AZ54

I think Sims is going to surprise a lot of people with his pass catching ability. Did we overpay based on his past performance? Absolutely. NE traded to pick up the often injured Dwayne Allen's $5-6mil/yr contract. If Bennett was a better player then with all their cap space they'd have had no issue paying him $6mil/yr. If it wasn't going to be economical for them to keep Bennett around they wanted to move on. Bennett being himself wasn't in the mood to give a Superbowl discount.

Far better hands than I expected. With the 2 TE sets we like to run I think he and Miller will be a good combination. Add in Brown who I thought played well late in the season and we might have a good group of TEs across the board.

He is the Alshon Jeffrey of CBs. Talented but often injured. At least he wasn't demanding to be paid top 5 money.

Were they really that desperate? Bennett for all his whining only gets $18mil over 3 years. That's chump change for NE with all their cap space and they ran away as fast as they could. Rodgers will not be happy with Bennett's practice habits but in a twist of fate I will be.

Cooper is ok, better than McManis as a backup but I don't know about special teams. At this point we need depth at CB and special teams can get sorted out later. Depending on how the draft goes, and Kyle Fuller, I wouldn't say Cooper is a lock for the final roster.

You do some very good research! Nice job on the QB comps. I think the TE signing is a bigger upgrade that we realize. Here's some draft profiles on Sims: http://www.nfl.com/draft/2013/profiles/dion-sims?id=2540200 http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players/1700507/dion-sims We now have a 265lb TE who can run a 4.7 forty with a 35in vertical leap. He's not the most nimble guy (3-cone 7.36) but he's far more athletic than I first thought for a "blocking TE". This is a good combination of skills among him and Miller/Brown. Draft a TE if we choose but I think we can go into the season with these 3 players. CB is still a big question mark but this is the draft where you don't have to overpay FA to get help. WR is also strong in the draft but I'd love to add Pryor's size/speed combination to the mix with Glennon's strong arm. I know he's not a #1 WR but having three solid #2 WRs on the field (White, Meredith, Pryor) can be very productive. That combination puts DBs in a quandary too. I would love to see Hankins signed to strengthen the Dline.

I keep seeing this and I wonder how everyone knows this? After seeing the Jets pay Pickspatrick $12mil last year I'm not so sure they would back out at $10mil this year for a guy who has more potential than Pickspatrick. Ah but rumors say they are likely to re-sign Geno Smith so he can compete for the starting job. There is nothing in Pace's background that says he's likely to be 50% higher in salary than the market. The QB market is such that Cleveland might be willing to buy a 2nd Rd pick for $16mil and could then turn around and send that pick to NE for Garoppolo. If they do that and then have to sign JimmyG to a new contract think about how much the total investment will be. NFL teams will usually keep quiet on what they offered when it wasn't accepted but we didn't win the bidding early on so I don't believe we were that much higher than everyone else. Maybe the bidding got up to $13mil/yr and then Pace just said here's my best offer of $14.5mil/yr if you take it right now?

Hankins is still out there and if they think he can fit in the scheme I think he would be a good pickup for us.

There is still the quantity over quality option available to us and for a team desperate for depth instead of 3 big FAs (Glennon, Gilmore, Jeffrey) we will get 6-8 good players.

It seems I'm in the minority here but Pace was right on the CB contracts. http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/no-alsh...tters-to-bears/ "The Patriots reportedly gave Gilmore, whom the Bills drafted with the 10th overall pick in 2012, a five-year, $65 million contract, with a whopping $40 million guaranteed. "the lowly Jaguars — one of the most aggressive teams in free agency every year — reportedly signed Bouye, an undrafted signing by the Texans in 2013, to a five-year, $67.5 million contract." That's $67mil for a one year wonder! The same caution flags everyone here always has with NFL players. $40mil guaranteed for a CB who, love 'em or hate 'em, rated very poorly in PFF's rankings last year. 61st IIRC. Yes, I wanted one of them but never thought they'd see those contracts. Bouye is a good player but he's nowhere close to having an island, although he can now afford to buy one. Jeffrey might be tougher to accept but I already said I wasn't going to lose any sleep watching him sit on someone else's sideline. He had to have more guaranteed money on the table, with the Bears or someone else, than his 1yr deal will pay him. I think it's safe to say with Cutler gone he was leaving no matter what for a team with a better QB situation.

I'm in. You already know my concerns with McPhee's ability to return to a fulltime starting role but he should be ok with 30-40% of the snaps. Willie Young is nothing more than a backup 4-3 DE and offers nothing in coverage. Floyd/McPhee/Barwin/Young/ and hopefully Roy Robertson-Harris would be a very good group of OLB. Leaves the draft focus on the interior of the Dline.

This is a good signing. Reasonable contract for a good player at a position of need. He can clearly play the pass well. I'd have no issues putting him aside either Hooker or Adams. Along with Amos as 1st backup we'd have a very good safety group and instead of a NB, Fangio could use all 3 on the field at the same time depending on how an offense lines up (i.e. 2 TEs).

Anyone else notice how quietly New England walked away from Bennett? They traded a 6th Rd pick and took on Dwayne Allen's $6mil contract. I'm curious where he'll end up and for what salary.

Maybe but I wouldn't be surprised if we don't draft a QB until Rd 3 and likely later. The first 2 picks can definitely bring in defensive starters if we make wise decisions. Even in the 3rd Rd we can find a player to help and possibly start like Switzer. Otherwise Pace would have likely settled with Hoyer as the cheaper stopgap. We might even see someone like Kelly on day 3, if they feel he can grow up quickly. Now with us taking a step back from Gilmore, who appears headed to the Patriots, I'd say it's more likely Jeffrey returns to the Bears. Pace is hanging onto some big money for a reason.

I agree with those 3 but we should add Hooker to the list as he offers something in coverage that is rare to find in the deep middle of the field. My concern with Lattimore is his injury history, and then of course he runs at the combine and gets injured. Right now I'd say Adams is the likely pick.

Rather than paying Hoyer $8-10mil we were better off taking the risk on the upside Glennon has, even at the higher price.

That's pretty much Glennon. He can make all the throws you want from the pocket but at times he's holding onto the ball. In his defense his WRs in the game I watched usually couldn't get open so he had to throw into very tight windows unless a coverage was blown. What has he learned in 4 years? Rapaport is saying the deal is pretty much done: 3yr, ~$15mil per year.

We can only choose 1 option but my choice would have been to re-sign Hoyer and draft Trubisky at #3. As a QB Glennon is a better option than Hoyer because he can throw to all levels of the field. Is he $5mil better? That I don't know about. I'm just hoping if we go this route that we don't kill ourselves by committing big guaranteed money like we did with the Cutler deal. Anything less than $15mil/yr is lower than all NFL starting QBs except those still on their rookie contracts, or the 25th highest paid starter in the league. It is still a lot to pay for a guy who has never proven he can handle the role.

Where would Glennon fit among this year's draft class? http://draftbreakdown.com/video/mike-glenn...s-clemson-2012/ http://draftbreakdown.com/video/mike-glenn...-maryland-2012/ I'd say he'd be in the mix among the top 4 where they are all considered late 1st to 2nd Rd picks. Assuming the rumors of Glennon-Bears are true it appears Pace and Fox have decided that rather than give up valuable draft picks in a year stocked with defensive talent, and no QBs ready to play, they prefer to overpay the best FA QB option.

Shanahan's play calls are reportedly very complex and with some LOS reads (meaning receivers run different routes depending on D alignment). No rookie, especially one who has never called plays, is going to step into that and be successful early on.

I don't want to give Glennon stupid money either but if it comes with almost no guaranteed money that we can walk away from in a year then I'm ok with it. Almost all QBs get stupid money anyway so I just have to put blinders on when I see the bill. I'd pay more for that flexibility. If he is performing well then we certainly will keep him around so he has incentives as well.

I think for once Pace pays big to acquire the best available option and we pay $13-14mil/yr to Gilmore. This gives him more flexibility to do what is needed to fix the other glaring hole on the roster: QB.

It appears Hoyer is going to try to do the same thing that Fitzpatrick did with the Jets last year and try to earn $10mil+. If Glennon can get more than 10mil I can't blame him for trying. I would rather suffer with another alternative and just let him go. Since Hoyer played for Shanahan in Cleveland they are likely the only real competition for him as far as starting opportunities. In that case he's joining a team at the start of a complete overhaul, whereas we are a bit further along. What we don't know is if the 49ers are going to try to trade for Cousins. If they think they might pay Cousins $20mil+ then there won't be room to pay Hoyer big money, although they might just for a one year deal. I think we'll offer Hoyer 2 years and we're still his best option. We'll see how long he holds off on signing.

That's nice, can he jump out of a pool too? Here is his "best" game and, IIRC, he too said this was his best game. Watch all the passes beyond 20 yards. To save you time you can just watch the first 2:50 because things don't change much over the length of the game. This is against a defense that likely was the closest to what he'll see in the NFL. I see too high, too long, too short even though WR/TE adjust by almost stopping to make the catch, and a couple that are where they should be. Not a high in-stride success rate beyond 20 yards. http://draftbreakdown.com/video/nathan-pet...clemson-2016-2/ If there is a Kirk Cousins in this draft it is Peterman. I have no issues drafting him in the 4th Rd versus paying Glennon $12-14mil.

Letting Cutler go is supposed to free up some cap space that we can use to strengthen the rest of the roster. If we end up signing Glennon to a contract similar in value (i.e. $12mil) to Cutler's then we lose. Hoyer will sign, this is his best chance period to show he can be a starter in this league because he knows the offense and he has an outstanding RB.