AZ54

It's why I like the middle ground.

Ditto. There's no reason to make a bad situation worse.

I'm in the camp that says extend him for 3 years (really the 5th year option plus 2 with 3 year being a throwaway if we want). He gets more guaranteed money we get a bit of stability and lower cap hit. He gets to play opposite Mack and Hicks which gives him his best opportunity to shine as a rusher and he'll easily be young enough to capture that big money deal on the next contract if he earns it. Since that was not an option I chose the trade and Pace takes whatever he can get. This also assumes Pace goes after a FA to take his place.

Ah that could well be. In that case you are right given that it's non-committal for the team there isn't much of a reason for Pace not to pick it up other than sending a message to Mitch. Nagy said Mitch was told he needed to study a lot of film this offseason. These are the offseason dates from the team's website. They won't see him on the field at all in OTAs before the May 4th deadline. Not that it would matter as that isn't his issue. May 1-4 or 8-11: Clubs can hold their three-day rookie minicamp from Friday through Sunday or Saturday through Monday. May 4: Deadline for clubs to exercise Fifth-Year Option for players selected in the first round of the 2017 draft.

Saw Mayock's words on Derek Carr. They too are working both sides of the fence. IMO Carr is a very real possibility for the Bears if they get Brady. Part of that is the fact David Carr on NFL Network was very non-committal when talking about the situation too.

The new collective bargaining agreement supposedly has a change to the 5th year option. In the past it was a club option and the player would be well compensated if that year was executed. However, teams could choose the 5th year option and later back out of it. Technically the player isn't harmed since they were going to play on the 4th year of the current deal either way but the timing of when a team backs out could affect the player in Free Agency. I'm not sure on those details. Regardless, the new agreement would essentially make the 5th year a guarantee for the player so the team could no longer back out of the deal after year 4, at least not without paying the money. Pretty sure Pace wants to know if that is going to be guaranteed or not before he signs up for it.

I think a big part of what Parcells wanted was knowing he had a QB who could handle the big stage with all the pressure. Really this is where I think Trubisky struggles the most.

I added comments above. I don't think Burton will be here for much longer. At most 1 year and listening to the end of season press conferences there does not seem to be a strong conviction that he'll return fully healthy from his groin injury. I like Horsted and Holtz, felt they did as well as can be expected with the position changes and new offense. With Burton's question marks and all the projects I'm willing to throw another late round pick at it.

It is a much fancier way of saying what Bill Parcells used to say about QBs he wanted in the draft. IIRC he only wanted proven multi-year starters at big programs who won.

If only it were so easy. And from what I've seen (ignore highlights watch games) Gordon will make Trubisky look good if we draft him. Once again despite the numbers nobody had Mahomes as the consensus #1 QB in the draft.

With all the chatter about Trubisky there is on thing we know: He can hit ARob all day and he did it well enough for ARob to be deserving of a Pro Bowl slot. especially considering all the other offensive issues that held back to the team. I say this because Trubisky could find him accurately and he throws the high go-up-and-get-it passes quite well. He struggles hitting the smaller receivers downfield (Gabriel and Cohen) and he struggles to figure out where MIller is running to. Burton is not a guy who wins the the ball up high either. Claypool is. I don't know anything about Claypool's route running ability but IMO he's a player Trubisky (or anyone really) will be more comfortable throwing to especially in the red zone. Pretty much anyone we put at the U TE position is going to go through a steep learning curve but in the red zone I could see Claypool contributing early.

Corrected that for ya.

Among this WR class Claypool is way down the list and is ranked as a 4-6th Rd pick. As a WR he's not really running away from anyone but he's still got good enough speed to get deep. At 6'4" and reportedly around 230lbs is he a good fit for the U-TE position Burton plays?

No concerns for me. The only real concern is at what cost because we have so many holes to fill.

Skip McCarron...his arm is too weak for the NFL. Does that jacket come with a cigar because it sure needs one?

Kyle is really good on TV. I saw him for a little bit on NFL Network and he was both informative and entertaining to listen to. He's going to land somewhere either local or national.

That's a true statement but it does not mean he is the best option for us.

Everyone has tried Patterson as a WR but he can't catch on. Being a "U" TE won't be any different especially in Nagy's complex offense. He's always going to be a specialty player who will occasionally catch some passes. On to bigger things our cap space just went up to $26.3mil with more moves to come. Hopefully they can extend Allen Robinson's contract and also Floyd's, if they intend to keep him, and free up another $10mil or so. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/chicago-bears/cap/

There is a reason Bill Belichick collects so many draft picks each year. He doesn't get that many right either, he just plays the odds.

Yes, and the same sources who said Mahomes was a 2nd Rd pick.

Our need is greater than Seattle's and our cap space is tight. Gotta make it right.

It's not a good sign for the future when half of his highlights are of times the defense ignored covering him. There are still some contested catches in the mix but he's a depth player. But then I decided to compare him against Shaheen's highlight and I thought well then he is better. This is classic Pace hedging his bets before Free Agency and the draft by adding some veteran depth pieces to a position of need so he doesn't feel he must draft a TE early. From what I saw I'm not sure he's any better than either of Holtz or Horsted (different skillsets of course) but he puts pressure on them to make the roster.

He's even listed as a mid-Rd prospect. If we don't draft one early he certainly should be on our list.

When I watched the short video (I think on ESPN) about John Runyan Jr it was apparent that his son has his father's work ethic but not his physical talent. CBS Sports has him rank 349 overall. Other places I struggle to even find his name.

I'm glad for him to get a shot at a Superbowl but given how weak our TE position is we can't possibly afford the risk giving him that much money at this point in his career.