Mark Bradley

[CanOfCorn]

Per the Trib.

 

Kyle Orton the only member of the 2005 draft class left.

[rangercal]

I wish I understood this move

[santo=dorf]

I will still wear his jersey

[Brian]

Stupid injuries. I think the guy could of been very good.

[GoodAsGould]

He looked good in pre-season, was overthrown like 2-3 times on what would have been big plays. Nobody besides Lloyd has stepped up to be a WR on this team, why do we cut a guy who hasnt had a chance.

[CanOfCorn]

He looked good in pre-season, was overthrown like 2-3 times on what would have been big plays. Nobody besides Lloyd has stepped up to be a WR on this team, why do we cut a guy who hasnt had a chance.

 

Hard to have a chance when you can't stay on the field. And from David Haugh's article today, I think Bradley was b****ing behind the scenes and not proving it on the field or in practice.

[whitesoxfan101]

Another great high round Jerry Angelo draft pick, specifically another great offensive high round Jerry Angelo draft pick.

Edited September 24, 2008 by whitesoxfan101

[Chisoxfn]

This was a bad pick from day one. Overdrafted and did nothing in college (living off hype) and continued to do the same in the NFL. Sure he had a few game stretch a few years ago, but it was the only time he was even able to stay on the field.

[juddling]

they should have made him take Rashied Davis with him

[Steve9347]

He was never going to get another shot anyway, let some other team enjoy him.

[Chisoxfn]

Here's a commentary I wrote up on the release:

 

http://www.chisport.com/?p=85

 

The Bears on Tuesday released wide receiver Mark Bradley. Following the release, the Bears claimed cornerback Marcus Hamilton off waivers from Tampa Bay. Hamilton, a 2007 7th round selection, made his NFL debut last Sunday in the Bucs win over the Bears, and is expected to add depth in the secondary.

 

Bradley’s release shouldn’t shock anyone. He was one of many of Angelo’s poor first day selections, and worse yet, one of the final members of the 2005 draft. QB Kyle Orton is now the only remaining member of the “vaunted” 2005 draft class.

 

Angelo has now released 4 recent first day picks: Benson, Bradley, Bazuin, Okwo. This makes me ask the question, Why have the Bears missed on so many 1st day picks? Has Angelo just been unlucky or were these picks destined to fail? I broke down each of the 4 failed picks based upon the logic of the move (ie, team needs), other players on the board, and where the player was slotted to go.

 

Benson:

Benson was the biggest bust on the above list, but also the only selection which made sense. Yes, the Bears did have Thomas Jones, but the Bears offense was in flux. Terry O’Shea was fired and Ron Turner was brought in. Thomas Jones was not considered a good fit for Turner’s system, which required that “power running game”. Benson was expected to be just that. He was a prolific collegiate running back, who would get stronger and stronger as the game wore on. Everyone expected him to do more of the same in the NFL and no one could have predicted his eventual hold-out and unwilligness to play with the team.

 

Mark Bradley:

The Bears made a statment selecting Bradley early in the 2nd round of the NFL draft. The statement wasn’t a good one either, it was a bad one. No one expected Bradley to jump off the board this early. Sure he had physical potential, but his collegiate production was non-existent and he had injury issues. The above was why experts had Bradley projected to go somewhere between the 3rd & 4th rounds. So why take the chance on a project like Bradley? Especially when the Bears WR corps was in need of immediate help. Remember, Berrian had yet to emerge and the belief in Chicago was that the Bears needed to get a WR whom could be groomed by “Moose”. Roscoe Parrish, Vincent Jackson, and Chris Henry were all available and had much better collegiate stats and plenty of “athletism”.

 

Dan Bazuin:

Of the 4 players above, this was the worse pick. The Bears selected Bazuin in the 2nd round, when they already had three above average defensive ends on the roster (Mark Anderson, Alex Brown, & Adewale Ogunleye). The move screamed “luxury pick”. The problem was that the Bears weren’t in a position to make a “luxury” pick. They had a poor WR corps (Berrian and an Aging Moose), no depth at safety (Brown always injured and no one else had emerged), and an aging offensive line. So I ask why pick a defensive end out of Central Michigan? Instead of nabbing Bazuin, the Bears could have taken tackle Ryan Harris out of Notre Dame or WR James Jones. Heck, had the Bears not traded down in the first place to get Bazuin, they could have selected tackle Tony Ugoh.

 

Mike Okwo:

I can see some logic in the Okwo selection. The Bears were looking for insurance on Lance Briggs. The problem was the Bears already had a LB they loved, Jamar Williams, who was capable of stepping in for Briggs. Another argument could be made that the Bears were to get depth at MLB, but if Urlacher were hurt, Briggs would have slid into the middle with Williams/Hillmeyer cover the OLB’s. Bottom line there were far more pressing needs on the board than to use the selection on an under-sized, un-athletic linebacker from Stanford. RB Michael Bush would have been a tremendous value pick, but the Bears had just made another horrendous pick prior to the Okwo one (Garret Wolfe). Factoring in Wolfe’s selection, the best pick would have been safety Tanard Jackson.

 

Based on the above it’s hard to give Angelo a pass on three of the four failed picks. It’s one thing when a player busts or gets hurt, it happens (see McNown/Benson/Columbo). But it’s another when the pick was doomed from the get-go. In fact, When you look at the the list of Angelo’s failed selections, you see plenty of them which fall into the “no sense” category and its those picks that Angelo will have to get away from. When Angelo’s picks make sense, they pan-out. It shouldn’t come as a shock either as Angelo is one of the best talent evaluators in the game. So Jerry, please, lets learn from the past and do a better job addressing team needs via the draft. It worked in 2008 when the majority of the picks adressed needs, had value, and flat out made sense.

[lostfan]

I'm still Mark Bradley's #1 fanboy.

 

To be honest, Bradley's problem isn't a lack of talent, it isn't even injury issues. He has all the physical tools you could possibly want in a WR: He's big, strong, fast, and has good hands. If you were looking at a scouting report you'd think he was a Pro Bowler. His problem is that he's dumber than f***, like mildly retarded, and couldn't learn what to do on any given play.

[knightni]

I'm still Mark Bradley's #1 fanboy.

 

...

 

he's dumber than f***, like mildly retarded

 

 

I'd hate to meet his non fans.

[Steve9347]

I'd hate to meet his non fans.

HA!

[lostfan]

...

 

 

 

 

I'd hate to meet his non fans.

Haha. I'm a big Mark Bradley apologist, but the dude scored like an 8 on his Wonderlic. That's ridiculously bad... I mean, he's lucky he didn't drool on his answer sheet and blur out some of the answers b/c that would've lowered his score any more.

[DABearSoX]

Always killed for me in Madden...THANKS FOR THE ONLINE WINS MARK!