impact or even make the team, which is something new offensive line coach Juan Castillo will have to work with him on.

Next: Mooney a great pick for Bears

However, adding a nice developmental linemen late in the draft is never a bad thing as it gives them one more player with whom to work in the hopes of catching lightning in a bottle.

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Why OL Arlington Hambright is a solid draft pick for the Chicago BearsPatrick Sheldonon April 25, 2020 at 10:09 pm Read More »

Psychic Phone Readings by Edward Shanahan – Chicago Psychic Medium and what he is offering.Edward Shanahanon April 25, 2020 at 3:22 am

Chicago Paranormal and Spiritual

Psychic Phone Readings by Edward Shanahan – Chicago Psychic Medium and what he is offering.

©2020 CTMG – A Chicago Tribune website –
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Psychic Phone Readings by Edward Shanahan – Chicago Psychic Medium and what he is offering.Edward Shanahanon April 25, 2020 at 3:22 am Read More »

SIU safety Chinn taken in NFL Draft’s second roundDan Verdunon April 25, 2020 at 1:31 pm

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SIU safety Chinn taken in NFL Draft’s second round

©2020 CTMG – A Chicago Tribune website –
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SIU safety Chinn taken in NFL Draft’s second roundDan Verdunon April 25, 2020 at 1:31 pm Read More »

Movie Review: ExtractionJohn Hammerleon April 25, 2020 at 2:13 pm

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White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper optimistic there will be baseballDaryl Van Schouwenon April 25, 2020 at 1:00 pm

White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper is waiting for his phone to buzz.

Just in case.

Cooper, 64, who is home in April for the first time in 42 years, is doing the same things you and I are doing — or mostly not doing — waiting out the coronavirus.

He has cleaned out his garage. He goes out for an occasional drive, and he played two nine-hole rounds of golf, including one with wife Ruby. And he is running out of things to watch on TV. Cooper also is keeping tabs on what Sox pitchers are doing to stay ready near their homes or in Arizona.

Cooper is ready to get out of there and get back to work.

“We’re going to play; it’s just not yet,” he said by phone from Nashville, Tennessee. “Things have to keep going. And we’re getting closer.”

He’s just waiting for the call.

“I’ve got a bag packed upstairs,” Cooper said. “If somebody calls me in the morning, I can be there that night.”

No one knows when or even if baseball will return in 2020 — and, if it does, what it will look like or where it will be played.

Cooper, who would be entering his 33rd season in the Sox’ organization and 18th full season as the pitching coach, said: “It’s hard to fathom that we won’t [play] in some shape or form. Baseball has played through everything, through world wars. You played a couple of days after 9-11. Nothing has ever stopped baseball, other than the players’ strike.”

If baseball does get a go-ahead to resume, Cooper said 25 days of ”spring training” would be needed for a staff. He also said that starters won’t be ready to make full starts when a season would begin, that his pitchers are doing things now that could give them “an edge” when it does and that right-hander Michael Kopech might be ready by Opening Day. Cooper also said his staff was clicking in March.

“I really liked what was going on, I’m not just saying that,” Cooper said. “I really liked what I was seeing and the challenge of where we might be able to take things. It was just a feel I had with my eyes, what I saw guys doing. We were in full swing.”

Pitchers are throwing off mounds, sticking to plans laid out for them.

“I’m not going to talk about exactly what we have them doing because somebody else might not be doing that and we might have an edge,” Cooper said. “The bottom line is, I know what they’re doing, and if we get a heads-up that something might be happening, we might expedite their work before seeing them in Arizona and hit the ground running in spring training.”

Cooper doesn’t know where the games would be played. If it means playing at an empty Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago, so be it.

“All the scenarios I’m hearing, somebody else will figure it out,” he said. “Just tell me what the rules are and let’s go to work, let’s go play.”

A population staggered by the pandemic could use something to look forward to each day, such as a ballgame to watch.

“If that’s the case, I’m even in more favor of going,” he said. “I don’t know how much longer we can go shutting down the economy, as well.”

It would be uplifting to see Kopech, who topped 100 mph in his one Cactus League inning coming back from Tommy John surgery, in uniform when the season begins. He wasn’t going to open the season in the majors, but now it’s not out of the question.

“He was still climbing for the very last rungs on the ladder of the rehab program, so, yes, it’s conceivable he might be ready,” Cooper said. “He certainly looked good before we left.”

The Sox, built to contend for the first time in years, were looking good as a whole.

“We were off and running with an arrow pointing up, and that progress has been halted,” Cooper said. “That sucks for us, but it sucks for everybody. Crazy stuff, but you have to deal with it.

“So I’m anxious to pick up where we were and keep going. And win a division.”

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White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper optimistic there will be baseballDaryl Van Schouwenon April 25, 2020 at 1:00 pm Read More »

When baseball resumes, Cubs’ Hendricks will enact a simple plan: Be better than everSteve Greenbergon April 25, 2020 at 1:30 pm

Five days before his first start of the 2019 season, Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks signed a four-year, $55.5 million contract extension.

Then, he blinked.

Before a guy team president Theo Epstein had just called “one of the half-dozen most effective pitchers in the game” knew what hit him, he was 0-3.

In his fifth and final start of April, Hendricks got lit up by the Diamondbacks for seven earned runs — the first time in his career he’d given up that many — to fall to 1-4 with a 5.33 ERA.

“Not good,” he said at the time.

If only his pitching had been as spot-on as his analysis.

But Hendricks roared back to life in his very next start, which, in light of Epstein’s words, shouldn’t have surprised anyone. Against the Cardinals at Wrigley Field, he went the distance in only 81 pitches — the fewest in the major leagues in a nine-inning complete game since the 2012 season and the fewest by a Cub in a nine-inning complete game since Jon Lieber’s 78-pitch masterpiece in 2001.

It was the beginning of an eight-start stretch during which Hendricks was as good as he’d ever been, going 6-0 with a 1.99 ERA and gobbling up 58 2/3 innings.

It was a clinic in commanding his pitches, the strike zone, the hitters, the umpires, the peanut vendors and everything and everyone else.

It was a master class in nerding out on the mound, or whatever one should call the zone “the Professor” goes into when his arm and mind are in perfect alignment.

The stretch ended with a thud as Hendricks finally lost a game and promptly went on the disabled list with inflammation in his shoulder. He would miss a couple of turns in the rotation and go more than seven weeks between victories. The final tally for 2019 would include an 11-10 record and a 3.46 ERA in 30 starts — not bad.

But that stretch was a reminder of what Hendricks can be, and of what he can — and must — mean to the Cubs if they’re going to contend again while he and fellow starter Yu Darvish are under contract through at least 2023.

We sure talk a lot about Darvish around these parts when baseball is happening, don’t we? And when we’re not obsessing over Darvish, we fixate on Kris Bryant. Or Javy Baez. Or Anthony Rizzo, Kyle Schwarber, Willson Contreras, Jon Lester or an ever-changing bullpen.

Somehow — perhaps because he’s so mild-mannered — Hendricks, 30, lives under the radar by comparison. It’s a poor measurement of his importance to the team’s present and future.

“Don’t overlook Hendricks,” Lester said during spring training. “Anyone who doesn’t think Kyle could be [our] ace, I don’t know what they’re thinking. He’s a great pitcher. He has probably been our best pitcher for a while now.”

Hendricks was much more than met the eye as a rookie in 2014, going 7-2 with a 2.46 ERA as a last-place team went 11-2 in his starts. He finished third in National League Cy Young voting in 2016, when he led the majors with a 2.13 ERA. He was locked in again over his last 12 starts in 2018, going 8-2 with a 2.51 ERA.

In Mesa, Arizona, before the coronavirus outbreak put the season on hold, new manager David Ross described Hendricks’ early-spring work as “phenomenal.” Ross sensed a big year coming for the right-hander, and Hendricks sensed it, too.

Whenever baseball gets going again, Hendricks will have as much say in the Cubs’ success or failure as anyone. Lester is down to his last bag of bullets. Darvish is a walking question mark. Hendricks is still in the thick of his prime.

What he has done so far has been awfully good. Maybe what’s left is even better?

As things wrapped up last season, Hendricks — perhaps not bound for the broadcast booth post-retirement — addressed that question in three simple words:

“That’s the plan.”

And a fine one at that.

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When baseball resumes, Cubs’ Hendricks will enact a simple plan: Be better than everSteve Greenbergon April 25, 2020 at 1:30 pm Read More »

Notre Dame Football: Chase Claypool is officially in NFLVincent Pariseon April 25, 2020 at 1:16 am

SOUTH BEND, INDIANA - NOVEMBER 16: Chase Claypool #83 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish lines up for a play in the first quarter against the Navy Midshipmen at Notre Dame Stadium on November 16, 2019 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)

SOUTH BEND, INDIANA – NOVEMBER 16: Chase Claypool #83 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish lines up for a play in the first quarter against the Navy Midshipmen at Notre Dame Stadium on November 16, 2019 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are always pumping out NFL players and Chase Claypool is the latest example of their great program.

Notre Dame wide receiver Chase Claypool has officially been drafted to the NFL. He was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers with the 49th overall pick in the 2nd round of the 2020 NFL Draft. He is going to go play for them next season and live out his NFL dream. The Steelers are in a very contentious division but they could come back and make a run in 2020.

Claypool had an amazing season or the Irish in 2020. He had a great season in 2019 with incredible stats for the Irish. He had 1037 yards on 66 receptions in 13 games for the Irish. He had 13 touchdowns as well so he averaged a touchdown a week. There is no doubt that he had a brilliant year to end his collegiate career.

The Steelers are getting a stud with this pick as they look to improve their roster. They don’t have Antonio Brown anymore and nobody knows how long Juju Smith-Shuster is going to be there. Claypool will have a chance to make an impact on their offense right away. We don’t know how long Ben Rothlesburger will be there as he ages but they might be looking for their future quarterback soon anyway.

This could be a very good pick for Pittsburgh as they look to have a retool on their offense. Notre Dame continues to push NFL players into the NFL. Just a few picks prior to Claypool going, the Chicago Bears selected Cole Kmet. Kmet and Claypool were both key players on Notre Dame’s offense in 2019.

Related Story: Cole Kmet is coming to the Chicago Bears

The Irish are going to need some people to step up in order to replace players like Claypool and Kmet. It is cool to see these guys move on the NFL but they will surely be missed. Either way, Pittsburgh is getting a good one. He should have a big impact right away.

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Notre Dame Football: Chase Claypool is officially in NFLVincent Pariseon April 25, 2020 at 1:16 am Read More »