adam

I would say you start paying a premium when you at least have a legitimate shot at the playoffs. Right now, we are probably further away from the playoffs than we ever have been in my lifetime. We just completed Year 2 of a complete overhaul of the entire organization that takes about 3 years to complete (which will be after this year). I think you need 3-4 solid years of drafting to really start to see a foundation in the organization. So unless Kevin White becomes a perennial #1 WR, and Grasu eventually returns to the starting lineup, the only valuable player from 2015 will be Goldman, so you would have to start with the 2016 draft as Year #1, so we are still 2-3 years away at this point from true SB contention. Look at Seattle, they had that epic draft in 2010 (Okung, Thomas, Tate, Thurmond, and Chancellor), but it took 2 more solid years of drafts and a 3rd year together to win/make it to the SB. However, they have drafted like crap since 2012 and it will eventually catch up to them as well. If we consider our 2016 draft with Floyd, Whitehair, and Howard as our equivalent to Seattle's 2010 draft, we have a couple of more years to go. So why overpay for someone who won't even be part of the long-term plan? Right now, most of these free agent pickups are to at least field a competitive team and maybe get lucky with a free agent acquisition (Hicks). If you can do that every year with one or two guys under 30, you can speed up the process.

#Bears are signing K Connor Barth back on a 1-year contract. He's getting $155K guaranteed. https://twitter.com/BradBiggs/status/840263479110053889 Scratch Kicker off the list for the draft, unless maybe a UDFA.

It was an ACL.

A biceps, pectoral, and hamstring injuries. At least they are not reoccurring injuries.

I agree to an extent. We had all those guys on the field at the same time and what did we get? The first year we had the 2nd best offense in the league. The second year with the same group, we dropped to 23rd. Same guys, completely different result. Cutler was actually released with a failed physical designation, so his health is questionable. The Bears replaced Cutler with Glennon, who, at worst will be similar to a Kyle Orton clone with a littler more arm strength. There is a reason Marshall is on his 5th team (and 3rd in 4 years), and has never played in the postseason. Bennett is a head-case, and coincidentally is also going to be playing for his 5th team in the last 7 years. Alshon has been babied and was offended when Marshall was traded. He was never the same after that and seemed destined to leave when given the opportunity. His last good year was 2014 and his PED suspension last year raises concerns that he will either be not as good w/o PEDs, or using them and get caught again. I think it would've been better if we re-signed him to a one-year deal, but if we can pickup Pryor, I won't have any complaints. In the end, this was the final step to the house cleaning for the organization.

CB Prince Amukamara added, so we've added a QB, TE, S, WR, and CB. I still think we need to add OT (Beachum) and WR (Pryor or Wright), and possibly DL (Hankins).

Bears will be signing former Giants, Jags CB Prince Amukamara, source says. https://twitter.com/MikeGarafolo/status/840240044241801217

Cutler was designated with failed physical designation. Interesting. I bet he retires.

From what I have read and heard, it is all about the guaranteed money, not the average per year, or total amount. In the end the Bears committed $18.5 to Glennon in guarantees. Osweiler got $37 million in guarantees (exactly double Glennon's, coincidence or not?). Everyone wanted a sub-$10mil deal, but if that is a 3yr deal at $10 per guaranteed, it would've been $30mil guaranteed and much riskier. This is actually a pretty good deal for all parties. Glennon gets one year to show something, otherwise we cut ties with minimal dead money ($4.5 in 2018). Also, his cap hit in 2017 is only $14mil.

After some of the initial signings came in, it was clear that the Bears had a hard stance on overpaying and were not going to budge on value, regardless of the player or need. I assumed we would pay whatever it took to bring in some of the top FA's, but after each signing, it was clear what that the Bears were not going to give out long term deals that would hurt the club in the long-term. We are currently in full rebuild mode. Any free agent now is just a gap filler as we replenish through the draft, but we have to understand we are still 2-3 years away from competing realistically. I think we will always be competitive, but I am not expecting much more than a 5-win season this year at best. To win more, Glennon would have to live up to his full potential, White would need to have a breakout season, and everyone would need to stay healthy. All huge if's. QB - Mike Glennon - It might seem like an overpay, but Glennon's contract amounts to a one-year (kick the tires) deal. His average annual salary puts him in the bottom 1/3 of the league for starters. We paid more for him than Hoyer, but the Bears are paying for the potential upside. Glennon vs Cutler/Hoyer/Barkley - Glennon might have more excuses than Cutler for bad O-Line, Coaches/Coordinators, and skill position players. In his rookie year, the leading rusher was Bobby Rainey, and after Vincent Jackson, the next best WR was Tiquan Underwood, yes Tiquan. He was sacked 40 times in 13 games, yet still put up 19 TDs and only 9 INTs with a respectable 83.9 QB Rating. I think he has more upside than Hoyer and Barkley, and a higher floor than all of them. He has only had 3 lifetime starts with a QB Rating below 70 (bad games), and has only thrown 2 INTs or more in a game 3 times (all 2 INTs) as well. So if you do a quick INT and QB Rating comparison, by percentage, Cutler threw 2 INTs or more in 27% of his starts (crazy) and had a QB Rating 70 or lower in 24% of his starts. So essentially, you were getting a bad game out of him every 4th game. Bad Jay. Now on the flip side, you were getting Good Jay (QB Rating over 90) 47% of the time. For Hoyer, 22% of his starts were with a QB Rating below 70 (slightly better than Cutler), and only 10% of his games with 2 INTs or more (way better), but only had 39% of his starts with a QB rating over 90. So just like the consensus opinion was, Cutler was more volatile, he had a bigger upside and bigger downside than Hoyer. Glennon comes in with a smaller sample size, but has only had 14% of his games with a QB Rating below 70 or 2 or more INTs, and 33% of his games above 90. So higher floor, lower ceiling. As Jordan said, the floor is the ceiling. We probably still draft and develop one. QB Position - Even, with consistency and potential S - Quintin Demps - He immediately becomes the best Safety on the team compared to Amos, HJQ, Bush, Houston-Carson, but the jury is still out on all of them as they are young and inexperienced (all 23). I still think we draft one high. At this point, the Safety position is better than last year, even if just marginally. Now I almost see CB as a bigger need. S Position - slight upgrade TE - Dion Sims - 6'4", 260+, this is a big dude. He is only going to catch 2-3 balls a game, and will mostly be a blocking TE, but if anyone remembers, Martellus Bennett was only a blocking TE before breaking out with the Giants and Bears. He will compliment Zach Miller and Daniel Brown nicely. Not a huge signing, but we should see some improvement in the run game and even in pass pro with Sims. With the deep TE class, I can see the Bears still drafting a TE. TE Position - slight upgrade WR - Markus Wheaton - This seems to be a low risk signing, with high potential. Coming out of the draft, his comp was Antonio Brown. Here are his numbers: 4.45 40, 20 reps on bench. 4.02 20yd shuttle, 11.16 60yd shuttle, 37in vert, 120in broad. His numbers are basically the same as Zay Jones, except Wheaton did 5 more on bench and Jones beat him on the broad jump. With the loss of Alshon though, we are clearly worse right now at WR. If we don't get someone like Pryor or Wright, drafting a WR high is going to have to be a priority. WR Position - downgrade, but more potential to stretch the field CB - Nothing done yet, but still a need OT - Nothing done yet, but still a need TLDR Summary: Not what anyone expected, addressing some need areas, but still holes to fill before the draft Day 1 - Initial Grade: (C-), lower than expectations

You are correct, in relative terms, not much has changed, except we were 3-13 last year, one of the worst seasons in franchise history. We needed an infusion of talent, and we got very little. The worse part is this free agent class is weak to begin with, and now we are left hoping for someone like Pryor or Patterson, Beachum, McDonald or Amukamara. After that, the cupboard is pretty bare.

Yeah, averaged 17.0 per catch in 2015. Definitely can stretch the field and something we have needed for awhile now. I would still like to see someone like Pryor or maybe Kendall Wright brought in.

That's really the only play left: 1. Pryor (need to replace Alshon somehow) 2. Ryan (need at least one above average CB) 3. Beachum (need OT upgrade), 4. TJ McDonald (a decent upgrade at S) Anything less will be an abject failure.

The #Bills are signing DB Micah Hyde. He leaves Green Bay. He Gawn too! They just need to can Pace and Fox now. I would rather see some decisiveness in this franchise rather than complacency.

A.J. Bouye to Jaguars on five-year, $67.5 million deal $13.5 million annually Top 2x CB's off the market.

Former Lions OT Riley Reiff plans to sign with Vikings , per source. I thought he was a target, I guess he too was too much for Pace and the McShitskeys

This is beyond embarrassing if it happens.

https://twitter.com/JosinaAnderson/status/839917359968157698 Pryor available for $20 mil?

Omg yes, Pace is now linked to Glennon as Emery/Trestman were linked with Cutler. If Glennon sucks, Pace is gone and Glennon is a one-year deal. I guess our only hope is if Shaw beats Glennon out in the summer and Glennon becomes the most expensive backup in NFL history.

It was windy....my hand was sweaty....there were huge dudes running at me....

Me too, and that would actually make both of them "better" with them already knowing each other's tendencies.

Demps was the AFC Defensive Player of the Month for December, which considering the type of games being played in December says a lot. The Rolle signing and this signing, other than the age relation (Demps is a year younger), there is not much else that is comparable. Also, Demps came from the best defense in the league last year. Hopefully he can rub some of that off on some of the younger players.

I've heard Jets, Texans, Rams, and possibly Arizona.

I am not too worried about the overall money, if only $16 is guaranteed, this is essentially is a one-year deal.

Some key points in the game: 13:03 - Sack, completely misses blitzer from blind side 27:40 - TD Pass 43:35 - TD Pass 1:11:40 - evades rush, eyes up field 1:39:30 - pressure sack 1:58:05 - scramble 1:59:50 - ugly scramble 2:05:45 - OT drive Now I would say considering he was a rookie, playing in Seattle and the team was already 0-6 or 0-7 at this point, that he played pretty well. However, I feel like we were built up with excitement of our new Schwinn bicycle to see the generic knock-off and are expected to be "grateful" for the gift.