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If it is designated a post June 1st cut or trade, Kmet opens up $10M ($11.6M - $1.6M) And this is true if you do it this year, next year or the year after. Cut or trade him, and open $10M. If you Trade swift, with a post june 1st designation, you gain $8M in cap space. So there are some nuances in whether cut or trade them, and whether you use a post june 1st designation. But yes, there is potentially $33M of cap space with those three. YOu can also do contract stuff with players to open up cap space. If there is a stud player we want, we can trade for them, especially if one or more of those guys are part of the trade back. Like, Booker and Kmet for Trey Hendrickson for example. Im not saying we should make that trade - I dunno how may years Hendrickson has left. But if we wanted to, we could.

and looking ahead capwise, there are some easy decisions to free up a ton of cap in 2026: 1. Edmunds - $17.4M Cap Hit, $2.4M dead money if cut/traded (Potential Cap Savings: $15M) 2. Kmet - $11.6M Cap Hit, $3.2M dead money if cut/traded (Potential Cap Savings: $8.4M) 3. Swift - $8.8M Cap Hit, $1.3M dead money if cut/traded (Potential Cap Savings: $7.5M) Easy way to free up $31M w/o restructuring. I am not saying that will but I would suspect Edmunds and Swift are the most likely of those 3, Kmet is just there because of his cap savings.

It is going to be hard to comprehend what we are seeing on the O-Line this year. Thuney didn't allow a sack in 2024 lol. That is just absurd:

I watched a couple Colorado games he never stood out to me as an elite player. At least with Jeanty you could see him making everyone else look like they weren’t on the same level. Then again Hunter didn’t have a good QB and had poor play calling. I’ll be curious to see him play in the NFL.

This also makes the trade for Thuney even more of a steal. They traded him for a 4th, which they got back in the Rams trade anyway.

Watching training camp videos of Travis Hunter compared to real WRs, I think JAX made a mistake trading away all that draft capital for him when they could've had Jeanty+BTJ. Hunter will still be a great CB, but I don't think he will ever even get to Hester level at WR. He will be more of a gadget guy, Jet Sweep, Fly, Post.

Make it 10 if you count Trapilo now that Thuney was extended.

Extended:

This impression that Brad Briggs stated they talked about trading for Hendrickson is pure fiction. Someone asked that question in his mailbag article and he stated he has no information . Also mentions twice that he doesnt think they would do it.

Just seen where Austin Booker put on 15 lbs over the offseason. At 260-65 lbs, he may be more reliable in the new defensive scheme.

They have extended their blue players and added 48 mil a year to the IOL. 8 edge players are making 28+ a year and 4 of those are 34+. Bengals offered him 3/28 a year all guaranteeded and he turned it down,. So 30+ will be his range. We have to at least get rid of one core player or two to be ablle to sign him. Tons of dead money if we traded for him. They simpling are not going to do it.

I would hate to lose a 2nd for a 31 year old player, but if the Bears were truly contenders for the ring it is worth it.

The Thuney rumor has been out there. There is a podcast, maybe Hoge, that they asked Poles and he said they were hammering it out and hoped to get it done before OTAs. Sounds like there is grounds to the Hendrickson trade also. 2nd and 5th, but they have to get an extension worked out first.

This rumor was true as announced one day before. People were saying we tried to trade up with NE to get Henderson. A video of the NE war room verifies we tried to do that but only offered a 7th for cost. Not a serious attempt.

All the pieces are now in place here thru 2027. That is how you fix the OL.

LT will be Trapilo or Amagadje. We have two that will compete and it will make them both better. My way to early mock had the same positions. RB taken in the 1st after how they coveted Jeanty and Hendnerson. 1-24 Jeremiah Love RB ND 6-0 205 2-48 Braylon Shelby DE S Car 6-5 265 3-86 Dillon Thieneman S Pur 6-0 207 4-118 Demonte Capehart DT Clem 6-5 315

If you consider Trapilo as the eventual starter at LT, the entire starting OLine is on contract or cost-controlled (5th year option for Wright) thru 2027, which is Year 4 of Caleb's rookie deal. If you extend that to the rest of the offense, you can include Williams, Moore, Odunze, Burden, Kmet, and Loveland. That is insane. RB is the position not signed thru 2027 (Swift and Roschon signed thru 2026). Outside of RB, the 2026 draft will be defensive heavy (Edge, Safety, DT, LB).

Excellent

He will get a $1.5M raise annually from his current AAV of $16M, which only bumps him up one spot from 5th highest paid LG to the 4th highest. By this time next year, when the actual extension kicks in, he will probably be out of the top 5.

This O-Line is now locked in for a few years. As long as they figure out who starts at LT (Jones/Trapilo), I like having this type of continuity.

Here are the QB matchups with what we know today. Depending on how you view Caleb, there will only be a handful of games where the other team has the better QB. Right now BAL and CIN? I don't think Goff w/o Johnson is better than Caleb w/ Johnson. I think Caleb is at least comparable to Hurts, Daniels, Purdy, and Love. Week 1 - McCarthy (first pro start) Week 2 - Goff - 6th QBR Week 3 - Prescott (3rd game back since injury + new HC) Week 4 - Geno Smith (new team) Week 5 - BYE WEEK Week 6 - Daniels - 4th QBR Week 7 - Rattler/Shough Week 8 - Jackson - 1st QBR Week 9 - Burrow - 3rd QBR Week 10 - Wilson/Dart Week 11 - McCarthy Week 12 - Rudolph/(Rodgers)? Week 13 - Hurts - 10th QBR Week 14 - Love - 5th QBR Week 15 - Pickett/Flacco/Gabriel/Sanders Week 16 - Love - 5th QBR, Love vs CHI in 2024 (1 TD, 1 INT) Week 17 - Purdy - 7th QBR Week 18 - Goff - 6th QBR (Goff outdoors in January) 9 games against top 10 QBR QBs, 8 games against non-top 10 QBR QBs. I expect Caleb to be a top-12 QB this year for QBR.

No thats fair, by stud, I should have said plus starter. We are in agreement i think.

I don’t think either need to be true studs. Trapillo has to be good enough to replace Jones and keep LT cap hit low for another few years. Anything more than that is upside. From initial reports he moved very well for being so tall. Jones strength is in the running game especially when on the move and Trapilo might be able to match that. if Monangai can replace Roquan and be an effective compliment to Swift that’s a win. If he can add in some pass catching he may challenge Swift for snaps. If we do end up with a good LT1 and decent RB1 we’ll be remembering this draft for a long time.

it is always possible to open up cap room with extensions and strategic cuts. If they think Hendrickson is the answer, they will find a way to fit him under. But they have to truly believe in him, not just this year, but probably for a 4 year deal, and he is getting older.

I don’t think the chatter about Hendrickson is anything more than what if speculation. I agree we can’t afford the $40m cap hit as it wrecks the future plan quite a bit. Not that we couldn’t make it work if we really wanted to. Between the draft pick and cap hit this makes no sense to me. Now if I could get them to take Edmund’s off our hands in the deal… The Thuney deal is just a matter of time.