BearFan PHX

of what he COULD do. Im not saying it's either/or I will be interested to see it on the field. We know Graham's football IQ, hands and competitiveness are all still excellent. I wonder how effective he can be, and for how many snaps. But like I siad, Im not predciting gloom and doom, Im just curious. I give it 50/50 and the upside is huge.

exactly. another question is whether anyone would offer anything for him. so even if he is not traded, that is not evidence that Pace didnt WANT to trade him, making him "trade bait"

Trade bait doesnt mean the player is bad. If they are bad no one will trade for them. Trade bait is a player who hasnt been productive in the system, and in this case would liberate cap space if traded or cut.

for sure. and there is some chance Cohen is trade bait as we speak.

Id be cool with this for sure.

you could be right Stinger, but time will tell. I think they will grab a free agent at OT at some point this year.

I think that the fact that we didnt spend big on OT doesnt mean that we arent playing the waiting game on a free agent OT like Jason Peters. What we know is they didnt target a long term answer at OT in free agency. The rest is still being played out.

or can we weld a run game into this RPO offense

Grizz, I dont believe it either. I think it's Nagy's fatal flaw. But maybe one way or another he will show me that his offense is the future. Otherwise it's not gonna matter who is at QB.

cutting Leno gains you $3 mil on the salary cap. If I had both, Id play Peters over leno in a heartbeat. I dunno what he wants for $, or what we can give, but strgith up Id take Peters in a heartbeat. Not long term of course, just for right now.

yeah, but not to win the bet, its the other way around LOL the reason there is a bet is because Im so dogmatic about changing the OLT!! If we get a deent OLT, then Nagy gets one more chance to prove his stuff works, and it was Trubisky and the OL that was the problem. Maybe he LOVES to call the run, and just couldnt because they werent blocking it? If we get a new OLT Ill be a very optimistic fan indeed.

any thoughts on 38 year old OLT Jason Peters? His age is scary, but he is still performing at a very high level, comes from Philadelphia, and will likely be available on a cheapish deal. You can sign him, cut Leno, and draft someone to take a year to grow under him (in the weightroom too, as most rookie OLs require) He could be the missing piece that makes us a real threat.

I think once the market shakes out, we might end up squeezing a cheap last year or two out of Jason Peters. THAT would be amazing. Id win my bet!

https://chicago.suntimes.com/bears/2020/3/22/21189967/bears-free-agency-2020-jordan-lucas-agrees-contract-chiefs-safety-ryan-pace-deon-bush-matt-nagy

I think that you can only target so many positions to go after early in free agency when longer term deals at higher prices are available. If instead, you dont think the best free agent option at a position is that much better than the 8th best, then you wait for the music to stop and grab one of the guys who are left on a shorter term deal thats much more cap friendly. I assume that is what Pace is doing regarding the OL. I strongly suspect we will be bringing in free agent help on the OL before this is all over. Obviously it's not going to be a high priced stud, but Im not sure we could have afforded the top salaries at the position, and probabl;y dont see a huge difference in talent on the next tier. Of course you know I think we need serious help on the OL, but paying a journeyman a mot of money doesnt turn him into a Pro Bowler either. I guess we just wait and see.

I think Tre Roberson is a wild card here. He miight just be a depth signing from an inferior league, but he was playing pretty damned well there, and a number of teams made offers for him. Who knows? I won't be counting on him, but he could well surprise.

And here is new QB coach John DeFilippo who tutored Foles in Philly AND Jacksonville doing some film study on Foles. I gotta say, hearing him talk does inspire some confidence, and shows maybe what Mitch should have been doing, and wasnt.

I knew a bunch of this stuff, but maybe not all of it. It's interesting to see how connected Foles is to Bears coaches and current and former players. From Alshon Jeffries, to Burton on the Philly special. Like did anyone realize yet (not that it means anything) that we have the passer and reciever of the play that beat the Patriots in the Superbowl? Anyway, here's a better look at Foles' history in the league. He seems to do well in certain systems (like ours!) And

+1 to two OL, although it might help me in our bet

I'm all in on Monty, but I need to see more actual production too!

I think the main thing NO did was to have him when he was younger. This may be a nostalgia / Saints mistake by Pace.

Oh boy. Pace really blew it. Hopefully Graham can be productive, and maybe even a good player, but Ebron signed cheaper. Ugh.

we will draft a safety with one of the later round picks. SUperstars at any position are hard to come by, but reasonable talent is available at RB and S lower in the draft than any other position for the simple reason that the positions dont require freakish athletic ability and physical size. There are many more 5' 11" 220 pound people who run a slower 40 than 4.4 than there are 6' 7" athletes, or guys that run faster than 4.4 in the world, so the 80th best RB in the world is a better fit in the NFL than the 80th best OLT or CB

bwahahahaha

Ive wondered about this too. It was in my pre-Free Agency thread about who to cut or trade etc. A lot of the moves i mentioned have come to pass, even though people said they wouldnt But I worry about this too. I hope that Mike McCaskey told him not to do anything like that. I even included a quote where McCaskey had signed off on the various trades that Pace made, so one assumes that to trade future picks he would need a green light. But I surely dont know for sure. Its a real question, especially with their backs against the wall as you say.