adam

$6mil is crazy for Parker. I was figuring $4mil for 3 years. $30mil? Wow. I would rather have Goldson and use him like he was in SF. Brown would be good too, especially considering his experience with Rolle.

Allen is going to be a situational pass rusher and won't necessarily play OLB. He will be an outside edge rusher. He is not strong enough to be inside. Of our current DE's, I see Houston in a similar role as McPhee and is moved all over the place. So he could be considered a DE/OLB. Guys like Bass, Lane, Washington, and Young are more than likely going to have to see if they can play OLB. Dunn, Ferguson, Ratliff, and Sutton will stay on the line. Bostic, Greene, Jones, and Lattimore will have to be tried inside. SMC will more than likely be cut, but if not will get a shot at OLB. So you are right, we do have a bunch of guys projected for DE/OLB that can't really play DE in a 3-4. I believe some will be moved on draft day or cut in the summer to clean the roster up.

The Bears have a ton of cap space next year, so they could get creative with some contracts and give Tillman something more than the vet minimum. Just give him a 3 yr deal for $1mil base salary this year with a $2mil signing bonus so he gets $3mil this year, but only $1.666 against the cap.

Sure NYJ got a good deal, but there were other circumstances that led to the trade than just production, so comparing Marshall's number to salary is moot point. Now comparing Britt and Royal is another story. I have always liked Britt and I would've loved to have seen him signed, but no way would I give him $7mil a year (I was thinking $4-5). There has to be some reason he has never lived up to his billing. Also, he is not a slot receiver and to diversify our WR corps, the slot was a bigger need. Lastly, just comparing performance over their careers, Britt's best season is 48 receptions (3 per game): Britt - best season 48-748 Royal - best season 91-980, 2nd- 62-778, 3rd- 59-627 I also don't think Britt was ever truly available and STL seemed to give him a little bump in pay due to his $1mil salary from last year. So based on the market, Royal for $5 is a better value than Britt at $7. I will mark this thread and come back at the end of the year (to eat crow if I have to), but I believe the two receivers will put up comparable numbers this year with Royal having the edge in receptions for $2 mil less.

If Cutler struggles, I think Clausen will get a chance, but he is not the long term solution. However, I cannot think of a better situation for Cutler to light it up this year compared to previous years. Trestman fooled us last year (fool's gold) and most were not aware how toxic the locker room had gotten (so I can see why many have a pessimistic view on the offense this season). With Fox/Gase/Loggains, the subtraction of Marshall and the addition of Royal, Cutler has the best coaching staff from top to bottom to excel with the right mix of players to have routes develop at different times in his progressions. DEN vs CHI skill player comparison: Alshon is very similar to D. Thomas, Bennett has out-produced J.Thomas in everything other than TDs, and before last season Royal and E. Sanders were very comparable. The only production missing would be from the #3WR where Welker had 49-464. Wilson was basically a non-factor on offense last year and I don't know if he is the answer. Forte is comparable to any of the Denver RBs except we don't have a true pounder between the tackles. Denver has always had several RBs, which should result in more carries for Carey. If we add another WR, TE, and OLineman I think the offense has as much potential is it did last year (which the consensus was a top 10 offense).

Yeah, to me this is basically the going rate for this type of transaction. However, we got a higher pick in the 5th and gave up a higher one in the 7th, but based on draft pick value, we got a better deal.

Yeah what the hell, $7mil a yr for Britt?

I hope he has improved from that 1-9 season. Most other QB's would be out of the league after that type of season. He is a reliable backup but nothing more.

I was thinking Foster/Parker and Cox. That would be McPhee/Foster/Rolle/Parker/Cox added on defense, and Royal on offense.

According to overthecap.com we have $130,789,062 committed to the cap after the McPhee/Royal/Rolle signings, and we have an adjusted cap of $145,168,434 for this year (with carry over). That leaves us with $14.380; we have a total rookie pool of about $5.7 and an effective rookie pool of about $3.4. With league year expenses and some cap flexibility, that leaves us around $9mil to sign other FA's. To me this seems like we can bring in 2-3 more mid-tier players. Hopefully two of them will be Foster and Parker.

Mike Wallace traded for same picks to Minny.

Thanks Orbitz:

Oh yeah 2000, I thought you meant their last one. I really don't know how relevant that is from 15 years ago though. The game has evolved. For the longest time it was defense and running the ball. Now I am not so sure. Just looking at last year, using PF/PA, of the top 10 PF teams, 8 made the playoffs, and two did not (PHI 10-6, NO 7-9). Compare that to PA, where only 5/10 teams made the playoffs. The same number of teams (5) were in the top 10 in rushing, and 5 others were in the top 10 in passing. So a balanced offense seems to be the best, and offense is more important than defense.

The team also put out a policy in regards to "no tv shows" and Marshall was on tv asking Harbaugh if he would let him be on the show. Both sides clearly at posturing here. The team had a policy and Marshall didn't want to abide by it, so they moved him to where he could. Just imagine if he stayed and was not allowed to "promote his brand". He would've become even a bigger annoyance.

Baltimore won in Lovie's last year (Seattle won in Trestman's first). Also, you were way off on that Ravens team, they were actually 10th in scoring (398) and 12th in pts allowed (344). If you look back over the past decade, teams with better offenses (scoring) have won 6 out of the last 10. PIT x2, GB, and SEA all had stronger defenses than offenses when they won (and GB had a great offense too). Pittsburgh is the only team to win a SB with a team that ranked in the 20's in scoring over that period. This would lead me to believe that you want a top 10 offense and a top 20 defense at minimum, but a top 10 defense and top 20 offense may not give you enough pts to be competitive.

LIES!!!!

Wesson, I don't think it comes down to one unit over another. If you look at the one trend with all those numbers is we never had a losing record with a postive pts differential, and never had a winning record when we had a negative differential (regardless of how many pts we scored or allowed). Our best year was in 2006 when we had +172 and made it to the SB. Looking at the teams with consistent success, they also don't have huge drop-offs from starters to the guys at the bottom of their 53-man roster. New England is the master of the role player, and guys aren't really backups compared to situational players. Our roster has mainly been very vanilla with starters and subs, and there has always been a pretty steep drop-off. So sometimes improving the bottom of the roster is just as important as improving the top.

Good point. Foster has a lot of upside and I have faith in Fox and Fangio to get that out of our guys. Going from Tucker to Fangio is a massive upgrade.

Probably $1mil more than I expected. Maclin averaged $11, and T. Smith averaged $8 per year. Maclin and Smith both have only had 1 year over 1k. Smith only had 49 receptions last year. So there is some risk there too. Maclin paid as a top 5 WR? Looking at those contracts, Royal's was probably inflated by $1mil.

Yeah, I can't wait until he is back on his tv show. You know there is more to follow. There had to be a lot going on for the organization to give him away for a 5th rounder.

#93 on NFL.com, converted from CB to S, plays special teams.

He is ranked #62 on NFL.com. He had a down year under LOLvie. We can buy low on him.

3 starters, and DGB does not have a lot of pressure on him and can learn the ropes from Royal and Alshon.

Only $4mil for 1 year?