scs787

I get where you're coming from, still think the money very well could be there. But I've gone from full on optimistic to just "so you're saying there is a chance" mode. I think Bennett is certainly a step towards a championship team, he was after all the best lineman on Seattle last year. To expand on the whole DEs being slim pickins in the draft, take a look at next years FA group... Osi Umenyiora DE ATL Kroy Biermann DE ATL Cliff Matthews DE ATL Pernell McPhee DE BAL Cheta Ozougwu DE CHI R Christo Bilukidi DE CIN R Jabaal Sheard DE CLE Thaddeus Gibson DE DAL R Everette Brown DE DAL George Selvie DE DAL Cory Redding DE IND Derrick Shelby DE MIA R Jared Odrick DE MIA Will Smith DE NO Lawrence Guy DE SD R Chris Clemons DE SEA Cliff Avril DE SEA Glenn Dorsey DE SF DaQuan Bowers DE TB Jarvis Jenkins DE WAS Ya got probably 1 of Clemons or Avril, a 34 year old Osi, and then a whole pile of junk. If they can fit it in the budget I'm still all for Bennett, Johnson, or perhaps Houston.

Gah, I guess it depends on if they plan on dipping into the Cutler/Jennings/Slausson deals Which for the right situation I believe the will do what they gotta do. The cap number is all I care about as a fan, I think the tops I'd go cap wise is 12M. That's 4M more than I thought and in my mock offseason I had the Bears taking 2M out of Cuttys contract....I also had them spending another 2M on a DE who I now think would be over kill, so scratch that, take another 2M of the Cutler deal, or a mill off Jennings/Slaus and it's still possible without sacrificing depth. In the end, with DE being slim pickins in the draft the Bears need to find SOMEONE who can make an impact at that position....I don't think Peppers is that guy anymore. Pep was going 1 on 1 all season so it's not a matter of pair him with a better line and he'll be an impact player again.

Rookies start all the time right off the bat. Esp. if they can go DT-CB-S with the picks I think those guys will be fine. CB is hella deep so they can get a 1st round talent in the 2nd round. Safety is deep as well, and in the "last line of defense" role they'd be fine. Bostic was awful because the DL was awful and teams were able to get big bodies on em, I don't think it really has much to do about him being a rookie.

Sadly that more than likely won't be the # after Everson bleepin Griffen got 8.5 mill. That's awful.

Ya, hopefully teams realize just how awful that deal is and don't use it as a "measuring stick" Dude is now being paid the 8th highest average salary among DEs....A guy who has started 1 game in 5 years....1 game...WOW.

I think there's a good chance. With how deep this draft is they should be able to find starters in rounds 1-3.

Peppers in his prime yes, he's the better player...Peppers is past his prime though. They'll find a replacement for Melton as well. Hopefully Donald is that guy, or perhaps it could be Melton again.

Its Ratliff damnit!!! lol Griffen is off the market. 5 year deal. Will be interesting to see how much. Could kinda set the market a bit. EDIT- Yeesh, Griffen gets 5/42. Averages out to over 8M a year. That's about what I thought Bennett/Johnson would get. Still think Bennett/Johnson is a possibility but after seeing that deal I'm a little less optimistic.

Would be nice, bring back Wootton and let all those guys compete with him. While we of course have Bennett on the other side. I know I've been drafting Kareem Martin in just about every mock but after typing all those names I'm not so sure it's a need if they do bring in Bennett/Johnson and Wootton.

I'm thinking it's one or the other honestly. We all know the Bears wanna get younger and "build from the draft". So with that being said the CB position is really deep this year, I think that's where we get our new CB. DE is really thin so I think they address that in FA. Safety and DT is also deep, so I think we see rookie starters there as well.

Blirzing linebackers?? You mean you can do that sort of thing? lol. Hopefully we see a lot of what he said, the "vanilla D" worked in the past but they had the players to make it work. That Jags D was filled with a bunch of nobodies and still ranked #6, so we know Tucker and his D have some potential. I'm rooting for Lane as well. DE is stocked full of question marks like him, Scott, Bass, Washington, and Ozougwa, who all interestingly enough can probably play OLB, so it'd be real nice if a couple of them emerge. Lane was dabbling in MMA, so maybe working with Joe Kim might take him to the next level.

If he gets 3/21 then I wouldn't say his injury cost him. 7 mill a year would give him the 7th highest contract for a DT.

I fixed your post.

Sources say they've also been in contact with Johnson...Lovie and the Bucs said to be making a "hard push" as well.

I think he'd prefer a 1 year deal unless someone pays him pro bowl type money that he would have got before injury.

I kinda disagree, I think these guys have sources. Biggs speculated earlier in the day that those 2 along with a few other could be targets...then he baccked that up with this tweet.

Brad Biggs ‏@BradBiggs 19m Listed Mike Mitchell (Panthers) and Ryan Mundy (Giants) as 2 safeties that could be in play for #Bears this morning. They are targeted. I assume this means we've been in contact with them. Mitchell is listed as the 94th ranked FA by NFL.com. Played for Chico in Carolina, and that D was pretty damn good. Rotoworld had this to say about him "Playing on a one-year deal last season, Mitchell racked up 66 tackles, four interceptions, 3.5 sacks and two forced fumbles. He was a play-maker for a secondary that doesn't have many of them. Mitchell is still only 27. He'd have a nice little market if he reached free agency." Rotoworld also notes that he can play both safety positions. Mundy is a little less interesting. Was signed to be a backup by the Giants, cracked the starting lineup when Stevie Brown got hurt, had a decent year with 77 tackles a sack and a pick.

Grizzly my brotha, you must have been missing. I've been preaching for Bennett and breaking down different angles. The numbers on paper look like Peppers is close to on par with him, but you have to dig a little deeper. -Peppers played 724 snaps compared to 569 for Bennett (Seattle had a ridiculously deep line). -Bennett also played a good deal inside. -According to Biggs, Peppers only had 15 pressures....Bennett? 66. Pepper cap hit this year is 14M, it saves the Bears 9.8M to cut him....I expect Bennett to get a little less than that in year 1 of his contract. I'm thinking 8M, so essentially that's money for Ratliff and Bennett.

Man, I honestly thought I was gonna get blasted for even thinking about trading Briggs, surprised a bit. I don't care about the whining and all that though, my thoughts are based solely on if they think Bostic is predecessor. Kinda like having a minor leaguer emerge and the big league club trading a guy to make room for him.

Mayock most recently said he probably goes in the "4th round area". He's pretty much a luxury to have, not a guy you'd want to be an every down back. I put him in the same category as Kenjon Barner, for obvious reasons, who fell to the 6th round last year. I'll bite on doing the mock... 1R- Aaron Donald DT Pitt---Starting to get a little worried that he won't actually be there, but e's here so it's the obvious pick. 2R- Stanley Jean Baptiste CB Nebraska--- Had Mcgill in my last mock but the 2 are of similar molds. Think he was gone in my last mock. 3R- Kareem Martin DE UNC--- "Reached" here, probably could have got him in the 4th but I don't think it's too realistic. Wootton shouldn't be handed the job. 4R- Dion Bailey S USC---- I've been on record saying I don't think we need "great" safeties, so I hold true and wait till the 4th and grab Bailey who is good VALUE. 5R- Jay Bromley DT Cuse---- Think he's going a little under the radar. 9 sacks his senior year, which is good coming from a DT. Also stout against the run. 6R- Logan Thomas QB VT---- Thought about Boyd here, would be cool with either 6R- Tyler Gafney RB Stanford- A guy who was considered a "bruiser" but came out and ran a sub 4.5 40.

It's not that bad but Willie Young just doesn't excite me that much. You've brought up sack numbers and the strength of Seattles D in reference to Bennett, well Young only had 4 sacks and he played on a line that featured the best DT duo in the league, Suh and Fairley. All the while playing 144 more snaps than Bennett. I of course agree with Adam in thinking that we have a real good chance at Bennett

If they didn't already have Lavonte David, who's probably better than Briggs at this point, I'd say that's possible. After the Browns straight up released D'qwell Jackson, I'm not even sure we can get anything for Briggs (Have to think Browns tried trading him before releasing him, but that's just a guess).

Ya, he's probably gone. I believe in Trestmans system though, I believe even Jerrod Johnson can have success in it. I don't expect him to be the backup but I'm just sayin.

I've always loved Briggs, but if the Bears think Bostics', or even Greene, who drew Briggs comps coming into the draft, future is at Will then why not get a pick for him before letting him walk next year.

C'mon man, this is a message board, and that quote about trading all the picks was highlight by TD. Of course we're gonna respond to it. I just called what he said silly, because no matter what the context of what he said about the picks is that is just that silly. I know he's not serious, he's being, well....silly. Then Mad brought up trading him and I responded to that as well.....I'm not saying I'd trade him based solely on his comments, it's something I'd entertain regardless. I'm just doin what I do, respond to posts.