Bears 11.0: Free Agency, College Pro days, Draft & beyond

[dice]

poles going all in on 2025. cap hits:

2025

10.5 jackson
8.0 dayo

2026

25.0 jackson
20.5 dayo

what a clown. why are these guys even on the team? a rotational EDGE replacing the same. and a guy coming off injury who can't pass protect - give that man an extension!

poor man's 2018 pop up season incoming?

i instinctually dislike the structure of the jackson contract, but i think this is more about pushing salary off to a season when you'll have $22+ million coming off the cap with the departure of edmunds/swift than it is about "going all in" this year. we haven't even begun to leverage our ability to restructure contracts to open up cap flexibility, and we can get out of the jackson/dayo contracts after 2026 so even if things go sour it's not like they're long-term albatrosses

you can criticize poles's ability to maximize the value of the cap space he's allocating, but when it comes to big-picture cap health we're still totally fine for now

the swift money isn't enough to mention. and just because edmunds is almost certainly coming off the books doesn't mean it's OK to squander ADDITIONAL space that should have been had

if caleb is the real deal, we should be building for 2026. but now the defense looks like it's gonna be real tough to replenish. all of the following need to be extended or replaced after this season:

thuney
brisker
byard
jones (by campbell or banks?)
edwards
edmunds
gordon
WR3 (?)
swift (?)

plus...

bagent
billings

PLUS we need to get some clarity on CB2. can't have tyrique continue to stink it up

[fleet]

I’m not necessarily concerned about going for it in 2025, rushing the way Poles opened his career in Chicago claiming to not be about. But again, another situation…they gotta be right. It’s always about judgement. Is it good, or is it lacking. Are we on a treadmill of constantly rushing in to be covering problems up with artificial bandaids after failures.…

Honestly, I don’t quite know how to think about how good the Bears work may have been with the roster and the specific new plan. They are getting all the roses right now. They almost literally cannot be worse, so, we got that going for us. The best I can say is that I believe a dead cat bounce is not what we are about to see. It is something else. If Ben Johnson and Dennis Allen can steady the ship, it’s all I can lean on. But setting everything up for it in 2025 does not seem like it should be a priority. That defensive tackle they signed was like the break with otherwise explainable moves which were somewhat more sound. Hopefully that one doesn’t haunt us.

[NZB2323]

The cap keeps going up. Moves aren’t guaranteed to work, but I’d rather we go for it than be cheap and have holes.

Look at the Eagles. They go for it. It doesn’t always work out but they went out and got TO, Vick, Barkley, ect.

We spent money upgrading the lines while Caleb is on a rookie contract. I’m all for it.

[Dresden]

I’m not necessarily concerned about going for it in 2025, rushing the way Poles opened his career in Chicago claiming to not be about. But again, another situation…they gotta be right. It’s always about judgement. Is it good, or is it lacking. Are we on a treadmill of constantly rushing in to be covering problems up with artificial bandaids after failures.…

Honestly, I don’t quite know how to think about how good the Bears work may have been with the roster and the specific new plan. They are getting all the roses right now. They almost literally cannot be worse, so, we got that going for us. The best I can say is that I believe a dead cat bounce is not what we are about to see. It is something else. If Ben Johnson and Dennis Allen can steady the ship, it’s all I can lean on. But setting everything up for it in 2025 does not seem like it should be a priority. That defensive tackle they signed was like the break with otherwise explainable moves which were somewhat more sound. Hopefully that one doesn’t haunt us.

The thinking seems to be anyone on the wrong side of 30 should be avoided since we're a young team. But that overlooks the experience and leadership that those kinds of veterans can bring. It's better to have a mix- most winning teams do.

Also, filling holes through free agency is just a part of life in the NFL. Of course, you need to have your own draft picks form the core of your team, but if you have the cap space, I don't quite get the annoyance some people have when we use that. As someone pointed out, most of these contracts Poles is handing out don't go beyond a year or two. This doesn't mean it's a "go all in now" approach. He's just maximizing the use of resources. And when those contracts run their course, that money will be freed up to use elsewhere.

People were very upset about how bad the team has been the last few years, but then don't like it when Poles makes moves to improve it. It's very hard to thread the needle in just the perfect way to create a winning team, while also satisfying the "build through the draft" purists.

[Jimako10]

Rome vs Bowers is a great debate in regards to drafting. Bowers is great, and it’s possible he continues to be the best TE in football for next 5 years. If Rome develops into a nice Tee Higgins type production, Call him a #1 but not top 15 WR: Who gets the bigger 2nd Contract?

If I had to bet $100 on who gets a bigger second contract Bowers or Rome? I am betting it’s Rome.
Bowers has to pray he gets Darnell Mooney money.

This is the positional value argument that does factor in draft picks. Jamar Chase on a rookie deal is way better for team building than Bowers.

Im not taking Warren at 10.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If both Bowers and Rome put up 100 catches 1300 yards....why would it be better to pay Rome more money? IMO, you made a great argument for Bowers as his production would come at half the cost for his 2nd contract while having a similar impact.

This is more of a loophole in how the NFL values positions. Several years ago Jimmy Graham went to court and argued he was a WR during his New Orleans glory days as he was putting up monster receiving numbers. He felt like he should be paid like WR instead of TE under the franchise tag rules, but lost that decision. He was easily the most impactful offensive player after Brees.

If a TE rarely blocks and is running routes most of the time, how is he any different than a WR in terms of impact?

I'll take Bowers + 20 million all day long over Rome at 40 million.

[JohnnyKILLroy]

The cap keeps going up. Moves aren’t guaranteed to work, but I’d rather we go for it than be cheap and have holes.

Look at the Eagles. They go for it. It doesn’t always work out but they went out and got TO, Vick, Barkley, ect.

We spent money upgrading the lines while Caleb is on a rookie contract. I’m all for it.

Actually you couldn’t be more wrong about the Eagles. They do it through the draft not free agency.

[NZB2323]

The cap keeps going up. Moves aren’t guaranteed to work, but I’d rather we go for it than be cheap and have holes.

Look at the Eagles. They go for it. It doesn’t always work out but they went out and got TO, Vick, Barkley, ect.

We spent money upgrading the lines while Caleb is on a rookie contract. I’m all for it.

Actually you couldn’t be more wrong about the Eagles. They do it through the draft not free agency.

Did they draft TO, Vick, and Barkley? Are we abandoning the draft?

[JohnnyKILLroy]

The cap keeps going up. Moves aren’t guaranteed to work, but I’d rather we go for it than be cheap and have holes.

Look at the Eagles. They go for it. It doesn’t always work out but they went out and got TO, Vick, Barkley, ect.

We spent money upgrading the lines while Caleb is on a rookie contract. I’m all for it.

Actually you couldn’t be more wrong about the Eagles. They do it through the draft not free agency.

Did they draft TO, Vick, and Barkley? Are we abandoning the draft?

TO and Vick ? Talk about needlessly going too far back. Under their current regime they’re crashing the draft and have a war chest of picks going forward. You gotta lock up the draft first and then you can afford to take chances on a luxury acquisition like Barkley

[patryk7754]

Barkley, brown, Bauh, slay, cjdj, and becton are 5 significant contributors acquired via free agency or trades. Roseman is pretty active in the trade and free agency market. That’s one of his traits. The idea that the eagles didn’t do much through those avenues is just incorrect. He is also a master in drafting. All those things go hand in hand.

[panthermark]

At the time, I don't think they knew Allen wouldn't be part of the future. I think it's quite possible they thought they would like to re-sign him if the price was right. And I suppose they still might- he doesn't seem to be getting any offers elsewhere, unless I missed something. In any case, I don't know why you'd want to make it any more difficult than it already was for your young QB. Without Allen, defenses would be able to concentrate more on DJ, Rome and Kmet, etc. And you'd have to promote someone else to Allen's position, someone who maybe doesn't know the plays and the routes as well, which would make it harder for everyone.

At the time they traded for KA, they would not have known what the future holds, even if they knew KA wasn't on the same time-line as CW.

But the moment they drafted Odunze, they SHOULD have known. That was obvious. Whether KA re-signs or not, the connections need to be with Odunze, Moore, and Kmet.

It it isn't like he didn't have anyone to throw to. DJ (who would have been 27 all last season) had 96 catches for 1364 yards and 8TD's the previous season. Throw in Kmet and a top 10 draft pick...and I would say that a lack of options was not the problem. Using your own logic, KA should have a magical season because of all the attention everyone was drawing, but that didn't happen. CW could only throw screens to Moore, and ignore Kmet for games at a time. That needs to be addressed.

Well I think that was the logic of Poles/Flus/Waldron in taking Odunze, even with DJ and KA. Having 3 credible WR's, plus Kmet, plus Swift, SHOULD have lead to a prolific offense. But they miscalculated badly on how poor the O line would be, and that Waldron would not be able to make any adjustments.

I think you're wrong to write off KA just because he was older and on a one year deal. He was brought in to be a veteran presence that knew how to get open- just because they drafted Odunze should not have suddenly made KA irrelevant.

If that is what you think than you are not thinking correctly.
It wasn't "just" that he was older and on a one year deal and Rome was drafted. It was ALSO that the team was not winning.
Even with KA on the team CW was still struggling as a passer (especially deep), nor was the CW to KA connection anything special in itself.
What exactly did this team gain for having KA here from the trade deadline on?
The team went 1-8.
Tyler Scott had 1 target the entire season.
The team was 4-4 and on a downward spiral post the Tyrique special and after laying an egg against the Cards.
The team was broken and whatever leadership was here wasn't working. Why not send KA to contender, recoup an asset of some sort, while also opening up time for younger players? The lack of that move never made sense to me other than "they thought it would work itself out", and if that is what they thought, they thought wrong.

[Chi town]

Ben has invested in leaders not just lineman.

Biggest issue with last years Bears was leadership. We know DJ isn’t a leader. Either is JJ. Flus and Waldron lacked accountability at training camp.

Ben seems to be the opposite. The more I hear him the more I like him.

[dice]

At the time they traded for KA, they would not have known what the future holds, even if they knew KA wasn't on the same time-line as CW.

But the moment they drafted Odunze, they SHOULD have known. That was obvious. Whether KA re-signs or not, the connections need to be with Odunze, Moore, and Kmet.

It it isn't like he didn't have anyone to throw to. DJ (who would have been 27 all last season) had 96 catches for 1364 yards and 8TD's the previous season. Throw in Kmet and a top 10 draft pick...and I would say that a lack of options was not the problem. Using your own logic, KA should have a magical season because of all the attention everyone was drawing, but that didn't happen. CW could only throw screens to Moore, and ignore Kmet for games at a time. That needs to be addressed.

Well I think that was the logic of Poles/Flus/Waldron in taking Odunze, even with DJ and KA. Having 3 credible WR's, plus Kmet, plus Swift, SHOULD have lead to a prolific offense. But they miscalculated badly on how poor the O line would be, and that Waldron would not be able to make any adjustments.

I think you're wrong to write off KA just because he was older and on a one year deal. He was brought in to be a veteran presence that knew how to get open- just because they drafted Odunze should not have suddenly made KA irrelevant.

If that is what you think than you are not thinking correctly.
It wasn't "just" that he was older and on a one year deal and Rome was drafted. It was ALSO that the team was not winning.
Even with KA on the team CW was still struggling as a passer (especially deep), nor was the CW to KA connection anything special in itself.
What exactly did this team gain for having KA here from the trade deadline on?
The team went 1-8.
Tyler Scott had 1 target the entire season.
The team was 4-4 and on a downward spiral post the Tyrique special and after laying an egg against the Cards.
The team was broken and whatever leadership was here wasn't working. Why not send KA to contender, recoup an asset of some sort, while also opening up time for younger players? The lack of that move never made sense to me other than "they thought it would work itself out", and if that is what they thought, they thought wrong.

KA was the miscalculation, not the line. i said that from day 1. loading up the receiver room only dilutes the value of all. kmet got the shortest end of the stick. had KA not been needlessly TRADED FOR, his 20+ mil could have been allocated in part to improve an already average line

plus, ya know, caleb was very disappointing. and none of the receivers were helping. too many drops, broken routes, miscommunications. nor particularly helpful was a poor RB acquisition relative to cost. speaking of which...

both swift and everett were acquired because they "fit" waldron's offense. except that waldron's offense sucked. "oh, he likes to use 2 TEs." "and which WR is coming off the field to accommodate that?", i asked

that after poles made edmunds one of the 3 highest paid LBs after his 1 (really) good season because flus liked him and he apparently "fit" the defense

now we've traded for a highly expensive, run blocking guard because the new coach likes him and got 1 good season out of him a few years back. way to learn from your mistakes, poles

[JohnnyKILLroy]

Barkley, brown, Bauh, slay, cjdj, and becton are 5 significant contributors acquired via free agency or trades. Roseman is pretty active in the trade and free agency market. That’s one of his traits. The idea that the eagles didn’t do much through those avenues is just incorrect. He is also a master in drafting. All those things go hand in hand.

None of it matters as much as the drafting. The draft is most important.

[dice]

The cap keeps going up. Moves aren’t guaranteed to work, but I’d rather we go for it than be cheap and have holes.

Look at the Eagles. They go for it. It doesn’t always work out but they went out and got TO, Vick, Barkley, ect.

We spent money upgrading the lines while Caleb is on a rookie contract. I’m all for it.

Actually you couldn’t be more wrong about the Eagles. They do it through the draft not free agency.

pretty much every really good team does it by accumulating value contracts and avoiding bad contracts

the cap was 255 mil last year. the eagles roster probably produced at well over 300 mil in value. bargain cap hits, drafted by eagles unless noted:

15.9 lane johnson (all-pro)
13.6 hurts (2nd rounder, super bowl MVP)
11.9 AJ brown (all-pro) - acquired for 1st and 3rd
11.7 mailata (all-pro, 7th rounder)
8.1 sweat (4th rounder) - signed w/ cards for 19.1 a year, 2 of 4 guaranteed
8.1 devonta smith
6.0 dickerson (all-pro)
5.0 carter (all-pro)
3.8 barkley (all-pro) - acquired via FA
3.4 milt williams (3rd rounder) - signed w/ pats for 26.0 a year, 2.5 of 4 guaranteed
2.8 gardner-johnson - acquired via FA
2.7 q. mitchell (all-rookie)
2.7 nolan smith - excellent rotational EDGE, #30 pick
2.0 becton - acquired via FA
1.9 jurgens (pro bowl)
1.7 dejean (all-pro, 2nd rounder)
1.6 baun (all-pro, 3rd rounder) - re-signed for 17.0 a year, 2 of 3 guaranteed
1.4 blankenship (UNDRAFTED starting FS, 74 PFF grade)
1.1 rodgers (quality backup CB) - acquired via FA - signed w/ vikings for 5.5 a year, 1.5 of 2 guaranteed
0.9 ojomo (7th rounder, solid rotational DT)

that's TWENTY significant value cap hits, FIFTEEN of which the eagles drafted, and only ONE of which required depletion of draft assets to acquire. meanwhile...significantly bad cap hits: NONE!

just sick value

[dice]

Ben has invested in leaders not just lineman.

Biggest issue with last years Bears was leadership. We know DJ isn’t a leader. Either is JJ. Flus and Waldron lacked accountability at training camp.

Ben seems to be the opposite. The more I hear him the more I like him.

having a marcedes lewis is one thing, but grady jarrett had better provide a lot more than leadership for 14 mil a year

[JohnnyKILLroy]

The cap keeps going up. Moves aren’t guaranteed to work, but I’d rather we go for it than be cheap and have holes.

Look at the Eagles. They go for it. It doesn’t always work out but they went out and got TO, Vick, Barkley, ect.

We spent money upgrading the lines while Caleb is on a rookie contract. I’m all for it.

Actually you couldn’t be more wrong about the Eagles. They do it through the draft not free agency.

pretty much every really good team does it by accumulating value contracts and avoiding bad contracts

the cap was 255 mil last year. the eagles roster probably produced at well over 300 mil in value. bargain cap hits, drafted by eagles unless noted:

15.9 lane johnson (all-pro)
13.6 hurts (2nd rounder, super bowl MVP)
11.9 AJ brown (all-pro) - acquired for 1st and 3rd
11.7 mailata (all-pro, 7th rounder)
8.1 sweat (4th rounder) - signed w/ cards for 19.1 a year, 2 of 4 guaranteed
8.1 devonta smith
6.0 dickerson (all-pro)
5.0 carter [b](all-pro)[/b]
3.8 barkley (all-pro) - acquired via FA
3.4 milt williams (3rd rounder) - signed w/ pats for 26.0 a year, 2.5 of 4 guaranteed
2.8 gardner-johnson - acquired via FA
2.7 q. mitchell (all-rookie)
2.7 nolan smith - excellent rotational EDGE, #30 pick
2.0 becton - acquired via FA
1.9 jurgens (pro bowl)
1.7 dejean (all-pro, 2nd rounder)
1.6 baun (all-pro, 3rd rounder) - re-signed for 17.0 a year, 2 of 3 guaranteed
1.4 blankenship (UNDRAFTED starting FS, 74 PFF grade)
1.1 rodgers (quality backup CB) - acquired via FA - signed w/ vikings for 5.5 a year, 1.5 of 2 guaranteed
0.9 ojomo (7th rounder, solid rotational DT)

that's TWENTY significant value cap hits, FIFTEEN of which the eagles drafted, and only ONE of which required depletion of draft assets to acquire. meanwhile...significantly bad cap hits: NONE!

just sick value

And they’re loaded with picks going forward !!!

20 picks in the next 2 drafts.

[MalagaBulls]

My revised draft: Trade 1-10 to TB for 2025 1-19, 2-53, & 2026 5th.

Draft:

1-19: Draft Mykel Williams out of Georgia as he is perfect at 6.5/265 for Allen´s version
of the 4-3. He has a very good motor, speed, power, and moves to take on the best LT´s.

2-39: Draft Tyler Booker out of Alabama 6.5/325 as our future LG. He has the strength, power,
speed to learn from Thuney to excel as the next level. You could even give him 25% of the LG
snaps to keep Thuney fresh in 2025 & 40% in 2026.

2-41: Draft Kenneth Grant out of Michigan as the DT/NT. He is 6.4/330 and has tremendous speed & athleticism.
He is already a guaranteed 2 down tackle with extreme power but has to develop more of a pass rush to be a
perfect compliment to Dexter after next year. A high price to pay but he will be a great investment next year
as a 3 down NT. I think he falls to 2-41.

2-53: Draft Treveyon Henderson out of Ohio State, as he has the speed and zone scheme experience to
burst into BJ´s offense. I think he will grow into a very good receiving back and use those moves
and shifty speed to break tackles for Yards after catch.

3-72: Draft Kevin Winston out of Penn State to be a 1st year depth player for Quanny. He
has excellent in the box run defense and run a 4.4 40 so speed to cover is an asset as well.

5-148: Draft Jake Briningstool 6.5/245 out of Clemson. He is a good upside TE with skills in
the redzone and in certain packages. I think he can become a good receiver to compliment Kmet
in 12 packages.

[Dresden]

Ben has invested in leaders not just lineman.

Biggest issue with last years Bears was leadership. We know DJ isn’t a leader. Either is JJ. Flus and Waldron lacked accountability at training camp.

Ben seems to be the opposite. The more I hear him the more I like him.

having a marcedes lewis is one thing, but grady jarrett had better provide a lot more than leadership for 14 mil a year

And what was the alternative? Hope that Dexter, and Pickens- who we used two high draft picks on, can somehow get markedly better in the offseason? Otherwise, you're looking at another defensive line that was one of the worst in the league last year stopping the run. It had to be fixed somehow. Getting Garrett gives us more flexibility with how we use our draft picks now. And only two years of his contract are guaranteed.

[Chi town]

Ben has invested in leaders not just lineman.

Biggest issue with last years Bears was leadership. We know DJ isn’t a leader. Either is JJ. Flus and Waldron lacked accountability at training camp.

Ben seems to be the opposite. The more I hear him the more I like him.

having a marcedes lewis is one thing, but grady jarrett had better provide a lot more than leadership for 14 mil a year

Lewis wasn’t a leader and got flagged for a dumb penalty a lot. Can’t lead a locker room when you hurt the team on a he field.

Only leading he did is when he told Waldron to coach him and led to his firing.

[Dresden]

With Jeanty still on his board, Brad Biggs thinks the Bears go for Will Campbell instead, in his first mock draft: https://www.yahoo.com/sports/article/nfl-mock-draft-1-0-093000888.html