some breakdowns from Bruce Feldman and what he got from college coaches and some nfl execs about guys on the bears radar in the 1st round
No. 11 Jaxon Smith-Njigba
His 20-yard shuttle time of 3.93 seconds was the fastest by a receiver at the combine in 10 years. Last year, the Buckeyes produced two first-round wideouts in Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson, and both were 1,000-plus-yard receivers as rookies. Coaches I’ve spoken to who faced all three of them told me Smith-Njigba is much more physical.
“His change of direction is definitely the best that I’ve had,” Ohio State receivers coach Brian Hartline told The Athletic. “He’s kind of unguardable. He’ll be über-productive in the NFL. I think he will be a guy that leads the league in receptions and receiving yards.”
“You can line him up anywhere. He’s light on his feet. Really strong hands; is strong after the catch. Has great change of direction. He really blocks. He high-points it really well. Just a better all-around player than Olave and Wilson. I thought he was better than Marvin Harrison Jr., too. They’re different. You can put him in the slot and do a lot with him. I don’t think Harrison will be able to run certain routes. You can line (Smith-Njigba) off of the ball in stacks and bunches and really give people problems with pick routes, rub routes and Jerk routes. You see people playing with a three-corner defense with that nickel who is more of a blitzer (and) he will eat them alive.”
“He’s different than the other ones. There’s more quickness to him, more suddenness. He can really make you miss with the stops, re-starts.”
“He is really frickin’ good. When he was a sophomore (in 2021) he looked like a pro.”
No. 7 Paris Johnson Jr.
It’s Johnson, at 6 feet 6, 313 pounds with over 36-inch arms, over Northwestern’s Peter Skoronski, who might be more ready now to play closer to his potential. But the Buckeye has much better length (his arms are about 4 inches longer) to play tackle in the NFL, although both have good versatility and footwork.
“He’s a really solid player, very athletic and long. He does a really good job climbing to the second level on their gap plays and also sets the tone on their stretch plays that they run so well. When they decided to run the ball, they did it behind him.”
“I think he kept getting better and better over the year. You can see he got a lot more comfortable being in space and got better at using angles.”
“I know he’s good, but I think he got exposed at times by some elite pass rushers, which he’s gonna see every week in the NFL. I also wondered how physically tough he is.”
No. 5 Jalen Carter
No doubt, NFL teams will continue to dig into Carter’s background to determine how comfortable they are with him. On the field, the 6 feet 3, 315-pounder is a dominating presence that many around college football have considered the most talented defender in the past few years on a defense that produced three first-round D-linemen, including the No. 1 overall pick in 2022.
“He’s unblockable when he wants to be. He is unbelievably explosive. I think he’s probably similar to Ndamukong Suh when he was in college. He wasn’t as productive, but Nebraska also didn’t have the D-line rotation Georgia had. I think he has first-pick-of-the-draft talent.”
“Holy s—! (He) jumps off the tape. He is so big but so quick-twitch. He has an uncanny ability to redirect and (he has) really good balance.”
“You could play him all over the line. Someone that gigantic should not be able to move like that.”
“He was the guy that you always noticed on crossover film. People that big should not be that athletic. Twitchy. Violent. Strong. He was the best player (on that 2021 defense). He’s on a different level. All those guys are really, really talented — and then there’s him.”
No. 12 Christian Gonzalez “Dude’s a freak. I thought he had good awareness of the ball. He was very natural at everything he did. Was impressed even at Colorado. He just got better and better and took a big jump at Oregon. In his man-technique, he’s very physical, good at squeezing guys to the sideline.”
“He’s talented with his size and movement skills. I thought he lacked some technique. He has a receiver-type body. When the ball is in the air, he transitioned well. He’s gotta lock in and be more technique-based. For him to be that big, you want him to be more physical, but he’s not soft.”
“I was surprised to see that he was so high (in pre-draft media evaluations). I thought he was a late first (type). He’s big enough to play in the slot at nickel and he does have enough coverage skills outside to be intriguing. I wondered about his natural change of direction (COD). How is his short-area quickness? We didn’t have anyone who could really test him. Having that length and that straight-line speed obviously is helpful, but if you don’t have really good short-area quickness when you’re facing Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase, who are so good laterally in and out of change cuts and have more long speed … it’s getting scarier.”
“I thought he was a good player, but we did not think ‘Let’s not go at this guy.’ He played tight, got in bump-and-run, but he wasn’t one of those dominant guys, where we felt like we needed to stay away from him or motion him. He’s not Sauce Gardner. At the line of scrimmage, we thought we could beat him release-wise, and it’s not like we had a great receiving corps. He has the right measurables and the tools, you just were never wowed by the film.”
No. 13 Broderick Jones Jones started all 15 games at left tackle for the national champions and looks and moves like a super-sized power forward — which he was, as a standout high school basketball player. He ran a 4.97 40 at the combine. He has good length with 34 ¾-inch arms, and he is the rare player who measured an inch taller in Indianapolis than he was listed by his college.
“(Tennessee OT Darnell Wright) was more physical, but Jones is a better athlete and more of a pure left tackle. He has that good bounce to handle the speed rushers. He looks like a big-ass basketball player.”
“Watch how effortlessly he moves for a 315-pound guy when he gets out and pulls. It should be illegal to run like that at that size. We thought he got a lot better over the course of the year.”
No. 14 Devon Witherspoon “His physicality is just different. Not many cornerbacks are as tough. He’s pretty special. I think he’s just got savvy about him. He really understands the game. He would just smoke people. He made you really leery of throwing the flats. I’m glad he’s gone!”
“He has great football IQ. He’s really physical at the line of scrimmage; really fits the run; loves to throw his body around. We put an ‘X’ (on our scouting report) to go away from him. We were scared to attack him.”
“The media talked a lot about Joey Porter Jr. and I get why, because he’s super long. They talked a lot about the kid at Iowa (Riley Moss), but this guy was by far the best corner in our league. His instincts are rare. His ability to trigger is special.”
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