AZ54

Looks like Jesper Horsted is back. Not that he was going anywhere unless we didn't want him. So I'll assume that Poles and Eberflus can see that all he does is catch TDs. https://twitter.com/sean_hammond/status/1511072492164636675?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1511072492164636675|twgr^|twcon^s1_&ref_url=

I don't think we'll double up on WRs on day 2. Maybe he adds a 5th WR on day 3. I think Poles feels Pringle is a starter 2/3 type WR, Mooney is a definite 2nd WR. He's got Dazz as developmental 4th WR and IMO he showed enough athleticism to know he belongs on the field in the NFL. I'd like to see one more vet WR added before the draft to fill in that last role 4/5th WR to compete with Dazz. Then bring in one early in the draft. There are still rumors the Bears have interest in D.K. Metcalf. I can't see us giving up draft picks for him but we have the cap space next year for that new contract and adding him changes a lot. He'd be better than any 2nd Rd pick we could add.

As much as I like the safety options in Rd 2 I think drafting a 3-tech is much more likely than a safety. I prefer this style defense when it has great pass rush and the DBs can just focus on what is in front of them knowing the ball is coming out on schedule with the routes.

As long as the coach knows what he is doing this is good. Pace built the roster for Nagy to a fault and didn't do a good job holding his HC accountable. IIRC the TE from Philly in year 1, CPat who was used on runs up the middle in the redzone, Cohen new deal, etc.).

Agreed. When everyone gets back to work Monday we'll be just 3 weeks out from the draft. Agents know teams are going to be focused on the draft prep from now on so I imagine they were hanging out around owners meeting hoping to get some traction on their remaining FAs. And the agents will be able to come back to their clients and tell them they were shopped around and they'll have to understand this $$ is your value and nobody is willing to pay you $$$$ anymore. I expect Poles will close some deals quickly to fill out the rest of the roster.

https://www.si.com/nfl/bears/gm-report/bears-secondary-solutions-already-might-be-in-place?utm_source=reddit.com Interesting article on how Eberflus's scheme could improve the performance of our existing DBs. I agree that a Cover 2 style fits Vildor much better than having him try to match up with a receiver down the field. He's pretty quick to diagnose and close on plays when he's looking forward. He's lost when his back is to the ball. I'm not so sure about Shelley as he's just slow to diagnose things but if you figure Cruikshank is the likely starter there it appears that will be improved. Graham showed enough IMO to be expected to compete for a starting role and should be ahead of Vildor. Add another CB late in the draft. At safety though I definitely think we need to add a starter. Lewis Cine would be a great pick but I recognize we should fix the Dline first because regardless of DB skills this scheme will get exposed later in a play. This applies to the Dline and we don't have much there right now. "It's an upfield, pressure defense No. 1," he said shortly after his first press conference as coach. "You can create a lot of takeaways, you can create a lot of negative plays for the offense." I'm not saying this would fix the DB issues just that it could likely be something the HC and GM prefer to focus on next year.

Funny but true. If that's all you really want out of our CB you can find that later in the draft.

I think it's Jenkins athleticism that makes up for his lack of length (short arms). His hand quickness is good enough that if he gets beat initially he can counter and get their hands off him and get his back where they need to be. These days I'm not so sure about the old ways of LT/RT. Best pass rushers used to be coming at QB's blind side yet Von Miller has made a fortune, and a Superbowl MVP, getting past RTs. Maybe it depends how a team wants to run its offense, and maybe how the well the individual player does on either side. IMO if you have at least one OT good enough to leave on an island you're in a good place because the OC, QB, and the rest of the Oline should be able to figure out the rest especially if the interior is solid.

If he wanted a place where he could likely start or at least get significant playing time for a year and then move on to a bigger better contract he found it.

Different positions with AQM at DE and Ogun would have been our 3-tech. That interior position remains Poles biggest attempt in FA so far. Justin Jones was signed afterward but he's really just a backup rotational player. He's had good talent around him even in college and never really stood out. DT will have more bodies added soon but if Poles is serious about adding a good 3-tech pass rusher it will have to come via the draft. https://www.nfl.com/prospects/justin-jones/32004a4f-4e51-8335-7d6a-e6b7ff2e09ec

I like the way you said it. While I understand Eberflus shouldn’t be criticizing a player publicly his comments on Jackson and his comments about the type of players he wants don’t sync. So he gets a chance but it’s a realistic possibility he doesn’t make it out of training camp with the Bears.

That’s pure BS. Just a way of saying we can’t afford to cut him from that big contract. I hope he can get him to return to his 2nd year performance but Iif he doesn’t wake up after all the changes this offseason then he’s lost his passion for the game. I still like Lewis Cine.

This would be a very good weekend for the Bears.

Start here with Kenyon Green: https://thedraftnetwork.com/player/kenyon-green/lxQlSlOZ7v

Poles is still a novice at this game. As Mike Tyson famously said "everyone has a plan 'til they get punched in the mouth". Pace got punched on the Kevin White and then Trubisky deals and never recovered. Early on as a GM he said he'd spend carefully in FA and build through the draft. After those two seasons he spent the next few years getting increasingly desperate and tried to buy success. Fortunately his desperation landed us Fields which, after all those years of Nagy, was a reasonable parting gift. I imagine Poles didn't value Bates as highly as some here might or he'd have offered more. I'm ok if he sticks to his guns but it seems to me he should have been more creative on the contract and perhaps bend on his 2023 cap space plan to make that happen. What we know: OC is a big time target for him. That doesn't necessarily change with the addition of Patrick for 2 seasons. Is that Poles just overpaying for a career backup, or is Poles saying here's a 2yr deal where you are likely to be the starter. If you play well, you'll get another bigger deal here or somewhere else. Go earn it. Patrick seems to be the type of player we wanted to see from Mustipher so I'm not expecting great things. I do believe his background with Getsy will help the Oline transition to the new scheme. Missing on Allen, letting Daniels walk, then settling for Patrick puts a little more pressure to put a good OG next to Patrick. I don't think Whitehair nor Borom fit what he's looking for but that could be totally off-base since he's been going after backup players like Bates rather than starters. Bates seemed more like a bid to bring in competition and depth vs. a sure starter while still leaving room for a talented rookie OG to start if he get lucky enough for them to drop to him. The rumors have still been quiet even after Poles got hit in the mouth a couple times on his Oline plan. Surely there is more to come but I don't sense that he's panicked yet.

Andy Dalton just signed with New Orleans. Most importantly is there are no FA QBs so if there is going to be discussion on a Foles trade it will heat up now. I still expect this might be a post-draft trade. https://www.nfl.com/news/saints-signing-qb-andy-dalton-to-back-up-jameis-winston

I think everyone here recognizes the fact we can't fix all these holes in one offseason. The concern is are we getting enough of the right players around Fields so he can continue to improve. That's not to say the offense has to be a finished product in 2022 but at least should be functional. After years of Nagy do we even know what a functional offense looks like?

I suspect this includes practice squad players and with the increased size of that NFL (16 now?) that's not too hard to hit. That's 21 players out of 69 rostered. Perhaps good teams have less but I expect they struggle to keep drafted players stashed on the practice squad. They also tend to have less cap space making them more likely to seek lower cost solutions for the bottom of their roster. We might be ok to pay DHC $1.7mil/yr to play special teams. The Rams might have no choice but to spend $500k-$700k on a UDFA, or former UDFA for that role.

Why are they available? IIRC Shenault was a pretty good athlete and had a fair amount of draft chatter about his potential. There are either injury concerns or he can't learn how to run routes neither of which interest me.

Unless his price comes way down I'm not interested in Honey Badger. He's been more name than game in recent years and I don't see that trend turning around at his age.

The jury is still out of course but the clear-cutting of the roster dead weight and others like Mack indicates a willingness to go in a new direction with a target of being competitive toward 2023/24. Overall it's the right direction but this draft and the UDFA signings afterward will give us a good indication if we have the right people in charge. I see the discussion on trading back and getting more picks but I'm more concerned with drafting 2 more of those 14 players we need to compete rather than just filling in the roster with depth players. Rosters that finish 8 and 8 don't do much for me but give false hope. I included UDFAs because Pace was always able to find 1 or 2 bottom of the roster players who could develop into contribute. Players like Bars, Mustipher, Nall (special teams) are prime examples as backups. We need that trend to continue or ideally get better.

There has to be a deal on the table for Foles . He is a good mentor for a team intending to draft a QB. I would not be surprised if we eat some of the contract money in order to get a better draft pick. I haven’t kept up with the QB needy teams so I have no idea who that might be.

Or if he lost out on signing another player. However at this point it doesn’t appear to have affected any possible deals. The only other big offer we had was for Brian Allen and he took less money to stay in LA.

I don’t want any of those WR.

I just ran a draft at TDN. Now I'm thinking even if KC and GB take WRs they really are just replacing the WR picks the Raiders and Dolphins were likely to make. So I'm not sure we'll see and additional 2 WRs taken over what would have happened without these trades. Regardless, at 39 on the board I still have Skyy Moore who has climbed way out of Rd 3/4 to a top 40 ranking, and Watson. Watson is raw coming out of ND State but he has all the tools you want in a WR. We just need some patience with him to develop. For that matter it's the same for Moore who played at Western Michigan. You just don't know how they will handle NFL DBs. For teams that are looking to compete now (KC/GB) they are likely to prefer one of top 6 WRs mentioned which means it forces them into a 1st Rd pick. Other teams know this so despite the deep talent at WR in this draft, this now appears to be a case where the 1st Rd horse trading becomes interesting as teams try to jump ahead of each other for their WR. There's no reason to think they won't use those extra picks they earned in the trades to complete a draft day move up.