adam

Decent backup, but I don't want him starting.

http://www.csnchicago.com/bears/source-lan...turn-bears-2015 They just made it official. Now I am waiting for Briggs response. He really fell off the last two years and was part of the declining defense.

If there was a trade partner, and one looking for equitable cap hits, this seems like the most logical destination. Other teams would have to trade draft picks and take on a large cap hit which I think is the biggest drawback.

Same age as Forte, can't believe how fast MJD fell off the map. Has 30 more carries than Forte.

2012 Stats Bradford - 82.6 QB Rating, 59.5 Comp%, 3702 Yards, 21 TD, 13 INT Cutler - 81.3 QB Rating, 58.8 Comp%, 3033 Yards, 19 TD, 14 INT 2015 Cap Hit: Bradford - $16,580,000 ($3,595,000 dead money) Cutler - $16,500,000 ($19,500,000 dead money) Would you even consider something like this? We get a serviceable QB that at least showed signs of putting it together, except for the injuries. We would get cap flexibility since it is the last year of his contract. We always could cut him later and only take a $3.5 cap hit. If he looks legit, extend his contract and cut the cap hit in half.

Yeah, essentially the Bears could get an extra 3rd or 4th round pick, sign Hartline and Royal, and still have some cap space left. Jeffery/Hartline/Royal would be a pretty good 1-2-3.

Signing Hartline would make it a lot easier to move Marshall (if that was the plan). Just clearing Marshall's $9.5, we could easily sign Hartline and probably someone like Royal for the slot, and still have cap space left.

They have essentially 4x ILB's with Borland, Willis, Bowman, and Wilhoite. Though depth is good, that is a waste. Borland is almost a lock for one of the spots, and one of the vets will get the other. Leaving 2 candidates to move. I would do it for a 6th or 7th.

What coach was worth a damn anyway? Calling the kettle black. It is not like any of our former coaches or coordinators are tearing it up somewhere else.

Kyle's response to the nonsense is classic:

Tier 1 players and even some in the other tiers are going to break the bank. I don't think we can afford to do that with all our holes. I would try to hit 1 or 2 from Tier 1 and the rest from Tier 2: Tier 2 Iupati - OL Worilds - LB McPhee - LB - Bears projected to sign Knighton - DL Tier 3 Flowers - CB Orakpo - LB Jackson - CB Ingram - RB Franklin - OL Culliver - CB Moore - S Williams - DL Harris - LB Wisniewski - OL Rolle - S Cox - CB Searcy - S

Has ties to Marshall in Miami, but is a Canton native and played at Ohio State. I would assume he is leaning towards Cleveland with their void at WR and his roots.

I heard about this possibility the other day on NFL Network (Sirius). They were discussing how Kelly was unhappy with the cap hit for McCoy and how McCoy would not renegotiate. He got rid of DeSean Jackson and now McCoy. Either he is going to be a genius or fired at the end of the year. Philadelphia Ducks. We will keep our Duck.

Sure the Bears could restructure after a trade (but only if Johnson allowed it). Essentially, you get the contract as is and are obligated the same way the original team was. Sure you could work out some sort of extension or restructuring, but all the restructuring would do is reduce the cap hit this year and increase it in the following years (kicking the can down the road). Some teams do it the other way and front load most of the deal (if they have cap space) and then they have lighter years near the end with very little dead money. In regards to Johnson, he seems to be more of a diva than BMarsh. I'll pass.

Bingo.... We found the cause to all our problems. Seriously though, units need to build cohesion. Trestman was conducting a social experiment and it failed miserably.

because this is TalkBears! /end thread

Here are the list of Unanimous and Consensus All-Americans that are in the 2015 draft: All-Americans Unanimous Tevin Coleman, RB Landon Collins, DB Amari Cooper, WR Senquez Golson, DB Melvin Gordon, RB Gerod Holliman, DB Tre Jackson, OL Hau'oli Kikaha, LB Marcus Mariota, QB Brandon Scherff, OL Consensus Nick O'Leary, TE Reese Dismukes, OL Laken Tomlinson, OL Vic Beasley, DL Malcom Brown, DL Shane Ray, DL Paul Dawson, LB Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, DB Tyler Lockett, KR/PR I see a lot of names that the Bears have been linked to. It is interesting to look back at past award winners and see where they ended up in the draft and how they performed in their NFL careers. Here are the last 5 years of unanimous All-Americans and where they were drafted. 82% of consensus All-Americans have been drafted in the first two rounds (64% in first round). Last year a few guys dropped for various reasons (man-love, etc) so prior to 2014, the numbers were even higher:

We also don't have a true possession WR either. If BMarsh is gone, I would like to have both a speedy WR to stretch the field, and a possession guy with great hands that runs precise routes.

NE is one of the worst drafting teams in the league over the past decade in regards to efficiency. GB, NE, BAL, PIT, DEN, and IND - all teams in the top 10 over the past decade (in terms of record) are on the bottom half of the league when it comes to draft efficiency. NO is the only good team that has excelled at drafting over the past 10 years (thanks Pace). The Bears are 15th. What makes NE and GB look better is that they have had a lot of extra picks to hit on a good player, but in terms of raw efficiency, they really haven't been that good. Draft Efficiency NE (31st) 17.1/8 GB (18th) 20.0/6 BAL (19th) 19.8/5 PIT (26th) 19.0/5 DEN (16th) 20.7/7 NO (2nd) 26.5/9 IND (20th) 19.5/4 Bears (15th) 21.0/7 Average 21.1/5 *First number is average number of starts per player drafted, and second number is the number of players that made the Pro Bowl at least once. Best team: Chargers Worst team: Redskins Here is the link from 2004-2013: http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/which-...-the-nfl-draft/

The idea is the same money is worth more now than it will be if we owe it in 5 years. So $1 mil will not "feel" like $1 mil in 3-4 years. Yet bringing in a impact player with that $5 mil this year vs league minimum player would. Obviously with Cutler owning the biggest cap hit and question marks, makes this a very tough decision. $1 mil a year is really not going to impact us down the road negatively where $5 mil this year could help us a lot. I am just exploring all possibilities. Obviously if Cutler is not in their plans (short or long term), then we would not want to be on the hook for anything beyond the time he is here.

According to Overthecap.com the Bears have approximately $29 million in cap space going into Free Agency. If the Bears plan to stick with Cutler, and want to make a big splash in free agency, wouldn't it make sense to convert some of his 2015 salary into a signing bonus so the hit is spread out over multiple years? If I am reading everything correctly, we could free up around $5 million in cap space this year by converting $6 mil into a signing bonus, then we would carry an extra $1 mil hit per year for the next 5. With the cap increasing basically every year, $1 mil will not be that big of a deal if we had to cut Cutler. However, $5 mil freed this year could bring in another impact free agent. What do you think? Work with what we have or reduce and add another free agent? With Allen dropping off the books after this year, and other contracts expiring (Forte), we are going to have a ton of cap space in 2016. So we could essentially re-work Cutler's contract now to bring in someone this year without having to worry about a crunch next year.

It is pretty funny when they talk about a drop in production, but the guy had half as many targets as he had the two years prior. So of course his receptions and yardage would be down. Every WR on Miami had a down year (maybe the QB's fault or the game plan?). Funny that they cut Hartline and Gibson, are looking to trade Wallace but are keeping Jarvis Landry and his 9.0 yds/rec which is less than their TEs (Clay/Sims). Hartline seems like a durable possession guy.

Here is a cool mock draft tracker: http://www.thehuddlereport.com/scoring/mockdrafts.shtml Other stats sites I use: http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/stats/2014/20/Overall/ http://www.sportingcharts.com/ http://www.advancedfootballanalytics.com/index.php http://www.footballoutsiders.com/

Here are the other recent trades of WR's that included a 3rd or better in the last 7 years. Interestingly, BMarsh is involved in 2 of the 5. Boldin's age at the time of trade was similar to Marshall's current age. Looking at all of these, I am now leaning towards a 3rd and a 5th/6th. I can't believe how much Seattle paid for Harvin and Dallas for Williams. 2008 - Roy Williams and 7th to Dallas for 1st, 3rd, 6th. 2010 - Anquan Boldin and 5th to Baltimore for 3rd and 4th 2010 - BMarsh to Dolphins for 2x 2nd's 2012 - Bmarsh to Bears for 2x 3rd's 2013 - Percy Harvin to Seahawks for 1st, 3rd, 7th.

They draft late in the round, their 3rd is basically a 4th, and he would leave a pretty big hole to fill. I would say a 2nd.