Bears 10.0: GM and coach watch before the draft

[fleet]

Was looking forward to another draft pick, but it never made any sense that teams would be serious about hiring any executive from the Bears front office. I bet a lot of this was Rooney rule generated action

[fleet]

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Not a huge fan of this move. He was cheap and worked well as a DE3/4 or can move inside. We gotta really fill in the DE room asap.

Shemar Stewart is tailor made for Allen. If the Bears fill holes on the O-line in free agency, don’t be surprised if they go edge in round 1. I like Pearce, Stewart, or Williams. But Stewart and Williams fit the best.

[patryk7754]

Morgan Fox is my top choice to replace Walker. In his limited role with the Chargers, he's had pretty good production and is good against the run. I think he can also play well in a limited role at DT. I assume he'll make less than 4m.

Just to be clear, as a back up and not a starter.

[Dresden]

Hopefully these moves signal that the Bears have a definite plan in place for FA on players they want to go after. They now need another DE, and a TE2. Would not be surprising to see them draft a TE in the 5th round or so.

[molepharmer]

Hopefully these moves signal that the Bears have a definite plan in place for FA on players they want to go after. They now need another DE, and a TE2. Would not be surprising to see them draft a TE in the 5th round or so.

Releasing their starting DE without having a replacement in mind would seem unlikely; especially since they only saved ~$4 mil. Robinson isn't the solution and Booker didn't appear to be ready as a starter based on last year. Can't say I'm very high of any of the FA DE's who would become the Bears starter and would cost likely $15+ mil. Also seems they'd need to be pretty certain that the rookie they draft could step in day one and become the starter.

[panthermark]

Not a huge fan of Walker on the surface. Hopefully they have a plan in place.

Everett was a bust, although I don't know how much of that had to do with our system and a young QB.

I don't get cutting Walker right now, but I just have to trust the process. We are already thin at DE.
I think the bigger issue was signing him in the first place. He came off of a career high 7 sack season, but the problem to me was that he was a 3-4 DE with the Titans, going into a 4-3 system. Maybe the new DC decided the poor fit wasn't worth it, and they have some specific FA targets in mind that are better fits?

[TheSuzerain]

Trade 1.10 for Garrett (and re-sign/extend immediately)

Sign Trey Smith.

It's time to push some chips in.

[nitetrain8603]

Trade 1.10 for Garrett (and re-sign/extend immediately)

Sign Trey Smith.

It's time to push some chips in.

I kind of talked myself down from Myles Garrett. While for the first two years or so, it would be great, stud DL, especially edge rushers decline pretty quickly. Look at Julius Peppers, or Jared Allen. Myles is older than I thought. Heck, with Sweat being 29/30, I'm ready to move on from him.

Now, if you're just going to load up to try to win it all this year, then trade for Garrett, go after Hassan Reddick, sign Mack as MLB (I don't like Edmunds), sign Trey Smith, rebuild the rest of the OLine in the draft, and go for it.

[Almost Retired]

Sign Josh Sweat as soon as he's available. Go with Booker at #10. Future all-pro. Sign Dalman and Fries at the same combined price as just signing Trey Smith alone. Get an EDGE or DT in the 2nd Round and another trench warrior. Get a RB in the 3rd Round. Sign some FA depth and draft for potential/BPA in the lower rounds.

[patryk7754]

Go with Booker at #10. Future all-pro. Sign Dalman and Fries at the same combined price as just signing Trey Smith alone. .

This might be our best combo available. It'll be the cheapest route while still making a significant upgrade and I think it gives us the most flexibility. I would add Ronnie Stanley to this as well.

[dice]

Trade 1.10 for Garrett (and re-sign/extend immediately)

Sign Trey Smith.

It's time to push some chips in.

sounds like the khalil mack strategy

Did anyone even know who Trey Smith was before he started appearing on top FA listings? No reason to unless they're a KC fan. He just made his first Pro Bowl! Not close to elite. Not a great pass protector. He's a healthy Jenkins.

[patryk7754]

Assuming we don't clear up any more cap, I would do this to fix our OL/DL

Offensive Line:
Ronnie Stanley: 2/36m
Kevin Zeiter: 2/10m
Will Fries: 4/60m
Drew Dalman: 4/32m
Dan Skipper: 2/4m

Draft a OG in the 2nd (Hopefully Donovan Jackson) and a OT in the 4th (hopefully Jack Nelson)
Trade Jones for a WR3 and a pick (hopefully Rasheed Shaheed)

Stanley/Skipper/Kiran
Zeitler/Jackson
Dalman/Bates
Fries/McFadden
Wright/Skipper/Nelson

Ideally we'd replace bates as well.

Defensive
Sign Malcolm Koonce to a 1 year 10-15m deal
Sign Morgan Fox as a rotational DE/DT for 2/6m
Trade up to draft Mason Graham
Draft a DE in the second (my top choice would be J.T. Tuimoloau)

Koonce/JTT
Dexter/Pickens
Graham/Billings
Sweat/Fox

I'd also look into what it takes to acquire Jalean Phillips. He's had some bad injury history and the Dolphins are in a bad cap situation. It would save the Dolphins 13m and take them out of the negative. But it would cost us 13m in cap so I would at most give up a 3rd and maybe not even that.

[jordanwilliams6]

I’m comfortable using FA money on a DE and using our first pick on one as well.

The next 2 selections should then be on the O line with some more spent in FA as well.

[dice]

Was looking forward to another draft pick, but it never made any sense that teams would be serious about hiring any executive from the Bears front office. I bet a lot of this was Rooney rule generated action

how could we expect the assistant to a bad GM to get promoted?

[dice]

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Not a huge fan of this move. He was cheap and worked well as a DE3/4 or can move inside. We gotta really fill in the DE room asap.

I agree. I liked Walker last year, but maybe just settling for mediocracy.

Are they going to do the same with Bates???? Would save another 4 million I believe, but Poles seems to have a weird attachment to him.

certainly seems weird to axe walker ahead of bates. didn't expect walker to go after a solid season at a reasonable salary. kinda telegraphs a big FA EDGE signing, which i don't like. should'a waited till the draft and used walker as a fallback option

[dice]

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I blame Waldron because this was one of the worst signings Poles has made. I’d put this over Claypool and Davis. Those moves you can justify. We didn’t need to pay top dollar for a TE2 just to basically bench Kmet.

giving up a 2nd for claypool is probably worse. but neither made sense. didn't realize that signing everett cost us a 4th. not sure why that would be

[TheSuzerain]

Trade 1.10 for Garrett (and re-sign/extend immediately)

Sign Trey Smith.

It's time to push some chips in.

I kind of talked myself down from Myles Garrett. While for the first two years or so, it would be great, stud DL, especially edge rushers decline pretty quickly. Look at Julius Peppers, or Jared Allen. Myles is older than I thought. Heck, with Sweat being 29/30, I'm ready to move on from him.

Now, if you're just going to load up to try to win it all this year, then trade for Garrett, go after Hassan Reddick, sign Mack as MLB (I don't like Edmunds), sign Trey Smith, rebuild the rest of the OLine in the draft, and go for it.

Jared Allen is an extreme case.

Peppers (and Mack) were turning in 10+ sack seasons into their late 30s

[TheSuzerain]

Trade 1.10 for Garrett (and re-sign/extend immediately)

Sign Trey Smith.

It's time to push some chips in.

sounds like the khalil mack strategy

Did anyone even know who Trey Smith was before he started appearing on top FA listings? No reason to unless they're a KC fan. He just made his first Pro Bowl! Not close to elite. Not a great pass protector. He's a healthy Jenkins.

Uhhh yes. He's been a mainstay on the best team in the league. He's also unusually young to hit UFA for such a player.

The Khalil Mack strategy did not fail because of Khalil Mack. It's that they added him to a sinking ship rather than an ascending core.

[dice]

Trade 1.10 for Garrett (and re-sign/extend immediately)

Sign Trey Smith.

It's time to push some chips in.

sounds like the khalil mack strategy

Did anyone even know who Trey Smith was before he started appearing on top FA listings? No reason to unless they're a KC fan. He just made his first Pro Bowl! Not close to elite. Not a great pass protector. He's a healthy Jenkins.

Uhhh yes. He's been a mainstay on the best team in the league. He's also unusually young to hit UFA for such a player.

uhhh...braxton jones has been a mainstay. and the best teams in the league have bad players too

The Khalil Mack strategy did not fail because of Khalil Mack. It's that they added him to a sinking ship rather than an ascending core.

the bears had a young, ascending defense. and a highly drafted QB. and they couldn't add on in part because of the picks given up for mack. then they had to eventually cut bait on players because of mack's salary. that's how it works. it's about the contract, not the player. of course it didn't fail because of khalil mack. it failed in part because of what was shelled out to get him

giving a first time pro bowler a record contract is a big mistake. smith is very good, not great

[patryk7754]

I’m comfortable using FA money on a DE and using our first pick on one as well.

The next 2 selections should then be on the O line with some more spent in FA as well.

I think we’d be in a great place if we spent all our cap on OL and dL and followed that up by also using our top 3 picks on OL and DL. It would be extremely hard to mess that up.

But, we also have a lot of flexibility if w decide to throw in a couple of skill guys in there as well. I would also think Poles isn’t done clearing up cap space.