WrigleyField 22

Yea, I mean if I thought he was a true workhorse back I'd say Ebner is enough and take RB2 off the list. Could be reupping Montgomery if a reasonable deal is there, but definitely something more than a minimum or day 3 pick behind him.

If the pick is top 5, it's going to be one of Carter, Anderson or Murphy otherwise, if they manage to stay in the 10-15 range, I think Johnston might be in play. Yea if they manage to stay outside of the top 10, a lot more things end up in play. But unless they are top 5, they kind of just need to plug every hole in FA like they don't know what will be there in the draft, because they really won't know. So whoever they use their 1st on will just be a bonus at that point. Major holes entering the offseason WR3 RB2 C (or G depending how they feel about Patrick/Whitehair) OT (with Borom and Jones competing for the other) DE1 (they actually have okay depth, but need a major talent here) DTx2 (only Jones under contract) LBx2 Not every one of those is gonna be a $10M free agent, but if they can get solid vets at those 9 spots (which could include some resigning), the draft becomes wide open to just add star potential wherever.

They're both solid starters on the right offense. There's only a handful of true 1s and then everyone else is scheme and matchup dependent largely. They should absolutely look to draft a WR like every year anyways, but the nice thing about Claypool is I think they can take best WR and not worry about Slot v X v Z too much.

I was gonna go as far as trading for him in one league to really jinx us, but my league mate had no interest. My other league he's actually still available, but I have Hurts and am in it to win it whereas the other league I'm last place and trolling for possible keepers now. Also it's a 6pt passing TD league, so running heavy QBs can be slightly muted value wise. I made a bold move to make Fields a keeper after I owned him last year. I literally came thisclose to dropping him after week 4. Tried to dangle him in a trade but including him actually decreased the value of the trade I was offering in other team's eyes. I think I started Bridgewater over him one week (superflex). But now he's a must start. I always hated owning Bears in fantasy because more often than not they were a disappointment and I hated when they failed my fantasy team and my real life team, but in his case its helping both for once! Hedge all the unders.

I was gonna go as far as trading for him in one league to really jinx us, but my league mate had no interest. My other league he's actually still available, but I have Hurts and am in it to win it whereas the other league I'm last place and trolling for possible keepers now. Also it's a 6pt passing TD league, so running heavy QBs can be slightly muted value wise.

I 100% agree with this and am kind of amazed that even while they mention it being a factor, it's being almost completely discounted in grading the trade by the pundits. The lack of options in FA plus stealing a resource from the Packers makes the grade from me significantly higher than the deal would be in a vacuum. To play devils advocate, if they kept that pick and used it on an overdraft WR instead of best player available, they’d get criticized for it. They didn’t have to put themselves in a position where an overpay for a wr via trade was a viable option, they could have done something to help Fields 6 months ago. They didn’t. They put themselves in a position where they were desperate enough to overpay, and by all accounts, they overpaid. Frankly I’m glad they did it for multiple reasons, but it deserves to be viewed honestly. While I did want them to overpay in FA months ago I can also say that there are parts of Claypool's potential I like a lot more than some of the options 6 months ago (say Kirk) based on where they can line up positionally. Maybe Poles took a bet on finding the right type of receiver. We can look back and say they barely got through 8 weeks of the season like that, but they did and Fields even started to come together a bit without it. But no rule they couldn't do both. It's really funny though, because I started coming across a ton of Jags fans on Twitter complaining they didn't surround Lawrence with enough to give an honest evaluation. And I couldn't imagine blaming Fields supporting cast if the Bears just had a Jaguars offseason (retained a top paid tackle, added a top G, and 3 sizable FA weapons at WR/TE and their prior year 1st round RB back from an injury). Meanwhile Bears have a flyer on a former first round possible bust and Claypool and I'm like, "Let Fields cook baby!". Meanwhile he has a 5th rounder at LT and Mustipher at C still, and their TE hardly is allowed to go run routes because he has to block.

I really think one of Boutte (LSU), Addison (USC) or Smith-Njigba (OSU) will be available when the Bears pick in the 2nd. That's probably gonna be in the back half of the second, are you sure? Briefly heard on the Hoge and Jahns podcast but I think Jahns said he asked the Athletic's NFL draft guy about it and he said the run of 5+ WR in the first will end this year. So I guess not as exciting of a talent pool as past couple years.

I follow PFF Brad on Twitter. He has pretty unbiased analysis even though he is somewhat of a Bears fan. He said giving the Ravens' second would be an overpay. I think he said Khan "fleeced" Poles by getting the Bears' second instead. I think everyone feels like it's an overpay, but so is free agency. Why, because you have to have the best offer to get what you want. I'm overall encouraged that more resources are going to the offense instead of defense to right what has been a franchise-long wrong to some extent. Oh, also, I listen to no one from ESPN. It is the network of who can scream the loudest. Not interested in that. Brad is one of my favorite follows. But I immediately noticed that the trade chart he developed basically calls the 2nd round difference the value of a 7th. I didn't directly @ him about it, but someone eventually did. Kind of funny.

Wow so Quinn pulled a Tony Snell. Impressive.

Obviously he'll get his bye in week 14, but with all this trade activity I was wondering... Has a guy ever started more than 16 games (pre 2021) or is anyone slated to start 18 games this year because they didn't catch either end of the bye and got traded?

As long as Poles doesn't have to be convinced of the same. Pretty funny though that Ballard wasn't apparently in the business of top 8 LB, but a Guard? No problem!

I'd still pick WR in the first 2 rounds. Actually still leaning toward 1st round. I think you can find OL and DL in Free agency. The Bears still don't have a stud #1 WR. Best way is to take one and take one early in the draft. Assuming that they finish top 10 there really are like 3 positions, and maybe a 4th in play : WR, DE, OT. Maybe DT if he's a perfect 3T who's very highly rated. If there isn't value at those spots, just trade down. But I hope they do enough in FA not to feel forced toward any one spot at the top of the draft.

I doubt he's in consideration for C, but at least helps the IOL depth once he's back.

Yeah, I think this is all coming together. I know people were skeptical about what the team thought about Fields being that they gave him nothing to work with. I know people were skeptical about the defensive coaching hire. But as I said all offseason, I think Poles believed in Fields, he just wasn't going to bet his career on him succeeding by going HAM year 1. Fields has shown enough, so far. And the defensive hire makes sense now that they are seemingly going all-in on Fields. Poles will hopefully add the talent there. Eberflus will be able to get the talent and mold them the way he wants. Sunday really opened my eyes. IDK if I said this here or twitter, but we all want Fields to throw 50 times in a game to see what happens, and Dallas was the opportunity to do so. They were behind big, he was playing well. But they didn't because I really felt for the first time they were protecting him from a fierce pass rush instead of protecting him from mistakes or playing to not lose. Taking him out of the game late really sealed the deal that they were doing this. I actually smiled when I saw Siemien on the field. This staff knows they can't drop Fields back 50 times and keep him upright all season. 100% agree on all this.

To play devil's advocate, we saw this approach under Trestman. Best offense the Bears have had and a historically bad defense ruined the season. The Bears have a ways to go to get to a 20ppg, 5 y/p defense after losing Roquan. Quinn isn't a big factor, but Smith was....and they already needed pretty much everything else on the front 7. But yeah, I don't care about a crippled defense in a rebuilding season. But they are going to have to put significant resources into that side of the ball this offseason as well. Not just on the offensive side. I think he's just talking about this season. No way Eberflus is going to be happy with an all offense/no defense team long term. I mean no one should. Most SB winners are like top 10 in both. As long as they aren't meatball "D first this is Chicago bears football baby" derp it's fine.

I wouldn't be opposed to that. We know that Mooney and Claypool are starting caliber WR's in the NFL. I can't say any of the others fall into that category. We hope Harry will be one, but he was let go for next to nothing for a reason. I surely hope Poles was the smartest guy in the room when he took a chance on Harry and Leatherwood. Playing time will tell. I don't think Harry and Leatherwood were about him being smart. It's low risk, high-reward moves for former 1st round picks that may have been in bad situations. Belichick is weird, he may have just not liked Harry for whatever reason. Leatherwood did get chances, but maybe the Raiders didn't have a scheme fit for him? IDK, but those are moves a bad team should make 100x out of 100. Yep. Literally the only benefit of being bad and tanking is just taking a pss at every vaguely interesting opportunity and hoping 1 out of 20 hits.

And they added a WR with two 60/860 seasons since I made this post! Losing every week 49-35 is gonna be so freaky-weird (except the reverse for DET x2) Oh and when they lose 63-14 to Buffalo. But maybe they'll be coasting by Christmas Eve.

McGlinchey the other big OT name.

I now wish the Smith/Claypool trades happened a week ago so Chase could be up to speed for this one. The Dolphins pass D is atrocious. 275 yards per game with a 100 QB rating against. Just allowed 300 yards to Goff. Allowed 300 to Lamar running the same offense Fields has in the last 2. The Dolphins haven't rushed the passer very well either. Chubb will help with that, but not sure how much this week. Assuming he doesn't get 50-60 reps, the Bears may be able to protect Fields much better than they have the last few weeks. They've faced some of the best pass rushes in the last 3-4 games. If ever there was a game where Justin throws 35 times..... His best route is the go route anyways. He can get up to speed enough for 30ish plays I bet. Use that ND education lol

Yea I think trenches on both sides will be the FA focus and very likely R1 focus. I'm sure Miami will resign Chubb who woulda been the biggest edge name. Davenport next biggest edge name possible after him. Lots of OT possible to hit market. I'd put money on that spot being one of their big signings. They'll need to sign some bodies at LB with Morrow being a FA. But hopefully not a $20M LB like Smith. Edmunds is the biggest LB on market. Spotrac who's valuations I don't necessarily trust put him at 4/57. He might be closer to Vander Esch probably another LB in that $10M type range among LB FA.

If the NE and DAL games are an indication, Harry has passed St Brown already. Probably still 12-18 snaps for him, but not much more. Man, I was never a fan of Pringle signing. I know you can't predixt injuries, but what a waste. It wound up costing the Bears a 3rd or 4th round comp too. I was fine with the signing. The lack of OL help is and was the reason to be upset this offseason. Bears were never gonna be in a position to collect on the comp pick though. In 2024 they might have a chance at being comp pick players and if a Claypool extension doesn't happen he could be part of that. So from that standpoint they set up their timing well by pushing a 2023 CFA vet to a 2024 CFA vet. That's all assuming the franchise tag wasn't on the table, which I think was a safe bet. Based on multiple career holdout/ins with Smith, a franchise tag was not a route you wanted to take.

Harry. I'm on the bandwagon already, yes. Don't even hate St. Brown as the 4th even. Can Velus earn the 5th WR gadget role over Pettis? Would help if he could be trusted to field punts. Does Pringle have a role when he gets healthy? Lot of bodies. Mooney is gonna play. Claypool is gonna play. They kind of need to see what they have in Velus and Harry. But St. Brown has kind of earned a right to play. Pettis has the highest YPC on the team and lead in TD receptions. Pringle was productive last year for KC and they had hopes for him, but probably no reason to give him a ton of reps at this point, he has 0 chance of being back in 2023. If the NE and DAL games are an indication, Harry has passed St Brown already. Probably still 12-18 snaps for him, but not much more. Man, I was never a fan of Pringle signing. I know you can't predixt injuries, but what a waste.

They can't get the ball down the field. They have Bears level OL talent and their QBs have noodle arms. They were doing that out of necessity to get him the ball. From a 14.5 ypc career guy to about 9 this year. I don't see any reason he can't be that 14ypc guy again right away. There's no way Trubisky and Pickett are more noodle armed then end of career Ben right?

Who are you considering the 3rd? Harry. I'm on the bandwagon already, yes. Don't even hate St. Brown as the 4th even. Can Velus earn the 5th WR gadget role over Pettis? Would help if he could be trusted to field punts. Does Pringle have a role when he gets healthy?

Per PFF, Pittsburgh has just totally messed with his usage this year. His first two years he was primarily an outside guy, getting most of his targets in the deep and intermediate depth. In 2022 he's being used mostly as a slot, getting over half his targets in the short game. Would this price have been any issue in the offseason when he was off two 59/860+ campaigns? I think the Bears can run 11 personnel with 3 starting caliber WR now. Hope Fields trusts Claypool immediately.