WrigleyField 22

Technically got Wally Pipped There were real concerns about his injury recovery dating back to like July. If a whole extra offseason and that IR time are well used and he's at his 23/24 level he's worth the 10m max he could get as a bridge (and then make call on Ozzy and his recovery)

From FPAs own website (via the archive as they've modified it now)

Yea my issue the entire time is people thinking Atlanta cooked up a devious scheme. At worst Blank may have been influential in NFLs determination as he purportedly a powerful voice on diversity committee, but by every objective measure this structure is a strategic disadvantage for them. Now maybe they're taking their chance on that, but there's explicit risk in how they're structured now.

The NFL has blame here, but it's not isolated and in a vacuum, or random. The most significant stakeholder org on diversity matters that the league works with, Fritz Pollard Alliance, was specifically taking issue with these Ryan type roles falling outside of the diversity rules. Insert NFLs solution : Matt Ryan is Primary Exec. This placates issue one, and since no team blocked the GM request, we'll see if FPA takes any issue with the GM being secondary exec. My sense would be no, but we'll see. I dint think FPA cares about the picks. But my gripe with NFL is really two fold. (1) Letting Tennessee get out of questions last year about a similar structure, and arguably sweeping under rug that they promoted Brinker without a search, and (2) not proactively expanding scope to address this and instead addressing it by looping it into existing rules. But Bears knew what was happening the entire time. If they thought after the fact appeals would be effective, they are foolish. I don't take issue with how they handled, but realistically it just was never gonna end up in picks.

Why would they want to do that? If he's good at his job he's worth 10x more than a couple late 3rds.

Keenum back on a 2 year 5.5M deal worth up to 8M A Bagent trade has to be incoming right?

Olamide Zaccheaus going to Atlanta. Must be a decent size deal to get him off board quick. Maybe Bears will enter comp pick territory for 2027.

Far off enough Good value though.

Don't think thats a legit account

Bradburys run grade was also better when he played in a zone scheme with Vikings. Between that and being sandwiched between Jackson and Thuney this is just a practical pickup. The draft capital is a little rich, but they've shown an ability to pick up these types of picks and recoup.

It's very weird. I think I was an early observer of the rookie scale QB phenomenon. But once it took off people treated it with gospel and it's become so overrated. It was always an arguement against exclusion. But it's shoehorned back to an exclusionary arguement the other way now.

Windows aren't real The defense could easily be worse

People are weird. Not to say Bears are some sure thing, but the line they have today and Caleb+Loveland+Rome+Odunze is enough to kero things interesting next year no matter what. And they still have 3 picks from 25-60, plus FA.

I think the optimistic view is he'll be a better outside zone fit for Chicago's scheme. Ben knocked it out on OL last year. I trust.

I mean I think you always have to approach cut decisions with an honest assessment even when you have "a lot of space" or not. That space is always managed over a mid term picture so whether you had $80M of space or $20m of space it doesn't change the question of whether Edmunds worth $15m in 2026. I think they can replace Edmunds production with like half or less his $. But it does mean they have to be busy. They have a lot of pluggable holes, but the pure number of them is daunting and a challenge as things move fast as soon as that tampering period opens. Wouldn't mind seeing a weekend trade somewhere to address a hole in advance of FA.

The cap situation isn't even bad. Poles just hasn't demonstrated any sort of analytical view of cap mgmt.

Although I'd like the extra pick as well, if you told me the equivalent pick value of both Edmunds and DJ together was what DJ got, I'd probably have said, "okay. Sounds reasonable" Win some, lose some. And given the rumor of a Edmunds for Thibodeoux trade, I'll take the straight cut.

I'd really like to try and get younger not older. Don't wanna be the team holding the bag on aging players when the bottom falls out.

I really like the Over The Cap calculator. It's pretty intuitive. https://overthecap.com/calculator/chicago-bears Calculating max restructure potential (adding void years) is a little more complex, but since Poles has never used a void hear I don't think you need to worry about that. I'd group them as follows: 1. Guys with large guarantees (these are like the zero risk restructures, unless you think you'll trade them, but you probably know that by Monday) Sweat (potential 9.85m cap room as simple, non-void restructure) Thuney (7.6) Jackson (6.8) Jarrett (6.6) Gordon (6.0) 2. Guys with large base, but all/most unguaranteed. If you're pretty certain they'll have a roster spot this is low risk again. But if any you could argue aren't worth the salary, you could argue to cut instead of restructure Johnson (6.9) Kmet (4.3) - I'd think he's more a restructure at lower salary candidate Santos (0.95) 3. It's complicated Odeyinbingo (7.3) Edwards (3.6) These guys are complicated because of the injury. If either has injury insurance (I've heard they may) than I believe restructuring could impact insurance payments (depends on terms probably). With that being the case if either has insurance and misses the whole year you could get injury insurance payout and a cap credit for 2027. Don't wanna throw that away. If not for the injury, they'd be group one. Pretty much all the rest you can't because they are on rookie deals or in final year (could extend though) If you maxed out with void years the max potential is something like 100M (Over the Cap has a page for this, but I don't think it's updated for Moore/Dalman and I'm on my phone so hard to re-calc on my own easily right now) https://overthecap.com/restructure And to anyone who would question Jarrett (or Dayo/Edwards, injury aside) on the basis of ability, no it really doesn't mater. And in fact you can counterintuitively argue that worse players are better to restructure because someone like Sweat could become a trade candidate in a year (See Moore, DJ). And restructuring would actually create some inflexibility come trade time. Whereas you could easily create a 3 year cap plan on Jarrett (restructure + June 1 cut in 27), a bad contract you're stuck with for 2026. But actually if your aren't going to be a maximum restructure team the best bet IMO might be to take a little off the top of all those guys and spread your dead cap acceleration risk around a bit. But best would still be max restructure all for maximum flexibility (and roll excess)

And Daniel Jeremiah calls 50-75 the sweet spot of this draft. 🔥

You just reallocate it from elsewhere. It's all fungible. Follow the cash, not dead hits (which were already accounted for in a 3+ year outlook a team actually uses)

Late second seems like a solid spot to be in this draft. I normally don't love pick swaps to get a higher return, but probably makes sense here.

But dead cap doesn't matter

Bittersweet, but this makes too much sense. And Im glad he gets to go to a playoff team and not like the Raiders. Massive amounts of cap flexibility (albeit they lost 34 starts from 2025 roster in the past 48 hours). No cap liabilities on roster past 2028. Less than 35M of guarantees on the books past 2026 (including an upcoming vesting guarantee on Gordon)

Not a single view inside the stadium is a nice touch though