AZ54

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.

I don't consider myself among the smart people but here's where I'd go in FA. First off, though I tried to do some research I have no idea where to go to assess the market value for these players so it's a bit of a crap shoot. The draft is very weak in positions we need help with like Safety and ILB. So we go at those two positions in FA and take what the draft says we should take. FS: Devin McCourty $9 mil/yr (add the leadership on the backend of the defense that we haven't had since Mike Brown) SS: Rahim Moore $5mil/yr (and just like that I fixed the safety position) DT: Dan Williams $4 mil/yr run stuffing anchor for our new 3-4 D, let Paea walk in FA ILB: David Harris $4 mil/yr Leadership for the 3-4 LB corps that we need. TE: Virgil Green $1 mil/yr signing Zach Miller proves the Bears want a move TE on the roster so they bring in Green to compete for the spot. Green reportedly is a good blocker as well. CB: Patrick Robinson. $3 mil/yr I'd like to bring in Buster Skrine to play the slot and/or backup the outside position but he's going to get a big contract that we likely can't afford. Culliver makes a lot of sense here too given the connections to Fangio but he has some legal issues that have yet to be decided. I think Pace will prefer to stay away from that media circus in his first year especially on a large contract like the one Culliver will get. I still like Jennings although he clearly didn't like playing last year in Tucker's defense. I like Al Louis-Jean as a player to develop. We give Jennings one more year to show his worth before we move on. Pace brings in a former Saint's 1st Rd pick to add competition with ALJ to take over the starting job in 2016. That's $26mil in FA contracts, leaves room for rookie deals. I'm open to trading Brandon Marshall for a 3rd Rd pick too but less than that and he stays around. I said it before but Marshall is one of the best blocking WRs in the league and I want to run the football this year. If I did that trade I'd be taking another WR in Rd 3 but I don't think that would change the rest of my picks. Our WR depth last year was horrible. My Rd 4 and 6 players have the ability to develop into contributors on offense down the road but for now both are excellent on special teams and we need leadership there after Emery and Trestman let that decline. Draft….. Rd 1 OLB Randy Gregory Makes plays all over the field. Rd 2 OT TJ Clemmings he drops due to concerns over his inconsistency and Pace takes BPA. Clemmings starts at RT over Mills but is our LT of the future. Rd 3 ILB Denzel Perryman his slow forty time has him there for us in Rd 3. Instinctive player who knows how to get to the ball and let's players know when he arrives. Rd 4 WR Kenny Bell fast quick inside receiver, plays special teams both on coverage and can return kicks, blocks well, excellent locker room leader, just what the coach wants late in the draft. Rd 6 RB Karlos Williams big fast back but lacks instincts as he was a converted safety in college. With just 2 years as a RB he needs time to develop as a runner but has potential. While he learns how to be a RB in the NFL he already is an outstanding special teams player and that gets him a roster spot. Rd 7 OC Greg Mancz Great leadership, work ethic, how often do you see a C win league MVP honors? Coming off a knee injury so he's available late or UDFA but we take him here. Needs a year in the weight room to hit his potential but already is a sound technician as a blocker for both run and pass and he takes over for Garza in 2016.

I prefer to take the cap space and apply at all 3 levels of the defense and find our elite playmaker with pick #7. However, we aren't going to get 4 great players for the same money we'd spend for Suh. We might get 4 good players but it is the great players who make the difference on the field at the end of the day and those guys are hard to find. Suh can certainly play DE in a 3-4 alignment. Just imagine him at LDE and Shelton at NT. Are you going to double team both on running downs? Even on a passing down Shelton is going to walk a single Olineman back into the QB's face. Now you've taken the rest of your defense and they pretty much have to focus on the edge plays with one ILB to help the other DE. If we have Ferguson and Ratliff as DE/backup DE along with Sutton/Houston we have a very stout Dline. Keep Paea around to backup at NT as he has the strength for it or grab another guy out of FA that is a better fit for the role like Raji or, if you just want pure run stuffer, Dan Williams from AZ. With that setup you would be very comfortable bringing pressure with blitzes off the edges or even up the middle.

I agree.

No. He brings nothing to the roster we don't already have and he's not better than Brandon Marshall or Jeffrey.

While we are speculating what the new regime is going to do, we are also saying what they should do. However, I am extremely confident that in either case I will be wrong.

http://www.nfl.com/draft/2011/profiles/bru...rvin?id=2532871 245lbs and ran 4.5 forty.

I was looking at ILB prospects in this draft and there just isn't a lot of talent there. I like Perryman but he is not fast on the field in the two games I watched but seems to have good instincts and hits like a ton of bricks, we could use that inside. Reminds me a lot of Chris Borland last year although I think Borland was little quicker getting around blocks and Perryman is more physical. The lack of talent in the draft leads me to think we'll be aggressive on this position in FA. If Perryman is there in the 2nd Rd he could very well be our pick because after him the drop off becomes steep and I don't like McKinney because he reacts late to everything.

I think you missed the point here. At 235lb he is already one of the most productive and competitive players. Add 10-20lbs and he could be great.

He's probably better than our #4/5 WRs last year so he might be worth a look there but if he's looking to get back into a top 3 role on a team I'd say no. I really want to add some speed to our offense. Between Forte, Bennett, Marshall, Jeffrey, and Wilson, we have no real speed threat.

I always laugh at this when I think of how Green Bay's poor drafting causing them to have a $12mil cap hit for Julius Peppers this year. If we want to be like Green Bay we need to draft a top 5 QB. That covers up a lot of mistakes they've made. I still say Baltimore, with a "good" QB is the standard when it comes to reloading through the draft.

Based on what I saw at the combine I want Randy Gregory. He moves in space far better than I expected, better than Beasley, but he gets off blocks better than anyone else on this list. I don't care about the 235lb weight, he'll add 10-20lbs easily. You rarely find this line in player's draft profile: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players...0/randy-gregory "Gregory has the upside to rank among the NFL's most feared edge rushers if his current trajectory continues." 1a/b: Shane Ray or Vic Beasley and I'm not sure it matters which one. Ray is likely the more fluid athlete for coverage assignments and Beasley might be the better pass rusher right now but it's close in every aspect. I think Beasley and to a lesser extent perhaps Ray, will be the better pro in the first season or two over Gregory but if Gregory has the work ethic he'll be a stud on both run and pass plays for many years. I don't think we'll go wrong with any of the three. Beyond those guys players like Dupree will be good players for your roster but not difference makers. Dupree looks like the fast pass rusher who always gets pushed behind the QB. I don't see him getting off blocks, or around the edge the same way the top 3 do.

Nice post summarizing some good resources. I'll add that among all the available player draft profiles I like the ones I find on http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/prospec...rch?position=OT best.

I could see Colts going after D. Murray in FA and wouldn't be surprised to see them make this trade for BMarsh. Late 2nd Rd pick seems reasonable to me, not sure I'd want their late 3rd Rd pick or they'd have to toss in something else.

Don't see much on film that makes me think he's anything but a UDFA.

Nothing to lose on this deal.

Before I get into this, if the team decides Cutler is our best option I'm ok with that and I've long said that just cutting to get him off the roster is a bad move when there is so little talent available to replace him. Every now and then I hear that Tenn still has interest in Cutler. The question then would what is the deal? I'd give them Cutler, #7 and take their #2 and then draft Mariota. I think Mariota will be that good in a few years. Not saying he'll be elite, nobody can ever predict that, but his floor IMO is top 15 but most likely he'll end up a top 10 QB without the Cutler mistakes. That is the hardest piece of the puzzle to find on an NFL roster and if the opportunity is there you go for it. I watched the Michigan St. game where he was under pressure the entire game and he shows good decision making often taking the sack rather than risking a bad pass, and no fumbles. You see can him go through progressions and if he forces a ball into a tight area he puts it away from the defender where it can't be intercepted. It might not be caught but it definitely won't be intercepted. He's very accurate hitting guys in stride but can make plays on the run like Romo makes… but without the INTs. I've watched a lot of Oregon football games over the last 20 years and their QBs are usually 1 read and run players. Mariota is different. http://draftbreakdown.com/video/marcus-mar...-state-2014-2/-