All Activity

It started with the NCAA granting the 5th year with Covid, then with NIL $, players sticking around to make hundreds of thousands of dollars. I am sure there will be a fight, believe there is already one, that allows these athletes to continue making that money 5 years or more. Only a small fraction make the NFL and not many jobs pay 300-500K like they get playing at you bigger programs. I thought NIL was bad to begin with, even though it was happening under the table. I thought getting a free education was a pretty good deal.

So they basically traded Hendrickson and #10 for Lawrence. That's beyond terrible.

To have Burrow, Chase, and Higgins for the last 5 years and not have a playoff appearance in the last 3 is crazy. They peaked too early, in Burrow's 2nd season making it all the way to the Super Bowl. Pretty wild to look back and see that they had a 20-16 lead in the Super Bowl at the 2-min warning in the 4th quarter and lost.

I just can't figure out Cincy. If I had to choose, straight up, one for one, between Hutchinson and Lawrence, I'd choose Hutchinson without hesitation. Yet they allow Hutchinson to walk without compensation and give up a top 10 pick in this year's draft to sign Lawrence. Fire the GM!

The Bengals are one of the four, perpetually, retarded teams in the NFL. How do you let Hendrickson walk for nothing, then trade for a less impactful player with your tenth pick? They don't deserve Joe Burrow.

That's great to hear. Great draft pick. Nice to see players we drafted being extended. Especially when the player has proven not only to be a valuable asset on the field, but also a good guy when he takes off his cleats.

interesting. He was basically getting the same at the Giants. Weird! Also, that means that DABEARS was right. I was thinking Lawrence would want more.

Bengals not making a ton of sense, I agree. And Gabriel is ridiculous. If you read his X account, he's like a child. I think Ian Cunningham and Ryan Poles spoke to him about his out of control X at the senior bowl. I dont take GG as a source on anything, and certainly not as a primary source! LOL

could be him too. and I just googled, good point about the speed.

As expected, but I assume they are still working on an extension.

A top 10 pick for a 29-yr old DT is wild. Bengals lost Hendricks and Pick #10 for Lawrence. Yeah Gabriel needs to stop being so absolute on everything.

Id say Elijah Hicks. He has a little more size and speed and knows the system.

NFL.com reported Cincy gave Lawrence a $28 million one-year extension.

Probably Cam Lewis?

New Bears 1920 video on free agency. Interesting to hear them say they feel they have starters at every position - wonder who they think the other starter at S is. More on the focus on speed, aggression, and love for football.

NIL money is changing the NFL draft and roster building. I don't think that has been fully comprehended yet in mocks and player rankings. As we've all seen, this year there are many older players. It seems that is going to be a trend going forward as players are content to be paid to improve their skills in college versus being a Day 3 draft pick with a less certain future. Some of these older players arrived at this point due to injury but even then in years past we'd see guys make a jump to the NFL quicker to try to get going on earning money. In the past draft profiles largely focused on athletic talent and teams would draft guys based on projections of what they could become. Now we have a growing number of players where that is less of an issue. Guys like Mesidor are largely a finished product. Teams know what they are getting and in his case he was already coached by Jason Taylor. That's not a bad thing because in essence his floor is now much higher than it was a year ago, or even 2 years ago when he was 23. In the past GMs wanted a younger player and there was always talk about coaches helping them earn that second contract. With FA being wild and crazy on salaries will GMs start to change their perspective. Drafting a guy like Mesidor, who is a good pass rusher but maybe not best DE, I can lock in his contract for 5 years (if 1st Rd) and let him walk away when he's 30. Does this flip the back half of the first round where we start seeing the athletic upside guys pushed into the 2nd rd where teams prefer the higher floor older players for a longer contract.

An article on SI.com: Bears Must Target Alex Highsmith as Elite Consolation Prize for Dexter Lawrence says the Steelers might be interested in trading Highsmith. Personally, if Poles wants a FA veteran to add for the pass rush, I think there are better options. Highsmith has missed 10 games over the past 2 years due to injuries. We don't need another aging veteran on IR.

DT and DE are on different pay scales but the bigger contracts signed at any position raises the water level. Jordan Davis got 26 mil and Cris Jones gets 31 . So probably higher than that.

Agree with everything you stated. We were in the same situation as last year and it worked out. We have more assets this year. Of course if Poles drafts a LT then that means they didn't trust the room.

Ordinarily, I'd do a backflip for LT, in the first round. This year, I don't see it. We liked Ozzy until he got hurt and should be banking on his full recovery. Braxton will be fully healthy, along with Theo and Kiran. It won't be ideal, but we'll be ok. I'll be astonished if we draft anyone on offense with our first three picks. Disclaimer: y'all know I won't complain if it is OL.

Will Anderson of Houston just signed a 150 Million 3 year extension. 134 Million guaranteed! So does Lawrence use that as leverage? Who knows? I've seen players insist on being traded, then sign for less than they were being offered by the new team.

Itll be interesting to see what kind of deal he needs. Some say $30M, but he was already at $27M and then $29M so its hard to imagine things got so out of whack over $4M difference in a $60M two year deal? Sounds like he might want more. It'll be interesting to see what the numbers are.

Trade down is good, especially without the 5th or 6th round picks, and the lack of compensatory picks (grrr) But if we pick at 25, I think its LT, thats my guess just from the gut. And again, i dunno, maybe they have a sleeper like Trapilo was in mind and I have no idea about them? I wouldnt be surprised to see Iheanachor (sp?) be the pick. I know a lot of people have him ranked in the 30s or 40s, but in a lot of mocks on different sites, I see him gone by pick 28 or so too. So the site will have him ranked at like 45th and still have him taken with the 28th pick, because of positional importance. I think thats part of why its hard to be sure someone is gonna be there after a trade down. If you have a cluster of players, then yes, but it youre running out of LTs for example, you might just take him at 25?

The Beast and Draft Buzz have profiles, he's not a one trait player. Moves well and a nasty attitude.

He better be able to run because Ben wants a center that can get to every block on the field.