BearFan PHX

Bears defense is playing tough.

yes, he is the best at that. Ive said it all along. If he could also be a pocket passer, then hed be unstoppable. But without also being able to throw in rhythm, the rest isnt enough to win a Super Bowl. The question is will Fields develop that primary skill.

so to be clear, youre saying take a QB in the top half of the first round, keep Fields for 2024 and dont extend him? It does leave doors open, but then why would Fields resign with us after 2024 when we didnt believe in him? You could over pay for him to get him, but that makes your cap hell even worse going forward that a regular second contract. And again, there is nothing that says Fields has to take it either. I think that youve successfully mitigated the risk with this scenario if fields isnt the guy, but then you havent set yourself up well for the scenario where Fields works out? That's why I'm saying the cleanest thing is to firmly decide yes or no on him after this season. And that's what the May deadline is meant to force.

yup - no one is better on broken plays than Fields. nice TD to Kmet.

come on Kmet, youre not even the point of attack on that one.

thank God the choice isnt Fields or Flacco LOL And if it was, Id take Fields all day.

I agree. If we have a top 10 pick, Ive been saying trade down the #1 and pick your QB with the second top 10 pick is a possible scenario. So youre saying take the rookie this year, and have him sit behind Fields for 2 guaranteed years. I think it causes friction, but that IS a viable scenario, as long as you get a first round QB this year. One issue though is that if Fields is the man after that, you still have to overpay to keep him after 2024 then because hes still a free agent and you didnt believe in him and extend him. And if you did extend him, then hes still a free agent after 2025. You can do that, for sure.

Gabriel is wrong. "the 2020 collective bargaining agreement allows for teams to exercise a fifth-year option for players drafted in the first round as an addition to the standard four-year rookie contract. Upon being exercised, the fifth-year option is fully guaranteed, and any base salary in the player's fourth year that was not fully guaranteed will become so." https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/36402907/fifth-year-option-tracker-nfl-players-2020-first-round

Fields almost threw another pick there.

yeah but 36 fumbles in his career - pretty much one a game. I assume youre not saying that Fields knowingly fumbles in ways that are recovered by our team? isnt it just luck that more havent been turnovers? And I dont want Flacco either!

lol

Fields fumbles again. Luckily we recovered.

can you cite an example where its worked before? They instituted this 5th year option thing as a standard part of the rookie contract specifically to counteract this move.

so youre saying draft a QB with a top pick this year to sit behind Fields for two years? Or are you saying draft a QB in the future - and if so, unless you have a top pick, youre either trading three years worth of #1 picks to move up for that rookie, or youre talking about taking a rookie later in that draft?

great throw and catch by Fields and Moore.

OMG Tonyan how do you drop that? It was a perfect soft throw.

On that 3rd down where Fields threw short to Kmet and we didnt convert, Moore was wide open 20 yards(ish) downfield.

Also, when Fields threw the ball short to Kmet on 3rd down and we didnt convert, Moore was wide open downfield...

Using a franchise tag on a QB you refused to extend is a guaranteed hold out. You end up having to trade Fields after the draft for less than you would have gotten otherwise, and you have no QB that year. The lawyers already thought of ALL of this when they put in the May deadline for the 5th year option. This is what it was designed for - to force a decision. You cant tap dance around it. There is no loophole. The Chargers tried this with Drew Brees for example...

GREAT penetration on 3rd down vs the Browns run!

If we have shown that we don't have his back and didnt already believe in him, then we would just be one team trying to bid for him, and to sign him then, youd need to pay even more to win the bidding and that means even worse cap hell? Functionally, this long term decision needs to be made by May of this year. It is true that you can decide "yes" on Fields, and then go back on it after 2025, but then youve wasted this draft position to get a QB and two years of the contracts of the rest of the team thats coming together now. To be clear, Im not saying you cant choose to roll with Fields. You can. I just dont see a real scenario where you can wait and see and delay the choice. Right now we control the decision to keep him, or to move on from him. Waiting for 2025 puts all the cards out of our hands, and into Justin's.

the Bears cant trade him if they dont own his rights going forward. If you mean trade him before thre 2025 season, then yes they could, but the $25 Million is guaranteed, so the money stays on our cap even if we trade him.

GREAT play by Brisker! Take away the screen and then close on the QB.

Ok, defense, lets show something

no I didnt. I said the IDEA didnt make sense. Youre this really weird combination of bully wanna be and victim. If youre gonna cry every time someone disagrees with you when you say something that doesnt make coherent sense, then as Ive asked, JUST STOP RESPONDING TO ME IF YOU CANT HANDLE IT.