AZ54

He's ok, fills a need and will bring stability to the new system. Knowing all the OLB talent early in the draft, pursuing him early in FA makes me think we are a little more serious about using our 1st Rd pick for a QB. Feels like we have hedged our bet a bit with this signing.

I'm pretty sure we could make a list like that for any conference. Mannion is at best a 3rd Rd pick, maybe a 4th-5th Rd. I don't have any problem taking a guy to try to develop but if you take that guy in Rd 1 you are betting on that working out. I just don't like some prospects like Hundley because I never see him reading defenses well. Petty puts too many throws in the dirt for my tastes.

Then let's say hello to Dan Williams. If nothing else this indicates we are not looking to overspend for a player.

I know I'm interested in Mariota. It seems the Bears are too. http://chicago.suntimes.com/bears-football...ing-many-levels

I still like him as a prospect to develop. Bucky Brooks has him listed as the 5th best QB prospect but more often I've seen him listed as a 5th or 6th Rd pick. I think he'll go earlier than that. http://www.nfl.com/now/share?id=b8a84934-a...d1-138c9ee5f566 http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players...84/sean-mannion

I find that hard to believe. Kaep wasn't very good last year and with his mechanics it's hard to say if he'll ever put it all together but who else are they going with unless they really are interested in a Cutler/Kaep trade.

I liked Reed when he was at Arizona, haven't seen much of him in the NFL. He is a limited player in terms of athletic ability but he's a good football player. Mason Foster seems like an ideal fit for what we need on our roster: Smart, leadership on the field and locker room, and a good downhill tackler. I'd be pushing hard to sign him.

Wow, amazed they paid that much for a safety. Definitely not the Belichick way.

I like him as a backup or if we end up with a rookie QB, and I'm only talking about Mariota here because I don't like any of the others and Winston is unachievable, then as a stop-gap starter.

Gregory and Ray are the studs and Fowler and Beasley are average.

Sometimes guys do take less money to stay with their current team. We all know FA players have their agents test the waters and find out what teams are considering signing him for. It's not a hard and fast contract deal but they'll toss out terms such as "we want to be around 4/15. Bears might say thanks but no thanks. If teams are willing to play in the same neighborhood then they agree to talk on opening day of FA. In this case, Ingram's agent might have found out nobody was that interested in giving him a $20mil deal for 4 years. The Saints may have upped their offer a bit and come in close to what the agent feels is market value and he signs early. The worst thing that can happen to a FA like Igram is that he gets little interest early in FA because his asking price is too high and he sits at home for 2 weeks while all the big money contracts are signed.

Because they aren't good QBs. Just my opinion but I've never liked Hundley in the last two seasons. Petty doesn't have the arm and might as well stick with Fales (similar skillset) before I take him.

FS. If Peanut has to stay in the box taking hits on RB too often he definitely won't make it through the season.

I wasn't that high on Ingram anyway and to keep him around before he tested FA they likely paid him very well. The position we most need to fill via FA is safety.

What Kyle Long said publicly regarding Marshall is what he should have said. What he said behind closed doors might be different. That doesn't mean they are mutually exclusive (i.e. he's lying about what he tweeted). While he respects a guy he might be wise enough to see that what he was doing did have a negative affect across the locker room. I love my kids but that doesn't mean I love everything they've done. As for Martellus... he has his own drummer but again Marshall does have some good qualities and Bennett respects that about him. He may ignore or dismiss the other issues for whatever reason.

http://chi.scout.com/story/1524412-bears-h...wn-rebuild?s=25 Marshall is gone and Cutler and Forte are on the trade block and the whole world knows it. Giving away Marshall for a mere 5th RD pick means we want to move on now and we'll just about pay you to take our players and their big contracts away from us. This much cap space puts anyone in FA in play and this is the best FA year in a long time, maybe ever. If you are going to go all in like this to remake a roster now is definitely the time to do it.

I don't like the deal. That said I also don't know the plan. Giving away Marshall for a mere 5th Rd pick means we are clearly moving on in all aspects. I expect we'll give away Cutler and Forte too. Knowing that just what can you do with $55 million dollars in Free Agency? Knowing that what is the plan at QB? Pace might have time but there is no way Fox, Fangio, and especially Gase came here to see their careers languish behind a QB who can't play. Gase for one has HC ambitions and almost got there this past offseason. Bridges with players like Forte, Cutler are already burned so we've shown our hand and we're all in. Revamping the team in the NFL always starts best with the most important piece and that's a QB. I don't believe these guys plan on having a top 10 pick for 2 or 3 years in a row hoping one of those years we get the right QB. Clausen only signed a 1yr deal so he is not the answer. Mariota? Could we trade Cutler to the Titans and swap picks in the 1st Rd and then draft Mariota? If that came to pass, along with $55mil in FA, we'd have a brand new team in just one offseason. Whisenhunt went a long way with an emotionally battered QB in Kurt Warner. For those who say that Warner is a HoF player don't forget how his stint with the Rams and NY Giants ended. Don't forget how he struggled for several years in AZ to beat out Matt Leinert but eventually, 3 years later, winning a starting job. His record in the Superbowl season was just 9-7. Warner's INTs were usually among league leaders and there were plenty of arguments on the sidelines between Warner and then OC Todd Haley. All I'm saying is Whisenhunt managed to put that all together and make it work then later he traded for Kevin Kolb and lost his job. He might prefer the devil he knows best in Culter over an untested rookie QB. Nobody who saw Mettenberger play last year could think he's their long term answer and sitting at #2 is a rare opportunity. Whisenhunt still gets an elite defensive player at #7 something no team (like the Eagles) can offer late in the 1st Rd. If not Mariota then who? I don't view Hundley or Petty as good options, I suppose I could be wrong. We've already seen Cassell traded so we passed on that option. There are no obvious FA answers and I can't think of another backup out there that would be worth prying away from someone.

This is very early morning news so it was done last night. The fact he hasn't done something already indicates he'll take the high road. The media circus is largely centered around Marshall being a bad influence in the locker room, and I think that is over-rated for a guy who invited so many offensive players down to his place to train last summer. I think Briggs was far worse starting with him coming to camp out of shape, sleeping through meetings, and otherwise not giving a damn about the team. Tell me which of the young LBs he helped in the offseason? Every GM out there knows all this too. If Briggs has any desire to add one more year on his career, and he says he does, being a malcontent with the Bears cutting him after all these years (and all that money) is not going to help him land a spot with a new team. He knows Urlacher never got another offer after he left too so that's on his mind as well. Then again this is Briggs we're talking about so we'll see.

Who are you talking about? Palmer? I have zero interest in Carson Palmer. I see him as worse than Cutler and nearly as expensive and so do the Cards fan I talk to at work. I have little interest in a trade for Bradford. I'd stick with the Devil I know and work on finding a long term solution via the draft. Now if Bradford renegotiated with us as part of the trade at a very low cap hit say $8mil/yr with incentives to $10mil/yr I'd make the deal only because I'd take the extra cap space but I'd still keep looking for the long term solution via the draft.

Dan Williams who is also much younger than Wilfork.

Cardinals fans I know would take Cutler over Palmer ...and be very happy.

I saw this too. Each and every player and former player on that stage said Marshall is still one of the best WR in the league. Articles about him not even being a top 16 WR are just BS from writers who need to stir the pot to get people to read what they write, or they are just too lazy to do research, or to actually get to know a guy, so they just repeat what they see elsewhere on the internet. I trust my eyes and the guy who made that amazing TD catch against the 49ers on a bad ankle still has my vote to stay here. However, I think this is more about clearing cap space and re-balancing the roster long term. If you are rebuilding the team Marshall is not a big part of your 3-4 year plan. Jeffrey likely is and we'll need to pay him very soon plus as we've said many times, Jeffrey and Marshall have similar skillsets. Marshall's value will never be higher than it is right now largely due to his age. When Marshall was out our WRs were pretty bad last year. Even Jeffrey took a step back. This trade talk means the coaches must feel they'll be able to get more out of Wilson than we did last year or they've targeted someone in FA that can be a good player for us. A quick survey of the scene means that we will go after guys like Cobb but I don't see us giving him $10mil over Marshall. I think the target might be Torrey Smith from Baltimore. Marshall has a $10mil cap hit and Cobb is generating all the noise as the "best" FA WR so he'll get a big deal. I always like to stay one level back in FA where the value is better IMO. I'd guess Smith will get a deal worth around $7-8mil/yr,(he turned down 5/35 from Ravens), so we'd have some cap space and (hopefully) a 3rd Rd pick. Smith nor Jeffrey are true #1 WRs but they are really good 2's IMO and I think that combination for us would be very good on the field. Smith is only 26 so we'd have our WR corps for the next 4-5 years. Then you have a quick guy like Wilson in the slot where I think he can play and we add one more to compete with Wilson via the draft with that pick we got.

This one has "let's see if we can get something from Chicago" written all over it. I'd sit this one out a bit and see where it goes. By the time a team is openly asking for a 6th or 7th Rd pick they are getting desperate and this is just before they cut the guy. For those citing how good Wlhoite was remember, Fangio was part of the decision to draft Borland to replace him. The 49ers need cap space so something has to give and they've already said he's going. Wait for it.

The NFL is full of elite athletes. It is not full of elite players. I think McCoy is an elite player so I don't buy the "easily replaceable" part because the draft has good talent at RB. Maybe the Eagles are better with the combination of Alonso and other players they gain from the cap space. But…it's a gamble and doing this two years in a row now has the entire locker room nervous about who is next and when. McCoy's issues with Kelly go back to last season when he started getting less playing time. Why I don't know but it had to be a large part of why McCoy refused to renengotiate with Kelly.

At this point Chip has upset one of his best players, McCoy. That's also the kind of thing (not rewarding your own players, loyalty, etc.) the rest of the players notice especially after the way he unceremoniously dumped Desean Jackson last season. It's going to be hard to put this genie back in the bottle if it doesn't go through and regardless this will have ramifications for their team this season. Do you think a veteran who is injured is likely to play through the pain knowing the organization won't appreciate that and will just trade him or cut him anyway? At some point guys start worrying more about their next job than the current one. Of course that's always a reality on any roster but with star players, if they can't do enough to earn loyalty, then the message is clear that nobody can. We still talk about Urlacher's last offer from Emery and how that impacted the Bears' locker room. Imagine what is going on in Philly today.