With the deadline passed, the Bears have unsurprisingly chosen not to franchise tag any players. What that does mean is that, in a few days, Robinson, Hicks, Daniels, Nichols, and others will be free agents. I don't think anyone will be upset to see lots of these guys gone - Dalton, Graham, etc - but this team will have A LOT of spots to fill. Punter might be one of them - O'Donnell is a free agent, too, and while he's never been the best or the worst, part of me is tired of hearing how a punter is our longest tenured player. I'm eager to find out how Poles and Co. plan on handling not only their first free agency, but one so fraught with horrible cap issues / contracts (see you in hell, Pace), and one with so many spots to fill. Surely the Bears faithful have some keys they want to see brought in. Who is on everyone's wishlist, big or small?
I am a little shocked by them not prioritizing Daniels. But the market for him is reportedly softer than previously thought. And some decent quality guards are hitting the market around the league. Poles has a ton of work to do. Priority #1 has to be filling the #1 receiver spot. I doubt they mend their relationship with ARob and I am okay with that. But where do they go from there. Can they afford Amari Cooper? Doubt it. DJ Chark seems more in their wheelhouse. I would at least ask Seattle what it would cost to get DK Metcalf now that they are in full rebuild mode. Some decent MLB candidates out there including Jordan Hicks and Bobby Wagner. Bears have to at least look at the CB market...they don't need a #1 guy but the spot across from Johnson must improve. And they absolutely have to be looking at centers and pass catching tight ends. So much work to be done.
Agreed on all fronts. I was also surprised something didn't materialize with Daniels, but I also recognize his spot is one that could potentially be improved on. I don't think he's ever reached a potential that was considered to be there. To me, it starts with OL. That's #1, 2, and 3. CB is a close 4th, though. They've got no one there to lean on outside Johnson. Weapons, to me, are easier to find and not quite as important. But no doubt WR and TE need to be addressed. With them moving to a 4-3, they need to completely revamp some spots on defense. I imagine that has to happen via FA - you don't want to rely on the draft for late-round starters (see: Ryan Pace). But this will probably consist of middle to lower tier signings, given how badly the offense also needs help. What a mess. I hope you're miserable somewhere, Ryan Pace.
Need a 3 tech. Badly. With the probable 1st round pick (better fucking be more) they just got sending Khalil Mack to the chargers, you have to draft Perrion Winfrey. Will list my FAs when I’ve a real keyboard in front of me
I haven't been on top of this stuff as much as i normally would tbh. Partly a little lethargy, partly it all being so hard to predict with this new GM. And partly cos a lot of my non-work time has been taken up big time with following the Soviets(thats what they are) getting their asses handed to them in Ukraine. Yep we are right in the sweet spot of that 1% of the time when Twitter is actually good for something rather than being the steaming shit pile it usually is. Def hard to watch at times, but the level of detail/speed-accuracy of real time events is pretty incredible. I must have a window with 20tabs just running constant updates from Ukrainian journalists to defence/intelligence analysts to many other fuckers. My heart goes out to the poor Ukrainian people who's only mistake was being born on a border with these inhumane fucks. But as a European who feels a level of skin in the game(believe me most Europeans suddenly do) it has been great to see the heart of these lions defending whats theirs. And their exceptional battle tactics in the face of an opponent that has them vastly outgunned, and in practical terms, vastly outnumbered. And then of course there's the real money shot that is the incredible bungling on the part of these stupid Russian military fucks. Do you know they've had to abandon to much hardware due to fuel/logistical shortcomings and breakdowns which are the result of years of chronic under-maintenance(itself the result of systemic corruption) that Ukrainian farmers are believed to now posses a top20 military in the world in terms of heavy armour. No words, just memes. Anyway, football. I dont have any analytics/PFF BS to call upon here so i'll just give some thoughts. I'm the same dline, this has to start with O-Line. Enough already, its been forever. Get the fucking O-Line sorted. I never like going into a draft needing a C. They're just too few to be counting on and i have no wish to see Whitehair get the job again. Luckily there are actually quite a few C options in FA this year. I hope the bears sign one. Ryan Jensen is a guy i kinda hate as a Buc, which means id prob really like him on the Bears. I read the Titans C is a FA dont know too much. Brad Bozeman of the Ravens looks like my fav. There are G options too. Im starting to wonder if Daniels may actually get a good payday, but either way, its time to move on. I've pulled for him for a long time, but he's never been consistently good enough to justify imo. Basically the Bears have to land a starter at either C or G in FA, they dont have the picks for anything else. Doing both would free them up to hit WR with their first draft pick. The WR FA market has thinned a little with some tags which doesnt help us. I've never been convinced with Christian Kirk, i think someone is gonna overpay him. There arent too many that excite me tbh, but i do think DJ Chark has talent but has been playing with shit QBs his whole career. Health may be a concern. On D there are two huge concerns, 3 tech and Mike. The Bears do not have someone who can be above average at 3 tech right now. They may not even have "average". I have no answer for this. For MLB, blang asked the question a while back and i never got round to it. IMO Roquan is NOT a 4-3 MLB. He could be Derrick Brooks level good at Will, but he's just not physical/robust enough to play MLB on his own. He will get worn down/overrun over the course of a long season. Jordan Hicks just got released cos the Cards didnt want to pay him 6.5mil and they have a 1st rounder they're trying to get on the field. I would take a really hard look at that one, that guy can play. Im really not on board with this transition at all at this stage but signing Hicks would make me feel better. There is still a need at CB2. There are a lot of good FA CB options out there i believe but havent really dived into it.
Bears are trading Mack to the Chargers. Frees up 6 million this offseason, 28 million next offseason. Get back a 2nd rounder this year, 6th rounder next year. Not great compensation.
I agree with this and given Poles is an Oline guy, I imagine we actually will invest in this. If nothing else, we should have a good line within a few years, not sure if he can do it in one offseason tbh. This is where I slightly disagree w/ dline and agree with you. We need an MLB and 3-tech over CB2, which is also a need. Lots of "experts" pin Roquan as Will, so it's not an unpopular opinion but the Mike is important to the 4-3 scheme we are bringing back. Yeah, that's what brought me here, I made a thread heh. That is horrible compensation, I get his salary is high but fucking hell, a second rounder this year? And the 6th is NEXT year not even this year? Not a good opening move by Poles, though I understand Mack likely was not going to be around, I really wish he'd have gotten more. I can't imagine that's what the Raiders offered last year. But then we don't know, I had to go look and blang was saying a mid-round pick, I was the one arguing he'd get more, so maybe I'm just delusional. Fuck Putin and Fuck Russia. I have a friend from Ukraine and some of his friends escaped into Moldova, others enlisted to help out, his grandparents' town is getting shelled, and he said almost all of those friends he hasn't heard from since the very beginning of the war. That fucker has a wet dream of reuniting the old USSR and clearly isn't going to stop. Like you Ev, I am impressed with the resolve of the Ukrainian people. If you haven't seen it, "Winter on Fire" is a pretty good doc on Netflix about the Maidan revolution that gives some history.
So FA terms, I'll just start with the obvious. I expect a lot of recent Indy/KC guys, and there's a bunch of them. Need a Mike? Anthony Walker. Probably gotta pay him what Nick K got in Vegas/Oakland. There's Rochelle and Mohammed at DE, because I don't know what Trevis Gipson is going to be when he's never played down DE in his HS, College, or young NFL career, only 3-4 edge. If they keep him because of his age/contract, I can totally see him being a camp cut. Xavier Rhodes isn't a half-bad CB2 on an obvious rebuilding team, nor is Charvarius Ward. Maybe Rhodes has a revenge game or two in him against the Queens, who look like they're sticking with Cousins. OL? Eric Fisher is intriguing. He played for both KC with Poles and Der Flus in Indy last year. Wont break the bank. Take your pick of veteran centers. The top dogs like Jensen and Paradis won't come cheap. I like Ted Karras from New England. He won't cost double-digit mil per year and makes the nice local kid who went to U of I story. Going to have to go C in FA, because after Tyler Linderbaum, who's not falling into the 2nd round--the draft looks like its got nothing at C. OG and OT It will still have guys in round 2. DT, primarily 3-tech is paramount, or this defense is going to be garbage. With Mack being dealt and a bum at DC taking over with Flus saying he won't call plays--I'm expecting it to be. Larry Ogunjobi isn't going to come cheap, and to make the defense a lot less garbage, he's probably priority #1. He's also going to probably make double-digit mil. You'd have to draft a kid otherwise unless the goal is to get gutted up the middle every play on defense. I'm least interested in a FA WR. I get its hype season, but there's a lot of fucking size and speed at WR in this draft and plenty will be there when the bears pick in the 2nd round. Otherwise, I'm not looking to break the bank. I want to steal Alan Lazard from the peckers and sign/resign a depth guy or two like Damiere Byrd. FA has some TE options. I'm leery with OJ Howard, even though he's the hot name with bears fans. Brady never seemed to look for him unlike famous Jameis. Which QBs opinion seems more valid? LOL apparently not. A 2nd this year and a 6th next year. Not ideal, but I understand it. Mack's looked unmotivated at times, and he's perpetually banged up. He'll probably love playing for something again, which will make the trade look dumb--but that's the hand dealt.
I just wish that second pick could've been higher, a 3rd rounder preferably or at least a 4th. Under the circumstances tho, im not sure how much more we could realistically expect from this trade. It would've been great to get Von Miller compensation, but there are some crucial differences. The season ending injury at Mack's age isnt good, that dings your value. But the main problem imo was the money/cap hits. Either the GM is open to trading a player or he isnt. If he isnt then the cap hits arent another teams concern, but if he is then that contract immediately becomes a leverage point for the other party. Grampa Simpson is right. The Bears are gonna have to eat a ton of dead money with minimal cap saving this year and that hurts. But there was nothing Poles could do about that. That $24mil hit is already gone, converted to a bonus i believe as part of Pace's BS "rob Peter to pay Paul" restructure/cap management. That hit is 100% on Pace and 0% on Poles. Truth is the Bears were in a very tough spot with Mack's contract going forward, Pace's restructure put him in Julius Peppers territory. Peppers ended up walking for nothing. Poles has successfully got the Chargers to take on the entirety of the contract going forward. Doesnt help us much this year, but in '23 & '24 that is a big win. So while the draft compensation doesnt look great, taken in its entirety i think the GM has done close to as well as he reasonably could. I give Poles a solid B for this trade and you guys know im a tough grader.
One other thought, is this a move made in isolation or are we witnessing the start of a teardown? The next move should tell us. The savings from the Mack trade should suddenly put the team in good position cap wise in '23. Do you scrub this year to rebuild and put yourself in a position for a (hopefully)quick turnaround by 2023? If so there's more that can go. Get whatever you can for that bum EJax. If you really are going for assets and writing off 2022 then do you need Quinn? Legit chance of getting a 1st rounder there id say.
He was also asking for 10 mil a year when he's not worth 1/4 that. Yeah--I get that's harsh, and I'm no NFL exec/front office worker--but a guy who can't win battles that matter in games that matter but can look excellent ragdolling backups in games that don't is utterly fucking useless, and I love my OL pancakes. He's linked to several teams. This is where comp pick curiosity comes in. If someone pays Daniels and Robinson and the bears focus on guys getting cut/becoming cap casualties so they don't count against the comp pick formula/wait to really blow their wad of $$$ a year--they may get more than a 6th rounder. Also--I bring back Jakeem Grant. He's the first competent returner in a while. Adios, Allen Robinson. Can't blame the guy for dogging last year with a dickhead visor who somehow got a job but also can't see the rationale in paying him, and the Chargers paying Mike Williams 20 mil a year isn't lowering AR's pricetag or making him come at a bargain. His agent is probably thrilled, and it's just time for a split. The bears probably got his best years.
Tarik Cohen has been released. And Bears are reportedly shopping Quinn to the highest bidder, asking for a first round pick and assets. They won't get that but Poles wants picks and I don't hate that.
Compile some picks and maybe go into 2023 with a top ten pick in your arsenal along with massive cap room. I don't hate it.
These are all painful things that need to happen. Pace was allowed to take this shit too far, and now fixing it means completely dismantling. It sucks, but... it needs to happen. Trading Quinn and Mack were no-brainers. I had hoped for a greater return on Mack, but... still. Cohen being released is likely due to his injury - I wonder how much cap space is being recouped, there. No idea who is going to take Eddie Goldman when he didn't look worth his contract last year, but I can hope. Agreed that Eddie Jackson needs to go yesterday. Stack the OL, create an offense that won't get Fields killed and lets him grow. Build up the rest of the team once you're done getting out of the grave Pace dug. We all knew this team was going to have to rebuild, and that's why it hurt so much more keeping Pace on board last year. Now we just have to hope the rebuild is done wisely...
TBH, given the situation he inherited this looks like the smart play. Its early, but its encouraging. I was critical of Pace from the fucking get go. Very first move was trading away Marshall for peanuts which would have the dual clown effect of putting the Jets(1 pick ahead of us) onto Leonard Williams instead of a receiver AND railroading himself into taking Kevin White. Again, early, but already Poles>Pace. Bears releasing RB Tarik Cohen, DL Eddie Goldman Looks like they couldn't find a taker for Goldman, which isnt a surprise frankly. But either way he's gone which is the right move by Poles. Still nothing to complain about here.
What are your thoughts on Joe Noteboom who played behind Whitworth, and while he isn't a starter he started a bunch of games backing up Whitworth and did quite well? He's played both tackle spots and inside.
