Chicago Bears Draft Pick Statistical Metric Analysis: Kyle Long

There was a collective groan that went up in Chicago when the Bears announced that they had selected offensive linemen Kyle Long with the 20th pick in the NFL draft.  The consensus on Long was that he was at best a second round pick, but by the vast majority of opinions he was not a first round pick.  There was a lot of better talent left on the board that the Bears could have targeted other important positions of need.  After the dust had settled most analysts and fans tried to find the positives in Long's game and immediately brought up the fact that Mike Mayock had Long rated as his 29th best player on the board.  A few other analysts had similar projections to that of Mayock, but two aspects became the argument to defense Phil Emery. The first argument is Long's athleticism, he graded out according to Emery as the most athletic offensive linemen at the NFL combine.  Emery had Long rated as a nine in terms of athleticism which he described as "rare".  ...