scs787

I'm aware. I'm just saying last year we had a list that went about 30 deep. This year we have 4. It just gave us something more to speculate about last year. The more speculation the more entertainment.

Well I guess we'll see. Again, I think we're in a similar situation with the front 4 as we were with WR in Phils first year. Phil addressed it by going out and trading for Marshall and traded up to get his guy Jeffery in the draft. Neither were free agent deals but he still had to open the check book for Marshall. Could also bring up the Cutler deal this year.....I don't think Phils afraid to open the checkbook,

I'm cool with Melton coming back, but again I really think Aaron Donald will be just as productive and be half the price. Paea was dealing with the turf toe all season, I think he's a a quality starter, but wouldn't be shocked if Ratliff takes his job thus making him a quality backup....Plus he's only counting 1.1M against the cap.

And leftovers won't give you a championship defense. Not when Lance Briggs is you're only impact player on the front 7. I get why everyone is so emphatic about the whole vet min stuff since Phil made a couple steals last year but at the end of the day those guys will only get you so far.

He might be back, 'but I'd prefer they shoot for Donald in the draft, if they end up missing out Ratliff could be a suitable starter if they don't like/can't snag another 3T DT in the draft. 5 guys I'm hoping for are Ratliff, Paea, Collins, Donald, then a 5th or 6th round run stuffer like Deandre Coleman or Shamar Stephen. With Ratliffs versatility as a pass rusher and an above average run stuffer you got 3 guys who can play the 3 well (Donald, Ratliff, and Collins) and also 3 guys who can play the NT (Paea, Ratliff, and the late round pick).

It could be wise for him to test the market and see if he can get more than another vet minimum deal. I think he'll end up being back at some point during FA. Hoping for 2 DTs drafted to go along with Collins, makes the Bears 5 deep at DT.

Fantastic, very well could be a starter at the 3 or NT or simply be quality depth. I'm guessing 2.5M. Now listen to Kyle Long and get Collins back here on another vet min deal. Kyle Long ‏@Ky1eLong 9h Why is @BIGN98 (Nate Collins) still a free agent? If I'm gonna recruit id say sign him up ASAP!

Ya i don't know what's goin on in that regard. Last year we had a thread filled with guys they worked out.

In reference to question number 3. Bears have tried out 2 late round QBs, Tajh Boyd and Jordan Lynch. Both guys are "scrambling" QBs, so perhaps we can rehash the read option comments Marc made before. Tajh is a real interesting prospect, was thought to be a first round talent coming into the senior season. Now, for whatever reason, is graded as a 7th round pick by CBS. All he did was improve his completion% from 67.2 to 68.5, his yards avg from 9.1 to 9.3, his passer rating from 165.6 to 168.7, and he threw 2 less ints. Yes there is "questions" about his height (he's 6'1") but it's not like he shrunk from when he was thought to be a first rounder till now. I'd love to draft him in the 5th or 6th, which I believe is more realistic than 7-UDFA.

Weird that this popped up with a Walt Aikens search......While we're on Walt Aikens, I really like him as a 4-6 round pick. He's not gonna be a day 1 starter, but if the Bears don't bring back Bowman he'd be a nice replacement.

lol nice bump, I thought Brian was back. when I typed in nfldraftsite.com I guess it's actually draftsite.com. They have us taking the right guy....Aaron Donald. 14 Chicago logo Chicago Aaron Donald DT Pittsburgh 6' 1" 285 DraftSite's comments: Donald seems to have debunked many of the theories of being too small to play defensive tackle at the next level. Teams like Chicago and Dallas that need penetrating defensive tackles will be all over a player like Donald on draft day.

No surprise here...I think Buttheads kid can at least replicate what we got out of him at half the price. Probably get some UDFAs to compete with him.

The problem there is the draft is 2 months after the beginning of FA....Chances are the top guys will be gone at that point so you're left with leftovers to "overpay" for. You can "make a splash" in the draft but that doesn't change the fact that they potentially have the money to also make one in FA. I'd much rather see a guy like Bennett (and to a lesser extent Houston/Johnson) lined up next to Donald than a 2nd tier question mark like Everson Griffin or Willie Young who MIGHT be good players I believe I added more than 6-8 guys while also still paying Bennett big bucks. Without looking at it I believe I added 4 new DTs, 4 new DTs, 2 LBs, 2 safeties, and 2 CBs. That's 14 new guys to go with Jennings, Briggs, Paea, Bass, Conte, Frey, Hayden, Bostic, SMC, Washington, Greene and Derrick Martin. That's 26 players, don't you carry 52 players? I think you're over valuing Wootton here. 3.5M puts him near the top 25 paid DEs Rob Ninkovich is the 23rd highest paid DE, he makes 3.5M.

Well he was a full time player in 2012 and still ranked in the top 10.

If that's the case what's the point in getting Byrd if good safeties have nothing to do with success of a good D?

I can't see Wootton getting more than say 2.5M, same for Ratliff, so I think that's 5M tops. Tillman, if he's back, probably gets around the 5M Jennings got. So that still leaves them with 15M to spend. Only need ~2.2M for the draft and hopefully they can find 4-5 guy that can contribute. I just think when you have the money to make a splash, you make a splash, esp. when you have no impact player on the DL. Kinda like when Phil traded for Marshall, it wasn't a FA signing, but he still added a big salary when the need for an impact WR was clear. That's how I view the DL at the moment. I guess I'd settle for Melton as our big signing on the DL but I'm in love with Aaron Donald, and think he'll be there for the Bears, so throw that money and a little more at Bennett.

Looking at the cap hits on DEs 10M would give him the 8th highest cap hit....I know I already said this in another thread, but if you believe in PFF rankings that's fair considering he was the 7th ranked DE in the league in 2012 and the 5th ranked DE last year. The 10M number is just on the high end too, it wouldn't shock me to see him take a back loaded deal where his cap number is perhaps even as low as like 5M. His bros deal was only 2M last year but bumps up to 6 this year which very well could happen with Michael but with numbers closer to 5 and 10. Though I expect the first year number to be closer to 8, and I'm fine with that.

There is no cap situation honestly, that is getting way overblown. I think I detailed that rather adequately in my mock offseason thread. As for this thread, you know my response, quantity over quality will only get you so far. At some point we need to make a splash. Given potentially 25M to work with and really only needing to add defensive players I don't even know how you'd spend all that without making one splashy signing.

Sack numbers weren't there the year before but he certainly was disruptive. PFF (yes, I'm going there) had him ranked as the 7th best DE in 2012, and 5th best in 2013. He's a disruptive mofo. With the rise of the cap 8-10M isn't huge money. Even the 12 and 14M I put out there isn't huge when you consider the cap is expected to go up another 7M next year and another 10M the following year.

Why does it defeat the purpose of doing it? Why even write up that clause if you're not gonna use it if necessary? It's 2M to give us money for the draft, I'm not going overboard here or anything. I really don't see why Phil wouldn't wanna open the wallet for Bennett, I think it's clear the money is there. Only gonna get so far with "under the radar" signings. I'm not sold on Williams as a receiver. As a returner? yes. As a 5'8" WR? no. Wilson steps into Bennetts #3 spot, while Morgan steps into Wilsons #4. If they wait then they only have 15M to mess around with for 2 months of FA...Which I guess is fine if you don't see Phil opening the checkbook (I do)....Then they have 14M to spend on leftovers. I thought about leaving Josh out but I had so much money to work with I didn't know what to do with it(yup you read that right)...Was debating between him and Tillman...They said they wanted to get younger on D so I went with Josh. I'm cool with either Brown or Husain. I used the WF mock for the first few rounds, all the safeties you mentioned were gone at that point. Brooks isn't bad though. Thanks, and we shall see. I know it probably won't look anything close to this but I was just kinda trying to "prove a point" that the Bears could spend big money on a guy and still be in good shape financially.

How can you not like Whitner? Dude has always been good against the run and last year he was was one of the better safeties in the league in coverage.

With my recent talks of spending big on Bennett I figured I'd throw out an ideal mock offseason. STARTING CAP MONEY- 8.4M (per Brad Biggs) RELEASE (w/ Cap savings) Peppers (9.8M) Bush (1.8M) Bennett (2.4) Podlesh (1M) (Kept Weems just because he's a good ST player and only clears a mill) CAP MONEY AFTER CUTS- 23.4 EXTEND Marshall 3 years 7M/12M/15M (saves 2M) CAP MONEY AFTER EXTENSION- 25.4 SIGN (all numbers are cap hits) Michael Bennett- 4 years 8m/10m/12m/14m (DE Seahawks) Corey Wootton 1 year 1.5M Nate Collins 1 year 500k Jay Ratliff 2 years 2M/2.5M DJ Williams 1 year 1M Blake Costanzo 1 year 1M Zack Bowman 2 years 1.5M/1.5M Husain Abdulah 3 years 2M/3M/4M (SS Chiefs) Matt Shaughnessy 2 years 2M/2.5M (DE Cards ((was used as a DE)) ) Josh McCown 2 years 2.5M/2.5M Eben Britton 2 years 1M/1.5M Joe Morgan 3 years 1M/1.5M/2M (WR Saints) Total Cap Spending- 24M TOTAL CAP SPACE LEFT- 1.4m CAP NEEDED FOR DRAFT- 2, 019,139 (per Overthecap.com) RESTRUCTURE Cutler (convert 2M into cap money) MONEY AFTER RESTRUCTURE 3.4m DRAFT 1R Aaron Donald DT Pitt ( "a dream for teams that utillize a 3T DT" ) 2R Keith McGill CB Utah (has been gaining steam since the combine, looks like a 2R pick) 3R Terrence Brooks FS Florida State (Competes and probably beats Conte for FS position) 4R Tyler Gaffney RB Stanford (Takes over the Bush role) 5R Deandre Coleman DT/DE Cal (Can be utilized as a Red Bryant type DE or inside at DT) 6R Jordan Navjar TE Baylor (Underutilized in Baylors O, transfer from TE U, soft hands, good blocker) 6R Best OL Available DL Bennett-Donald-Paea/Ratliff/Coleman-Wootton/Shaughnessy/Coleman/Bass/Washington- Bennett and Donald are locks, the other 2 spots have good competition. LB Briggs and then Williams, Bostic, and SMC battle for 2 spots CB Jennings-McGill-Frey-Bowman-Hayden. Bowman showed he was capable incase McGill slips. Hayden competes with Frey for the nickle FS Brooks/Conte. Phil said Conte would compete for the job so I didn't spend money or a top 2 pick on the position. Brooks probably wins the job, Conte stays for depth SS Abdullah/?- Alright so I left a spot open here....Derrick Martin is a safety though correct? Isn't exactly young like Phil said....But it just kinda shows that we can build a D even with spending big money on Bennett.

Bennett also only played 60% of the snaps on Seattle's crowded DL. Plus he spent a lot of time playing inside as well According to Rotowire, Peppers played 724 snaps while Bennett only played 569. Pep had 7.5 sacks, that's a sack every 96.5 snaps. Bennett had 8.5 sacks, that's a sack every 66.9 snaps....And again Bennett spent a a good deal of time playing inside....Comparing the 2 is a little silly and doesn't tell the whole story. 10M wouldn't be a mistake IMO.

I'm with Biggs on this.... Brad Biggs ‏@BradBiggs 6h No franchise/transition tag for #Bills S Jairus Byrd or #Browns S TJ Ward. But #Bears need to invest in front 4 before secondary IMO. I will give you credit though...You were the only one 2 years ago who didn't think the Conte/Wright duo was good enough while everyone else was cool with them getting another year. That said the Bears D was still a top 5 D with those guys back there.....Certainly not calling for their return but it shows you can get by with "lesser" players back there if you're getting after the QB.

Worilds is a really good player IMO, he had 7 sacks in the 2nd half of the season, your point remains though. The more I think about it I think the Bears cap situation is getting a little over blown though. Like Emery said they're rolling in money(or something to that extent). the ~20M number I brought up in the previous post is actually "short changing them". Biggs said they have roughly 8.4M right now. 8.4M +9.8M (Peppers) +2.45M (Bennett) ((Could potentially see them extending him to lessen his cap)) +1.85M (Bush) +1M (Podlesh) +1.1M (Weems) = 24.6M in cap space....And that's BEFORE potentially dipping into Cutler/Jennings/Slaussons money, AND the possibility exists that the Bears extend BMarsh to gain another mill or 2. Bears very well could spend close to 30M this year, and with the O pretty much intact that all could go towards the D. Even if Bennetts market drives him up to the 10M I think I'd do it.