Jacob Infante may be an enormous idiot who likes everything so he's not negative about anything, but he's got a point. There are still WRs on market. They just signed some OT from SF for depth, Matt Pryor who looked swell for only 42 snaps this past year. Sensing a theme here with Bates and this guy playing so much. Seriously though, want to spend money on the other side of the ball? Replace Braxton Leno with Tyron Smith. There's still centers available too (Quessenberry, Bryan Allen, and Connor Williams), even though Biadiasz to the commies at under 10 mil a year AAV makes me wonder what the fuck Ryan Poles is doing. Arik Armstead is looking for a job. The bears need someone who can wreck the 'B' gap. If Pickens and Dexter are the plan and then don't develop, there's a problem in a bad run defense waiting to happen.
Maybe the plan is to sign Conner Williams with Bates as the starter till he comes back from surgery. For Gods sake I cannot take another offseason ignoring the center position. I can live with not paying huge money on Edge or WR. We already have big money tied up in those positions. This o line is cheap AF! Spend money in it!!!!!!
Flacco signed with the Colts, so Justin's backup market is even smaller. Baltimore would probably be a good landing spot for him, backing up a similar playstyle QB and getting his chance when Lamar gets hurt as he often does, but I would guess they aren't willing to part with draft comp to get him. 2024 NFL Mock Draft: AFC team moves up for defensive help; 49ers trade Round 1 pick to QB-needy franchise I wouldn't be unhappy with this, Caleb + Odunze, though I'm not sure if Alt is available might he not be a better option to upgrade LT? I know nothing of college, so I defer to you guys and the always wrong talking heads.
Caleb Williams' pro day is next Wednesday, and the bears are flying him from SoCal to Chicago Thursday for private meetings/workouts. Navigating this shit storm of media and smoke/mirrors--Poles playing his cards close to the chest--we see something happen later next week or the beginning of the week after. Hey. All of our problems are solved. Poles signed Brett Rypien. Alt won't be there at 9. Arizona just cut DJ Humphries. Don't think he's falling past 4. For as much as I love to pound the 'fix the OL' table--it's just not happening for me this year. Wanted one of Alt, Jackson Powers-Johnson, or Graham Barton--but Poles the 'OL guy' isn't doing jack shit about it, and I'm probably getting what every fan wants--which is Caleb and a WR. WR at 9 is too rich for me if its not Nabors. That's the only WR I want in the top 10 (yes I think that little of MHJr right now). Especially when the OL sucks as comically bad as it does now. Because we're going to be berating one of Kmet or DJ Moore this time next year, wondering why their production dropped off to a 1st round draft pick, meanwhile the QB, whomever it is won't touch 4000 yards passing, maybe not even 3000. People will start to think Poles paid Kmet or DJ for decreasing stats when in reality, he still hasn't fixed a problem that's been there since he got here, which is a bottom feeding OL unit which increases opportunities for everyone. Ideally Caleb at 1, trade down at 9 to the teens/20s then get an edge, WR, or OL along with a couple more picks to make up Poles doing his best Pace impression and I'm happy.
Poles signed Coleman Shelton at C, so that's....something. Seahawks traded for Sam Howell, basically upgrading Washington's 4th and 6th to a 3rd and 5th. One more destination to cross off the list as a possible destination for Justin. I think the odds are getting higher he is staying, regardless of whether we pick Caleb. That mock had him going at 10, which was where I was confused. He has MHJ falling to the Cards at 4, which I think it's plausible, if the top 3 go QB. If you have the chance to take Alt at 9, you do that right? No question? Interesting that you are not onboard with Odunze, the talking heads all speak highly of him, I remember your dislike of MHJ.
I mean is it a given that the Bears are taking Caleb? What if Poles is the smartest man in the room, and he's a seller of that #1 pick? Does the smartest man in the room have a different path to QB? I haven't watched any USC games so I can't even form a strong opinion for against his play, but looking at his stats and in many ways his game is just like Justin's. According to the experts he's a generational talent, but considering some of his stats, the competition he's played, and even the team around him, I'm not seeing it. What am I missing? Now I fully expect them to take Caleb, I'm just having a hard time accepting it.
There goes another draft pick. 4th rounder for Keenan Allen. A reworked contract better be going with it cause we better have not just traded a fourth round pick for 1 year 34 million dollar 31 year old WR.
Do you think at this point he's getting a crazy haul for it? Even if he's a younger cheaper Justin, he's still an unknown Justin vs the mostly known quantity Justin, and I don't think that's a bad thing. If Poles would address the goddamn line he might even develop under Waldron, unlike the Mickey Mouse carousel Justin had to go throw, stunting his growth. I would be surprised at this point if it wasn't Caleb, because that would really be some smoke and mirrors. Every talking head / pundit / GM in the league thinks Poles is picking him. Because it's what they would do. And much like the market for Justin at a certain point, if ALL these football minds are thinking like this, there has to be something to it right? People rip on the Panthers for Young over Stroud, but there was a lot of debate in that one. There has been little to no debate this time around.
“Something.” Poles is really going to ass fuck the C position again, isn’t he? Kinda moot after this Keenan Allen deal. Think you can remove the 'might' from the avatar. Jesus fucking christ, a going-on-32 year old who has trouble staying on the field. I like Odunze a lot. Like his counterpart WRs at Washington in Polk and McMillian a lot too. Not at 9. I don’t dislike Marvin Harrison Jr. I truly believe if his name was Bob Jones and his dad wasn’t who he was, there would be a very different consensus about him being as good as it’s assumed he is, let alone “generational.” I think there’d also be a lot more criticism of his actual flaws, and he’d be a mid-late 1st instead of top 3-5. I'd love someone else to take him top 3-5. MJH blew off interviews, meetings, and won’t work out/run for teams. Caleb did too. Naturally it’s easy to want to tear him a new one for that but I expect to see that a lot more with the NIL and college players getting payed now and just treating everything as a business, but that's the landscape owners/advertisers have forged. Going to take some getting used to.
So I guess we're not taking a WR now? Too bad, wanted someone young and talented to develop right along with Caleb. Instead we get an aging, injury prone, albeit productive Keenan Allen. Time to trade down from 9 and stockpile. Still need LT help even though it's obviously not on Poles radar.
I don't like this at all. It's not like the Bears will be taken as a serious contender this season, but Poles impatience in the rebuild is now starting to show. We know his inability to fix that position is challenged unless he plugs in an established starter, but to give up a 4th to a guy that could possibly be a cap casualty is mind-numbing. That's only 4 picks remaining in the draft. Does this mean the likelihood of trading that #1 is even more possible?
Any Bears fan with any sense should be extremely concerned by the moves that have been made over the last week or two. Because Ryan Poles is mutating into Ryan Pace right before our very eyes. Lets see, we've got the flinging shit against a wall approach to OL, signing a bunch of guys we've never fucking heard of because you know nothing about O-Line. There's the needless-trade-for-bum-player-about-to-be-cut move, which is right out of Pace's handbook from like 2016 with Khari Lee. The classic Bears approach to developing your 1st round QB by surrounding him with Defense. And now we have this old pearl, the ripple effect trade that screws you in the draft. Highly similar to when Pace traded Brandon Marshall to the Jets for a pack of urinal pucks, meaning WR no longer became a 1st round need for them. The Jets then took Leonard Williams 1 spot before we almost certainly would've done but it was fine because we got future HOFer Kevin White. Fucking beautiful! And now again, trading with a team ahead of us in the draft. This time creating a need for that team at WR. The chances are now sky high that 3 WR's will be off the board when the Bears pick at #9, so essentially what we have here is paying to not have a long term solution at WR. Paying to miss out on some incredible WR prospects and doing so for a player who's been very good but is in the twilight of his career. And i'm not even bashing the player here. Im actually a fan of Keenan Allen. Many of my most successful fantasy teams have had him cos he was often a guy you could get a round or two later but would churn out super solid WR2 numbers week after week after week, the foundation of a kick ass team. But thats not the right move here. For one thing the Chargers had the worst cap situation in the entire league, they'd already asked Allen to take a pay cut and he politely said fuck off. The guy was a big candidate to get cut so you dont have to burn a draft pick but even if he wasnt cut, no problem! I'll take Nabers or Odunze at #9 thank you very much. Not that its certain they will been there at #9, but roster building is similar to poker in many ways. You need to take the high probability moves when they are there. At this point i have no idea what the hell Pace II is gonna do. You like to think there's a plan.....but then the last 2weeks happens. Tuna is still tracking dead centre with his call that in the end we'll look at Poles and say never has a Bears GM done so little with so much.
While im bitching and moaning about drafts gone by: "One of the greatest careers of all-time." And taken 1 spot ahead of us. You know the saying its 5pm somewhere? Well its 5pm here so im off to get pished.
Quoting myself here, because Poles in already on brand fucking shit up, and so quickly too. What are you talking about? You don't like the Bates/Shelton competition? 4D chess son. The mouth breathers on reddit are really killing me, talking about how C is now solid, JONES is a killer at LT, and so, so much more, as though the line were one of the best in the league. This is an amazing point. I mean the whole post is good, but right here creating more of a void on a team at WR, with some prospects high means Nabers likely goes to them right? If not Odunze? Mock drafts seemingly come out daily now, here's one where the Chargers trade to the Vikings at #5 for JJ: [2024 NFL Mock Draft: Vikings use second first-round pick to trade into top 5 for QB, two AFC teams move up] - Minny just traded for another 1st, so that does seem to be signaling a willingness to jump for a QB. I mean, they can't really be expecting to go into the season with Darnold....right? I can't see how they trade for Allen and don't have a mind for a deal to get done. I like the idea of getting help for your new QB, and I also like Allen. I could see #9 getting traded down. To the Vikes for JJ, heh? At least we know Allen isn't Claypool, it's age and durability that are the concerns. @tunafat - Ev called it out, you said never has a GM done so little with so much is going to be the quote of the decade. I am not buying the trade down #1, though. I just can't see it. Caleb is a consensus "don't lose your job and buys you years of forgiveness" type of pick. It's braindead. Regardless of whether he pans out, no one in their right mind is going to look back on it and think, "well that was stupid". He would have to flame out in Ryan Leaf type fashion for this to be the case. Which I mean, it's the Bears so anything could happen I guess.
Ev man. You’re being a bit harsh here. We still need to let this thing play out. I don’t know what kind of inside info you have but it is possible that there were other offers for Bates and Allen and they wouldn’t have automatically been cut if Poles doesn’t make an offer. The positive of having less holes on the roster is the ability to add quality depth. I am not over the moon with what poles has done at C but I don’t think anyone would argue that quality depth at both T and G have been added. Saying Poles created a need for the Bolts at WR therefore making it less likely for a top one to fall to us is wrong. The Chargers were not bringing back Williams and Allen no matter what. So whether the Bears or somebody else traded for Allen the Chargers chances of taking a WR before us doesn’t change. Poles can still take one of the top WR’s if they fall or miss out and we still have a strong WR core. I am still hoping a small extension is reached to help ease the 24 mill cap hit and not make this a one year rental. Maybe I am a fool but I look at the weapons that Poles has put together for Williams and I see a rookie QB set up to succeed. When’s the last time you could say that about the Bears? There is still work to be done. And time will tell how these moves and picks work out but I don’t see how any Bears fans can say he has shit the bed so far.
Shit the bed is harsh, but fucking shit up, doing things to be concerned about? Yes? Pat nailed it with the Jekyll and Hyde stuff out of Poles. He has good moves, followed with head scratchers. I know you are our resident rose colored glasses wearer rob, and I understand your point that he's trying to build around a future QB. But we have expended a lot of draft picks, I thought we were building through the draft? This is a solid strategy and what Poles was doing. You overpay in FA and trading for what you get. The draft is a dice roll, but trust yourself? That Claypool trade was of the same cloth, we need weapons for Justin. He has shit protection, but lets get a playmaker, in that case for a fucking SECOND rounder. It's not that I don't like Allen, I don't like the age, his durability, or the fact that we need to immediately figure out his contract. I would rather have kept the pick and drafted someone in what is considered a pretty deep WR class, right? If we even TAKE a WR. What makes me nervous most here, is it feels a lot like next year, Poles is going to Pace himself into popping the cork on a Mack-like 2 1st rounder type trade thinking our second year QB is ready for pay dirt. And this year would really have to be a million miles better than what we saw for me to believe that. Stockpile picks, build through the draft, build a team that will contend year after year. And it starts with the trenches, where we are once again doing this tap dancy bullshit on the offensive line, AGAIN. 3T? WRs are not the priority for this team. Ev nails it with the high percentage plays. Caleb might not pan out. But the odds are as much in your favor as they could be, the league itself agrees on this one. Justin was actually a high percentage play, even if he didn't pan out. You swing those enough, you'll hit, you can't keep getting bad beats forever. Unless you're the dumbass moving all in 2-7 offsuit every fucking hand and getting called. Poles right now is the typical "maniac" player and it scares the hell out of me. I'm not removing the might, but I am concerned. Keeping Eberflus alone was worrisome.
