adam

Cool story about Montgomery: - from 2017 https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/college/iowa-state/football/2017/08/17/iowa-states-david-montgomery-working-avoid-sophomore-slump/570184001/ I also read that eventually half the team was in with him at the facility working out or watching tape after hours.

Oh yeah, definitely sarcasm. If he makes the team, it would be shocking.

The coaching staff has some input into the selections as well. Last year looks pretty solid with Smith, Daniels, Miller, and Nichols all contributing. Iggy, Fitts, and Wims still have a shot.

Then run Mizzell up the gut for 1 yard.

The Bears need to save some this year to rollover for next year. If they can save about $10M, they will be ok in 2020 and then have some tough calls in 2021. For next year, there will be some interesting decisions. Kyle Long goes from $5.6M to $9.6M from 19-20. Massie goes from $3.8M to $8.3M. Those two account for an increase of $8.5M. On defense, Goldman goes from $5.3M to $10.8M and Mack goes from $11.9M to $26.6M. Lastly, Floyd goes from $5M to $13.2M. Those 3 total a whopping $28.4M increase from 2019 to 2020 cap hits. So those 5 players will cost $37M more from 2019 to 2020. There is no way they all are on the team in 2020. The cap goes up about $10-$11M a year which can account for some of that. Then you have Parkey's dead money off the books ($4M), which then leaves about $22M unaccounted for. Cutting Prince saves $9M in 2020, cutting Long saves $8M and not resigning Daniel would save $6M. There is $23M right there. Then you have huge contract increases for Jackson and Whitehair, and potentially another one for Floyd. Trevathan leaving would have $7.6M coming off the books and Kwiatkoski would save just over $2M. We definitely can't resign those guys and pay Jackson, Whitehair and Floyd. We seem to be stuck with Burton and Skrine thru 2020. The only other option is cutting Gabriel and eating $2M in dead money for 2020. He would save $4M. So there are options, but Pace will have to continually turn over this roster and pick and choose who stays and who goes. The team will be due a complete overhaul when Trubisky hits year #6. So we have a 3-year window with the current team as constructed. Once QB1 goes from $10M to +$30M, we will be losing 2-3 top tier players, so picking up key draft picks in 2020 and 2021 is going to be critical to the long term success of the franchise.

They ultimately swapped out Dee Ford for Frank Clark, and are now replacing Hill with the rookie Hardman. Outside of those moves, it is hard to see where this team is better in 2019. If anything they have taken a step back.

Yeah, if they lose Hill, which they should. They will only have Kelce left as their only legitimate receiving threat. Hill was a game changer, and most of Mahomes chunk plays were to Hill. You can't replace that production. I think Mahomes comes back down to earth next year.

Some of these are just camp bodies needed for the scrimmages/drills. Ultimately need to field a full team and compliment of players from every position in order to run thru drills effectively. I think they picked up a wide combination of raw players and some with huge upsides as well as some other guys with recent position changes. It will be interesting to see. You are correct though, very unlikely that any of them actually make the team, let alone the PS. Guys like Hall, Raymond, and Bars have a legit shot. So do the Kickers and Punters.

I think Ridley is going to surprise a lot of people. The competition is going to be insane. Our depth is better than some team's starters. Gabriel may be the odd man out really soon. Between Marvin Hall and Emanuel Hall, we have the Halls of speed. One will stick. Raymond is an upgrade over Daniel Brown already. The roster composition is going to be interesting. How many WRs, TEs, or RBs will they keep this year?

Safety will definitely be a need if HHCD walks. It will be interesting to see how he plays with Jackson. If they play well together, it would be nice to lock both of them up. However, depth will be an issue regardless. Safety will be a need. Floyd has two year's left, so anything would be a depth move before 2020. In next year's draft, it would be a depth selection. Whitehair is getting re-signed, I can't see them letting him walk. So we are technically good thru 2020 if Whitehair gets extended. So I would say OG is a secondary priority for next year's draft. DL will be a priority with Bullard, Williams, and RRH all hitting free agency. Definitely a top priority. ILB will be a need with both Trevethan and Kwiat hitting free agency. We need to shed some salary, and I think we will do it here. That's almost $10M off the books if we let these guys walk. QB - They won't be able to afford Daniel at $6M after this year with Mack's big money hitting next year. So I assume they will go with Bray and bring in a rookie. My priority for next year's draft would be Priority 1: ILB, DL, and Safety (depending on HHCD), and Priority 2: Edge, OG, and backup QB 2nd Round (Raiders) 2nd Round 5th Round 5th Round (Raiders-conditional) 6th Round 6th Round (Eagles) 7th Round Right now we have 6 guaranteed picks and a 7th pick conditionally from Raiders (do not know the qualifier for it). I assume we will trade down from one of the 2nd rounders to pick up some additional picks. We do not have a 3rd rounder (Mack trade) or a 4th rounder (Montgomery trade), so moving back with one of the 2nd's to possibly recoup those makes a lot of sense. If the Raiders are bad again, we could be looking at a mid-30's 2nd rounder, which are normally highly sought after (early pick in Day 2). For math purposes, let's say they finish with the 6th worst record, the 2nd rounder would be #38 worth 520 pts. We could potentially move back to #54 and gain back a mid-3rd rounder. I would then make that selection and consider trading out of #64 at the end of the 2nd for an early 3rd rounder to gain back a 4th. So theoretically, we could end up with: #54 (2nd): Our first pick after trading back from #38 #76 (3rd): Trade back from #64, pick up a 4th #86 (3rd): Extra pick from moving back from #38 to #54 #114 (4th): Extra pick from moving back from #64 to #76 #144 (5th): Raiders conditional pick #170 (5th): #194 (6th): Eagles conditional pick (could move to a 5th if Howard balls out) #205 (6th): #246 (7th): Besides winning the Super Bowl, it would be hilarious to give Oakland the #32 pick and then get back something like #33-35 in the same draft.

I have no complaints about Howard, he was the lone bright spot on a terrible team in 2016 and 2017. It just seems like that was his ceiling and the team wanted a little more dynamic play out of a guy with that many touches. It will be interesting to see what Howard commands on the open market after this season. As good as Howard was in 2017, 2018 was somewhat disappointing and was masked by how well the team played overall. I don't know if we could get by with the same stats if the defense wasn't so good. Howard was 22nd in YPG at 58. Only 3 players had over 175 carries and less than 4.0 YPC (David Johnson, Peyton Barber, and Howard) out of 20 RBs. His 3.7 YPC was good for 37th among qualified RB leaders. If you like advanced stats, using DVOA, Howard was 36th: https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/rb So if the team feels like RB1 was a weak spot on the roster, and Montgomery is an upgrade there, I am all for it.

Sorry an Army term, I meant a replacement. He backfilled Callahan as HHCD backfilled Amos. The last "starter" hole was RB. There has to be a little more to the Howard story than we know. I don't think he was happy with his role and I don't know if the coaching staff believed he was the right fit for what they were trying to do. That's not to say Howard is not a good RB. There have been rumors about him "not fitting" into the system since last year. So we don't really know what Nagy and the offense had to do to accommodate Howard's skill set or lack thereof. However, we will see if they are right this year. If not, we are screwed. Philly has a whole bunch of different guys. Josh Adams, Corey Clement, and Smallwood are all on the roster with Howard. Now with Sanders too. So it will be interesting to see who is left standing after final cuts and if Howard is RB1 or RB2.

I updated the first post to make it more readable. We have a good haul and the competition should be fierce. O'Donnell should be worried. There are few punters in there that can kill it. I would not be surprised if one of them made the team over him. Remember, the one consistent with our bad kicking has been POD holding. Could be a coincidence or maybe there is something to it.

True, I understand both sides. Seattle started with 5 picks, kept trading down and ended the draft with 10. However, how many of those 10 are actually going to help them, or help them more than the original 5, or 4 if they traded up. There are definitely two theories to drafting, more picks are better and higher picks are better. At the end of the day, neither matter. Picking the right player is the key. Cleveland has had more top 50 picks than any team in history over the past decade and have just started to turn things around due to picking the wrong player. After free agency, we literally had one hole, and that was at RB. We got HHCD and Skrine to backfill the only other starting spots. Every other player after that point is a luxury, and that is why we went BPA in the 4th. I thought Philly's draft spoke volumes about Howard; Miles Sanders at #53 (2nd round) said a lot. A Philly Exec literally said: "Miles is a guy, he can play all three downs". So is Howard now relegated to short yardage and obvious rushing situations? Seems like it to me. Admin note - Please keep the personal attacks to yourselves - we can agree to disagree - everyone is entitled to their opinion regardless of how right or wrong they are or you think they are. It is ok to be critical of the team and of each other, just do it in a constructive manner. This team is in a place it hasn't been in a long time, let's embrace this period and keep an open mind. Bear Down!

It's a university in Montreal, Canada. Betts was the top ranked prospect in the CFL.

I assume we will still sign a QB and maybe a ILB.

So far, looking good: UDFA's Offense: 1. Sam Mustipher, OL, Notre Dame (Hiestand connection) 2. Alex Bars, OG, Notre Dame (Hiestand connection) 3. Blake Blackmar, OL, Baylor 4. Marquez Tucker, OL, Southern Utah 5. Joe Lowery, OL, Ohio University 6. Emanuel Hall, WR, Missouri (Highest rater player not drafted per NFL.com - 4th round projection) 7. Thomas Ives, WR, Colgate 8. Dax Raymond, TE, Utah State (#1 UDFA TE available) 9. Ian Bunting, TE, Cal 10. Ellis Richardson, TE, Georgia Southern Defense: 11. Mathieu Betts, Edge, Laval (Montreal, Canada) 12. Chuck Harris, Edge, Buffalo 13. Jonathan Harris, DL, Lindenwood 14. Lawrence Marshall, DT, Michigan 15. Dylan Carroll, DE, Grand Valley State 16. Clifton Duck, CB, App State (KR/PR) 17. Adarius Pickett, DB, UCLA 18. Justin Simmons, DB, Limestone College (Furrey connection) 19. Jordan Powell, S, Widener Special Teams: 20. John Wirtel, OL, Kansas (LS) 21. John Baron, K, SDSU (#2 UDFA Kicker available) Rookie Mini-Camp Invites: 1. Tommy Doles, OL, Northwestern 2. Chris James, RB, Wisconsin 3. Spencer Schnell, WR, Illinois State 4. Joe Walker, WR, Delaware 5. Ron'Quavion Tarver, WR, Utah State 6. Pace Temple, WR, Butler 7. Quentin Moon, LB, Western Illinois 8. Doyin Jibowu, DB, Fort Hays State 9. Zuril Hendrick, CB, Edinboro 10. Casey Bednarski, K/P, Minnesota State 11. Emmit Carpenter, K, Minnesota (#4 UDFA Kicker available) 12. Alex Kjellsten, P, McNeese State

A great UDFA. The roster is becoming super competitive.

Trading up doesn't mean you lose the trade. If you go off draft trade value alone, we won the trade straight up: The Bears gave up #87 (155pts), #162 (26.2pts) and a 4th in 2020 (42pts), which equals 223. The Pats gave up #73 (225pts), #205 (9pts), which equals 234. So technically the Bears got the better of the deal by a 6th round pick. Also, consider that next year's draft capital is worth a round less than this year's. That was not even taken into consideration with these values, making the deal even better for the Bears. I watched some more video of Montgomery, and he is nothing like Howard. Montgomery has the most broken tackles of any RB since they started recording the stat. That is insane. If you watch his tape, you will see why. This guy is not Howard 2.0.

After signing HHCD and Skrine, the only starter that would not be returning in 2019 was RB, and we addressed that with Montgomery. If you have not seen some of the videos, this guy is not only a great player, but a super high character guy. Our RBs are the new Run DMC: Davis-Montgomery-Cohen. Then you add Whyte to that group and you have a pretty diverse backfield. Whyte can also return kicks. Ridley was definitely a BPA signing, and I love it when we can do that. Just think of what our WR Corps looked like a few years ago. We now have Robinson, Gabriel, Miller, Ridley, Wims, Hall, and Patterson. Shelley dropped due to an injury, but he is not a 6th round talent. He could easily make the team and push for the Slot CB position. Denmark is a physical freak who was converted recently. I see him being stashed on the PS. Overall, it's hard to complain with getting Montgomery and Ridley (both top 50 prospects) without a pick in the top 70, and then getting Shelley as well. Looks like we got 3 players that could help right away.

I am shocked we got Montgomery. We had to trade up to get him but we kept our 4th rounder this year. He is a better version of Howard who can catch out of the backfield.

Detroit - Pick 8 - TJ Hockenson, TE - A good player (1 of 2 TE's drafted in the first round from Iowa), but not a top 10 pick. Lol Detroit, another TE, why didn't they just keep Ebron? Green Bay - Pick 12 - Rashan Gary, DE - A good player, but didn't they sign a couple of Edge guys? Seems like an odd pick considering their free agency and with Rodgers' age. Then they draft up to pick Darnell Savage at S. Another good player, but not someone worthy of the 21st pick or moving up to get. You would think that a team with 2 picks in the first 21 would get two impactful players, yet I don't see that here. Gary may only be a rotational guy and Savage is undersized for a Safety. Vikings - Pick 18 - Garrett Bradbury, C - The least flashy move was probably the best. Bradbury is good and it makes sense to shore up the middle of your O-Line with a non-mobile QB like Cousins. The best pick from the NFC North outside of the Mack deal. So what did you think about the draft so far? I thought the Raiders picks outside of Abram were borderline comical. They traded Mack and Cooper, and BeastMode retired, and you added Clelin Ferrell at #4 (DE to replace Mack?), Josh Jacobs, RB at #24 to replace BeastMode, and Abram at #27, which was their best pick. I would still take Mack over all 3 of those guys today.

Here are some of the final mock draft predictions for the Bears 3rd rounder: CBS - Miles Sanders, RB, Penn State WalterFootball - Dexter Williams, RB, Notre Dame WalterFootball (Charlie) - Devin Singletary, RB, Florida Atlantic Draftsite.com - Beau Benzschawel, OG, Wisconsin BleacherReport - Amani Hooker, S, Iowa BleacherReport (Miller) - Joejuan Williams, CB, Vanderbilt Drafttek - Damien Harris, RB, Alabama 247 Sports - Dawson Knox, TE, Ole Miss NFL.com (Reuter) - Justin Hollins, Edge, Oregon PFF (Renner) - Tytus Howard, OT, Alabama State Draftwire - Miles Sanders, RB, Penn State

All SF has to do is rescind the tag. Gould can sign the franchise tag at any time and they will have to pay him that ($5M) for the season. Are any other teams in need of a Kicker with the cap space? I would offer a take it or leave it offer of a 7th rounder and be done with it.

Where do you get that Nichols is below average? I agree that we have a need across from Hicks, but Nichols seems like a solid rotational player to fill in for Goldman and Hicks, and get some occasional reps in across from Hicks. In less snaps than Goldman and RRH, Nichols had comparable, if not, better raw numbers. Goldman - 552 snaps, 3 sacks, 5 TFL RRH - 353 snaps, 3 sacks, 3 TFL Nichols - 328 snaps, 3 sacks, 5 TFL, 2 FFB