adam

I would say the lack of an offer has to be tied to a couple of things: 1. They didn't want to disrespect him with a low-ball offer (less money or shorter length), knowing he would command more on the open market. Just because the Bears didn't make an offer doesn't mean Forte's agent didn't throw some numbers at the Bears. 2. Pace knows the Bears are still a year or two away, so there is no point bringing him back if he is not a long term solution. It also gives Forte a shot at a SB (like Peanut and Allen). 3. They project Forte to drop off further or faster than expected and are in the camp of cutting sling earlier than later. 4. Pace is eyeing Ezekiel Elliott in the draft or a FA RB that is younger. 5. Pace has no clue what he is doing and we will be a dumpster fire until he is fired.

I am somewhat surprised at no offer. Pace clearly has a strict plan and is not letting emotions get in the way. Forte will be missed, a consummate pro on and off the field. Hopefully he gets a decent deal and we actually get a comp pick. Langford is now the man. Statement from Pace:

Hurt Forte as in he will get less money or hurt Forte because the Bears will be reluctant to sign him because of production risk?

I will budge, and the DB could be a S or a CB, I just felt the secondary needed to be addressed due to the age of Porter/Mundy. We could slide that need out of the top 4 picks, but not past the 5th round. So I would say ILB, DB(S or CB), OL, DL drafted within the first 5 rounds. So I want a D-Line pick, LB (preferably ILB), O-Line, and Secondary (S or CB) picked in the first 5 rounds.

I can't see Pace picking a player (after White's injury/surgery) who just tore his ACL and LCL and has not seen football action since the injury. Smith was a better player pre-injury, but is now a huge question mark and is not something I see Pace doing. - Side note - Great idea Jason. I had no issues with the first draft, you hit all the major need areas in the first 4 picks, went for a QB with huge upside in the 5th, then went depth at OL and DB, with a Kicker upgrade in the 6th. All from big school programs too. I really can't complain. Without knowing our free agent signings, this would be about as good as we could ask for in a draft.

Yeah, those are some big shoes to fill. They might as well go into full rebuild mode. They lost Suh last offseason and now Megatron this offseason. Seems like they are going in the wrong direction.

How about Houston? They were a great defensive team with no QB. They are at 22, which may be too far for us, but looking at the Draft Value chart, we could get a pretty good haul for moving down from 11 to 22: Bears 11 (1250) = Texans 22 (780), 52 (380), 120 (54), 159 (27.8)~1241.8 That would be the Bears 1st, for the Texans 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th rounders.

Taking a different look at this. I think we all know our biggest weaknesses, but what about improving our skill positions? With the projected loss of Forte, questions about Bennett, and question marks at WR, what about some of these younger skill position UFA's: RBs Lamar Miller, 24, MIA, 194-872, 4.5, 8 TD Ronnie Hillman, 24, DEN, 207-863, 4.3, 7 TD Chris Ivory, 27, NYJ, 247-1070, 4.3, 7 TD Alfred Morris, 27, WAS, 202-751, 3.7, 1 TD WRs Travis Benjamin, 25, CLE, 61-893, 5 TD Marvin Jones, 25, CIN, 57-745, 4 TD Rueben Randle, 24, NYG, 51-638, 6 TD Rishard Matthews, 26, MIA, 43-662, 4 TD Mohamed Sanu, 26, CIN, 29-359, 0 TD TEs Dwayne Allen, 25, IND, 16-109, 1 TD Ladarius Green, 25, SD, 37-429, 4 TD Jermaine Gresham, 27, ARZ, 18-223, 1 TD Coby Fleener, 27, IND, 54-491, 3TD

Jason, nice comparison, I agree that the 85' Bears would beat the Panthers or Broncos. Now what about the Seahawks? I know they got pounded in the 1st half, but I think they match up, player for player a little better with the 85 Bears.

Jack, Stanley, or Ramsey seem like the logical choices, and there is a chance one of them will be there at #11.

Of the 76 kicker/punters in the database, Gould finished 75th (in terms of Value-Added) with a -13.4 and O'Donnell finished 42nd with a -1.6. The part that most were concerned with was Gould's kickoffs and that was clearly illustrated in this database as he finished dead last in that category. http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-ha...on-nfl-kickers/ So with a cap hit of $4.1mil next year, is Kicker an area we need to address this offseason? Gould has the 3rd highest average salary for a Kicker (behind Gostkowski and Janikowski).

I believe they tagged Demaryius Thomas last year (then signed him) and Marshall will be a Restricted Free Agent this offseason.

Manning has a $21.5 million cap hit for next year, so it seems like Denver's plans will come down to whether they keep Peyton on board or not. Otherwise, they will only have $13 million in cap space for next year which will likely prevent them from doing too much in the offseason.

Of all the teams in the playoffs, I wanted Minnesota, Green Bay, and Seattle to lose. So my postseason is complete. I can now point to the fact that all they got out of this season was a worse draft pick (which technically should benefit us). For your morning pleasure: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown...-043643190.html

With the amount of cap space we have and could potentially have with some other moves, that is somewhat hard to believe. I wouldn't rule anything out at this point. I just don't want to overpay to just get a name. Also, I don't think Pace is the type to show his hand.

Feeling pretty good as a Bears fan, Vikings and Packers both lose in epic, heartbreaking fashions in back to back weeks. GB didn't even deserve to be in the playoffs, then drew overachieving Washington by losing in Week 17. Cards should've crushed them, but as you guys pointed out, GB getting the lion's share of non-calls.

Now I don't know if this is a team thing or just the website contributors, but if it is a team thing, then this would seem to support the notion that Forte will not be back. Easier to justify to fanbase if rookie RB is your RoY over others. Just speculation. http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...0e-5aa9e812b8f9

Jason, The first draft is hot garbage, yours is clearly better. Cardale Jones and no ILB? I am seeing a trend with these compilation sites (like Walter Football, etc) where they are really becoming watered down and the mocks have been for the most part unrealistic. I like the sites that have team "experts" or enthusiasts draft for their teams, as those at least seem a little better at targeting team needs.

I can't see any scenario where the Bears just release Bennett outright without compensation. If they lose him as a free agent after 2016, they would more than likely get a comp pick (5th-6th), so I don't think they are just going to cut and run. Owen Daniels compensation was a 6th rounder. With so much cap space already, I don't see his salary being an issue this year. Right now I see the TE position as a position of strength (Bennett and Miller), so I would do one of the following with Bennett before releasing him this offseason: 1. Trade for a 5th or 6th rounder this offseason 2. Trade before deadline for 5th or 6th rounder 3. Play out 2016 season on current contract and enter free agency (get comp pick)

Good to see at least one of our players be recognized. I think the offseason will drive more where Long ends up than anything else.

Some comments from Long in regards to Loggains: I like the fact that he mentioned accountability and illustrated it with the seeking out a little face-to-face comment.

Using DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average) which is way better than QBR as it takes the defense into account, Cutler was 9th. Also, an interesting note about Cutler, look at these QB Rating splits for sides of the field: 72.1 QB Rating (Wide Right) 85.9 QB Rating (Right) 109.9 QB Rating (Left) 107.2 QB Rating (Wide Left) He was elite throwing to the left and mediocre/average throwing to the right. I thought that was interesting.

I agree, he didn't do much and was out on 3rd Downs.

Based on Pace's comments, it will be whoever is BPA at the time of our selection. If QB is the BPA, I wouldn't be shocked if he pulled the trigger. However, it is one of the few singular positions on the team. You can only have one QB on the field at a time, no other position other than Center can say that (and you can even slide them to Guard). So if there is BPA in any position other than QB, it can help us now and in long term. Going QB in the first would be a huge investment by the organization in a position we are already heavily invested in. If it was me, I would not go QB this year.

Here is the full list of offense and defense with their draft slot. QB: Jameis Winston (1) RB: Todd Gurley (10) FB: Michael Burton (168) WR: Amari Cooper (4), Stephon Diggs (146), Tyler Lockett (69) TE: Clive Walford (68) OT: Donovan Smith (34), Robert Havenstein (57) OG: Ali Marpet (61), Brandon Scherff (5) C: Mitch Morse (49) DE: Leonard Williams (6), Mario Edwards Jr. (35) DT: Eddie Goldman (39), Malcom Brown (32) ILB: Kwon Alexander (124), Eric Kendricks (45) OLB: Markus Golden (58), Preston Smith (38) CB: Ronald Darby (50), Marcus Peters (18) S: Landon Collins (33), Adrian Amos (142) Some interesting notes: Only 4 out of the 22 on this list were selected after pick 70 (Burton-FB, Diggs-WR, Alexander-ILB, Amos-S), and 12 of 22 were drafted in the top 40. A lot of names I remember from our draft discussions as potential Bears draft picks.