Hairyducked Idiot

He'd be walking away from a lot of money. Not saying it's impossible but he doesn't have to. Robidas Island means LTIR. He'd be technically not retired so he'd still get paid, but he'd be put on LTIR every year.

Everybody's putting people on Robidas Island these days. It's not that hard as long as Seabrook is ready to retire.

Exactly, the CBA has been in place for 3 years, the consequences of spending from that perspective are not a surprise. So either we have to believe that Theo was confident that the team would be so good that they'd be fine just taking an offseason to trim payroll(even as late as *this June* when he committed 37 million to Kimbrel), or ownership pulled the rug out from under them. I think he significantly overestimated the market for some of his assets. He assumed teams would be showering him with high-profile prospects in offers for Bryant and has been resoundingly met with "meh."

What if we took a few years off competing, got our payroll down, but in doing so we focused on the farm system and the organization as a whole, so we could have a pipeline of young talent that will mature into prime age as Cubs. Then we never have to rebuild again. We could sustain our success.

The market just isn’t there for that kind of Bryant trade. Nobody wants to give up MLB ready talent.

These offseasons are so stupid. I miss the old days when we would have signed Kevin Tapani by now.

You sold me. The only thing I like more than planning for aggressive decline-side aging curves is treating the run game as irrelevant

I could definitely be persuaded to drop safety from the "high priority" list and use the extra resources to double-up on the OL or front-7

I have zero interest in a Robinson extension given my long-standing belief that all athletes over 25 are seconds away from going all Last Crusade choosing poorly. Just enjoy having him on a good deal without long-term commitment

OK, doom bonering aside, here's the real approach to the offseason. They're going to have to take some chances on unknown, younger guys and move on from some veterans who aren't terrible yet. The most understandable, common mistake in the NFL is holding on to guys a year too long, waiting until they become outright bad before bringing in fresh bodies to feed to the meat grinder. If they're lucky/good, they'll hit on more of those young bets than miss. So with that in mind, I've come around on some of the cuts. Cap cuts: Amukamara, Floyd, Gabriel, decline to pick up Long's option. Now you've got a ton of holes, but at least you do have some cap space to work with. In terms of cap space or pick commitment, there's four spots that need to be the focus. 1) OG. Your interior line is absolutely awful and is the biggest thing holding the offense back besides Trubisky, who we can't really do anything about yet. Coward is an RFA and can go away forever. Whitehair is stuck because of his contract. Daniels is still only 22 and a recent 2nd-rounder, so he can stick around but he can't have a guaranteed job. So really, go get two veteran guards or one vet and one high pick. 2) TE. I'd like to have two, but I'm willing to give Burton another chance just to avoid having to spend too much of our resources on doubling up at a spot that is pretty weak in terms of what's available. 3) Edge rusher. It sucks to have to commit more to this position after everything we've done, but it's the truth. Floyd wasn't getting it done and Mack can't do it by himself these days. A pass rush is 100% not optional with this defense. 4) SS. Get a true SS to let Eddie Jackson go back to FS, no more of this double-FS garbage. The rest of the moves you need to make, but can be a lesser priority: 1) QB2. It's a buyer's market, with way more guys out there than there are jobs. Granted, none of them are *good*, but you should be able to get one cheap. 2) A true RB2 to share carries with Montgomery. Cohen needs to be used as a gimmick receiver and long-down back, nothing more. 3) A cheap, young CB. I thought Toliver looked pretty adequate out there. This is a position we can afford to cheap out on so long as we fix the pass rush. 4) Various pieces of front-7 depth and an ILB starter, doesn't have to be anyone special or expensive. Basically, what the Bears need to do is realize that they aren't just trying to recapture the magic of 2018 but everyone is two years older. The roster needs a large infusion of fresh bodies. It's not a "heck yeah, we're Super Bowl-bound!" offseason, but it hopefully improves the team and sets it up for continued growth in future seasons.

The ball was tipped and changed direction 2 feet in front of Ridley's face. Almost impossible to catch at that speed. If we're talking about reasons we keep losing games like this, a low-key one is the defense's inability to create turnovers.

He was below the last two years, is now on the wrong side of the aging curve, and past injuries are the best predictor or future injuries. Easy under

Doom doom dooooooooom The backloaded cap hits that fueled 2018 start coming due this offseason. You can create some space, but not enough to fill the many holes this team has. Everyone good on the defense except Roquan will be 28+ next season and thus prone to crumbling to dust in a stiff wind. Everyone good on the offense is named Allen Robinson. It’s the NFL, so you’re rarely doomed to a losing season before it starts. If they stay really healthy and get lucky they might threaten to win a weak division or a wild card spot before an ugly playoff bouncing. But they’re probably gonna suck. They can’t even start the rebuild properly until all these contracts and caps in the draft years filter out. Next season is the garbage time of the success cycle, you just gotta play it out. Maybe Trubisky is the worst QB in the league. Maybe he is secretly average and being held down by circumstances. But he definitely isn’t good, so you might as well try again soon.

Focus on positions with longevity like OL. There’s no salvaging this iteration of the Bears anyway. Nothing to do but cry and wait for 2021 when you at least have a first-rounder to try again for a franchise QB. What’s Mack’s excuse for being invisible this week?

If you squint, finding out that nobody really wants to pay a premium for Kris Bryant is almost funnier than the Cubs having to trade him.

If I want to be especially hopeful, this is also a situation without much precedent. An MVP in his 20s with multiple years to free agency getting traded hasn't happened in the modern era. Maybe there's been others of similar quality that didn't quite win MVP, but 1) I'm too lazy to look that up and 2) I think the prestige is more than an arbitrary distinction. Don't forget the Piercing Blue Eyes bonus.

I think if you really looked at it objectively, the price for two years of Kris Byrant on the trade market is high but not exhorbitantly high. But I have no interest in looking at it objectively.

So better than this year? Things are trending up.

i don't know any of these names lol Just do what we all did in 2012-2014, google their prospect rankings.

The ask is/was Mackenzie Gore, apparently I'd lol no at that too if I were the padres, and I hate pitching prospects more than anyone.

This is 100% gonna be one of those deals where Theo gets a huge boner for walking everyone through the process but not actually completing anything because he doesn't get his price.

I'm rooting for this to happen only because I'm a ghoul who is entertained by misery. The fact that the actual Cubs are actually wanting to do it is hilarious.

The field

Yes. This team can win the world series next year. They should try to do that.