AZ54

YYEEESSS! I always had faith Pace could pull off this deal.

I was surprised at how little guaranteed money we gave McPhee relative the size of the overall contract. Pace may be trying to keep the guarantees lower but annual salaries higher so he has more flexibility in the future. OTOH Royal's contract went the other way.

First off, everyone is created differently and some can handle the rigors of a physical game like football. Borland could not for whatever reason, sometimes physical and sometimes it's more the mental aspect. It's not that uncommon for players to quit in their prime although most certainly go more than 1 year in the NFL before calling it quits.

Football is not a game you can play if your heart is not 100% into it. He apparently hasn't suffered many concussions but he has a fear of them and perhaps for a good reason. However, after he says all that he now wants to get into sports management. This is a big blow to the 49ers after losing Willis. For them the hits just keep on coming after Harbaugh left.

A former bust or a current bust? I had to look up who he was. Anyway I see this just as adding competition for the last roster spot, and at best someone who might replace Eben Britton or Ola on the roster.

I'm with you on this one. I think it's very important to shore up the ILB position before the draft. I can't watch another season of Bostic over-running plays.

Two things are clear: 1) They didn't like what they saw from Garza and 2) they didn't like what they saw from DeLaPuente. DLP was let go by Pace and Co. back when he was in New Orleans so not a shocker there. I can't say if Wisniewski or Satele are better run blockers or what they provide better than Garza/DLP but they clearly want a change at OC this offseason.

I was fully prepared for the complete overhaul of our roster after we gave away Brandon Marshall for next to nothing. I expected to see Cutler traded for little to no value as well as Forte. So far all we have done is a quick signing of McPhee to play OLB and some interest in signing veteran safeties. We've shown interest in a couple other players like C Wisniewski and ILB Mason Foster. Other than that we added Eddie Royal to the WR corps. This is not a complete overhaul of the roster. Reading this article on Royal had some interesting tidbits in particular this quote about Cutler: http://chicago.suntimes.com/bears-football...rting-ryan-pace ‘‘He liked the direction that the organization was going, and that meant a lot coming from the quarterback,’’ Royal said. ‘‘I needed to hear that from him. It was a lot of good things. I’m just anxious to get going and have a good year.’’ While the GM and coaches have been indifferent toward Cutler, that gives me the indication that Cutler has been comfortable in his role within the new organization for some time. Pace and Fox are clearly working a plan but it's not the plan I was expecting. It feels like more reshaping a roster versus a complete overhaul. I don't see desperation in FA either. If they can't get the players for their price they move on to the next option. For now it seems the decision to keep Cutler occurred much earlier in the process than we were led to believe. When discussing Pace, Royal said: ‘‘And the GM, Ryan Pace, is just amazing. His vision for the team and everything he has envisioned for the organization was exactly what I thought [about] a direction a team needed to be going in. It felt right.’’ I usually dismiss such hyperbole from FA who just got a huge contract guarantee but it seems there is a shorter term plan for success not the 3+ year plan I was expecting and Cutler is part of that.

If we go WR I prefer White over Cooper. After watching a few games of each White is better on contested catches (goes up strong and fights for the ball) and he's a much better blocker on run plays. Cooper blocks like a matador but he is a better route runner and has better hands although to be fair White has some amazing catches with players hanging on him.

Way too rich for my tastes for a somewhat unproven safety. I'm glad Pace is not over-paying (too much) just to get players here.

Washington could be a good fit as our rush OLB but it's hard to know how he'll handle playing in space. He might be better in this role than he was as a DE.

It's hard for me to get too excited for signing Parker. I think he'd be a good addition but his resume is very thin for $3mil/yr. Rob Housler would be a good addition at TE. He's done some good things out here in AZ.

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.