It all got so very confusing on Sunday during an endless final day of the 2008 draft.
The details are fuzzy, but it seems the Bears landed the next Hines Ward, a new John Lynch, a guy on probation, a guy just off probation, a guy with two knees, another with a shoulder, someone from Alaska, someone who has eaten baked Alaskan and a tight end with as many sacks as the defensive lineman taken two rounds earlier.
And that was before the seventh round, which the Bears dominated with five picks. That included the first selection of the round, used on Michigan State defensive end Ervin Baldwin, an international man of mystery who wasn’t invited to the NFL Scouting Combine and didn’t make the cut in the draft guides. Baldwin later was hilariously asked in a conference call how he earned the moniker ”The Big Cheese,” which actually is the preferred nickname of Chester Adams, an offensive lineman selected 14 picks after Baldwin.
Confused? It was just that kind of day. The Bears landed 10 players to go with two chosen Saturday, and it will take years to figure out exactly how they fared.
That didn’t stop general manager Jerry Angelo — who said last week he was hoping to select four starters — from declaring he actually drafted five potential starters, counting safety Craig Steltz of LSU, who was taken in the fourth round over USC quarterback John David Booty.
If Angelo can pull off that feat, he’ll be in rare company. An examination of the last five drafts reveals that only two teams exceeded Angelo’s goal. The Buffalo Bills came up with six starters in their 2006 draft and the Philadelphia Eagles five in 2005. No other team selected more than four, and generally speaking, if a GM can find three, it’s a great draft.

suntimes.com