AZ54

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.

Yeah that changes everything. Not only that he jumped over 40" vertical. We don't have anyone at TE who can run anything close to a 4.4 forty. Even if we forego the fast WR in the draft Claypool would put a lot of stress on a defense with that speed. We'd still have Cohen and Patterson at times.

I think useless is not the right term, at least as I see it. Redundant fits better depending on who we draft.

Maybe I should setup a poll but I'm just curious if anyone else (besides me) would trade Cohen? He's not a RB and he's good as a slot WR but doesn't really offer the deep threat we need. He is one of the best PR in the league so that has value. It's a deep WR draft so I'm not sure any teams would bite but then again he's a proven commodity which is a big deal as compared to any day 3 draftee. Plus he's relatively cheap at $2mil for the year. That said if we do draft a player like Reagor or Aiyuk who can both do the PR duties when/where does Cohen earn snaps? We're still hanging onto Patterson as the trick play guy and he's better at that than Cohen is. We could free up his $2mil and use it to fill another need like RB where we need another player to compliment Montgomery. Again, with this draft class I don't see a market for him, at least not until training camp rolls around and either injuries hit some team, or they realize they don't have the talent they thought they had. I think Cohen is here for this season and then we let him go in FA and possibly get a comp pick back for him.

I have two Rd 2 WRs I like: Jalen Reagor and now adding Brandon Aiyuk to my list. Both are very similar body types and similar athletes with speed to go the distance any time. More importantly both are good receivers. Either would really help open up our passing game.

I agree with the value assessment, and with the early extension we usually end up paying more than I'd like to see. Even if he lands at $9mil/yr average (depending on guarantee), we'd likely be in a better spot. I used to think it was TE but I know think OLB is the position to watch for with our first pick in Rd 2. It's quite likely a good player falls to us. TE value extends into Rd 3/4 as does WR value. I think we all need to keep in mind that with Floyd on the field we had a top 5 defense. That's even when he was working through a broken hand that really hindered his ability. He's a more complete player than it seems since the focus tends to be on sacks. It's impossible to be confident in our offense so if we're to get back to the playoffs it will again be on the strength of our defense.

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.