AZ54

He certainly didn't say much positive about Clausen. Then again they haven't said much positive about Cutler.

You always over-pay in the early days of FA. It is the way it always will be with so many teams fighting to fill key spots on their rosters. I've just learned to expect it and accept it. In the late stages of FA you make up for it a bit with some good bargains like DeLaPuente was for us last year. Ideally long term we aren't so reliant on FAs to fill key positions for us.

Agreed here. Wasn't Knighton fined last year for coming to camp out of shape? If true I have to really question his motivation. He was in a contract year and playing for a team fully expected to contend for Superbowl. If that can't get you out of the kitchen and into the gym nothing can.

He said "in an ideal world you fill your needs via FA so you can always take BPA in the draft". I think Pace knows you can't have a glaring hole somewhere on the roster and ignore when the draft comes around. That said, I like what he's doing in FA this offseason as he seems to be addressing every need. We'll see if they all work out, haven't seen or heard anything about Wisniewski lately.

Due diligence IMO. Front office has already made it clear Cutler is not the long term future of this franchise. If you have a franchise QB available when you pick you always take him. The question is whether or not Mariota is that caliber of QB.

Houston I was positive on but never expected much from him in pass rush. Turned out not be much in run D either. Willie Young largely got a "who?" from the board but most agreed he would be a decent value signing for us. Mundy was mostly "I hope he's ready to start" but I can't recall anyone being optimistic about him. Jared Allen…we all thought he'd at least remember how to get to the QB more often than not but (at least for myself) felt we overpaid him.

We need more of this but it's a good start: http://chi.scout.com/story/1526237-violenc...ear-mcphee?s=25

He's got nowhere else to play. He's not big enough to be a DE although he can kick inside on pass rushing downs. Reality is signing McPhee is the beginning of the end for Houston's time here. They are too similar in styles although hopefully McPhee is far more productive. I can't see any GM building their roster with big money to both these players for one spot on the field and Pace has to be smart enough to know the same thing. The OLB opposite McPhee needs to be our speed pass rusher. Next year if he's cut Houston's contract has just $1mil in dead money and $6mil in cap savings.

I'm good with Cutler sticking around. He's the best option for the near term and gives us time to find a replacement without rushing the decision in a horrible year to find a QB. As I said many times, build the Oline and run game and take it from there.

That's one perspective and I agree with it. Another side of the story is likely that we're not breaking the bank on these deals. If you toss in Terrance Knighton I think it shows that our new GM has his values set on players and he's not going to be pressured to go way outside those parameters. Players aren't blown away by these offers and want to check the market to see if there is something better. With the switch to 3-4 you could see us diving off the deep end to get a guy like Knighton but we aren't. I like what that means for our cap space down the road.

Just for the record, when I speak of catering to Jay I'm not talking about bringing in good players to make the offense better. It's a team sport and you need talent across the board to win regardless who your QB is. The catering I didn't like was Emery's non-stop "he's a franchise QB" talk that likely increased Cutler's value before he signed the new contract. Trestman not holding Cutler accountable for his poor play. Trestman didn't hold anyone accountable anyway. Jay is one of our starters…period and he needs to play like a starter to stay a starter.

Have to think the Bears have already had discussions regarding any potential trade of Brees and Cutler. We went almost right up to the beginning of FA before finally stating that Cutler is our QB and even then it wasn't a big announcement it was just leaked out to the media. OTOH I haven't seen any links anywhere that Brees is officially on the block but the rumor is everywhere. We have too many needs to take on Brees' cap hit and I'm not sure he'd be as effective in Chicago weather…and yes I know where he played in college. NO is in cap hell with no easy way out. Colston is near the end of his career but this is a great WR draft and having two 1st Rd picks gives NO a way to quickly reshape their offense if they choose to do so. In 15 years when there is discussion about if he should be in the Hall of Fame, remember the answer to the trivia question "who was traded for Jimmy Graham".

Tough to figure this one from a Raven's point of view other than Ozzie has already looked at the young talent in the draft and knows he can replace Ngata well enough that he's not worried about it. Ngata is a great player but he's not Suh and won't bring the pass rush as Suh did. Some say Ngata will play the run better than Suh but a brick wall is still a brick wall.

One man's trash is another man's treasure. Foles didn't play so well last year but he fought through injuries. Bradford fights injuries every year.

If Cutler stays there is no doubt whatsoever that a message has been sent to him and the rest of the team. He is not going to be catered to.

We'll see. Best offers always come after negotiations break off.

If we waited until after the draft to see how the roster shaped up, and how low his price dropped then maybe. I just have doubts we'll get both safety positions were it needs to be this offseason. Guys like Earl Thomas or McCourty can give you a lot of flexibility on the backend to take chances like Browner does and we're not likely to get that in FA at this point. Not to mention that in Seattle they didn't worry much about covering over the top on Sherman's guy so they could lean toward the other side of the field. NE had Revis in that role. We have? I really don't see Willie Young transitioning well to an OLB role. He never had that flexibility to move well in space that I can recall and he's coming off an achilles injury that athletes say is one of the hardest to recover from and takes away a lot of your explosiveness on that leg. Having Gregory and McPhee is a good start to the OLB role and we'd have Washington, SMC, and maybe Jones (is he ILB or OLB?) competing for a spot as well.

Yes, there is a reason, they already have the pieces in place to fit a guy like Browner into their scheme. They can work around his short-comings and benefit from his strengths. We don't have any pieces in place on defense and so I prefer to find guys, young players, that are more versatile in their skill set. Once we get the safeties behind him and the pass rush in front of him to cover up his mistakes then if we want to grab a thumper at CB go ahead and do it. I don't want to take that chance with Brock Vereen back there and Jared Allen getting bear-hugged by a LT.

I think as fans we understand that but as I said in another thread I don't believe Gase came here to coach a bad team for 2-3 years. He was a HC candidate, a strong one, and 3 years on a bad team will put back behind the rest of the crowd. Then he'll need another 2-3 to make a name for himself again. I believe either they feel they can make it work well enough with Cutler at the helm or they have a good backup plan to get someone else that can at least be average.

Excellent All-22 film breakdown of McPhee's sacks last year. Gives good insight into his skills and how we can expect Fangio to use him all over the defensive front. http://chi.scout.com/story/1525345-all-22-...ell-mcphee?s=25

Rolle was a 4.6 guy when the Cards drafted him. I can't imagine he's anywhere close to that now and for a FS that's not good. He was a good tackler and smart about the game but at this point on his 3rd contract I prefer to get younger unless he's on a deal with a low cap hit with no long term committment for the Bears (i.e. easy to cut next year).

I don't like him. Just big and physical and that works great if you only need to cover for 2.5 seconds.

Not a good fit for where our D is headed but he's a good guy and I wish him the best.

If you are developing a QB it's usually because you don't have a good one. It's hard to be patient these days in the NFL. Plus, and I agree with this, a guy is going to learn best from playing. Maybe a year to learn and adjust to the offense but sooner than later you gotta hit the field to learn it. It's rare to see an Aaron Rodgers situation and that only happened because Favre retired 7 or 8 times.

That is true.