adam

That is an interesting thought. If they did that, the Safety position would be stacked with salary though with 2 guys both making a lot of money. I was hoping they would continue to be balanced and have a position group with a bigger contract, rookie deal, and then a mix of other lower level guys. If you look throughout the roster, that at least seems to be the trend.

Enter Sanman!

Nothing more than 90-man roster depth it seems.

Smith at CB as well. Crazy how Wright would've been CB5, and ended up being CB2 all year.

Yeah that is true, Raymond does replace Duvernay on Punt Returns (I should've added that to Duvernay's comment) but based on offensive snap counts, Raymond was closer to Oz than Duvernay on offense, and Duvernay was more of a Core Special Teamer than Raymond was outside of Punt Return duties. Between Raymond and <insert new WR> will fill all the roles of Oz and Duvernay.

Yeah, they can nail it if they can get a playmaker at Edge, DT, and Safety in this draft with 3 out of the 4 top picks.

Positional value vs cap hit. Safety and Off-ball LB are cheaper in free agency than other position groups. So you can get quality for a cheaper total cost. Edge, WR, OT, and CB are the worst positions to spend on in free agency. Could be a coincidence, but I would like to think it is part of the plan.

Comparing the Bears roster to the rest of the league by position group, they only have 5 players in the top 10 at their position in terms of AAV, Thuney, Jonah Jackson, Kmet, Odeyingbo (as Edge2), and Gordon (as Slot CB). Technically, Gordon is the highest-paid Bears player in relation to the rest of the NFL as the 2nd highest paid Slot CB. Odeyingbo is the next as the 3rd highest Edge2, then Thuney at 7, Jackson and Kmet at 8. Gordon's is the only deal that will be that high for another few years. Odeyingbo will be gone next year, and all the rest will slide out of the top 10 with other players getting new deals. My assumption is Darnell Wright will get added to the top 10 in the next year, but Dexter or Stevenson are not getting extensions, so the next group is Williams and Odunze after that, but that won't be for at least another year or two. OFFENSE: QB - 20th RB - 18th WR - None in top 32 <insert eyeballs> TE - T-8th LT - 26th LG - 7th OC - T-15th RG - 8th RT - 22nd DEFENSE: EDGE - 14th, T-25th (Edge2 - 3rd) DT - 23rd, 50th (DT2 - 18th) LB - T-17th, T-17th CB - 12th, 23rd (Slot CB - 2nd) S - 13th Outside of Gordon and Slot CB, the Bears have not committed a significantly higher percentage of cap to one position than the rest of the league. In reality, the roster is pretty well balanced.

All Social Media is a cesspool of hate. Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter all say the same thing. They wanted the Bears to sign Linderbaum and Hendrickson, and anything less would've been a failure. In reality, signing free agents from the lower cap hit positional groups is smarter money. You get more bang for your buck that way.

I don't mind that the Bears are being modest with their free agent acquisitions this year. They were one play from the NFCC, had a ton of injuries, and most of their offseason losses (snap-wise) were on the defensive side of the ball, where they need upgrades anyway. Also, just like every other year, there have been some outrageous deals going out. Jaelan Phillips led all free agents with $30M AAV and had 2 sacks in 8 games for PHI. Pierce resigned with the Colts but still got $28.5M, which is crazy high for a WR2. Hendrickson got $28M and Lindenbaum got $27M. Rarely do signings like that work out in the long run. Of the 15 teams that signed a new player with a higher AAV than Bryant, (CAR, BAL, LVR, WAS, MIA, TEN, CIN, LAR, NE, CLE, NO, BUF, KC, SF, and NYG), only 4, BUF, SF, NE, and LAR had a winning record last year. BUF signed Chubb, SF signed Evans, LAR signed Watson, and NE signed Doubs and Vera-Tucker. None of those are earth-shattering moves. So I like the Bears approach so far. Safety was a gaping hole, and the filled one spot with an upgrade. Cutting Edmunds created another hole that was filled by Bush. Those are good moves and what I feel are low risk compared to moves in the past.

So the BLUF is, there really aren't huge holes to fill. This team was one play away from the NFCC, and has been adding team speed on defense to make it less reliant on the takeaway. Safety seems like the only spot that they would be drafting to fill a hole. The rest can be BPA focused on DT and Edge.

With the unexpected retirement of Dalman, the Bears lost 5 of their top 9 players in snap count, and 6 out of the top 11. Those 6 were all starters. Then they also lost what I would call 4 key contributors, players with a significant number of snaps. Here is a quick rundown of the losses and gains so far and how I think they will address them: ADD/SUB LIST STARTERS: 1. C Drew Dalman (1154+15) >>> C Garrett Bradbury. On paper, a downgrade, but it may actually be a pass pro upgrade and run block downgrade) 2. S Jaquan Brisker (1072+90) >>> With the biggest contract put into Bryant, I assume they draft a Safety in the first 3 rounds and sign a vet or two to league minimum deals to compete. 3. S Kevin Byard (1071+1) >>> S Coby Bryant, biggest FA acquisition, is an all-around upgrade as Bryant is more versatile than Byard and Brisker. 4. CB Nahshon Wright (1041+18) >>> (Stevenson, Smith, Frazier) This hole will be filled from within. That's why they have Al Harris. 5. WR DJ Moore (979+2) >>> (Odunze+200, Burden+400, Walker+100) Odunze missed a lot of time, Burden didn't get going until late, and Walker probably gets more snaps to fill these snaps. If Burden gets the bulk of these snaps and targets, the offense will be more efficient. If anything, they bring in a vet minimum guy, which there are a ton (Josh Reynolds - played with Johnson, Gabe Davis, Zay Jones, etc.) 6. LB Tremaine Edmunds (813+11) >>> LB Devin Bush. Clear upgrade, Edmunds played small, Bush plays big and fast. Teams won't be able to get those easy 5 yards per carry anymore as Bush fills the hole much quicker and can recover better than Edmunds. Edmunds was like a tall tackling dummy. ---------------------------------------------------- KEY CONTRIBUTORS: 7. DT Andrew Billings (511+72) >>> DT Neville Gallimore. Billings was terrible in 2025; almost anyone will be an upgrade here. 8. WR Olamide Zacchaeus (580+2) >>> WR Kalif Raymond. Raymond's familiarity with Johnson's offense and top-notch PR ability make this a really nice depth signing. 9. CB Nick McCloud (436+143) >>> CB Cam Lewis. Just like Billings, anyone replacing McCloud will be an upgrade, besides Kindle Vildor. 10. DB Chauncey Gardner-Johnson (565+10) >>> (Gordon, Lewis). I think Gordon and Lewis take most of these snaps. They will still add a vet min guy too. ---------------------------------------------------- OTHERS: 11. TE Durham Smythe (293+230) >>> 12. DE Dominique Robinson (215+161) >>> 13. S Jonathan Owens (47+264) >>> 14. WR/KR Devin Duvernay (40+209) >>> 15. DT Chris Williams (219+20) >>> DL Kentavious Street

I had so many great thoughts that I couldn't post lol.

Supposedly the Colts had an offer on the table for Hendricks and once the Baltimore opp popped up, he took it. So they may be in the worst position because at least the Raiders have Crosby still. The Colts have neither.

He rarely puts out insider info, so it will be interesting to watch.

It's crazy that the Ravens can get away with those types of shenanigans, but the Bears can't even get comp picks they are entitled to for doing the right thing.

Wild news, especially with all the other teams making moves around this. Ravens probably sign Hendricks. Price tag can't be 2x firsts anymore, can it?

Another solid depth piece, looks to fill the McCloud role (who was burnt way too much when he was on the field), so this may be bigger upgrade than face value.

I saw a post about free agents, only 5% make the Pro Bowl on their new team. Free agency is mainly used to get quality starters, fill holes, and improve depth. Trades and drafting and developing are the ways to get your true blue chippers. Those guys rarely hit the market, they are resigned or traded.

Seems like a lower-end depth piece. Played a year with DA in 2022 in NO, so there is some inside knowledge on what he brings.

Gallimore is taking Billings spot who clearly lost a step or two and some strength.

The Bears came into today with starter needs at LT, DT, Edge, LB, and 2x Safety. At worst, they addressed LB and one Safety, have placeholders in at LT and DT, leaving Edge and the other Safety spots left to address. It feels like DT and Edge will be addressed in 2 of the top 3 picks. Safety by the 4th round.

A pretty low risk move. The Bears know exactly what they have and understand his health better than anyone.

Decker just officially got released. That move makes too much sense given his knowledge of the offense and Ben Johnson. If they can get Decker for a reasonable price, while Center got cheaper, that would be great.

Damn Courtney Cronin, she just lost any remaining respect I had for her. I don't know why, out of the blue she had to start mentioning that she would bet that the Bears will get comp picks, when no one else in the league or media did or said anything that would lead you to that conclusion.