DABEARSDABOMB

We will not get a comp pick, unless we pretty much sign no one. Comp picks are award for net losses in free agency and given the Bears cap space and the reports that we intend to be aggressive in the free agent space, I'd be shocked if we ended up with much any sort of comp pick for Alshon (since we would presumably be signing quite a few players vs. what we lose).

It could be that they value him, but know that the only real way they could potentially sign him to a deal that makes sense is by granting his wish to see what his market and give the Bears that final chance to accept an offer. Players always hate getting franchised so maybe this helps. I tend to agree that it is unlikely that we will sign him (if we couldn't work out a deal with him before...I doubt we do it now). That said, I'd have liked to have quite a few solid weapons to surround our new QB with.

I think this was a really bad move. Look, I understand not wanting to pay him, but if we reached that conclusion, we should have moved him so we could have at least maximized the value of an asset vs. letting them walk. We have massive cap space and certainly can't / shouldn't blow it all in one off-season, so worse case you franchise him this year, work to trade him during the off-season and in a worse case scenario where you can't trade him, you have enough room that his cap hit for this season won't hinder you from getting better, and you can look to move him in-season or let him walk at that point.

Front office only has themselves to blame. They were the ones that ignored the QB position each of the past two years.

He runs the bear report (blog) but has legitimate press credentials, etc. At least that is my understanding. So I will use the term "blog" loosely. He is actually from California so I don't know if he lives here and works remotely or what, but he is about as in-tune with the Bears as any reporter I've seen. Easily the best follow on twitter in terms of "insider" Bear info.

He is the bear report report and in general seems to have had about as good a read on what the Bears have been doing / are planning on doing as anyone in the media has had over the past couple of years.

In general...I like it.

LA radio seems to think he ends up here. I don't know if they would actually trade for him or if everyone presumes he will be cut. It seems to me that the Bears are not going to let this drag out with Jay...they are going to test his market now and at some point, probably sooner vs. later cut him. I think they believe it is the right thing in terms of how to handle their business with Jay (so that he has a fair chance to find another job). Biggest mistake we made was not dealing him a year ago. I think the front office knew he wasn't the long-term answer and while they had some belief in him short-term, we could have traded him at a high and went after the QB we wanted (they also obviously tried the year before when they wanted Mariotta).

Andrew Luck is a franchise QB. That said, outside of nitpicking on that, that list was absolutely interesting and insightful.

My nightmare offseason is an offseason where we do nothing to attempt to address the QB spot (i.e., attempt a real solution, not some if this 5th rounder works, we'll be destined for greatness strategy). Either trade for someone legit or draft someone we believe will be legit. If none of those are options, we should be after a vet FA we think is good or making an aggressive push at Cousins. We should be drafting / targeting QB until we get it right. I'm sick of consistently ignoring the position (with the exception of trading for cutler...that was not ignoring it, but the last couple years, that was ignoring it).

I like Mahomes, but definitely more risk related to him given the rawness and system he played in. Tools are there though.

Man...if cutler goes to Arizona and kicks ass under Arians, it will make the Trestman hire (over Arians) and even bigger disaster, haha.

Washington isn't just going to let him be a UFA. If Kirk makes a big stink and they are forced to trade him, they will trade him, and it will take multiple picks to get him, including at least one first rounder (probably multiple). If we want Kirk Cousins, the question I have for you is, are you okay giving up the #3 pick for him and then signing him to a big money deal? I think that ultimately is what it would take (ballpark wise) to get Cousins (and that assumes Washington doesn't finally commit and give him the big bucks). The next question is, how do you build a team around Cousins that can be a superbowl contender, because he isn't a QB at Rodgers / Brady type level and I can't ever see him being that guy. He is very good though and I think he has the skills to be a superbowl winning QB (that said, I do think he was in a really offensive friendly system with Gruden). I will point out his career high TD passes is 29 (two years ago) and he is kind of turnover prone. He had 12 picks and 9 fumbles this past year (only 3 fumbles lost). QB Rating this year and the previous year was very good (97 and just over 100) and he threw for a ton of yards this pats year (almost 5000). He was slightly worse this past year, but has demonstrated that last years performance wasn't a fluke. The thing that probably annoys me the most of this, is I wanted the Bears to draft Cousins when he was in the draft (thought he was the perfect guy to groom behind Jay and thought with time he'd be capable of being a good starting QB). Of course I've been wrong a million times too haha.

I agree.

I am all for Cousins. I don't think he's great, but he is good and I'm okay with good at this point. That said, I presume it is unrealistic unless Washington intends to let him be a UFA. Presumably, Washington will franchise him which means not only will we have to pay him mega money, we will also have to trade for him. I can't justify trading multiple picks plus giving him as much money as he wants (and I really don't see Washington giving him up for anything less then our #1 pick plus at least a future 2nd, if not a future 1st). If it was purely giving him a contract (and no draft pick exchange), Cousins would probably be at the top of my list.

Along with the other professional sports teams in Illinois (White Sox, Bulls, Hawks, & Cubs). I presume the independent franchises (and minor league teams) are also on board.

Don't live in Illinois so I don't follow this, but If I remember, a few years back, there was a lot of issues with the Saints when their owner was pushing some legislation that was anti-player? I don't remember how it ended, but there was a lot of bad press at the time.

Do we have 3 3rd round picks? I thought we had one, plus 2 4th rounders?

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/here-are...fls-qb-shuffle/ We know I'd be all for this move. I didn't post the excerpt, but evidently reports are the Jets have a very high grade on Jimmy G as well, but don't view him as a realistic option as the expectation is Pats wouldn't trade him within the division and would prefer to trade him outside of the conference.

I'd be game for Hooker...but again, I keep saying, if we aren't taking QB @ 3, we should trade down. Nothing is worth grabbing at 3 (given our needs, etc). I fully expect us to trade down, which will either mean we draft a QB there or we have the ammunition to move back up in the draft to ensure we get the QB later in the 1st or in the 2nd round.

I agree with you, that would be a fantastic draft. I'm not even going to ask how you got so many 2nd and 3rd round picks. Just absurd.

Agree with stinger. That said, he seemed like a pretty darn good coach. Wonder who we will hire to replace him.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I don't take dlineman that early in the draft who aren't projected to be pass rushing beasts.

This post is why I can't see any legitimate reason to let Alshon walk. I am okay trading him (for ideally a late 1st, but realistically, I'm open to a 2nd plus a future pick), but then we have a pick to help add other players. In terms of free agency, I am a fan of Terryl Prior. I saw enough to be okay with Meredith though, but we clearly can't rely on White. If it were me, if I had doubts on Alshon long term, I'd trade him...if I didn't have doubts, I'd sign him long-term. I can't let him walk because we are already in too much of a bind. Me personally, I'd keep him (because I tend to think he's a pretty damn good wideout) and in the context of our cap situation, we can afford to do it and thus focus on other things.

The more I think of it, if someone put a gun to my head and said we couldn't trade down and we weren't drafting a QB, I'm going safety. Hooker would be that guy for me. Heard an interesting interview from someone (not sure who it was) earlier today talking about Deshaun Watson and he basically said, if he were running the front office, Watson would be the first guy taken. Said you shouldn't get cute with QB. You can say everything you want about Watson, but in the biggest games in college football, he went against the closest thing to an NFL defense (in college) and dominated both games (only one was a victory). Said the guy is unphazed and just has a special knack for big stages, etc. Of course, I suppose people could have said that about Tim Tebow too...although Watson clearly can throw a football. Basically his thoughts were, you have all kind of film of him dominating top teams that you shouldn't get too cute or two worked up in the semantics of the film, where people tend to over analyze, etc.