Tight End of Draft Interest to Bears Receives a Flag

Pro Football Focus gave out red flags to some draft candidates and one who spoke at the Senior Bowl to the Bears has drawn their scrutiny, justified or not

One of the players to have the interest of Bears personnel at the Senior Bowl has caught the attention of Pro Football Focus in a negative way.

It's not hard to do, ask Mitchell Trubisky.

Tight end Brycen Hopkins from Purdue talked with the Bears at the Senior Bowl and is considered by many draft analysts as a top five tight end. He caught 130 passes for 1,945 yards in a four-year career for the Boilermakers.

Hopkins had a highly productive career, catching far more passes than many of the other tight ends in this draft class.

However, Pro Football Focus has placed him on its red flag list because of dropped passes. PFF pointed out Hopkins' hands "...have been consistently bad throughout his entire career," and detailed his drops.

They listed his 22 dropped passes and asked whether a team wants a guy who finds ways to be open but drops it as opposed to someone who catches it but doesn't really get open.

The answer, of course, is also in their numbers.

Hopkins actually became much better by the time his career ended.

He was over 20 percent drops as a freshman and a sophomore.

However, by his junior year Hopkins cut it to four drops and 10.5% of passes thrown to him. As a senior, he had 11.6% drops.

The drop indicates Hopkins' ability to improve through work and experience, and there is no way to measure how this will happen with PFF's analytical approach.

None.

Also, the logic displayed is almost humorous.

"Do you want a guy who will get open consistently but will have a ton of drops, or a more reliable tight end who might not separate well?" they ask.

Who is going to want the tight end with an inability to get open? He's not getting the passes thrown his way to catch or drop?

Hopkins is considered one of the better tight ends in the draft for a good reason. He's in an offense that afforded him the opportunity to chase down passes and he showed an abilty to do it, and then do damage after he made the catch.

Hopkins is the son of former Illinois offensive lineman Brad Hopkins, the standout from Moline who went on to start 188 games for the Houston Oilers and Tennessee Titans between 1993-2005. Almost all of those came at left tackle and Brad Hopkins made the Pro Bowl twice.

Brycen Hopkins is 6-foot-5, 245 pounds and likely would be considered as a U-tight end candidate by the Bears, the position played by often-injured Trey Burton.

ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay had Hopkins on a list of "under-the-radar picks for day two or three" and said he poses possible matchup problems as a receiver for defenses because of his ability in the open field. He lists Hopkins as a Day 3 pick.

There appears to be a wide range of thought on Hopkins, or else some people like running red flags.

In its seven-round mock draft, CBS Sports has Hopkins going in Round 1 to the Dallas Cowboys at pick No. 21, an eventual apparent successor to Jason Witten.

No red flags there.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven