AZ54

Cleveland traded a Hall of Fame player for just a 3rd and 6th Rd pick? Atkins went on to the Pro Bowl 8 of 9 seasons in Chicago. Talk about a steal, Halas had to love that deal. Cleveland's misery goes back a lot further than I realized. "The Browns traded Atkins and Ken Gorgal to the Chicago Bears for a third-round and a sixth-round pick in the 1956 NFL draft.[4][5] In Chicago, Atkins quickly became the leader of a devastating defensive unit. With the Bears, Atkins was a First Team All-Pro selection in 1958, 1960, 1961, and 1963; along with being a starter in the Pro Bowl in eight of his last nine years with Chicago. "

You are very correct about Chicago and the opportunity for extra money in that city, not just now but even long term if he's an elite star in the likes of Urlacher. If he can't see that writing on that wall he's got to be totally blind. I think Alshon has always been a level-headed guy regarding who or what he is as a player and i don't think he'll be pushing to get a "top 5" deal. Alshon is clearly capable of 1500yd seasons and if I were Pace that's where I'd put down some big incentive $$ for him to achieve. You have to stay healthy to hit that mark.

I'm not so sure that is accurate. Lovie had a ton of roster control after he got his second contract. OTOH Pace was adamant that he would absolutely retain control over player personnel when questioned during the coaching search. Given all the shuffling of the roster this season there is no doubt that 1) Fox has complete control over who plays and who doesn't and 2) Pace and Fox work closely together on roster moves. While it might appear Fox is making the calls it could also be they see eye-to-eye on evaluations. When you start looking at the turnover at the bottom of the roster I think that is absolutely led by Pace. Going back to the last draft I felt it was clearly Pace making the final decisions. So far I think it's been very good and has produce solid results for a first year rebuild, especially considering we didn't have a lot to work with in cap space last offseason. This year, this offseason, was the plan all along made clear by all the 1 year prove-it deals we did last year, and the silence on future talks for guys like Forte, Jeffrey, and Long.

No surgery required, should be ready for the Superbowl parties. I like putting Jeffrey on IR. Kinda puts him out of our misery for a week and even though it's just for one week this takes his bargaining power down just a notch.

For Mariota's sake I hope he doesn't end up there. I think Mariota can develop into a top 15, maybe top 10 QB in the NFL in a pro style offense. If Chip goes there he'll have him running all over the field. Marietta might get some good numbers for a couple seasons in that system but he won't last physically. Mentally that will just see his development way back.

Apparently Belichick and Brady haven't had your memo for several years and this is just one player's impact: http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/post/_/i...e-without-gronk

Would you really rather defend Forte on a screen pass or Langford? Let me phrase it this way, which one is more likely to take the ball 60+ yards and score a TD? Forte is a very good and versatile player who is getting older and slowing down. Unlike Langford next year will not be better for him.

Great question.... Among all players I think Amos has impressed the most. Biggest disappointment I'll stick with Ratliff. After being called our only good Dlineman in training camp his actions and release were very disappointing.

I know that you know you can't coach a 4.6 guy into a 4.3 guy. So yes, coaching can take players that have similar physical traits and make one better over the other, if the player has the right mental traits needed to learn from that coaching. After that you must get elite physical talent at a few spots on the field. On the other side of argument Jason and Connor are both right. Losing does give the team a higher probability of finding those elite players. Yet the organization from front office through coaches can only and absolutely preach winning is everything. Once you open that door that losing in this circumstance was ok then each person below you in that organization opens that door a little wider. Eventually that translates to players feeling it was ok to "lose" on this play or possession because i'll win on the next play or series. Fact is New England looked unbeatable until a few players were lost to injury and then the Eagles beat them. The difference from the middle of this league to top is just a few players.

The franchise tag is an easy decision as we all know. If we end having Alshon play on that deal for one year then that's ok. We have the cap space and it gives us another year to see if he's handling his health issues better and deserve the big money deal. If not, we move on. It also gives us the opportunity to trade him if a good deal shows up. You never know someone might throw a late 1st RD pick at us, plus something later. I haven't really looked at WR in the draft but a quick scan at CBSSports shows only two WR in the top 32. The 2nd WR listed is just 5'10". So this draft is not like the last couple years for WRs. If Alshon were drafted again there is zero doubt he'd be a 1st Rd pick. Still, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush so I think keeping Alshon around for at least a couple years makes the most sense and we hope the coaches and training staff get him setup right for the future. The prospect of having Alshon and White on opposite sides is too enticing. I see Pace willing to pay a little more per year in exchange for the team having a way out if Jeffrey's injury woes continue and I think Jeffrey takes that deal.

If the Jets want any hope of getting a deal done with Wilkerson they pretty much have to come out and say this in advance. It let's him know they are serious about a long term deal and (more likely) let's other team's know they are wasting their time pursuing him. We know they don't have a franchise QB, they hired Todd Bowles, they drafted Leonard Williams, so it seems clear they have every intention of winning through their defense. Doesn't mean it will happen but keeping him around has to be on their wish list.

Merry Christmas to my fellow Bear fans!

Jets have $14mil in cap space this offseason but that is with losing QB Fitzpatrick, DE Wilkerson, OLB Pace, DT Harrison, RB Ivory, RB Powell and a bunch of other players. http://overthecap.com/free-agency They'll have to make some tough decisions and I can't see them letting go of Fitzpatrick after he's led them into playoff contention. If anything they'll have to pay him more than this year's $3.6mil. I don't remember how using the franchise tag affects salary cap space in the offseason but I have to think tagging Wilkerson will be challenging for them.

You might be onto something here. http://nep.247sports.com/Bolt/Jets-Damon-H...nt-for-42237685 You don't get many words out of Belichick when discussing any player but he had a lot to say about Harrison. He'd be much cheaper than Wilkerson (and for sure he'll be available). Park him in the middle on run downs, move Goldman out to the DE position, and then backfill the other side with whoever wins out among Jenkins (I think we should re-sign him), Sutton, Ferguson, Unrein. We still need a pass rusher at DE and I think we're hoping Washington fills that role. They seemed to want to keep him around despite his injury instead of doing an injury settlement. He'll have had a year to settle into his new playing weight and the new role. We'll see what he can do in camp. Toss in a mid-round draft pick if they want or even a guy like Wolfe or Malik Jackson and move on from Jenkins. Plenty of cheap options here. Somewhere out of that we should have a pretty good group centered around Goldman and Harrison. Take some of that money we'd spend on Wilkerson and use it on Eric Berry if he's healthy. Berry paired with Amos would be our best safety combo in a long time. I'm still focused on fixing ILB in Rd 1, along with signing Trevathan. Keep Timu (if he continues his progress), and if they want bring SMC back as depth to compete while the rookie settles in. Rd 2 and 3 can then go to finding Oline and pass rush help at OLB. ...and we'd still have a lot of cap space.

Wach Timu beat SMC to the ball... http://www.chicagobears.com/multimedia/vid...4b-1914e89e8ce8

I agree, losing Brandon likely had Alshon a bit upset. Next offseason he'll be able to work with a hard-working young man names Kevin White, plus a veteran in Eddie Royal. Now they've gotten to know each other whereas last summer there was no relationship there.

1) We don't have a dominant OLB and we likely won't have one in 2016 via FA or the draft. Likewise we do not have a dominant Dline although they are good and should see some improvement in talent this offseason. We will likely do something at ILB in FA but we could use more help than one player and after Trevathan there is a talent drop off. 2) I grew up watching highlights of Butkus blow up RBs. Watched Singletary in the 80's dominate the box area. Later I watched Urlacher's speed dominate offenses by making plays sideline to sideline and sometimes 20 yards downfield. 3) I want another great ILB. You can't predict greatness but I'll settle for a really good ILB. This is the draft where our biggest need (two ILB) among all positions meets 3 players who are ranked anywhere from #5 to #20, on CBSSports all three are ranked #13 or higher. 4) No point looking a gift horse in the mouth as far as I'm concerned. By that I mean the probability that we will get one of those 3 players where we draft is very high. That gives us some assurance that we can use FA to prioritize other needs like Oline, S, and Dline. Given all the cap space we have I don't think that precludes us from pursuing Trevathan either. If one of these 3 ILB are there we take him and now with Trevathan ILB goes from biggest weakness to a strength. In the unlikely event all 3 are gone when we pick then somebody fell to us and drafting him should be a no-brainer.

Here's my plan: Rd 1) Ragland. Since the focus of this is run defense I'm choosing the best ILB for that right now. In FA I re-sign SMC and I sign Trevathan. Let the three compete to see who starts but we'll have the depth we need. Rd 1a) I'm trading Martellus Bennett and swapping our 2nd Rd pick to move backup into the 1st RD to take DeForest Buckner. He falls a bit because of concerns about his pass rushing but he's a 2-gap run-stopping stud with the length and agility to improve his pass rushing skills with proper coaching. Rd 3) Kyler Fackrell. He's a 6'5" 250lb OLB with the edge quickness we don't have in our current mix of OLB. He has the length to get off blocks well in the running game but needs more strength. In the meantime, he's more of a 3rd down specialist as he learns the game and, since this is about fixing our run defense, that means our better run defending OLB get some rest for 1st and 2nd down. Fackrell can run and cover in the open field as well, something we really don't have among our OLB. There aren't many highlights on Fackrell and in some cases you can't even find his name but I'm betting by the time we hit the draft he'll be better known because he's a good athlete. CBSSports has him listed at 113 overall but before his knee injury in 2014 he was looked at as top 60 prospect. Before the 2014 season, and his knee injury, Kiper had him as the #18 prospect overall. As a side note, I was about 10min into researching him before I realized he went to high school with my kids and led their football team to the state championship. He played QB, RB, WR, DB, KR, and PR. First time I can remember watching someone play a lot of high school games and then seeing him come back around for the draft.

I kinda take all this as the beginning of the offseason smoke screen. If other teams don't know where Long is playing next year it's harder to predict our draft. In general this team hasn't strayed far from what we see so I can't really see them moving Long to LT when in fact Leno has been good there, better than Long has played at RT IMO. Long at LT might have been tossed out there just in case we sign someone at RT in FA. If I were Pace and company I'd leave this all right where it is no matter how much the fans and media want to know.

Gven all the recent additions to the injury list, Bennett, Callahan, Jeffrey, McPhee, Porter, and Sutton, I'm not that concerned about the losses and I'll take the higher draft pick. Keep bringing up young players like Timu and let's see if they can contribute next year. Surprisingly nobody has mentioned Callahan as a significant loss but that man was playing good football for us and his replacements are not. ILB continue the merry-go-round but at least Timu put together a strong showing. SMC playing with a concussion is a concern and likely means we won't see him this week. I'm looking at nothing but future players and we're seeing good things from a few players: Unrein keeps showing up with a few good plays each game and I think he deserves to be back next year. Timu responded well to his demotion and returned to action by making a lot of plays around the LOS last week. I look forward to watching him this next game. Already mentioned Callahan but that kid should be back next year and hopefully we see him this week. The KR we've had out there the last month or so, Deonte Thomson, has done very well. I wish he could handle punt returns. Willie Young and Houston have both played some good football for us lately. Both should return, especially given our lack of depth here. Bring in some competition to the mix in the form some real edge speed. Acho can move on. I was disappointed Carey didn't get any snaps last week. We'll see how they handle the last two games now that playoffs are completely out of the question, I definitely want to see more from him so we can have an idea if he can share the load with Langford next season.

I agree, he was in great shape coming into camp. He's had so many injuries and time on the sideline doing nothing so it's hard to maintain that conditioning. I think his injuries all stem from the first one and I suspect he does not have a good program for stretching, although I never see him warm up before a game so it's hard to know. If that's an issue there is no doubt this training staff has it high on their list of priorities but that does not mean he is listening.

He was the best ILB today that's for sure. He still has room to grow but that's a good start to redeeming himself. Meanwhile Christian Jones' future gets cloudier as he was inactive.

I watched Ragland in games against Wisconsin, Auburn, and Georgia. He is faster are more mobile that I expected. I didn't see him cover anyone down field as Alabama mostly uses a zone so he'd just drop to his area. He generally did well covering players that were his responsibility although there were a few times he dropped into the same spot as the other ILB (one of them had to be wrong) leaving a huge gap in the middle of the field. That's a bit of a flag for me as far as assignment discipline. I never saw him turn and run with anyone down field but he has the speed and athleticism to do so IMO. Still, in the box is where he excels. He's good at getting through the trash to get to the right spot. When he diagnoses where he needs to be he gets there in a hurry and is very good wrap up tackler. In short, he is exactly what we don't see in our current ILB group around the LOS. Bonus for him is that he can put his hand on the ground and rush the passer a bit. My biggest dislike is that once a play moves away from him he loafs. He's not one to chase down a play from across the field, more likely to assume his teammate will make that tackle. He doesn't stop moving toward the play but he's not using his burst to close as quickly as he could. A coach might be able to improve that. Among the 3 LBs I still prefer Jack first because I believe his ceiling is higher than Ragland's. I know he can turn and run with any TE or RB 30 yards down field and he's stout enough to stand up Oline and shed to make a tackle. Ragland would be my 2nd choice and really is not far behind Jack. Adding a physical in the box ILB would be a huge boost for our defense. He's better than Jack at diagnosing running plays and getting where he needs to be but just not as fluid in coverage. I think in time with more experience Jack will close that gap around the LOS, and likewise maybe Ragland closes the coverage gap with better coaching. Smith is my 3rd choice, he's just not as physical around the LOS as the other two can be. He reminds me of Briggs in the way he diagnoses plays and bursts through a gap to make a tackle for a loss but he's not happy when the big boys get their hands on him. A trade back and grabbing any of the three is not bad at all but, as you say, the talent where we are drafting might be so much better that it's not worth moving back. It will be interesting to watch how the draft process plays out for these three players. Here's one mock with all 3 gone in the top 16 picks. I'm not a historian but it seems rare to be talking about three ILB in/around the top 15 picks. http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/mock-dr...expert/rob-rang http://www.drafthistory.com/index.php/positions/lb

If he's the player you described he will move up significantly as the draft process goes on, especially after the combine tests. Plus, if that's our biggest need at draft time we shouldn't risk losing him at all by moving back.

I need to watch more film on Ragland. What I've seen so far he seems a little stiff in coverage and I think he'd be a better fit in a scheme that asked him to focus on playing downhill towards the LOS. Jaylon Smith and Myles Jack can both run and cover. Jack is more stout at the point of attack which is why I prefer him over Smith (who prefers to use his quickness to get around blocks). The thing with Jack is that he played multiple positions for UCLA including RB and this year dedicated to playing LB was cut short by the knee injury. So you didn't often see the instincts you want out of a top 15 pick. Given a couple years to focus on one position I think he'll excel. Of course the flip side to that is the other guys, Smith and Ragland, may have the higher floor right now.