Chicago Bears Offseason Thread (the tank must payoff)

[Bobson Dugnutt]

Dre’Mont Jones to Seattle. Zach Allen to Denver. Davenport to Minnesota. DL market thinning out.

[UMFan83]

Dre’Mont Jones to Seattle. Zach Allen to Denver. Davenport to Minnesota. DL market thinning out.

 

The Bears will be fine, they finished *checks notes* last in the NFL in sacks last year.

[Bobson Dugnutt]

The Dre’Mont deal seems really reasonable.

[UMFan83]

Spoke too soon

 

[raw]

Dre’Mont Jones to Seattle. Zach Allen to Denver. Davenport to Minnesota. DL market thinning out.

 

The Bears will be fine, they finished *checks notes* last in the NFL in sacks last year.

 

Get a RT. Another RB. More weapons and if they have the #1 offense, I won't care if they're last in sacks.

[raw]

IDK what position Walker plays. He's been a 3-4 DE his entire career IIRC. 6-4, 280lbs, so a little small for a 3-tech. A little big for 4-3 DE. I'm guessing he'll play LDE in base and move inside on passing downs. He's a Justin Jones level player. Doesn't move the needle very much.

[Tryptamine]

IDK what position Walker plays. He's been a 3-4 DE his entire career IIRC. 6-4, 280lbs, so a little small for a 3-tech. A little big for 4-3 DE. I'm guessing he'll play LDE in base and move inside on passing downs. He's a Justin Jones level player. Doesn't move the needle very much.

 

Given what we're upgrading from, even a decent starter is a pretty substantial upgrade.

[raw]

IDK what position Walker plays. He's been a 3-4 DE his entire career IIRC. 6-4, 280lbs, so a little small for a 3-tech. A little big for 4-3 DE. I'm guessing he'll play LDE in base and move inside on passing downs. He's a Justin Jones level player. Doesn't move the needle very much.

 

Given what we're upgrading from, even a decent starter is a pretty substantial upgrade.

 

Yeah, he's probably partially replacing Muhammad and partially replacing Angelo Blackson. Definitely an upgrade. I'd like it if he was the 4th best DL instead 1st or 2nd best. If they insist on adding more defense, give me Ebukam, a 1T with a little pass rush ability, draft Jalen Carter/Van Ness and an edge or DT with one of the 2nds and it's a respectable group.

[UMFan83]

IDK what position Walker plays. He's been a 3-4 DE his entire career IIRC. 6-4, 280lbs, so a little small for a 3-tech. A little big for 4-3 DE. I'm guessing he'll play LDE in base and move inside on passing downs. He's a Justin Jones level player. Doesn't move the needle very much.

 

Given what we're upgrading from, even a decent starter is a pretty substantial upgrade.

 

Definitely. Just doesn’t help our need for impact players on defense. That said I’m not sure if FA was going to net us any impact players regardless

[Tryptamine]

I felt like they needed to come up with either a really good OL or DE in FA to really free them up to go after bpa in the draft. As things stand, I think the first 3 picks basically have to be OL and DL.

[UMFan83]

 

Bunch of people are saying stuff like this but no one is breaking it down for me and I’m not smart enough to figure it out myself

[bukie]

Maybe we don't need to focus on every Twitter rando's opinion on the Bears, since we already had a whole page of "Poles is asleep and not doing anything" comments after he made the first signing and 4 hours passed before the next signing, and then a page of "Poles isn't spending money on the players I wanted" comments afterwards.

[UMFan83]

Maybe we don't need to focus on every Twitter rando's opinion on the Bears, since we already had a whole page of "Poles is asleep and not doing anything" comments after he made the first signing and 4 hours passed before the next signing, and then a page of "Poles isn't spending money on the players I wanted" comments afterwards.

 

I was hoping it would prompt one of you people to do the math for me

[minnesotacubsfan]

I felt like they needed to come up with either a really good OL or DE in FA to really free them up to go after bpa in the draft. As things stand, I think the first 3 picks basically have to be OL and DL.

Luckily, they still need all kinds of help so picking BPA is still in play!

[UMFan83]

Haven't watched this video yet but this is quite the claim by YouTuber named The Football Scout:

 

[raw]

I felt like they needed to come up with either a really good OL or DE in FA to really free them up to go after bpa in the draft. As things stand, I think the first 3 picks basically have to be OL and DL.

 

I wanted the first 3 picks to be OL and DL anyway. The DE class isn't great, so they need a long term piece regardless of who they added at DE. Even if they sign 2 DTs, they need 3 possibly 4 anyway, so a draft pick there was always also needed. They also need to find depth and potentially a long term C in the draft, so early on OL is needed a well.

 

I've done 7000 mocks online and 90% of them I pick a combination of 3 DL/OL in my first 4 picks. It's always a place to add talent and depth, and it's where the value is in this draft, especially day 2.

[ChiCubsFan]

Walker had 16 QB hits last year. Entire bears defense had 20. It’s an upgrade. And there’s more money/draft picks still to allocate to the line.

 

That said, I don’t love spending big on offball LBs. We’ll see.

[WrigleyField 22]

 

Bunch of people are saying stuff like this but no one is breaking it down for me and I’m not smart enough to figure it out myself

Bears (and all teams) need to spend 554M in cash from 2021 - 2023. This is to meet Minimum spending requirements.

 

Right now, after today's FA spending and all the other salaries they have for 2023 and their rookie pool they're probably at somewhere around $500M. So need another $54M scheduled to spend to meet minimum.

 

Some of that can come from other forms, like extensions, practice squad, and in season signings. But really the main bucket left is FA. I'd say at least 40 of that 54 probably should come from FA.

 

That all just meet a minim spending level. The fact they will barely scrape it is kind of crazy in itself. The median team is probably gonna be like $100M over minimum and some will be like $200M. Bears are just one of a few teams where it's even a question.

 

Hopefully that isn't too confusing or technical.

 

When thinking about contracts they may still hand out, they can front load cash. But to get $40M cash I'd say still 33 in APY they'd likely be looking to add (they been front loading cash on all their deals so far).

[minnesotacubsfan]

SI loves Poles decisions and attempts to explain the LB signings

 

https://apple.news/ArQxxs6z5T3OeTX0iAnhJZA

[WrigleyField 22]

I would describe myself as whelmed so far. Neither over- nor under-.

 

It's all kind meh, but free agency is usually going to be meh, even when we have eighty-bajillion dollars in cap space. The NFL structure is designed to chew people up on their rookie contracts and give teams an inside track on keeping anyone who still has some worth entering their late-20s.

 

It seems like we're placing a lot of faith in our ability to internally develop our existing offensive linemen to be better than what they were last year. I hope we're not looking at the line that gave up the highest sack rate in history and only giving it one mediocre, run-blocking guard.

 

I don't think Poles' rebuild will ultimately be defined by which mediocre free agents he gives $15m/year to, it'll be defined by how well he drafts and whether or not Justin Fields can quicken his processing and smooth out his mechanics.

Whelmed is pretty fair.

 

I can't point to any obvious bad deal (though I'm quite surprised at Edmunds).

 

But collectively and roster construct wise.. Just feels a bit flat.

 

Within next few days needs to hit a few more areas hard (the trenches basically). Then FA becomes a depth and flyer period. You could conceivably leave one position as an obvious hole at 9 if it's a deep position, but I'd much rather they go in with little to no obvious holes and can just go crazy with premium value picks with those first 4 picks in top 64.

[Bearded_Beef]

I was more overwhelmed than underwhelmed yesterday, but I have read things that conflict with what rawaction says. Like Nate Davis being great in zone blocking and this years draft being DE heavy.

 

We still need help on the lines, but I think we spent money in the only places where we could get some blue chip type guys (LBs) and then we have been smart in filling holes without putting all of our eggs in one basket. I am mostly fine with filling out most of the lines through the draft. I would like to have more threats on the Dline going into it though. The oline is supposed to be Poles bread and butter and I feel like this year is his first real shot at it with any resources. We are kinda bound to trust this guy on talent evaluation.

[raw]

I was more overwhelmed than underwhelmed yesterday, but I have read things that conflict with what rawaction says. Like Nate Davis being great in zone blocking and this years draft being DE heavy.

 

I said free agency wasn't good at DE. The draft is definitely good at DE, it's the best position group in this draft. I also didn't really say much about Nate Davis and zone blocking, other than he doesn't have a lot of experience with it. He definitely fits the athletic profile of a zone blocker, though.

[jersey cubs fan]

Is it a coincidence or a sign of things to come that with the needs at nearly every spot on the offensive line the one guy they’ve signed plays the position of the one guy they almost ran out of town last summer but ultimately settled in as the best of the bunch?

[gflore34]

Say Poles goes with one more big signing in Orlando Brown and a middle tier/value at DL, he could load up on offense at #9 (JSN or Johnston). And look to DL, C and CB with the day 2 picks.

[raw]

Is it a coincidence or a sign of things to come that with the needs at nearly every spot on the offensive line the one guy they’ve signed plays the position of the one guy they almost ran out of town last summer but ultimately settled in as the best of the bunch?

 

I noticed when looking at free agent lists that there weren't really many LGs on the list. The only of the top 10 or so guards were Ben Powers from the Ravens (who I didn't think was a fit, he's a big power blocking guy) and Dalton Risner from Denver, who's still out there. So, I'm going to say much ado about nothing right now.