AZ54

This would be a very good weekend for the Bears.

Start here with Kenyon Green: https://thedraftnetwork.com/player/kenyon-green/lxQlSlOZ7v

Poles is still a novice at this game. As Mike Tyson famously said "everyone has a plan 'til they get punched in the mouth". Pace got punched on the Kevin White and then Trubisky deals and never recovered. Early on as a GM he said he'd spend carefully in FA and build through the draft. After those two seasons he spent the next few years getting increasingly desperate and tried to buy success. Fortunately his desperation landed us Fields which, after all those years of Nagy, was a reasonable parting gift. I imagine Poles didn't value Bates as highly as some here might or he'd have offered more. I'm ok if he sticks to his guns but it seems to me he should have been more creative on the contract and perhaps bend on his 2023 cap space plan to make that happen. What we know: OC is a big time target for him. That doesn't necessarily change with the addition of Patrick for 2 seasons. Is that Poles just overpaying for a career backup, or is Poles saying here's a 2yr deal where you are likely to be the starter. If you play well, you'll get another bigger deal here or somewhere else. Go earn it. Patrick seems to be the type of player we wanted to see from Mustipher so I'm not expecting great things. I do believe his background with Getsy will help the Oline transition to the new scheme. Missing on Allen, letting Daniels walk, then settling for Patrick puts a little more pressure to put a good OG next to Patrick. I don't think Whitehair nor Borom fit what he's looking for but that could be totally off-base since he's been going after backup players like Bates rather than starters. Bates seemed more like a bid to bring in competition and depth vs. a sure starter while still leaving room for a talented rookie OG to start if he get lucky enough for them to drop to him. The rumors have still been quiet even after Poles got hit in the mouth a couple times on his Oline plan. Surely there is more to come but I don't sense that he's panicked yet.

Andy Dalton just signed with New Orleans. Most importantly is there are no FA QBs so if there is going to be discussion on a Foles trade it will heat up now. I still expect this might be a post-draft trade. https://www.nfl.com/news/saints-signing-qb-andy-dalton-to-back-up-jameis-winston

I think everyone here recognizes the fact we can't fix all these holes in one offseason. The concern is are we getting enough of the right players around Fields so he can continue to improve. That's not to say the offense has to be a finished product in 2022 but at least should be functional. After years of Nagy do we even know what a functional offense looks like?

I suspect this includes practice squad players and with the increased size of that NFL (16 now?) that's not too hard to hit. That's 21 players out of 69 rostered. Perhaps good teams have less but I expect they struggle to keep drafted players stashed on the practice squad. They also tend to have less cap space making them more likely to seek lower cost solutions for the bottom of their roster. We might be ok to pay DHC $1.7mil/yr to play special teams. The Rams might have no choice but to spend $500k-$700k on a UDFA, or former UDFA for that role.

Why are they available? IIRC Shenault was a pretty good athlete and had a fair amount of draft chatter about his potential. There are either injury concerns or he can't learn how to run routes neither of which interest me.

Unless his price comes way down I'm not interested in Honey Badger. He's been more name than game in recent years and I don't see that trend turning around at his age.

The jury is still out of course but the clear-cutting of the roster dead weight and others like Mack indicates a willingness to go in a new direction with a target of being competitive toward 2023/24. Overall it's the right direction but this draft and the UDFA signings afterward will give us a good indication if we have the right people in charge. I see the discussion on trading back and getting more picks but I'm more concerned with drafting 2 more of those 14 players we need to compete rather than just filling in the roster with depth players. Rosters that finish 8 and 8 don't do much for me but give false hope. I included UDFAs because Pace was always able to find 1 or 2 bottom of the roster players who could develop into contribute. Players like Bars, Mustipher, Nall (special teams) are prime examples as backups. We need that trend to continue or ideally get better.

There has to be a deal on the table for Foles . He is a good mentor for a team intending to draft a QB. I would not be surprised if we eat some of the contract money in order to get a better draft pick. I haven’t kept up with the QB needy teams so I have no idea who that might be.

Or if he lost out on signing another player. However at this point it doesn’t appear to have affected any possible deals. The only other big offer we had was for Brian Allen and he took less money to stay in LA.

I don’t want any of those WR.

I just ran a draft at TDN. Now I'm thinking even if KC and GB take WRs they really are just replacing the WR picks the Raiders and Dolphins were likely to make. So I'm not sure we'll see and additional 2 WRs taken over what would have happened without these trades. Regardless, at 39 on the board I still have Skyy Moore who has climbed way out of Rd 3/4 to a top 40 ranking, and Watson. Watson is raw coming out of ND State but he has all the tools you want in a WR. We just need some patience with him to develop. For that matter it's the same for Moore who played at Western Michigan. You just don't know how they will handle NFL DBs. For teams that are looking to compete now (KC/GB) they are likely to prefer one of top 6 WRs mentioned which means it forces them into a 1st Rd pick. Other teams know this so despite the deep talent at WR in this draft, this now appears to be a case where the 1st Rd horse trading becomes interesting as teams try to jump ahead of each other for their WR. There's no reason to think they won't use those extra picks they earned in the trades to complete a draft day move up.

That I agree with.

There are too many good WRs even deeper into the draft. If there is a big run late in the 1st Rd that just means we're more likely to get a stud defensive player or even Oline drop to us. We have too many holes to be thinking it's all going to get better this year. We don't need a QB and we don't need a RB so just get the best players.

This feels like Bars replacement...at best. Perhaps his skills fit our scheme better than the Vikings so he has a chance at being a backup. There's going to be a whole bunch of the "who dat?" signings.

Tyreek Hill is going to love living in Miami. Maybe a little too much. I'm really surprised the Chiefs would do this. They are in a very clear Superbowl window and while the compensation is nice, Tyreek Hill was that rare talent that really opened up defenses. They have added other speed receivers but that's not the same as his quickness in/out of cuts. From a compensation viewpoint they did great. I wouldn't be surprised to see them draft Skyy Moore to replace him.

Yes GB go get him. He has a $22mil cap hit this year even though they only have $20mil in cap space right now. If you make any trade you'll likely want to extend his contract which will be a deal similar to what Adams just received which came in around $28mil/yr.

Of the two backup S DHC was the right one to keep. Bush played better last year but he was still often to slow to react. Of course Eddie Jackson was making everyone look better.

Seems he got 5/$75mil with incentives up to $87.5mil. How much those incentives are likely to be earned? We'll have to wait for details but I'd guess he can easily reach $80mil. We don't need to take that risk for what likely amounts to $17.5mil/yr for a guy who is going to be 31. There's no reason to think his injury issues will get better with more money and more age.

Interesting news on Foles.

Reading the quotes from Poles regarding all the FAs he's signed and he had something positive to say about each of them and what they bring to the game. For example: DE Al-Quadin Muhammad “Quan represents the play style coach Eberflus wants our entire team to have,” Poles said. “His motor and desire to affect the game stands out. We are excited to have him. We would like to thank Drew Rosenhaus at Rosenhaus Sports for helping bring him to Chicago.” Then he got to St. Brown: “We are excited to make Equanimeous St. Brown the newest Bear,” Poles said. “We would like to thank Joby Branion at Vanguard Sports for helping bring him to Chicago.” IMO that more than a little damning. This signing feels more like St. Brown wanted to follow Getsy here and get another shot to revive his career. He was willing to sign early to do so although he may not have had any offers down the road. For Poles it was street FA signing with little to no risk and he certainly isn't very enthusiastic about it.

So you don't want to trade 3 first round picks for a QB who missed a season, and then turn around and give him $230mil guaranteed?

Buffalo just ate up a bunch of cap space, at least in the future. Von Miller has a mere $5mil hit this year and it appears they have $7mil left which used to be a typical rookie pool. They are all-in on Super Bowl this year. We could poison pill Bates contract heavy this year with $6mil bonus/guarantees, then $2mil next year. I don't know if Poles would want to do that given the tight budget we have.

I don't think he has great "hands" and there aren't many contested catches in his highlights but considering the $ difference this is a good deal for the Bears.