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Can you imagine the bears landing 4 players of that caliber? wow.

yes.

He let Alshon go because Alshon didn't want to be here. You can't make free agents good if there arent any, and you cant leave your depleted team with holes unaddressed. Pace has been clear that you build through the draft. He's increased the talent level consistently. Its as if someone thinks a world class poker player can cause the cards to come to him or her. They cant. They are good because over time they make the right bets, and dont throw away too much money on the bad bets. In this game thats FUTURE CAP SPACE. He didnt sign any of those guys to deals that he couldnt get out of. hes doing very well.

Free Agency isn't full of gems. Often times, especially with second tier players, you need to sign someone who you dont think is going to be awesome. In those cases, the question is the contract they sign. If they get paid like a major star, then you can blame the GM. But Pace has signed these players to very friendly deals, that allow him to cut them. These arent failures, they, like Fox, were stepping stones from awful to decent. If you think youre gonna get a hall of famer for $5mil a year, then Id say your expectations are too high. Teams are built during the draft, and when you have a team that was in the hole we were in, and you HAVE to pick Free Agents, then the question is the contracts, not the players.

Thank god Demps is gone - that guy was TERRIBLE.

I didnt know that! Also Ridley is thought by some to be too thin and not muscular enough to post up on west coast routes and take punishment. But who knows which WR Pace may or may not fancy.

yup Then again if you REALLY believe in Ridley, you take him at 8 too, and if you dont, then hes no bargain at 15?

Well, since it's an equal value trade, no one would be crazy to take it or not take it. It all depends on whether you have your eye on a particular player for #8. 21 and 22 will not have the same game breaking talent available that 8 will. But two players are better than one. Then again, your 2nd rounder drops etc etc. There is no crazy here, just an option that they might or might not want to exercise depending on their player value board.

No I think the BILLS would like that trade, not sure the Bears would.

yes LOL and it's silly! On the draft pick value chart, our #8 overall is worth 1400 value points. Buffalo's #21 is worth 800 and their #22 is worth 780. That's a combined value of 1570, so they wouldn't be giving us their 3rd rounder, they'd already be overpaying by 170 points. To put that into context, the 20th pick of the 3rd round is worth 170 points. So we'd owe THEM a 3rd rounder, not the other way around. We dont have a 3rd this year, but both our 4th round picks together are worth 148 and our 6th is worth 18.6. So if we traded with Buffalo, our first for their two firsts, we'd have to give up both 4th round picks and the 6th rounder to make it fair. And we'd still be coming out a bit ahead. Another option would be our first and second for Buffalo's 2 firsts and their lower second. BEARS 1-08 #8 overall 1400 points 2-07 #39 overall 510 points total = 1910 points BUFFALO 1-21 #21 overall 800 points 1-22 #22 overall 780 points 2-23 #55 overall 350 points total = 1920 points Buffalo also has the 21st pick in the 2nd round as well, and maybe we could hold them up for that instead, but either way they'd have the #8 pick overall, and 2 picks in the second including our high 7th pick in the 2nd round. They might make that trade for sure. I'm not sure we would. It all depends on who we have our eye on at #8 overall.

This is why the Patriots continually trade good players in the last years of their deals. They know theyre gonna lose them to free agency anyway, so thery might as well get another high pick out of it.

Yup, I agree. I do trust Pace and Nagy etc to make good choices. It's nice to be able to trust them.

This is exactly how I feel. Halas Hall may have Ridley (or someone else) ranked even lower. Maybe they're in love with a pass rusher. Pass rushers are pretty damned important. We need ILB too, and the guy from Georgia is intriguing. Again, as youve said, it all depends on their own evaluations. But one thing is sure. Theyre building everything around Trubisky right now, and we have one of the worst WR groups in history. The new guys are going to have to come from somewhere. They may well go somewhere else for round 1, but then I think they will definitely look at WR int he 2nd, and I wouldnt be shocked to see them draft 2 WRs, no matter which rounds they do it in.

I dunno if Kevin White's injury would make a difference to Pace taking a WR, but your other point is very interesting. Who have Andy Reid's best WRs been, and how did he acquire them? Also, what type of WRs does Reid favor? I dunno if Pace will want to emulate New Orleans or supply the type of player his coaches prefer. Good points.

The only problem with that is assuming the top ten we see align with the top ten in the opinion of our staff. If for example, they have a WR highly rated, that would change everything. Or maybe they like the ILB from Georgia a lot etc. Also, Trubisky needs targets. If you have Ridley ranked 12th for example, you might take him at 8 even if it is a bit of a reach - if you think he's a #1 WR, maybe you just go get him. Kind of like trading up for #2 to get Trubisky last year...

You may be right. Im certainly not making predictions. Better men than me have tried to read Belicheck's poker face and failed. I'm just wonder out loud, conspiracy theories, because it's mid February and that's all there is to do.

I wonder if Belicheck is considering retiring, and doesnt want to announce that until after Free Agency recruiting.

Yes I think you're right! Good analysis!

Im not suggesting they worry about it, just more likely that one fewer QB could come off the board before us.

Well, the Eagles have Foles and Wentz. Does anyone doubt they will trade one of them, probably Foles? That's another team getting a QB from somewhere other than the first 7 picks of the 2018 NFL Draft...

Very interesting. Everything we see is about spread offense and shotgun, keeping Trubisky where he was comfortable in college. RPO and all that. All smoke for a TE grab? That'd be amazing. More likely maybe theyre gonna run a mix and have spread formations AND double TE. Interesting stuff. I hadnt considered that. Personally, my guess, is it's going to be a WR or a defensive player with a WR in the 2nd round. Id love to see a trade down and grab Ridley or whoever the staff likes at WR.

I think WR is our number one need. But I agree that in all (most) of the analysis we've seen, WRs don't grade out to top 10 picks. I guess it just depends what his scouting and coaching staff think. The good news is that between Nagy, Helfrich and Hiestand, they ought to be able to add a lot of value to our ability to evaluate WRs and OL. I pretty much think whatever they do will be smarter than what we can guess or judge, since we have Walter Football and they have some serious passing game pros now looking at this stuff. That said, it wouldn't shock me to see us trade down, or even take another position with the first pick. But if they do, you can bet WR is the 2nd pick, and they might go back to it in the 4th or 5th too.

Washington & Tate would be a good duo. McGlinchey would be fantastic at 8 if he was still there.

In doing all these mocks, one thing is standing out to me: You either LOVE one of the WRs, you trade down, or you're taking a different player at 8. It'd be ideal if there was a WR who merited a top ten pick there for the taking, but I can see that just isn't the case this year. So I think if we go a different way on the first round pick, the odds are that we will go WR in the 2nd. So who would that be? Over and over I ended up on Equanimeous St. Brown. He's tall, well regarded. I wonder who do people like at WR in the 2nd round? That might help you dial in on the everyone agrees mock. If we get a good 2nd round WR, then that makes the 1st pick easier to discuss.

OK, I'm listening. How's this one? Jason, do you like it? no trades. Your score is: 21054 (GRADE: A-) Your Picks: Round 1 Pick 8: Arden Key, DE/OLB, LSU (A+) Round 2 Pick 7: Equanimeous St. Brown, WR, Notre Dame (A) Round 4 Pick 5: Donte Jackson, CB, LSU (A+) Round 4 Pick 15: Brandon Parker, OT, North Carolina AT (A-) Round 5 Pick 8: Deontay Burnett, WR, Southern California (A+) Round 6 Pick 7: Wyatt Teller, OG, Virginia Tech (A+) Round 7 Pick 6: Eddy Pineiro, K, Florida (A+)