The Chicago Bears weren’t essentially seeking to double-dip at defensive sort out on Day 2 of the NFL draft. That’s simply the way it labored, and now they’ve an opportunity to rebuild the entrance with youth from the within out.
The Bears selected South Carolina defensive sort out Zacch Pickens with the primary number of Round 3 (No. 64), 9 picks after choosing Florida’s Gervon Dexter. While it might seem redundant, veterans Justin Jones and Andrew Billings are on one-year contracts and with out future choices on the place, the Bears virtually assuredly would have been signing or drafting tackles subsequent offseason.
Now there may be hope Pickens and Dexter can develop alongside each other, not in contrast to what the Bears skilled with Tommie Harris and Tank Johnson within the 2004 draft.
Pickens had a career-high 42 tackles for the Gamecocks final season with 2½ sacks, and his disruptive first step affords hope he can enhance the inside move rush.
Jimmy Lindsey, South Carolina’s defensive position coach the final two seasons and now at LSU, spoke to the Tribune about Pickens’ improvement right into a draft prospect. Here’s that interview, edited for readability.
Note: This is a part of a sequence of conversations with the school place coaches of this 12 months’s Bears draft picks.
How did you see Zacch develop within the two seasons you labored with him?
His soccer IQ actually elevated tremendously. He realized soccer. He realized blocking schemes. He might come off to the sideline and inform me what was taking place, and after we watched the tape on Sunday, it was right. He grew to become a greater basic soccer participant utilizing his fingers and dealing to get off blocks.
Zacch obtained a couple of workforce awards this previous season. He was a captain in addition to most excellent senior, workforce MVP and defensive MVP. What went into him being honored?
He actually grew. It was fairly cool to see him develop as a frontrunner. The factor individuals are going to search out out about Zacch is he’s such an excellent teammate and particular person. Every day he walked into our assembly room, he would say, “How you doing, Coach? You good? You feeling right today?” And he cheered simply as laborious for walk-on guys who made performs as he did guys on scholarship.
Just a very good, unselfish teammate and he did all of the little stuff off the sphere proper. You by no means needed to fear about him being late within the constructing or lacking a exercise or a tutor or research corridor. I feel that’s the reason his play the final two years elevated tremendously from the primary two as a result of he was residing proper off the sphere and he was invested on the sphere. All of that coincides along with changing into a very good participant.
What form of questions did NFL scouts have for you about Zacch?
Just what kind of child he was. How did he function? How did he study? Things of that nature. What does he want to enhance on? What is he good at? Things like that. Zacch was a very good learner.
If a scout requested you which ones recreation tape he ought to throw on to see Zacch at his finest, what would you inform him?
Kentucky (4 tackles, one sack, one move deflected). That actually was the healthiest he was throughout our first six video games.
What was he requested to do in your scheme?
We have been a number of. He performed one-gap, however inside our one-gap we nonetheless performed major and secondary gaps and we obtained in some three-down stuff. He performed within the zero, the 4, he performed the shade and the three. He’s obtained plenty of place versatility. I feel that may assist him shifting ahead.
Some individuals have talked about him probably being at his finest as a 3 method within the NFL? How do you see him making his greatest influence as a professional?
He has the abilities of a 3 method as a result of he has some twitch to him. The Bears are up the sphere, so I feel that’s going to suit Zacch’s ability set completely.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com