adam

He wore 96 at MSU, but van den Berg has that. 99 would be cool. 98+1.

This will have a ripple effect across the entire defense. It is getting a more disruptive All Pro level Akiem Hicks, cost controlled for 4 years.

Not trying to cope about the picks because thats all they are but the Bears already have two extra 1st rounders from the last 3 draft classes, Odunze was the extra pick in 2024 and Burden is ultimately an extra one from 2025, so those picks are already on the roster.

Simmons has experienced a 10-46 record over his last 56 games. In only two of those games did his offense score 30 or more points. In 37 of those games, his offense scored fewer than 20. 2022 was his last playoff game, had 3 sacks, 3 TFL, and 8 tackles, and the Titans lost 19-16.

Bears now with the #1 and #18 DTs in PRWR. Grady is also #2 in Run Stop Win Rate.

DT pass rush win rate rankingsRank Name Team Wins Plays PRWR DT% 1 Jeffery Simmons TEN 33 124 27% 84% 2 Maason Smith ATL 25 95 26% 85% 3 Brandon Dorlus ATL 22 84 26% 78% 4 Alim McNeill DET 37 146 25% 84% 5 DJ Reader NYG 16 71 23% 73% 6 Zach Allen DEN 26 134 19% 80% 7 Walter Nolen III AZ 15 81 19% 73% 8 Braden Fiske LAR 14 76 18% 78% 9 Osa Odighizuwa SF 22 120 18% 79% 10 Byron Murphy II SEA 19 108 18% 78% 11 Jonathan Allen CIN 17 97 18% 76% 12 Milton Williams NE 18 103 17% 79% 13 Calijah Kancey TB 15 86 17% 74% 14 Arik Armstead JAX 18 104 17% 81% 15 Dexter Lawrence II CIN 19 110 17% 88% 16 Moro Ojomo PHI 16 94 17% 80% 17 Leonard Williams SEA 16 95 17% 85% 18 Grady Jarrett CHI 19 116 16% 71% 19 Vita Vea TB 15 94 16% 81% 20 Calais Campbell BAL 15 96 16% 83%

Secondary effect? Simmons played two years with Sweat as MSU. Maybe that will motivate Sweat a little bit?

I can't even imagine where the Bears would be right now, if not for that play.

The Bears gave up a 2027 4th and got back a 2028 5th. For how bad the Titans are, even if they are a year apart, they will probably only be less than 20 picks away with the comp picks in between. I would not be surprised if they look for someone like Wright for a 7th or something like. He hasn't played for the Jets, hell the Jets may even give a pick back.

Also, this is a winning formula: we needed a defensive superstar. This reminds me of KC's run with a younger Mahomes w/ Reid as HC and Chris Jones on defense. The difference is the Bears have a younger core on offense. Coby Bryant hasn't even played a snap yet, the defense will get another boost with him.

There is not much difference between Pick #28-32 and #33-#36. 2x #30 picks equals #11. So the Bears ultimately traded Pick#10 for Simmons.

Simmons is 29, signed thru 2030. Currently the 3rd highest paid DT in the NFL.

and also this: "Houston Texans quarterback Davis Mills completed a dramatic 28-yard Hail Mary touchdown pass to tight end Jordan Akins on 4th and 20 with 50 seconds remaining against the Indianapolis Colts on January 8, 2023"

He requested the 49ers, nothing the Bears could do there. The Bears need to get Mack now. The DLine needs that energy. Mack with Sweat, with Booker rotating in is a pretty solid trio.

Absolutely, Caleb is such an anomaly. Also, his rookie year has really skewed his numbers. btw, he is now #1 in the NFL in QBR thru Week 7 at 79.6. Rookie Year 43.3, 2nd Year 58.2, now 79.6.

EPA/P is basically a wash: Bears Offense vs Seahawks Defense -0.19 at 21.8 pts per game Seahawks Offense vs Bears Defense -0.18 at 22.2 pts per game Considering the Bears stats are without Williams for 3+ games, the Bears should have the slight edge.

SEA is coming in as the 3pt favorites at home, which is an even game on a neutral field. Seattle's defense is stout, but they go about it a different way compared to MIN. SEA blitzes less than 20% of the time, they use 3 Safeties a lot. On offense, everything runs thru JSN who has been targeted 28 times in the last two games combined. This feels like a low scoring game, which means it will be close. I am going 23-20 Bears. As much as SEA looked dominant against KC, I am not sold on them just yet. They are 2-3 in their last 5. They lost to Mariota and the hapless Commanders and to Bo behind the Stix Nix, and barely beat the Chargers. btw, I can't believe it is Week 8 already.

Dayo's cap number probably keeps him around another year, but the other 3 would free up over $50M with about $17M in dead cap. At that point, they are worth more off the team than on it. Johnson $9M Dead / $16M Savings Sweat $4M Dead / $21M Savings Jarrett $4M Dead / $13.5M Savings

Yeah, 7-3 with 7 left. 4-3 the rest of the way is 11 wins. If they get to 8-2, then you are talking #1 Seed. The crazy part about the playoff path is, not that you try for it, but the easier path may be the 1st or 2nd Wild Card team because those two teams will play the winners of the NFC East and South, who are both pretty bad. Otherwise, the NFC North winner is also assuredly playing another NFC North team or SEA in the first round.

Yeah with him on IR and in the last year of his contract, there would be little benefit to an acquiring team.

Crazy how just a few years ago we would be looking at the Tankathon rankings to see how high a pick the Bears would get, and now it's their playoff odds. Through Week 7, the Bears have a 71% chance to make the playoffs, the 3rd highest in the NFC, only behind MIN and SF as the 5th Seed (best non-Division winner). They would play CAR if the season ended today. The 8th Seed right now is SEA. GB is the 7th Seed. The Bears just have to beat out one of them to make the playoffs, preferably both. GB owns the tie breaker right now. So the MNF game against SEA is huge.

I would take either of those guys. Buckner has 4.0 sacks, Mack has 3.0 (in one fewer game). Mack also just had a bye, so he will have some fresher legs, especially with another bye for the Bears coming up. Cap hit is going to be the biggest factor. From my own math, Mack would cost $4.89M to the acquiring team. Buckner would cost $7.94M. So both could be had under the Bears current cap. Since they would be taking a spot within the top 51 salaries, they would bump Loving off, reducing the new cap hit to the salary cap by 891K. The Bears have approximately $9.2M available, so Mack would cost about $4M to that number, leaving just over $5M on the cap. Buckner would cost $7.1M, leaving just over $2M on the cap. I don't know what performance bonuses are out there, and those have to be taken into consideration. So my assumption is Mack is way more realistic than Buckner unless the Bears are able to move a player on their top 51 who has cap savings if traded post-June-1. A Jaylon trade would be amazing. Save $15.5M on the cap, get Buckner and Mack AND save $4M in cap space.

In all fairness, I don't think KC was nearly as good as their record was coming into that game. Their last 4 games were against the Chargers, Raiders, Dolphins, and Colts. All terrible in their own way. Mahomes is a shell of his former self; Kelce is a HoFer, but past his prime, and once they committed to stopping the run, Walker had nowhere to go. SEA's entire offense is JSN. SEA has 4x 3pt wins. This was their first by more than a TD.