adam

Now the team needs to address the cap issues before they sign their rookies. The options are: 1. Extend ARob and push some money to future years as a signing bonus. Current cap hit is $17.8M, an extension could drop it to $10M, saving about $7-8M. 2. Cut or trade Leno, this would save $9M, which would be enough to sign rookies and have some space for a few additional vets. 3. Extend Hicks with a 3-year deal with a void year, current hit is $12M, could get it down to $6-7M and save $5-6M with something like that. Another option is cut or trade Hicks and save $10M. 4. Restructure Mack, currently at $14.6M, could get his down to around $10M with $4M savings. 5. Cut or trade Graham, current cap hit is $10M, could save $7M with this move. So the Leno move would be the easiest with $9M cap savings. If they think Jenkins can be the LT, with Ifedi at RT, this would be an easy move with the most cap savings.

Check this out. Here is a breakdown of rostered players from 2020 from Profootballreference: 9 - 1st Round - 14% (Trubisky, Fuller, Smith, Mingo, Ginn, Patterson, Mack, Ifedi, Quinn) 8 - 2nd Round - 13% 5 - 3rd Round - 8% 8 - 4th Round - 13% 6 - 5th Round - 9% 9 - 6th Round - 14% 3 - 7th Round - 5% 16 - UDFA or undrafted players - 25% 64 Rostered Players So 25% of the roster was UDFA or undrafted players. As for starters (11/11/3): 6 - 1st Round - 25% 6 - 2nd Round - 25% 3 - 3rd Round - 12.5% 3 - 4th Round - 12.5% 1 - 5th Round - 4% 2 - 6th Round - 8% 1 - 7th Round - 4% 3 - UDFA - 12.5% 24 - Starters 50% of the starters are from rounds 1-2, which makes sense. So with this draft, Fields and Jenkins should be added to that list. For the later rounds, the 6th round looks like a sweet spot. That had higher percentage of players and starters than the 5th or 7th rounds. Pace got 3 players in that round, so the odds are 2 will make the team at a minimum.

I think QB and OT are the two positions that warrant it. Pace locked in QB2 and OT2 in a draft where they could've easily went sooner than they did. Then in the 6th, Pace went BPA crazy, bringing in guys with draft grades way higher than their draft position. The RB group may be one of the best in football with Monty, Williams, Cohen, and now Herbert.

That sort of makes sense as each team starts with 7 draft picks and 10 UDFA slots. The contracts also make UDFAs easier to manage at the bottom of the roster. Draft picks have guarantees.

Another thing to remember, the 49ers traded 3x first round picks and a 3rd for Lance. The Bears got Fields for 2x first rounders, a 4th and a 5th. The 49ers won't have another first rounder until 2024.

It is so weird seeing the media give Pace an A draft grade and praise his entire draft. This one feels different. Then getting Snowden as a UDFA is icing on the cake. I am still in shock but happy with how it turned out. The trade ups worried me but Pace made some great Day 3 picks to compensate.

I am tracking these 10 so far: Mississippi State G Dareuan Parker Northwestern OT Gunnar Vogel Coastal Carolina RB C.J. Marable Clemson OL Gage Cervenka Stanford TE Scooter Harrington Houston Baptist LB Caleb Johnson Stony Brook DT Sam Kamara Stanford DL Thomas Schaffer Virginia EDGE Charles Snowden (had a 4th round grade) Temple DL Daniel Archibong

Pace clearly went BPA from 217 on. Every player had ranking at least one round higher, in some cases multiple rounds. His best draft on paper to date.

There is your DT: Khyiris Tonga, DT, BYU

Pick - Name - BR / PFF / TDN 11 - Fields - 3 (+8)/3 (+8)/5 (+6) 39 - Jenkins - 12 (+27)/31 (+8)/28 (+11) 151 - Borom - 231 (-80)/191 (-40)/383 (-232) 217 - Herbert - 168 (+49)/91 (+126)/190 (+27) 221 - Newsome - 183 (+38)/255 (-34)/182 (+39) 228 - Graham - 154 (+74)/76 (+152)/135 (+93) 250 - Tonga - 55 (+195)/142 (+108)/196 (+54) Looking back at some pre draft big boards, Graham and Herbert both had as low as a 3-round grade with some big boards, and at worst both were considered 5th rounders, so getting them as late 6th's was really high value. BR and TDN had Newsome at 183 and 182 respectively, which was almost 40 picks earlier than the actual pick, so there seems to be good value there too. Using the pre-draft rankings, you could say the Bears got the following: 1st - Fields 2nd - Jenkins 3rd - Graham 4th - Herbert 5th - Newsome 6th - Borom (a very odd pick, but there is a little backstory) 7th - Tonga About Borom, supposedly he trained with Fields in California, so there may be something there that the team liked and didn't want to miss with the next pick being 60+ picks later. We will see on that one. The others were really good value and you could almost say were BPA at those slots. Herbert and Newsome both can immediately contribute on Special Teams as returners and Graham has a very similar game as Fuller (playing off his man and driving on the ball).

I almost forgot the team resigned Artie Burns and Michael Joseph to go with Trufant. So CB wasn't that big of a hole as Skrine leaving was a positive.

There is our CB.

Medical. Mom died of congenital heart failure and he has blood clots in his lungs.

At this point, we need at least one CB or S.

Another punt returner and or slot guy.

There is the punt returner.

Would rather had a 2022 6th. The extra 7th just locks in someone instead of fighting for them as a UDFA. On trade value chart that's a loss but after the 5th, a pick is a pick.

Some other names available: Stone Forsythe - OT Cade Johnson - CB Shakur Brown - CB Charles Snowden - Edge Tamorrion Terry - WR Austin Watkins Jr. - WR Kary Vincent Jr. - CB Patrick Johnson - Tulane Shi Smith - WR Tre Nixon - WR Israel Mukuamu - CB Demetric Felton - WR Kawaan Baker - WR Marvin Wilson - DT Bryce Thompson - CB Quincy Roche - Edge Will Sherman - OT

The Bears have pick 24, 37, and 44 in the 6th. I would love to see at least one WR and CB. Still a few decent prospects available. Some guys with 3rd and 4th round grades.

Fields is all business. I love the demeanor, let's go to work! I can see the offense rallying around him immediately compared to Dalton and Foles. If Fields does have that type of mental aptitude, he is going to be the opening day starter. Add that with Jenkins who wants to pancake a defender on every play, and this offense is really close to being sneaky good. If they keep Miller, who knows, maybe he is a wild card and plays better catching passes from Fields. Right now though, ARob, Mooney, Miller, Goodwin, Monty, Cohen, Williams, Graham, Kmet is a pretty solid skill position group. Those would be the top 9 pass catchers, then probably Ridley or Wims. With Jenkins, the line of Leno-Whitehair-Mustipher-Daniels-Jenkins with Ifedi as a swingman, the offense is pretty solid.

A lot of people have heartburn over the amount of picks given up. Out of all of them, giving up the 3rd this year seemed a little excessive, but in reality, it wasn't that bad. Fields was a consensus top 10 pick, some had him as high as #2. Most had Jenkins as a late first, and some even mocked him to the Bears at #20. So if you think about it that way and consider Jenkins a mid-20's pick, the Bears essentially paid a 2021 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th and a 2022 4th to swap firsts for Fields, Jenkins and an early 5th. To be fair, I valued Fields at #6 and Jenkins at #26. Using full value for the trade value chart, where team's normally discount next year's picks by one round, the trade is literally even. If you consider the next year pick discount the Bears are ahead by the equivalent to a mid-2nd round pick: Bears get: Pick #6 - 1600 Pick #26 - 700 Pick #151 - 29 2329 Other teams: Pick #20 - 850 Pick #52 - 380 Pick #84 - 170 Pick #164 - 24 Pick #204 - 8 2022 #20 - 850 (full value) 2022 #125 - 47 (full value) 2329 If you take the discount into account, you can slide Fields to #9 and Jenkins back to #39 (his original) slot. Meaning the Bears paid 2 slots to get Jenkins a year early. Not bad either way.

In a way, I don't mind Pace doing this, getting 2 sure fire starters, vs only 1 and 2 possibles. With the crazy season, this draft was very unpredictable. So get the locks early and try to find depth later.

He was rated as high as #2, so to get him at #11 while only giving up next year's first and no 2nd or 3rd is pretty solid.

He has played and won against elite talent. Trubisky had one good year against average talent. At #11 he is a steal.

Fields......