Many of us have been rightly less than enamored with our starting RT. A lot of us looked at this offseason as a chance to upgrade at the spot. Pace may think otherwise Bobby Massie just signed a 4 year extension. I didn't see monetary numbers, but... We're stuck with the fuck. Damnit.
I think they did it because the FA market for tackles won't be great. So they lock him down, probably not for a lot of money, and avoid some other team running his price up. At his best Massie is serviceable and the Bears don't have depth here. They can still draft someone and I doubt this extension handcuffs them.
We know he isn't great but he missed just 5 snaps all season and was flagged once for a false start and zero times for holding. So....there's that.
One site attributed 1 sack and another 2, but can that be right? Harry Hiestand was developing Rashaad Coward a former DL into the RT position, but obviously he's not ready for prime time or because of the length of the contract perhaps won't be at all. With a slim RT market as BWW says and fewer selections to fill it in the draft it looks like they were handcuffed.
FFS Pace, you've got Amos and Callahan as FA's who are both WAY better players and what do you do, sign Massie first. SMDH I haven't seen any contract details yet but this deal had better be team friendly as F. Minimal guaranteed $ and an easy out after 2 years max. Something tells me thats not going to be the case though.... And why on earth make it 4 years too?? He'll be 30 when the season starts and isn't good, where is the need to lock down a player like that for this length of time?
From the looks of it...makes him the 5th highest paid right tackle in football. 8 mil per with 10 mil guaranteed is what I’ve read. So while the dollar amount is high it sounds like a deal that the Bears could easily walk away from after 2019 without much left on the books.
None of us, at this point, are football dumb enough to ignore the eye test. Massie is at best serviceable as some have noted, and at worst, somewhere in the bottom half of RT's in the NFL. I can think of several that are worse as well as many who are better. Contrary to the eye test, he's not a hole the way that many other positions are. He's been healthy since we signed him, is well liked on the team, and is blocking for Trubisky's face side - so less vulnerable. He gets beat a lot with speed and also often with power but really doesn't make mistakes. He's always in the right spot. Which means he's been very coachable. He is also often the lead block down on planned roll outs to the right where Trubisky pretty much went completely untouched this year, With that.... Massie allowed just 2 (TWO!) sacks last year, while having just 1 false start all year and... ZERO holding penalties. Can we do better? Sure. But, we're gong to be cap constrained next year and paying up to plug in a new offensive lineman doesn't really make sense.
Assuming the restructure Long it will keep the O line in tack to start the season which is a plus considering the offense as a whole needs to get better next year for sure . I think it's big considering they don't draft till the 3rd round , they may be able to go " best available " when they pick. I don't have any clue on how the contracts work with earlier opt out for the teams to save money as mentioned by some above , but if Pace got that as part of the deal then it may just be a team friendly deal . This give Harry more time to develop a future replacement if they actually have a project that's worth keeping around. All the reports say he was the best FA on the market so I guess we have to trust Pace made the right decision.
This is an area where Cliff Stein really earns his money. The Bears very rarely sign contracts that aren't team friendly in some form.
That looks lovely and all, but it doesn't mention things like hit and hurries, which we all know Massie gave up plenty of. He has his QB to thank for that sack stat. Massie got beat in pass protection and he got beat in run blocking. He was bad. And a telling sign imo was when Long was out. The right side of that line was bad. I totally get that he prob had his best year as a Bear, but thats not hard given the previous years. When ive finished taking a shit i scrub all the skid marks in the bowel. I don't leave one cos it looks slightly less bad than another. They're all skid marks. But tbh one theory on this could be its a collateral effect of draft philosophy. In a normal draft year i think the Bears would be throwing a draft pick at the RT position. Something like a 3rd rounder-ish, after you've addressed a need or two that was bigger(RT isn't the biggest need on the team imo). But when there is no 1st rounder, or 2nd rounder, then the 3rd rounder has to go on the greatest need. Maybe you can't draft a RT till the 5th round, and you don't bank on finding a plug and play pick in the 5th, thats not how it works. So what do you do? Maybe overpay to keep a below average player? Fact is we have a GM with a thing for dropping multiple picks on one player come draft time. 2 picks on Floyd, 2 picks on Miller, 4 picks on Trubisky. Eventually that has to show up somewhere in terms of roster building and it could be in a situation like this. But they're paying up already with this deal. Massie is gonna be one of the highest paid RT's in the league, thats just obscene! Even if the guaranteed $ is low overall, they're gonna be paying him a lot next season, they have to. If you're paying top5 money, id rather it was for something better than a bottom10 player. Well there was that one time a band camp when they gave out the worst contact in history to a certain QB, but yeah, Stein has been seriously good over the years. Hopefully he's worked some magic with this one cos they need him to.
Even that....as far as the way it was structured it wasn't a bad deal. They overpaid a player that wasn't worth the dollar amount but that's a different issue.
I am reading around 8 million next year. That would put him somewhere from 7th to 9th RT depending on the final number. So in the bottom of the top 3rd. Is that too much? Probably based on where I actually think he is. But when you factor in low overall guarantee, lack of talent in FA, and that he has done "meh" in this system, I'm OK with it. Again, his position isn't a hole right now, let's not make it one. Side note, we paid him 6.8 in 2015 when we first signed him.
Being structured properly matters, thank you Cliff Stein. Also BWW is right, if I recall, Jay's guaranteed money was done in 3 years in of the 7 year extension (and the bears kept him beyond that point). That, and putting it in perspective now, the way the league operates, the high premium on any quarterback of talent (or average ability), that was a deal as we look back on it. Especially when the Ryan Tannehills, Andy Daltons, Sam Bradfords, and Mike Glennons of the world getting money they did in subsequent years following. After a couple of days I understand better, albeit a bitter taste in my mouth. As Ev pointed out, the 2 sacks do not account for blown blocks, hurries, pressures, and other fuck ups we all saw from Massie. Its a minor raise which makes this easier to swallow, but I'm actually still concerned about tackle depth. We didn't talk about injuries much in 2018, partially luck? Better medical staff? Better care for players? A combo of all three? Who knows. Leno and Massie didn't get hurt, and while I don't care for Massie at all that was a positive, one that we haven't talked about. Had they have, we were looking at Bradley Sowell and/or Rashad Coward coming in. I don't feel good about that at all. The bears are Sowell's 5th team since 2012, signing him in 2017. Coward did really well bumslaying 3rd stringers and beyond in preseason 2018. I'm confident with neither, Sowell's TD catch some weeks back on the gadget play aside. Right now (and we have to see coaching positions, cuts, extensions play out) I contend tackle depth is arguably the top bears need this offseason. We can make arguments for RB (because Howard and Cohen are only 2 on roster for 2019, Mizzell and Cunningham FA), TE/WR (Simms is an easy cut to save cap and who knows how the concussion will affect his life/career going forward, Braunecker didn't impress again, and White/Bellamy don't have contracts for 2019.) DB you can argue, but Amos and Callahan remain out there. Have to think for WR/DB, bears really like Tolliver and Wims. Of course, Kicker. But with the crazy tryouts and newly signed Redford Jones, I can't see Pace swallowing his pride and bringing that Robbie Gould guy back. To a lesser degree, edge. After Floyd and Mack, Lynch was up and down, Isaiah Irving sure was invisible a lot when he was on the field. Kylie Fitts I don't think played more than 10 snaps, and Acho went down early injured. For the first time in a while, the bears are sitting pretty. Call it "first place problems."
Its all going to depend on how the contract is structured. Massie is the victim of a bad first impression. His first half of a season was ugly. No way to sugar coat it. That first impression has stuck with him despite playing at a much higher level for the past two and a half seasons. Getting better and more consistent along the way. His perception in the media has changed as well. He has gone from being looked upon as a player that needed to be upgraded over to one considered a key loss if the Bears were unable to retain him. The way I see it we have one heck of an offensive coaching staff. If they are confident enough in his abilities who am I to doubt them.
RT Bobby Massie Overview: $40 million, five-year contract, $15.8 million guaranteed 2019: $2.4 million base salary, $6.5 million signing bonus, $100,000 workout bonus Cash total: $9 million Cap hit: $3.8 million Note: Signing bonus and base salary are fully guaranteed. 2020: $6.9 million base salary, $100,000 workout bonus Cash total: $7 million Cap hit: $8.3 million Note: Base salary is fully guaranteed and this is an option year for the club. 2021: $7.9 million base salary, $100,000 workout bonus Cash total: $8 million Cap hit: $9.3 million Note: This is an option year for the club. 2022: $7.9 million base salary, $100,000 workout bonus Cash total: $8 million Cap hit: $9.3 million Note: This is an option year for the club and is voidable. 2023: $8 million base salary Cash total: $8 million Cap hit: $9.3 million Note: This is an option year for the club and is voidable.
