adam

Yeah, it's insane really. I heard a good review on Stroud, who has similar traits and performance as Fields did. The knock on him is the offense he was in looks great with a lot of time and great receivers, but in the NFL, that type of intermediate to deep style just doesn't work effectively enough to be sustainable. I just hope Fields is like other QBs that came out of those situations and figured it out. the concern is most of them don't.

That's pretty funny. I always found it interesting how many signs were in English in foreign countries where English wasn't the first (or even second) language.

Looking at all these cap numbers, I noticed a few things. Fields makes HALF of what Lawrence, Wilson, and Lance make due to where he was drafted. Fields full contract was $18.8M, Wilson's was $35.1M, that is crazy. No wonder Lamar Jackson wants a new deal, he has only made $32M for his first 5 seasons, with an MVP season in there. Jalen Hurts total earnings thru this year: $4.1M which includes a cap hit of only $1.6M for this season. For the Super Bowl, these are two totally different constructed teams. The Eagles have $34M more money in non-QBs than the Chiefs roster. With the Bears cap situation, and where Fields is in his rookie deal, there should be zero excuses as the Bears can field one of the most expensive rosters in the league excluding QB. Side Note - If for some reason Fields is not the guy and doesn't take the next step as a passer, the Bears QB history since 2017 could look like this: 2017 - Passes up arguably one of the best QBs in the history of the game (Mahomes), while also trading up for no reason to draft Trubisky - insert Clown Face 2018 - Since Bears have Trubisky, they draft Roquan Smith, who is no longer on the team, and pass on Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. 2019 - Due to Khalil Mack trade, Bears do not have 1st rounder, and still think Trubisky can go from 101 to 201. False hope season. 2020 - Bears realize they are stuck with Trubisky, and that he is not the guy, but due to the Mack trade, the Bears do not have 1st rounder again, miss on Justin Herbert in the 1st, draft Cole Kmet in the 2nd, and 10 picks later Jalen Hurts gets drafted. 2021 - Bears trade up to draft Justin Fields, giving up a 2022 1st. 2022 - Due to Justin Fields trade, Bears don't have a 1st Rounder 2023 - Bears trade #1 pick, another team trades up and drafts a QB that becomes better than Fields. That would be a sad 6 year run with 3 huge misses at QB.

Oh yeah, for sure. I assume they put DEs with DL and OLBs with the LB.

They really need to break it down by Edge, IDL, and LB. So OLine, DLine, and Secondary, then WR, LB, TE, then RB.

They don't even show him in Denver colors because he wasn't there long enough.

From the article at OTC, it is basically for all the performance bonuses that hit during 2022. Those carry over into 2023 since they are not awarded until they are met. So if a guy gets a $1M bonus for Pro Bowl selection, that doesn't count in the 2022 cap because it won't be awarded until well into the season. If that hits, the $1M has to be accounted for in the cap number for the next year. Signing bonuses are spread over all the years, workout bonuses apply to current year, and performance bonuses apply to the following year.

My guess is 5-6 top end FAs this offseason. 2-3 on D-Line (Payne, Ngakoue, Jones/Allen), at least one on O-Line (McGary-RT), then maybe a CB (Dean) or LB (Long), TE (Engram) or WR (Meyers). Then at least one trade back to pick up an extra 1st in 2024 and a 2nd rounder in 2023. 4 picks in the first 64 picks. That would be close to 10 new impact players in one offseason. It is hard to fathom.

The Bears could sign Payne, Ngakoue, and someone like Dre'Mont Jones or Zach Allen at DT and still have the most cap space. That would be an elite D-Line. Then you rotate Gipson and Robinson in at Edge with Justin Jones rotating in at DT.

The league announced the cap will be $224.8M for 2023. With that info and the known carryovers and other related charges, OTC has the Bears at $90.8M in cap space and $82M in effective cap. Using effective cap, which is more realistic, the Bears could sign 3x players with a $10M cap hit for 2023 and STILL have the highest available cap space. Truly insane. 17 teams are over the cap (effective cap) and another 6 are under $10M. The Saints and Bucs are going to have to cut some big name players as they are $58M and $62M over. There is no way you can manipulate the cap that much. Some teams are actually quite comical. Packers are $20M over and saddled with Rodgers contract. Panthers have no QB and are $14M over.

Sucks for him, it was actually a pretty cool story. If Tommy John, that is going to be a long recovery. I am surprised this doesn't happen more than it does already.

Greenlaw was using his arm as a punching bag well after the whistle. That was a little excessive. Look at Shanahan's body of work going back to CLE and ATL. When his team's are in big spots, he chokes. It just feels like he has the "smartest guy in the room" syndrome (like Ryan Pace had). It just feels like any coach with that roster could do what he has done. It is not like he is squeezing every ounce out of his roster. I actually think they underperformed. He did get a lot out of Purdy, but if you watch Purdy's tape in college, it is a headscratcher why he was drafted so late, should've been a 3rd or 4th rounder.

Dude, I was reading some draft stuff and they had an article about Reich's hiring and this was the pic.

I was referring to all the playoff QBs. On Jackson vs Fields, I think that is closer since Jackson is getting older.

So it is KC vs PHI for the Super Bowl. I would've rather seen CIN vs PHI, but this is still a great game. KC feels much weaker than previous years, especially without Hill. Outside of Kelce, they don't have any other dominant skill players. KC's leading rusher was Pacheco with 830 yds. Their leading WR was JuJu with 933 yds. Average at best. Kelce was really the only dominant weapon with 12 TDs and 1338 yds. If I am Philly, I am taking him out of the game. 26% of Mahomes completions are to Kelce and 30% of his TDs. That is a huge chunk of the offense. Philly will be coming into this game with 2 fairly easy games. I feel like they have the better team, so the game will come down to which Mahomes shows up. I am going 30-24 Philly. SF vs PHI SF and Shanahan choke again, this is a trend. He has too much of a track record of shitting his pants in big moments. How do you not challenge the 4th down play to Smith? It was too close of a call and too big of a play (biggest play of the game and on 4th down) not to challenge. Right after the play I was expecting the flag to get thrown out there instantly, or at least before Philly got off another play and Shanahan. A lot of people will come to his defense saying Purdy got hurt, but they left a TE on Reddick who had 16 sacks this season. Purdy doesn't get hit like that with an OT blocking him. CIN vs KC I didn't like the end to the KC game, the refs were calling penalties on the Bengals and not calling the same things on KC. A huge hold on the Mahomes run would've at least negated the 15yd penalty and that play would've been replayed. The punt return that got them there, they missed a blatant block in the back. The 15-yard penalty was a terrible play, but Fields got hit like that at least 3 times this season without that call. That still needs to change. One thing I noticed in all the games, Fields is faster than all these QBs. If he can improve as a passer, he is going to be dangerous.

Flus? What is with the hat placement?

These hacks are all over. There is some guy from Denver media that pops up in the Justin Fields feed all the time. I don't think he reports on any other QB more than Fields: Stating that the Bears are "exploring all options with Fields". That is like saying JAX is exploring all options with Lawrence, come on man. This is completely made up. Here he replies to Bears Twitter saying that Seattle didn't want Fields, that is why they vetoed the trade for Russell Wilson, BEFORE Fields was on the team. It is comical how this guy literally makes something up, then tries to justify himself with more BS. It feels like a parody account. This was after the Bears drafted him and teams like Denver passed on him for CBs, just like CAR did too. Then he makes it seem like Fields "epilepsy" had something to do with it. Come on man.

"Hey Warren, who is your source?", "maybe you heard of him before, Saint Omni".

The Bears can outbid Washington for Payne. Yeah, they can tag him, but if you consider the rookie pool, they would technically have around 30M with Payne, Turner (RG), Heinicke, and Larsen (C) all hitting free agency. Like you said, Heinicke is getting at least $10M, if not more like $15M-$20M, if he is going to be the starter. That would leave $10-15M left for every other position to be filled. The only way they can keep Payne is if they extend him with a cap friendly first year.

It looks like immaturity mixed with some mental health issues.

Oh yeah, I totally understand that, but for contract negotiations, I am sure Payne is going to point to 2022. Same thing goes for a guy that struggled in 2022, even if he was at an MVP level in 2021, if he was crappy in 2022, he ain't getting paid MVP level money. For sure they are different circumstances, I was just comparing their Year 4s. Too many other variables to consider. I try to keep it as easy as possible.

Down to #2 probably won't but #3-5 would.

No I am using the same year (Year 4) for each player before they join their new team (assuming Payne leaves).

My scenario goes like this: 1. Trade down once but only down enough where you can still get someone like Anderson, Carter, or Johnson. That way you get the extra draft capital plus a blue chipper this year (you need one every year). 2. If you can trade down again, stay in the top 8 and can still get one of those guys, you do it. However, the goal is to not be drafting in the top 10 next year with your own pick, so you have to get the most impactful player you can while you are drafting so low. The ultimate scenario is 1 to 2, then 2 to 4. However, there seems like there are going to be several other teams (7-LVR, 8-ATL, 9-CAR) looking for a QB in the top 10. So the Bears could go 1 to 4 (IND), then 4 to 7 (LVR) if only 2 QBs are gone at 4, which is possible. If 3 QBs go in the top 3, the Bears have to keep 4 and pick Anderson. It seems like the top 5 is Young, Stroud, Levis, Anderson, and Carter (in any order). So if the Bears trade out of the top 5, into that 7-9 range, they would still get one of: Myles Murphy, ED, Clemson Tyree Wilson, ED, Texas Tech Bryan Bresee, DL, Clemson Paris Johnson, OT, Ohio St Quentin Johnson, WR, TCU So is Carter or Anderson better than Bresee or Murphy + an extra 2nd rounder? I don't know. It will come down to who the Bears believe is the best fit for their defense.

Whitehair is a nice veteran presence as this point and an upgrade would be minimal if you could only use the cap savings. I can see them doing that after 2023 though, when the cap savings is considerably higher and you can get an upgrade for the savings.