jumbo

This must be the answer to the question: How to sound like the biggest a-hole while making obvious criticisms against the Bears offseason? Authors points: WR corps looks bad, TE corps not good enough to make receiver group as a whole satisfactory (I agree) Velus Jones not an ideal pick at 71 (I agree) Poles is giving up on this season and will blame Pace (I do not agree) Evaluating Fields is more important than BPA because it means a better evaluation of the most important position (I get it) I wish more had been done to the offense, too. Developing Fields is critical, and giving him more weapons/OLine help would be/would have been awesome. Poles deserves some criticism of, or at least opinions on, his offseason, no doubt. This clown took 1000 words of hyperbole and not very funny sarcasm to make his case.

Was this the guy that got banned?

That was awesome

A guy I follow on twitter posted this thread on Kramer, the Center from Illinois drafted in round 6. At the end he suggests that Kramer could start this year. That is unlikely, but if it did happen and Patrick slides to RG the starting 5 would be much easier to look at, assuming of course he's an improvement over Mustipher. Some of you who are more informed on technique may be able to comment on the thread take.

This year's Tanner Gentry? I realize he was a UDFA, Litwin from Slippery Rock might be in contention for TGOTY

It's been a long time since I took in a SB Cubs game. I did see Javy hit one off the batters eye there years ago - pretty sweet to see the young studs on the way up and they actually make it

I agree that I don't think Poles dislikes Fields or is setting him up to fail somehow. Reactions to the draft are always entertaining, even just watching it on live TV. The teams' boards are so much different than all the draft experts...the amount of research the teams put in dwarfs the analysts and talking head types. When a team goes against the collective media board there is usually a negative reaction. I think Poles, Flus & co made a board and stuck to it on day 2, knowing that they were planning to add picks on day 3 and get some volume. The team has so many holes that BPA is really the best approach. The improvement to the offense is hinging on the improvement in coaching, the change to a more QB friendly scheme, and Fields' individual development (along with that of Kmet, Mooney). The defense got a lot of help in the secondary, which was easily as big a hole as OL, WR, or any other position on the roster. The overall unit certainly takes a step back without Mack and Hicks, but those guys missed the last half of the season as it is. Two day one starters came out of this draft, and the secondary looks to be a strength with Johnson, Jackson, Gordon, Brisker and Young. Vildor, Graham, Shelly look a lot less ugly as CB 4, 5,6. Not to mention DHC and Cruikshank could come on the field for Dime packages over thoes guys. Poles apparently said in one of his press conferences that he knew he couldn't fill all the holes in one offseason. It's true

I'd agree, it's very unlikely. It's just a shame when we have an unprecedented amount of top tier WR on the move this offseason, a position the Bears badly need to fill, and the Bears are probably not in on any of them. Is it though? Only thing better than trading for a top tier WR, is drafting a top tier WR and having him in team control for 4 years (+ tag potential for 2 more). Also the guys traded or rumored so far: Adams, Hill, AJ Brown, Deebo, and DK were all 2nd round picks or later. So that could be reason to not trade for a guy. Mooney has to be paid in the next 2 years as well. So, if you traded for one of these guys, sure you'd have a really nice WR room, but you'd also be looking at 35-40M worth of WRs in a couple years. That money isn't a huge deal with a QB on a rookie salary, but the reason the ones that have been traded were traded is because they had QBs making huge money. This is the bad thing about not moving on from Pace/Nagy a year earlier. Assume we shed the bad contracts last year, committed to Fields for all of lest season, allowed him an entire season of snaps/development in the new system. Picking up a guy like Deebo could be an option then, but I agree with raw that paying in trade and contract is unlikely. The chatter about WR's demanding so much cap and therefore drafting a receiver is a better option is funny to me. Of course drafting a high performing reciever is better than trade/high dollar extension. It's the same for every position and not as easy as it seems.

I can't get over the decision to keep Nagy and Pace following 2020. It was so obvious at that time that it needed to be done, setting up Pace and Nagy to go for it one more time almost literally against all odds (hardest schedule, no QB, aging roster, OL problems, lack of weapons). Drafting Fields made no sense with those guys doing what they were doing. I'll stop here, cuz this is a bad cycle I get into! I think it was a tough spot to be in. Because every rational person knew the Bears weren't good enough. They knew the QB wasn't good enough, the coaching wasn't good enough, and the roster was hamstrung by bad contracts and lack of draft picks. All very valid reason to fire everyone after 2020. But I think the no losing seasons and 2 of 3 playoff years made it tough to fire them. There were a lot of disaster situations, but no disaster season from Nagy/Pace combo. Obviously, you shouldn't wait for a disaster to get rid of something that's not working, but I think the difference was that playoff game they were able to squeeze into. This is about the worst case scenario of the "high draft pick QB on rookie contract GO FOR IT" model. The Bears are easily on the worse end of this scale because of their imbalance in money spent on defense. You spend a ton on offensive line and weapons and the QB/OC/HC can't scheme ot motivate, you sway out whatever pieces and the talent is still there. The Bears didn't have enough offensive talent and were very heavy on defense so there was no quick fix. I agree that it would be hard to move on after missing the playoffs for the first time, but as you said, it was obvious that the 2019 and 2020 teams were not going on a deep playoff run. I would have loved to have been in the room for the meeting beween Pace/Nagy and ownership after 2020. "How are you going to fix it?" There was no good answer from Pace and Nagy except "gimme another vet QB, I have one I like. No, not that one, another one." How McCaskey and Phillips ended that meeting demanding progress from Pace/Nagy was just an astonishing decision unless neither one knows jack squat about the game. Watch the games and it should be obvious, but they blew that decision. This would have led to a 2020 with Foles entrenched as the starter going in. Foles would suck and eventually miss time to injury and the tank would have been on in completely natural form.

I watched part of the game he started at QB last year, there may have been a couple. I never paid much attention to him, but my god he is athletic. I always said that he was great in a limited role. Think Randal El. Sean Payton fell in love with him and overused him. I do think he could be an awesome TE/slot. Was Payton going too mad-scientist with him? Good for Allen to park him in his best spot and see what he can do. I would have been open to him in the Bears coaching cycle. He knew how to stop Brady, and had that defense rolling in general

Sucks that we we “went for it” the year we had an impossible schedule and are retooling the year we have an easy schedule I can't get over the decision to keep Nagy and Pace following 2020. It was so obvious at that time that it needed to be done, setting up Pace and Nagy to go for it one more time almost literally against all odds (hardest schedule, no QB, aging roster, OL problems, lack of weapons). Drafting Fields made no sense with those guys doing what they were doing. I'll stop here, cuz this is a bad cycle I get into!

Can't believe Treylon Burks may slip to the 2nd round. I understand his limitations, but his play on the field says more than running around in underwear does. He's a big play waiting to happen whether you get the ball to him short, deep or intermediate. This is probably how I'd rank them as far as talent goes, but with the caveat that the Bears really need an outside WR, so if they pass on Dotson for Pickens or Watson, I'd understand completely. Dotson and Moore can play outside, though they are smaller, but may be better off playing all over the field similar to Mooney and maybe Pringle as well. Messed around on a PFF mock the other day where I trade up to 33 to snag him then back down from 48 to recoup some picks. I had some fun with the PFF draft tool now that you can trade players. It is not set up right for value of players, meaning I could get a 4th round pick for Attoachiu, 6th round picks for PS players, etc. I got to like 40 picks, which is how many the Bears will need to fill out their 90 man roster for training camp

I watched part of the game he started at QB last year, there may have been a couple. I never paid much attention to him, but my god he is athletic.

The threshold to count toward the comp pick formula is typically around 2.5Mil. I don't think it's a "set" amount, it's just based on percentage of contracts signed. Only players who sign contracts in the top 35% of AAV league-wide qualify for a comp pick. And with rookie deals, UDFA deals, vet minimums, etc. 65% of NFL contracts tend to be less than 2.5M AAV on any given year. Yea, best estimate I've seen is around 2.5. There is a set lower limit thats currently 1.77 and goes up 0.2 every other year. But the 35% threshold is obviously well about that and would figure to stay so. Thanks to both of you for responding. Coincidentally, I noticed someone on twitter over the weekend asking for two current FA's (Hicks, Ifedi, ??) to sign for more than $2.5 so that a comp pick would get freed up. I think Hicks could meet that, but the second would have to be Ifedi, Tashaun Gipson, not sure who else could possibly qualify at this point. I'm sure eeryone saw that Titans S is signing with the Bears. He seems like another DHC type, which is welcome particularly with Deon Bush moving on

I read somewhere that ODonnell and Grant signings were not enough to qualify them as Compensatory Free Agents to offset Bears UFA signings. Does anyone know what teh threshold is? Dalton signed for $3MM and apparently that qualifies. Grant maybe not because he was traded mid season. ODonnell wasn't enough money to qualify according to what I read. I don't think we have much chance of picking up any comp picks with how many roster spots still open, but more curious than anything

From rotoworld.... Speaking at the Owner's Meetings, Colts owner Jim Irsay said that the Colts explored a trade for a young quarterback that would have cost two first-round picks. This was, of course, before they acquired Matt Ryan. The Colts were on the periphery of the Deshaun Watson talks before the Texans shut them out, but perhaps Chris Ballard had his eye on a different young quarterback as well. The trade never materialized and the Colts instead pivoted to Ryan. This can't be referring to Watson, as his asking price started with three 1st rd picks. Who was it? Not going to ask if it was Fields, I don't think it was. Kyler? Tua? Worth too much: Herbert, Lamar Not worth that: Hurts, Mayfield, Jones, Darnold (duh) Too soon: Mac, Lawrence, Z Wilson

I'm a little disappointed with losing Armstead to the Dolphins. I didn't want him going into FA, but given that we've added very little (along with WF22's notes on being too low on salary going into next year) I would have done the deal for $15M/year. I thought it was pretty reasonable given that top tier LT is getting $22-23M. Had that signing been made you could put Jenkins and Borom as RT by committee, as neither have played a full season yet, or let them compete for RG, too, and pick up a vet swing tackle. I think Pringle can be a pretty decent low-end to average #2, Mooney being a high end 2 as well and both could get tons of targets. ESB doesn't do much for me, nor does Newsome, yet, but those guys are penciled in as your WR4, 5 or hopefully 5, 6 by the time the roster is set.

Did you mean to link something?

Now signing DE Muhammad from the Colts

A report stated that GB offered more money than LV and Adams chose the trade. Was his relationship with Rodgers not good? Why would he leave if the money was the same? I heard he was buddies with Derek Carr but it still doesn't make sense to me. I just hope Rodgers is all pissed off about it. That said, GB will be able to draft four WR in the top 53 or whatever if they want. They won't, but they will have many options to adding cheap production with this deal. Overall, GB trading Adams after resigning Rodgers makes no sense to me

I'm not terribly upset about this. I think he was seriously overpaid at 3/40.5 just for who he is, not to mention that signing a pure 3T is somewhat of a luxury for a team that needs so much help on offense. I'd like to see bigger contracts for cut players like JC Tretter, Lael Collins, etc. Comp picks could be coming back if handled carefully, but obviously still target the best players for the scheme.

I heard this year's scheule is easier, so I had to look it up. In addition to the NFC North Home/Away, there is also NFC East - Cowboys, Eagles, WFT, Giants AFC East - Bills, Patriots, Dolphins, Jets NFC South #3 - Falcons NFC West #3 - 49ers AFC South #3 - Texans Jets, Texans, Giants, Lions are the only teams with a worse 2021 record than the Bears (5 games) Bills, Patriots, Cowboys, Eagles, 49ers, Packers are 2021 playoff teams (7 games) That leaves WFT, Falcons, Dolphins, Vikings as in between (5 games) Looks like 7-9 wins at a glance

Daniels got 3/26.5 and the guy they signed to replace him got 2/8. And he's supposedly a more nasty type of lineman, which Poles made clear he prefers. I think saving money and getting the type of player you prefer makes sense here. Daniels should have been a good got athletically for the scheme. I guess attitude (or even consistency) are being prioritized. This guy got ARob extension wrong last year, but I feel like maybe he has called other things and is maybe connected? He did have something that he predicted that came true, can't recall what it is. I think you could easily go into 2022 with Borom and Jenkins at RT/RG, as long as you get a versatile veteran as depth/competition. Not sure if JC Tretter is a good option at C with respect to scheme and what his contract demand might be. My take is sign some talented upside/value guys regardless of position and let them sort it out in training camp. Multiple C options would be great. Pushing Borom into a reserve role would be great.

Daniels got 3/26.5 and the guy they signed to replace him got 2/8. And he's supposedly a more nasty type of lineman, which Poles made clear he prefers. I think saving money and getting the type of player you prefer makes sense here. I looked at Patrick as C, not G (not a replacement exactly) but I agree that it's a sensible and good signing

Daniels signed for 3/26.5 Nichols 2/11 Artie Burns 1/2 Jakeem Grant 3/13.8 Poles must not have liked what he saw on film from Daniels or Nichols. Neither of those deals seem wildly out of line money wise. I thought Grant might come back on a 2/5 type deal, but that's a lot from Cleveland. As always, these numbers are not pure payout; contract structure matters and will likely reduce the effective AAV