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Bears extend Charles Leno


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A 2014 seventh-round pick, Leno has started 29-of-32 games the past two seasons. He was Pro Football Focus' No. 53 tackle out of 76 qualifiers last season after checking in at 49-of-76 the previous year. The Bears see upside in the soon-to-be 26-year-old and keep in tact the left side of their line. At $9.5 million per year, Leno is the league's 14th-highest-paid left tackle.

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A 2014 seventh-round pick, Leno has started 29-of-32 games the past two seasons. He was Pro Football Focus' No. 53 tackle out of 76 qualifiers last season after checking in at 49-of-76 the previous year. The Bears see upside in the soon-to-be 26-year-old and keep in tact the left side of their line. At $9.5 million per year, Leno is the league's 14th-highest-paid left tackle.

 

They keep on talking about how steady he is and how he has "upside" and "potential". I was hoping it was just hype to bolster his confidence. I personally have never thought of him as any better than a backup. I must admit, although I have been a big fan of Pace since he arrived, I question this extension.

 

He is only 26 years old so maybe he will improve, maybe, maybe....

 

I guess my hopes of drafting a killer LOT in next years draft is just another dream of mine that will not materialize, LOL.

 

 

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They keep on talking about how steady he is and how he has "upside" and "potential". I was hoping it was just hype to bolster his confidence. I personally have never thought of him as any better than a backup. I must admit, although I have been a big fan of Pace since he arrived, I question this extension.

 

He is only 26 years old so maybe he will improve, maybe, maybe....

 

I guess my hopes of drafting a killer LOT in next years draft is just another dream of mine that will not materialize, LOL.

They are basically paying him RT money (or if you compare him to LT's, league average LT money). He was a 7th round pick who is 26 and the Bears seem to think he has upside. They are using up a chunk of cap space this year to be more cap efficient in future years. I guess the question is what kind of step forward do we see out of him in year 3. If he struggles, depending on the guarantee money / structure, you can always drop him in a year or two (and we aren't tight for cap space at the moment, so it may behoove us to gamble a bit on current cap space for longer-term payoffs).

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I'm fine with it if he is rated in the top 16 LT's in the league (top half). If he is below average, then there is no point in signing a subpar guy to a 4 year deal.

 

I hope he earns his pay and lives up to his potential. If he does and we can improve at RT, we will have a top 5 line.

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They keep on talking about how steady he is and how he has "upside" and "potential". I was hoping it was just hype to bolster his confidence. I personally have never thought of him as any better than a backup. I must admit, although I have been a big fan of Pace since he arrived, I question this extension.

 

He is only 26 years old so maybe he will improve, maybe, maybe....

 

I guess my hopes of drafting a killer LOT in next years draft is just another dream of mine that will not materialize, LOL.

 

Agreed. This is an atrocious signing. Leno is not in the top half of LTs in the league, much less worthy of his 14th highest salary. He will have to improve by leaps and bounds to make this deal worth it.

 

And just because the draft is a crap shoot doesn't mean you accept the sub-par and stop throwing the dice.

 

I'm fine with it if he is rated in the top 16 LT's in the league (top half). If he is below average, then there is no point in signing a subpar guy to a 4 year deal.

 

I hope he earns his pay and lives up to his potential. If he does and we can improve at RT, we will have a top 5 line.

 

Agreed. I don't think he has a chance at being top half. I hope he does, but I don't think he will.

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Agreed. This is an atrocious signing. Leno is not in the top half of LTs in the league, much less worthy of his 14th highest salary. He will have to improve by leaps and bounds to make this deal worth it.

 

And just because the draft is a crap shoot doesn't mean you accept the sub-par and stop throwing the dice.

 

 

 

Agreed. I don't think he has a chance at being top half. I hope he does, but I don't think he will.

I never said to stop throwing the dice. I want a stud OLT drafted just like I wanted to see them draft and develop a franchise QB. It may take a year or two to get one we like and to get him up to speed, so retaining Leno is alright in my books as long as the keep looking.

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I never said to stop throwing the dice. I want a stud OLT drafted just like I wanted to see them draft and develop a franchise QB. It may take a year or two to get one we like and to get him up to speed, so retaining Leno is alright in my books as long as the keep looking.

 

Understood, and mostly agreed. I just wish retaining him could have been done for a cheaper price.

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Leno now the highest paid Bear other than Glennon.

Maybe the language is different, but Long signed a 4 year 40 million with 30 million guaranteed, Leno signed a 4 year 38 million with 21.5 guaranteed. It is still a lot, hope we are not forgetting about Hicks and Goldman down the road.

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Maybe the language is different, but Long signed a 4 year 40 million with 30 million guaranteed, Leno signed a 4 year 38 million with 21.5 guaranteed. It is still a lot, hope we are not forgetting about Hicks and Goldman down the road.

It's market value for the best option you have. It's a solid deal.

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It's market value for the best option you have. It's a solid deal.

 

We almost paid Ricky Wagner $8 or $9mil/yr. It's impossible to know how high Pace was willing to go on his contract but he was in negotiations nearly to the end. Detroit ended up paying him $47.5mi, $17mil guaranteed, or $9.5mil/yr. That's for a RT which carries a bit less of a premium although the gap is no longer what it used to be since so many pass rushers line up at LDE (see Von Miller). Leno is making $9.5mil/yr. Look over the LT contracts in the league and, considering Wagner's deal, there is no doubt he'd have found at least this much and likely more in FA.

 

https://overthecap.com/position/left-tackle

 

https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/pro-r...hit-free-agency

Wagner has been a starter for the Ravens for three seasons now, and his play has been all over the place during that time. His best season came in 2014 when he just missed the top-10 in overall grade, but did rank eighth as a pass blocker, along with an above-average run-blocking grade. Wagner is coming off a similar performance in 2016, with just slight steps back in both aspects of blocking. Sandwiched between those two seasons was a disastrous year in which Wagner allowed a career-high 52 total QB pressures, 20 more than his next-highest season. He also struggled as a run blocker on a fairly regular basis. Wagner very well may be the player we saw in 2014 and 2016, but teams will also need to be wary of what exactly happened in 2015 that caused such a stark drop in performance.

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Honestly I'm not a fan of this signing at all. No way are going into next yr looking for a LT even if he does poorly again. That money guarantees he sticks around. I hate signing guys who have done nothing in there careers to long term contract because you "hope" he plays well. That's poor business. With all that said I want to see how exactly is this deal written up. And if he does badly how quickly can we get out of it. If it's similar to how Cutler's deal was originally before we signed Jared Allen then I can deal with that. Originally that deal had all the guarantee up front so technically we could have cut after 2 yrs without it killing us. The problem was we wanted Allen but in order to get him we had to get cutler to rework his deal. Which then gave him more guarantee which prolonged the agony

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Through the years the Bears luck with O-line picks in early rounds even when the great Jim Finks was drafting has been bad. Lionel Antwione .Dennis Lick, Jimbo Covert,Troy Auzienne, Marc Colombo, Chris Williams, Gabe Carimi, and now Kyle Long.This team has gotten better line play out of UDFAs and mid to late round picks and FA pick ups. Jay Hilgenberg, Big Cat Williams(who also played defensive end), Mark Bortz(a defensive tackle converted) Tom Thayer(played in the USFL),Olin Kreutz. We have recently had 2 7th round starting left tackles Webb and now Leno. In my 51 years of watching this team play they have never drafted O-line well. Walter Payton played his entire HOF career behind not one HOF lineman and Gayle Sayers as well.

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