adam

Yeah, the Ridley deal helps the Bears at #9 immensely. Like you guys said, both TEN and ATL are not drafting a WR. They may trade out for a team looking for a QB. 3 QBs, MHJ, and Alt gone in top 5. Then we have NYG, TEN, and ATL. One of Odunze or Nabers should be there at 9.

I tried to come up with an objective value for the players that left and the ones that replaced them. So far, the Bears are doing really good. Here is what I call a PFF Approximate Value (AV) using their PFF score weighted against their snap counts. This may not be as easy to see but once the Bears can fill those 4 bigger shoes, they will be markedly improved already based on these moves.

So far, a lot of cap spending left to fill the remaining roster vacancies: 1. FS - Jackson (58.6/646) > Byard (72.8/1187) 2. DB - Blackwell (28.5/21)> Owens (59.6/927) 3. RB - Foreman (74.0/267) > Swift (66.5/669) 4. TE - Tonyan (49.6/319)> Everett (65.6/570) 5. G - Feeney (44.8/90) > Bates (78.7/35) 6. G - Patrick (50.5/953) > Prior (88.5/42) 7. LB - Cole (50.1/3)> (Ogbongbemiga (72.6/6) 1. C - Whitehair (45.0/787) > FA/Rookie 2. TE - Lewis (77.1/330) > FA/Rookie 3. WR - St. Brown (55.1/211) > FA/Rookie 4. WR - Mooney (55.2/764) > FA/Rookie 5. WR - Taylor (51.8/121) > FA/Rookie 1. DE - Ngakoue (39.9/592)> FA/Rookie 2. DE - Green (50.6/385) > FA/Rookie 3. DT - Jones (49.3/740) > FA/Rookie 4 big shoes to fill left, C, WR, DE, and DT.

Bears sign Amen Ogbongbemiga!

If anything, knowing the injury history, it would have to be an incentive-laden deal, with nothing guaranteed beyond this year.

I don't think it would preclude them from drafting a WR high. His price can't be that high. He has only had 2 1K seasons, and the last one was in 2021. So he is 2 years removed from a great season. How much do you think he would command? His last contract averaged 20M AAV, and that seems way too high for his production. I was thinking something similar to Mooney's $13M. Now that I am reading more, he is coming off an ACL injury, so his availability is unknown, on second pass, I will pass on him.

A camp arm, knows the offense. Will act as this year's Peterman.

The big splash for me would be Mike Williams. Coming off injury, he shouldn't command top dollar compared to his potential as a super WR2. Compliments Moore perfectly at 6'4" 220.

Sign Brett Rypien

DJ Moore, Mike Williams, and Curtis Samuel would be a pretty sweet trio coupled with Kmet and Everett and Swift with catches out of the backfield. That is a ton of targets.

According to OTC, the $44M in effective cap includes Swift, Owens, Bates, and Johnson. It just doesn't include Byard and Everett so far. The max cap hits for Byard and Everett total $13.5M, but will more than likely be slightly lower. So the Bears have at least $30M left and probably closer to $33M left. They also can create some wiggle room if they want it, they can convert some of Sweat's, Edmunds', or Moore's salary to bonuses, which could free up to $15M without massive impacts on future cap space. Lastly, if they did trade Fields, that would save an additional $3M. So that is over $50M in effective cap space without doing too much. If we stick with the $33M, they should be able to get 3-4 starter level players. They need a Center, WR, Edge, and DT, so I can see them using most of the remaining space on those guys to replace Whitehair/Mooney/Ngakoue/Jones. If they need more space, then they can create it and use the rest on some lower level guys under $3M per year. Patrick, Green, Lewis, St. Brown, Taylor, and Cole would be the remaining "holes" that need to be filled and all of them were backups that should not require extensive cap space to fill. Some of the deals will be vet minimums that won't even hit the top 51 salaries of the cap. One last thing to consider. There about a 1M buffer right now, so the Bears can sign a guy with a $3M cap hit and it only makes the current cap go up $2M because that player is knocking a $1M player off the top-51 salary list for the cap. So every player here are on counts basically $1M less against the cap than the cap hit shows. So if the Bears sign 7 more players, they can technically spend $7M more than the projected cap space that is listed today.

If you replace "x" with "twitter" it should post the link

How the rest of the spots may get filled. I am hoping for at least a 25% accuracy with this lol: 1. G/C - Patrick (50.5/953) > Evan Brown 2. C/G - Whitehair (45.0/787) > Brian Allen 3. WR - Mooney (55.2/764) > Curtis Samuel 4. DT - Jones (49.3/740) > Poona Ford 5. DE - Ngakoue (39.9/592)> DJ Wonnum 6. DE - Green (50.6/385) > Shaw Lawson 7. TE - Lewis (77.1/330) > Adam Trautman 8. WR - St. Brown (55.1/211) > Tyler Boyd 9. WR/PR - Taylor (51.8/121) > Braxton Berrios 10. LB - Cole (50.1/3)> Matt Eberflus's Goatee

1. FS - Jackson (58.6/646) > Byard (72.8/1187) 2. DB - Blackwell (28.5/21)> Owens (59.6/927) 3. RB - Foreman (74.0/267) > Swift (66.5/669) 4. TE - Tonyan (49.6/319)> Everett (65.6/570) 5. G - Feeney (44.8/90) > Bates (78.7/35) 1. G/C - Patrick (50.5/953) > Rookie 2. C/G - Whitehair (45.0/787) > FA/Rookie 3. WR - Mooney (55.2/764) > Rookie 4. DT - Jones (49.3/740) > Rookie 5. DE - Ngakoue (39.9/592)> Rookie 6. DE - Green (50.6/385) > FA 7. TE - Lewis (77.1/330) > FA 8. WR - St. Brown (55.1/211) > FA 9. WR - Taylor (51.8/121) > FA 10. LB - Cole (50.1/3)> FA Between G and C, the Bears need to make up 1740 snaps. Some will be made up by having Davis full time, but the other half will need to come from a full time Center. Next is WR2 at 764 snaps, then DT at 740, and Edge at 592. So interior lineman, WR, DT, and Edge need to come soon.

I was thinking more on the FA side. I am sure there are a few trade options, but with the expected salary that Higgins is demanding (more than Moore), I doubt they commit that much of the cap to WR.

Eddie Jackson won't count, either will Whitehair (if he signs anywhere). However, guys like Ngakoue, Patrick, Feeney, Green, and Foreman may have a shot if their AAV is over $3M. Guys like St. Brown, Cole, and Taylor may sign somewhere, but it will more than likely be a vet min deal which won't count.

Yep, only UFAs count, so Swift (3/24) and Everett (2/12) so far vs Mooney (3/39), Jones (3/30) Swift - 5th, Everett - 6th Mooney - 4th, Jones - 5th Even though the Bears have higher rounds, I believe they would cancel out. We would need the Bears to lose more than they gain. Here is a good breakdown on the cancellations. Denver is a good example in there, as they gained and lost 3, and all of them cancelled each other out. https://overthecap.com/compensatory-draft-picks-cancellation-chart

Played for Waldron and is familiar with the offense.

Yeah the Bears have to lose more free agents than they sign, and based on salary range. So Mooney signing helps the Bears, but then is negated by one of the Bears FAs who signs for a similar amount.

Here is my list for Day 2: Curtis Samuel, Josh Reynolds, Tyler Boyd - WR Braxton Berrios - WR/PR Gerald Everett, Adam Trautman - TE (signed Everett 2/12M) Evan Brown, Brian Allen - C DJ Reader, Poona Ford, Sheldon Rankins - DT Danielle Hunter, Chase Young, DJ Wonnum, Shaq Lawson - Edge

2 years, 12M Finally a real TE2. He is a perennial 50 catch, 450 yard receiver. Now 18M tied to the TE group. If you take Everett's production + Swift's in the receiving game, that is basically 100 receptions a year added to the roster, while replacing Foreman and Tonyan lol.

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Swift averages 50 receptions per year. The Bears have not had a pass catching RB this good since Forte.

So the first 3 acquisitions point to keeping Fields. Bates - 2 years left on contract Byard = 2 year deal Swift = 3 year deal with a 3rd year no guarantees Those all align to Fields 5th year option, and they would all come off the books when Fields is due big money.