AZ54

I disagree because while early on there is a feeding frenzy for the top FAs the teams that are focused on getting one or even two of them typically has to focus a lot of energy negotiating those deals. If you remove yourself from the top tier noise then you can quickly and quietly focus on the 2nd tier FAs. The only issue with that is then you are setting the market for those FAs instead of letting prices settle down a bit. Still if that's your best shot and you really want a mid-level guy like Halapoulicaati Vaitai OT (had to copy/paste that) then just go get him and don't wait for the competition to show up later. He still makes our team better but that's not hard to do when Leno was the starting LT last year. That contract for Vaitai is likely going to be higher than the proposed 3/$24 deal simply because FAs usually earn more than we expect, or maybe he gets a surprising amount of guaranteed money on it. That will be true with the new CBA deal likely getting approved before FA. I say likely because as Sam Acho explained it, about 68% of the players will get 20% pay raises. The elite 10-15% players who might make hte news with their comments they just don't have as much say in the situation. Those in the middle will likely depend on where they are at in their career. If you are close the end of your career (i.e. Trevathan) but likely have enough to get one more decent contract do you want to go into this season with labor uncertainty to the point teams will prefer 1yr deal for you? Do you want to risk a lockout next season and give up millions? For NFL players it's vastly different than how the rest of us view our career. If I were a bottom-50%-of-the-roster player nothing Aaron Rodgers complains about regarding money matters to me if I know I a yes vote gets me a 20% raise the next 1-3 years. Also, more games equals more opportunity for the bottom of the roster players, which oculd lead to a decent deal with some guaranteed money. We'll have more playoff teams as well and that too is another paycheck. Just looking at the Bears' roster I see just 14 players earning more than $2mil. Obviously we'll add a few more soon but still we may lose one or two as well.

With this draft I'm not interested in spending much on a FA plus nobody is really appealing. Travis Austin is too old and never had decent long speed, his game relied on his short area quickness. Perriman never could run routes well. Paul Richardson has had a lot of injuries lately making him a big risk. He's available now since he was released and still teams aren't knocking down the door to sign him. I'm sure part of that has to do with the deep WR class. Marcus Johnson...why would the Colts with $86mil of cap space let even a moderately good WR leave when they need to entice a good FA QB to join their roster? His best year includes 17 receptions.

For some reason I cannot vote but among the options I choose C. However, I'm not opposed to going all in on Trubisky this year and signing some low rent backup QB. If he fails then it only helps us find a QB next year. Signing Keenum or Dalton doesn't really give us a bright future...unless you truly believe one of them could win the Superbowl with our defense. I don't think that can happen unless the D hits elite '85 Bears level. The "legit" backup QB seems like a lot money tossed into a pot hoping it saves Pace's job because that QB is likely good enough to get us into the playoffs with our defense. From there he'd be hoping to do the KC thing when they drafted Mahomes and trade up from pick #25ish for the next QB around pick #10 sometime in the next two seasons.

If Eli watches our Oline protect Trubisky would he still have dinner with Pace?

Zero chance of that happening. Exactly what purpose would Eli serve on our roster?

Zero chance Josh Rosen is an Acura NSX. Say whatever you want about that car it has elite performance, Rosen never has had that. He is more like a Genesis Coupe. Looks better than it is from the outside, but disappointing when driving it.

Ben Roethlisberger

There are a lot of good options almost anyway the board falls.

Looking at this revised big board by Matt Miller I would gladly trade back both of our 2nd Rd picks or one to get 4 picks in top 100. I could be very happy with various combinations of players available between 50 and 100. Say Cleveland wants to get another early 2nd Rd pick at 43 (470pts) and gives us both of their 3rd Rd picks (220/140pts) plus their 4th Rd pick (70pts). We then have 50, 74, 90, and 112 plus our own 4th Rd pick at 144. Then HOU trades with us for 50 giving us 58 and 101. It's a bit in our favor but if they don't give 101 they could give 108. Now we have 58, 74, 90, 101, 112, 144 and further down we still have 163, 196, 200, 233. From there rather than bringing in 10 rookies Pace can start trading back up to grab the players he wants. He can give up 1,2, or 3 late picks to get back into the top 100 depending how far he wants to move up. If we stayed at these picks I would draft: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2877898-2020-nfl-draft-big-board-matt-millers-top-players-at-start-of-scouting-combine#slide1 58: Julian Okwara OLB 74: Denzel Mims WR (assume he drops a bit due to WR saturation...teams have already drafted for that position) 90: Lloyd Cushenberry IOL 101: Chase Claypool TE (I'm still putting him at the U position to replace Burton) 112: AJ Dillon RB (at 245lbs runs a 4.53 with a 41" vert) switched to Draftek for board rankings here.

I do consider his body of work and being opposite one of the best defenses in the country has helped him. I just never felt he read defenses, or even individual defenders very well. Meaning his ball placement wasn't always the best.

He'd have to move inside as DE in the 3 man front but he has the power to do that, and he'd be a good strong side DE in a 4-man front. He won't offer much on the edge beyond that. If he drops you have consider best available and he would absolutely help our pass rush.

After watching him throw the ball in the dirt at the combine why not take a chance? Just kidding, his weak arm in Soldier Field in cold weather won't work.

So you want a LT? How about trading back in Rd 2 and receiving a Rd 3 pick in exchange. Then sending the 3rd Rd pick to Wash for Williams? Use one of the 2nd Rd picks on IOL either OG or OC and you've overhauled the Oline in a big way. I think we're going to give Bars a shot at RG though and use a Day 3 pick for depth at IOL. With the two 2nd Rd picks we can still fill openings at WR, TE, OLB, or CB depending on who drops. https://www.walterfootball.com/nflhotpress/article/Redskins-Would-Want-Second-Day-Picks-for-Trent-Williams

Never heard of this guy but then again I'm not doing any research on QBs this year. https://www.walterfootball.com/combine2020blog.php Florida International quarterback James Morgan was another quarterback multiple team sources said impressed them. Morgan has a live arm, and he did a very good job of throwing the ball accurately with velocity during the field workout at the combine, building on his strong week at the East-West Shrine. Team sources said that Morgan also interviewed well with teams. A number of teams are showing a lot of interest in Morgan, including the Bears, Packers, Buccaneers, Jets, Panthers and Colts. I see poor mechanics when throwing, under throws the deep ball often, and he is slow running. The first two fit the Trubisky mold so who knows.

With all the talent in this draft at WR I don't see Claypool being gone in the 1st Rd. He might have shown some speed but his agility is not as good as other WR in Rd 2 that's a very important trait for gaining separation. I suspect there's a reason he stayed away from the agility drills at the combine. However, the agility expectations are different if you want him as a U TE because then he has to compete against LB or backup DBs. This week we'll get new big board updates and it will be interesting to see where Claypool lands.

I agree there will be a surprise somewhere in FA. As far as QB I believe Pace waits out the market. It's a decent draft for QBs so the teams in big need will likely go after one in Rd 1. Or they grab a stop gap like Philip Rivers. From there you get the teams with secondary needs like the Bears. I think this is a good list of team needs for the draft: https://thedraftnetwork.com/team-needs QB Primary Need: Bengals, Bucs, Chargers, Colts, Dolphins, and maybe Panthers. That's six teams with 4 First Rd QB talents on the board. QB Secondary Need: Bears, Eagles, Jaguars, Raiders, Saints, Steelers, Titans. The Steelers and Saints already have their backups in place. Raiders and Eagles have their starter locked up and I expect the Titans as well. That really leaves just two teams on this list competing for top backups who could end up as starters are Bears and Jaguars. Assume 4 primary need teams draft a QB in Rd 1 leaves us with two primary needs plus the Bears and Jags looking at the following list of decent QB options: Available QBs: Mariota, Dalton, Bridgewater, Rivers followed by Winston, Keenum. There isn't enough demand for the 6 names above so someone will end up on the outside looking in. Bengals are rumored to believe they can get a 3rd Rd pick for Dalton but given the market I don't see that happening at all especially with the new team absorbing his $16-17mil/yr contract. Teams will wait for him to be cut. We certainly cannot afford to pay that to a backup QB.

It just feels like a smoke screen while he goes after his real target hard on day 1 of FA.

I like AlbertO as a day 3 prospect but for his size he's suprisingly not a very good blocker.

I started this and I don't think Cohen has much trade value in this draft which is deep on WRs he might bring back a 5th Rd pick. However, this was all predicated on first drafting someone who is better than he is. Cohen is NOT a RB. As a slot WR and jet sweep guy he has some value. If he can defeat a DB on a double cut he's gone but if he doesn't he is too short to win a contested catch on the outside. We do have issues at WR...namely Anthony Miller who is injury prone and a poor or inconsistent route runner. Behind him we have Wims who did not look good last year and Ridley. I can see Ridley, Miller, and possibly Wims fighting it out for the 2nd/3rd WR role but these guys are really all 3rd/4th WR types on a roster. Plus we see snaps with Cohen in a limited role from the slot. We need an insurance policy for the #2 WR position preferably with some deep speed. There aren't many FA options and we have the best WR draft in 15 years before us. If we get someone like Jalen Reagor where does Cohen fit in? ...and FWIW Patterson is elite on kick and punt coverage.

No doubt we could just draft him and figure out where he fits best either at U TE or as WR. I'd love to build him into our future replacement for Burton. It's a project but one that could reap huge rewards. Teams who don't have Roquan Smith will have to cover him with a DB. Worst case, or even in the interim before he understands the U TE position, he becomes the WR people thought Wims was going to be (opposite ARob) but he can stretch the field. Trubisky has already proven he can throw the jump ball well to ARob so forget about accuracy just aim high to him or Claypool down the sideline. Redzone options? Just throw toward the shorter CB.

...and again on the broadcast they talked about his ability to play faster than he timed. They also suspected these guys who are a bit smaller might have tried to bulk up a bit for the combine after hearing they needed to be bigger. Tacking on a bit of new muscle can take away a bit of your quickness. These days we have computers and any team with the right software can figure out how fast these guys are running on film on some of those breakaway runs.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/bears/2020/2/27/21156762/bears-free-agent-austin-hooper-tight-end Very interesting. If this is true, and it's a bit surprising since Pace never likes to tip his hand, then my take is that Pace fully expects to have a lot more cap space than the $26mil we have right now before FA rolls around. The two most logical extensions (or cut) AR12 and Floyd. Remember we also have to resolve ILB which won't be that cheap. Why would Pace let this leak out when that's not his usual MO? Or is he just pushing the Packers, who may also be interested in Hooper, to spend more money. Is this a new strategy to let other teams know we're in it to win it so you best look elsewhere if you want one of the top 3 TEs. Pure smoke screen so he goes and gets Hunter Henry locked up quickly?

I don't disagree at all but there were other injuries and issues with Roquan, Trevathan, and Nichols that played into that as well. Nobody was missed as much as Akiem.

I think he needs to get back to his speed workouts and worry less about carrying the extra muscle. What was he focused on during the draft? He was never going to get draft because of his bench press.

That's not his game speed. We all heard that same thing when it was Terrell Suggs (sticking with the ASU theme here) in the draft. Some players are just better in the game versus a track situation. However, this is good enough for me because it will help him drop to us.