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Bears make offer to TE Josh Hill, however, Saints Match


AZ54

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I remember drafting him in the late rounds of everg fantasy football team last year thinking he would take off. That obviously didn't happen, but I think there is still some potential there. At the very least he would be a plus blocker.

Bears make offer to josh hill, saints have a week to match deal

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Does anybody know what the money is? He was set to make 1.67 as a tendered offer, all the saints have left in the cap is 1.25 so I would suspect they give Like 2 mil upfront and maybe a 3 year 5 mill, with catch incentives to make it 6 mil.

 

He is know for being a good blocker, so we needed to find that.

 

I would say we still draft one, and end up with Josh Hill, Miller and the new draftee.

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Nice potential. Suggests to me they don't really like the draft crop. If we add him at $2 million/year, and still have Lee which you traded a pick for and Housler who you just resigned, wonder if they would still consider TE in the draft.

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Nice potential. Suggests to me they don't really like the draft crop. If we add him at $2 million/year, and still have Lee which you traded a pick for and Housler who you just resigned, wonder if they would still consider TE in the draft.

I think with Millers injury history, they probably would if can get one that could block and catch. I still dont see why they grabbed Lee, he is kinda light in the pants. Housler was a depth move, so if they cut him it wouldnt cost anything.

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Does anybody know what the money is? He was set to make 1.67 as a tendered offer, all the saints have left in the cap is 1.25 so I would suspect they give Like 2 mil upfront and maybe a 3 year 5 mill, with catch incentives to make it 6 mil.

 

He is know for being a good blocker, so we needed to find that.

 

I would say we still draft one, and end up with Josh Hill, Miller and the new draftee.

 

Overthecap has the Saints with just $267,000 in cap space but either way they have little wiggle room. They are renegotiating Brees' contract and that will free up a lot of money, perhaps $10mil (reduce cap hit from $30mil to $20mil). However, they still need their rookie pool money. If they get Brees' deal done they can match but assuming the Bears put a spoiler into Hill's contract offer with a lot of upfront roster bonus money that would likely mean a backup TE is their only remaining FA signing. I find it hard to believe that would be their biggest remaining FA priority right after they just signed Fleener. Plus they've been seeking visits with some DTs recently.

 

http://www.nola.com/saints/index.ssf/2016/...ades_to_sa.html

 

And at the moment the Brees' deal doesn't look close to being done:

 

http://blogs.theadvocate.com/blackandgold/...done-this-year/

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I remember drafting him in the late rounds of everg fantasy football team last year thinking he would take off. That obviously didn't happen, but I think there is still some potential there. At the very least he would be a plus blocker.

 

Yep. I drafted him in one league thinking he'd be the next Jimmy Graham. The difference is Graham is basically a big WR with the speed to stretch the field. Hill is a better blocker but a much slower receiver. He can move the chains and he'll be good in the red-zone. If Zach Miller, Kevin White, Royal and AJ are all healthy, we don't need him to stretch the field.

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I think with Millers injury history, they probably would if can get one that could block and catch. I still dont see why they grabbed Lee, he is kinda light in the pants. Housler was a depth move, so if they cut him it wouldnt cost anything.

 

The Bears announced today they view Lee as strictly a blocking TE. In terms of him being light in the pants, Matt Spaeth is one of the better blocking TE's in the league. When he was with the Bears he was 6-7 and appeared to be skinny as hell. Yet he's still in the league for his blocking ability so who knows.

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Yep. I drafted him in one league thinking he'd be the next Jimmy Graham. The difference is Graham is basically a big WR with the speed to stretch the field. Hill is a better blocker but a much slower receiver. He can move the chains and he'll be good in the red-zone. If Zach Miller, Kevin White, Royal and AJ are all healthy, we don't need him to stretch the field.

 

They actually aren't that far off speed wise.

 

A little ways down in the following article they compare both of them. https://m.numberfire.com/nfl/news/4729/can-...-tight-end-void

 

 

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They actually aren't that far off speed wise.

 

A little ways down in the following article they compare both of them. https://m.numberfire.com/nfl/news/4729/can-...-tight-end-void

 

Hill is more athletic than I expected. Now how well can he catch? Run routes? I would have expected him to shine a bit more in their offense last year so something is missing. Or did they just stick with Ben Watson because Brees was comfortable with him?

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3/6 looks to be the offer.

 

As per Jeff Dickerson: "A source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Caplan that the Bears' offer to Hill is a three-year deal worth a maximum of $7.5 million, with $3.25 million guaranteed"

 

What do you want to bet most of that 3.25 million will count towards this year's salary cap? Not that the Saints were that interested since they've already signed 2 TE's.

 

We are clearly over-paying for players. But that's what you do when your team sucks and you have a ton of salary cap room. I have no complaints. Good signing.

 

 

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As per Jeff Dickerson: "A source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Caplan that the Bears' offer to Hill is a three-year deal worth a maximum of $7.5 million, with $3.25 million guaranteed"

 

What do you want to bet most of that 3.25 million will count towards this year's salary cap? Not that the Saints were that interested since they've already signed 2 TE's.

 

We are clearly over-paying for players. But that's what you do when your team sucks and you have a ton of salary cap room. I have no complaints. Good signing.

 

At first I wasn't sure which way they'd go but now I'm starting to agree with you that the Saints aren't that interested in Hill. If they felt Hill could be the move TE for them running routes down field they'd have signed him to a new deal for something far less than what Fleener got. Instead they went after Fleener with a big contract and they also went after Hoomanawanui early in FA.

 

It might have been a case where they threw a low contract at Hill early and when he said no they went after Hoomanawanui who took a deal worth ~$1mil/yr with $1mil guaranteed. Either way Hill wasn't valued to the tune of multiple millions per year when they had the cash and roster spot available. If, as someone else stated earlier, the Saints prefer to keep 1 TE in to block while the other works down field then they now have their top 2 TEs. With so little cap space and so many needs on defense they will either stick with their practice squad players to see who earns a spot, draft a TE late, or search for a vet on a min contract later in FA. Hill's best value to them was as a special teams player and they have a number of cheaper ways to fill that spot.

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At first I wasn't sure which way they'd go but now I'm starting to agree with you that the Saints aren't that interested in Hill. If they felt Hill could be the move TE for them running routes down field they'd have signed him to a new deal for something far less than what Fleener got. Instead they went after Fleener with a big contract and they also went after Hoomanawanui early in FA.

 

It might have been a case where they threw a low contract at Hill early and when he said no they went after Hoomanawanui who took a deal worth ~$1mil/yr with $1mil guaranteed. Either way Hill wasn't valued to the tune of multiple millions per year when they had the cash and roster spot available. If, as someone else stated earlier, the Saints prefer to keep 1 TE in to block while the other works down field then they now have their top 2 TEs. With so little cap space and so many needs on defense they will either stick with their practice squad players to see who earns a spot, draft a TE late, or search for a vet on a min contract later in FA. Hill's best value to them was as a special teams player and they have a number of cheaper ways to fill that spot.

 

Based on what Josh Hill did last season, I'm guessing they only view him as a blocking/move the chains TE. The Saints want guys who can stretch the field. They paid a ton of money to Fleener who was drafted #34 overall. That tells me he has great measureables. As opposed to Hill who is good at blocking.

 

In short, Hill is more valuable to us than he is to New Orleans.

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Slim pickins in FA at this point, but if the Bears are interested in adding another under 30 body at TE with a reputation for being a good blocker, there are a couple former Chargers, John Phillips and David Johnson, who are worth a look. Here's a couple recent write ups on them:

 

http://www.chargers.com/news/2015/05/30/da...ride-dirty-work

 

http://www.chargers.com/news/2015/06/12/jo...ifies-toughness

 

If we want a guy who is more of a pass catcher, maybe MarQuise Gray?

 

http://bills.buffalonews.com/2015/07/05/ti...ing-with-bills/

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I'm surprised too. I have to wait to see what his Hill's contract and cap hit is for 2016.

 

They said it was a 3-yr worth a max of $7.5, so the average would be right around $2.5 per year, which would be a cap hit increase of 850k which puts the Saints right up against the cap. So Brees will need to restructure or they have some work to do.

 

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