Bears Week 14: Deshaun Watson Makes his Soldier Field Debut

[minnesotacubsfan]

No interest in any QB that's going to prevent the Bears from drafting a QB other than Dak.

 

On a sidenote, I just read that the only QB of the 23 drafted in the top 5 this century to win a Superbowl is Eli Manning, who obviously won twice. Wentz technically has a SB ring too, but was obviously injured.

 

Kind of sounds right. If so then I'm not going to worry so much about finishing horribly so we can draft super high to get a franchise QB, when most of the franchise QBs don't come from there. Besides, we've picked high QBs before too and they didn't magically result in SBs.

 

Prescott would be interesting, but is he going to be available and can the Bears afford him?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Brady - 6th round

Brees - 2nd round

Wilson - 3rd round

 

Roethlisberger - 11th overall

Mahomes - 10th overall

Rodgers - 24th overall

 

You definitely don't need to get into the top-5 picks to get your QB.

[minnesotacubsfan]

Brady - 6th round

Brees - 2nd round

Wilson - 3rd round

 

Roethlisberger - 11th overall

Mahomes - 10th overall

Rodgers - 24th overall

 

You definitely don't need to get into the top-5 picks to get your QB.

 

I wouldn't mind if the Bears took BPA in the 1st and Mac Jones in the 2 or 3. I know he plays with a ton of talent, and has a good not great arm, but he excells at reading the defense and accuracy

 

eta: Jamie Newman might be a better pick for that matter

[raw]

No interest in any QB that's going to prevent the Bears from drafting a QB other than Dak.

 

On a sidenote, I just read that the only QB of the 23 drafted in the top 5 this century to win a Superbowl is Eli Manning, who obviously won twice. Wentz technically has a SB ring too, but was obviously injured.

 

Kind of sounds right. If so then I'm not going to worry so much about finishing horribly so we can draft super high to get a franchise QB, when most of the franchise QBs don't come from there. Besides, we've picked high QBs before too and they didn't magically result in SBs.

 

Prescott would be interesting, but is he going to be available and can the Bears afford him?

 

Yeah, they could make it work. Cut Graham, Massie, Skrine, and Leno. Restructure Fuller. They can definitely get the space to make it work (easily if the cap is 195M). Dak is probably getting 35-40M AAV, but his cap number could be around 20-25M for 2021. Would probably mean no Robinson, but who cares if you have a great QB? Also, means you could spend a 1st or 2nd on a WR now that you don't have to take a QB.

[minnesotacubsfan]

 

Kind of sounds right. If so then I'm not going to worry so much about finishing horribly so we can draft super high to get a franchise QB, when most of the franchise QBs don't come from there. Besides, we've picked high QBs before too and they didn't magically result in SBs.

 

Prescott would be interesting, but is he going to be available and can the Bears afford him?

 

Yeah, they could make it work. Cut Graham, Massie, Skrine, and Leno. Restructure Fuller. They can definitely get the space to make it work (easily if the cap is 195M). Dak is probably getting 35-40M AAV, but his cap number could be around 20-25M for 2021. Would probably mean no Robinson, but who cares if you have a great QB? Also, means you could spend a 1st or 2nd on a WR now that you don't have to take a QB.

 

if you are cutting both tackles and the #1 wr, Prescott might not be great anymore.

[raw]

 

Prescott would be interesting, but is he going to be available and can the Bears afford him?

 

Yeah, they could make it work. Cut Graham, Massie, Skrine, and Leno. Restructure Fuller. They can definitely get the space to make it work (easily if the cap is 195M). Dak is probably getting 35-40M AAV, but his cap number could be around 20-25M for 2021. Would probably mean no Robinson, but who cares if you have a great QB? Also, means you could spend a 1st or 2nd on a WR now that you don't have to take a QB.

 

if you are cutting both tackles and the #1 wr, Prescott might not be great anymore.

 

Draft a tackle w/ the early pick you don't spend on WR. Bears have lost nothing from Massie's performance with Ifedi and Spriggs starting multiple games, spend another 1.5M for a player similar to those and they'll be fine if the rookie is decent.

[minnesotacubsfan]

 

Yeah, they could make it work. Cut Graham, Massie, Skrine, and Leno. Restructure Fuller. They can definitely get the space to make it work (easily if the cap is 195M). Dak is probably getting 35-40M AAV, but his cap number could be around 20-25M for 2021. Would probably mean no Robinson, but who cares if you have a great QB? Also, means you could spend a 1st or 2nd on a WR now that you don't have to take a QB.

 

if you are cutting both tackles and the #1 wr, Prescott might not be great anymore.

 

Draft a tackle w/ the early pick you don't spend on WR. Bears have lost nothing from Massie's performance with Ifedi and Spriggs starting multiple games, spend another 1.5M for a player similar to those and they'll be fine if the rookie is decent.

 

 

if you could pull that off, Bateman (yea, I know, I'm a homer) might be a perfect pick at where the Bears would be drafting. But how likely is it that Prescott will hit the open market? He's 27, plays a premier position and plays it well. why wouldn't the Cowboys at least franchise him? (I really don't know what the thinking is on Prescott and Dallas at the moment)

[CaliforniaRaisin]

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Cutting everyone to make room to pay Dak Prescott $40m a year would be a pretty good monkey's paw twist on my "I just want a franchise QB no matter what" tkae.

[minnesotacubsfan]

Cutting everyone to make room to pay Dak Prescott $40m a year would be a pretty good monkey's paw twist on my "I just want a franchise QB no matter what" tkae.

 

eh, the only one I think they would miss would be ARob, and possibly Leno if his draft replacement sucked

[raw]

 

if you are cutting both tackles and the #1 wr, Prescott might not be great anymore.

 

Draft a tackle w/ the early pick you don't spend on WR. Bears have lost nothing from Massie's performance with Ifedi and Spriggs starting multiple games, spend another 1.5M for a player similar to those and they'll be fine if the rookie is decent.

 

 

if you could pull that off, Bateman (yea, I know, I'm a homer) might be a perfect pick at where the Bears would be drafting. But how likely is it that Prescott will hit the open market? He's 27, plays a premier position and plays it well. why wouldn't the Cowboys at least franchise him? (I really don't know what the thinking is on Prescott and Dallas at the moment)

 

Bateman is who I had in mind. He kinda has a similar skillset to Robinson, but is much better after the catch. Cowboys already franchised Dak this year. The thinking is they won't do it again and maybe he says "screw you" to the Cowboys for playing him on the tag and him suffering a major injury.

[WrigleyField 22]

If the cap is flat, I think you could fit Stafford with modest back loading and modest cuts. If it were Dak, just more aggressive back loading, but still modest cuts. It just so happens I just posted about the Stafford hypothetical on another board:

 

So playing with numbers, if a guy like Stafford became available, it could work. With sufficient backloading I suppose you could make the same exercize for if Dak became available.

 

I'm targeting I need 15M in 2021 cap for him. 100/4 with some incentives that could bring it up more and about 60M guaranteed. 40m signing bonus and guaranteed base salaries in year 1 and 2. Throw in some escalators and maybe some guaranteed for injury amounts in the back half of the contract. Basically get creative, but 15M I think is the year 1 cap hit that makes this work with backloading.

 

Obviously you're trying to win, so you can't go cut heavy to create that space.

 

Cuts:

Graham, Massie, and Skrine (June 1 for Skrine)

 

Restructure:

1. Move about 6M off Mack's 21 number by converting guarantees into bonus and amortizing

2. Renegotiate Leno's final year by bringing his base salary down by about 4M. If he doesn't want to, you cut and do the best you can with the 2.2M difference in FA.

 

Extension:

Sign Fuller to an extension. Without getting specific on the new deal my target is to save 8m in 2021 cap, 20M to 12M.

 

To fill out the roster I'm allocating the following cap hits for these spots. I won't waste time speculating who this would be. Some could be resigning. Others would be external FA. Back load a little as necessary, but nothing too crazy:

 

$5M for an OT. With enough backloading it could conceivably be a star OT, but let's just assume more mid-level starter/prove it type

$4.5M for a possession WR (start Mooney and keep Miller as the slot)

$3M for CPatt or similar (backup RB and KR)

$3.5M for K (likely Santos)

For the following spots the best replacement level guy you can get for each of these starting rotation spots. I'm figuring $1.24M each:

OG, DE, Nickel, TE, P, SS.

3 other minimum salary spots at 660k each for various backup spots fills out the roster along with ~8.5M for your rookie pool which should be 8 picks. Could be a million more or less depending on final comp picks and slot.

 

After all that, assuming a 195M cap I have about $4M buffer for in season moves and stuff. Jackson, Quinn, and Goldman all have some guarantees you could move around as well, and I didn't dip into those.

 

With the draft, OL is still a pretty big need, I'd probably still want to address it early if possible, but I tried to give myself some contingency in FA. An OLB to push Quinn would be nice. A safety to put next to Jackson for the next 4 years. TE, WR, RB, all could use depth and youth. But other than OL with one of the first 3 picks I try to go straight "best value available". You're bound to end up with some question marks in this plan, and I'm a little indifferent to where--just get the best players you can in the draft and then game plan around your weaknesses.

 

So I guess it is feasible. I'd have to think about it. Stafford still is only 32. You could try and win with him for the next 4-5 years and retool the surrounding cast asap.

[jersey cubs fan]

I'm dubious of any attempt to sign Stafford.

[WrigleyField 22]

I'm dubious of any attempt to sign Stafford.

I'm dubious of all QB options. They all suck to some extent, but not trying one of them will lead to the same thing the Bears have had since the T formation was revolutionary.

[David]

i would be pretty happy (in the short term) if we somehow got stafford

[minnesotacubsfan]

Remember the last two years of Cutlers career? I'd assume that statistic wise with Stafford. He'd be stop gap but not much more.

[raw]

I don't want anything to do with Stafford. 32 isn't old, but he's definitely a short term answer to give you upper middle of the pack QB play. I'd rather invest a draft pick in a guy and hope for long-term upper middle play. Dak on the other hand could give you 10 years, with probably half of that being top 5 QB play.

 

That being said, I don't think the Lions cut Stafford, and I don't think the Cowboys let Dak get away.

[jersey cubs fan]

Stafford will be 33 before the next league year starts.

 

Also, has any team ever got less from a legit quality QB?

 

Say what you will about the bears, they’ve won more with less at the QB position.

[WrigleyField 22]

I don't want anything to do with Stafford. 32 isn't old, but he's definitely a short term answer to give you upper middle of the pack QB play. I'd rather invest a draft pick in a guy and hope for long-term upper middle play. Dak on the other hand could give you 10 years, with probably half of that being top 5 QB play.

 

That being said, I don't think the Lions cut Stafford, and I don't think the Cowboys let Dak get away.

I don't see Stafford as getting in the way of making QB investments. Sure maybe you're not reading up for Lance/Wilson like you've suggested, but they can play the market over the next few years too. I'd assume a Stafford contract for 4 years would have an out after year 2. I certainly wouldn't trade for him, but I'd consider him in the FA market.

[raw]

I don't want anything to do with Stafford. 32 isn't old, but he's definitely a short term answer to give you upper middle of the pack QB play. I'd rather invest a draft pick in a guy and hope for long-term upper middle play. Dak on the other hand could give you 10 years, with probably half of that being top 5 QB play.

 

That being said, I don't think the Lions cut Stafford, and I don't think the Cowboys let Dak get away.

I don't see Stafford as getting in the way of making QB investments. Sure maybe you're not reading up for Lance/Wilson like you've suggested, but they can play the market over the next few years too. I'd assume a Stafford contract for 4 years would have an out after year 2. I certainly wouldn't trade for him, but I'd consider him in the FA market.

 

Not really about the lack of QB investments with him. A lot to do with his age, combined with what Jersey said, his teams have simply underachieved. If I'm spending 25-30Mil on a QB, I want him to completely move the needle independently of the rest of the team.

[David]

lol not to damn him with faint praise but he would immediately be the best qb any of us have ever seen suit up for the Bears, even at 33.

 

if they can somehow make it work, he's a fine option to try to salvage winning something behind this defense and about the best you can hope for on the open market when you're not getting lucky in the draft and finding one.

 

that said, i have no idea if making it work is remotely realistic. i don't pretend to have a clue what is going on with the cap nor do i care that much. all i know is it seems that when teams want to move stuff around to get stuff done, they usually can one way or another.

[TarzanJoeWallis]

I don't want anything to do with Stafford. 32 isn't old, but he's definitely a short term answer to give you upper middle of the pack QB play. I'd rather invest a draft pick in a guy and hope for long-term upper middle play. Dak on the other hand could give you 10 years, with probably half of that being top 5 QB play.

 

That being said, I don't think the Lions cut Stafford, and I don't think the Cowboys let Dak get away.

I think if Dak leaves Dallas, Indianapolis is much more likely than the Bears. And the Colts will have plenty of cap space.

[WrigleyField 22]

A good, short thread on Mitch the bumslayer.

 

[jersey cubs fan]

A good, short thread on Mitch the bumslayer.

 

Who is pushing back against the idea that Mitch has had some success against garbage teams?

[David]

A good, short thread on Mitch the bumslayer.

 

 

does anyone here even need convincing of this? i'd hope not.