AZ54

Mason Foster is a good signing. He's not going to be an elite player for us but should fill a role at ILB that we really needed to take care especially with a draft short on ILB talent. Reportedly Foster can call the plays as well so that takes something off the plate of Bostic who really needs to just focus on his job, whatever that ends up being.

Vet min deals count less against the cap. This is done as an incentive to keep the veterans around. So a vet min salary of $800 might only count something like $650k against the cap. I know the cap discount increases with the years the vet has in the league, of course the vet min salary also increases with the years in the league.

Absolutely amazing these days to see people go over the deep end on a mere accusation. When in our society did we decide to give someone so much power over someone else's life by merely making a statement, some of which turn out to be lies? Take it all the way back to the Duke lacrosse case where everything was all lies including a District Attorney who has since been disbarred. So I don't like Gooddell's practice of suspending players at first "accusation". Complete an investigation and find that Ray Rice punched his wife (after she hit him a few times by the way) and then you suspend him. Clear evidence of AP abusing his son? Fine, suspend him. These days there dozens of men falsely accused rape on college campuses and the universities do not even give them a trial, no hearing to defend themselves, and just kick them out of school. Maybe there are a lot of people here who would like to be fired from their job, or kicked out of school, because someone walked into a police department and said they did x and x. I'm not one of them, I want a chance to defend myself in court. I'm also one of those crazy people that believes in 2nd chances in most situations. I know nothing of Ray McDonald except this below. He's paid a heavy price for two events that have led to zero charges against him. http://espn.go.com/chicago/nfl/story/_/id/...an-ray-mcdonald "McDonald was released by the San Francisco 49ers in December after law enforcement officials in San Jose, California, said he was under investigation on suspicion of sexual assault. McDonald hasn't been charged in that case, which remains open." "McDonald also was implicated in a domestic abuse case involving his fiancee last August. It was announced on Nov. 10 that he would not face charges in that case. The 49ers stood by him at that time."

I love that fan's quote after the Jets took Ken O'Brien: "Everybody said if Marino is there you take Marino. Obviously the Jets know something nobody else knows."

If anyone signs Michael Bush they are only going to expect (or hope) that he can run 4 yards while dragging a body or two. A guy like Felix Jones who built his game on using speed and now he doesn't have that has no other attribute to help him find work.

This scenario is very realistic and if it fell that way I like Beasley or White. I'm not enamored with any of our edge rushers on the roster and Beasley helps that immediately. White fills the void from the Marshall trade. My third choice is to reach a bit and grab Waynes because two good press corners will help the defensive front 7 and, perhaps more importantly, help our safeties quite a bit. (yes i include Fuller in that assessment). Cooper is a very good receiver who will help our offense but I don't think he'll be an elite WR. He is not exceptional going up on contested catches. OTOH White could be dominant, he can make the tough catch in traffic and i much prefer throwing to him in the red zone than Cooper, and I don't see his floor being much lower than Cooper's. I'll take the upside. Please don't take Collins at #7. I think with the Bears signing Rolle it makes this far less likely as there is no great need to give up a shot at a blue chip player just to fill a roster hole. I'll disagree with Terra on Gregory being too small and if he's there for us I like him as an OLB. He has the frame to get to 250lbs or more without losing a step and his movement in open space is exceptional as is his ability to get off blocks. He is not as fast off the snap as Beasley and Ray are but he may be the better player in space even if he didn't line up there in college. While he's not as quick off the snap he's better when the play comes right at him and I think he'll match up better with TEs in pass coverage than Beasley or Ray but that remains to be seen as it isn't on film. I don't like Fowler much either and I'm hopeful he'll be off the board before we pick (so somebody I like is still there). At least what I've seen in Fowler is a guy who just makes the easy plays but can't get through other players to create the exceptional play. Not enough bite in that dog for a top 10 pick IMO.

Good writeup, thanks for the link.

I know we need help at Safety but there is little talent in the draft this year. In other words I'm not subscribing to the Lovie/Angelo theory that you must draft a safety every year. If we don't trade down and grab one early (i.e. Collins), or one of the other mid-round talents, I really don't care that we draft a safety on day 3 just to fill a hole. I prefer to just stick with BPA and grab whatever talent falls to that round that fits our needs. If it happens to be a safety so be it but if not, I can live with another vet FA filling the backup role as a stop gap for 1 year. I don't think the depth on the roster would be any worse and might be better having someone with experience. We'll still have Vereen on the roster so there will still be one young player to develop. I'm sure there will be some other vet backups cut after the draft too.

I still don't like either of Petty and Hundley. Even in his Pro Day workout you can Petty's passes falling short and I don't like that lack of arm strength. His arm may be strong enough for the NFL but too often he throws the football 20 yards as if it only needs to go 20 yards so most of his passes tend not to have the velocity you need to see when coverage is tight. Hundley… If he reads NFL defenses like he reads college defense (Pac 12 isn't that stout of a defensive league either) then he'll fail.

Excellent post. Interesting point on the NT position. The question I haven't seen answered in the media (maybe I missed it on the board) is with the smaller NTs does that mean Fangio runs more of a 1-gap 3-4 as opposed to the traditional 2-gap setup with bigger Dline players? He did say he'll have a 4-3 alignment about 60% of the time (passing defense) so that might also be why he doesn't value the 2-gap NT. I think your point about Borland is valid as it relates to Perryman and Dawson although I think both those guys will be available in the 3rd Rd and there's no reason not to grab a higher rated player in Rd 2. Dawson wasn't in shape at the combine and has a lot of character questions. I like Perryman to fit in our 3-4 alignment and he can come off the field when we go 4-3. Fangio had a Hall of Fame caliber player in the middle of that D. We don't. We all know how our D looked when Urlacher was on/off the field. That type of LB

I'm not a fan of Scherff in the top 10. I do think our draft may be balanced between offense and defense but something we all should be considering is Kyle Long moving to LT. That puts Bushrod at RT where he should be more effective and leaves a big hole inside.

With a defense like ours having so many holes there are many ways you can go about fixing the defense. Obviously safety is going to be an issue for at least another year but hopefully it's serviceable this season. I think Fuller will be better this season than last and I've read where he's much better in press coverage than in zone (i.e. cover 2). Knowing that and adding another CB who is good in press coverage gives you two guys who can take away the outside, at least for a few seconds. That means the rest of the defense focuses on the inside game, including the safeties, and that should open up all sorts of options for zone blitzes. That reduces the need for an elite pass rusher off the edge. So I can see the argument for this but OTOH there is no Revis in this draft, quite the opposite actually to where some CBs might get drafter earlier than they should. My preference is still to grab one of the top edge rushers in the draft with #7 because those guys are more of a game changer than a CB. After that it's BPA and with all of our needs that could be NT, DE, CB, ILB. Among those positions at least one, if not two, are going to be left for next year to address, and we'll grab one of the FAs still hanging around as a stop gap. I can't rule out us taking a WR among the 1st four rounds and possibly a RB, and dare I say a RT. The Bears community has been silent on Mills this offseason but he was far from effective last year and there's no guarantee his foot holds up as those injuries can linger. We need more action in FA to address some of these needs.

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.