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Raymond is a big upgrade over Zacchus last year as far as reliability. He is a better return guy than Duvenay.

I think after the successful draft we are going full bore by drafting players over free agency. They upgraded with moderate spending and could still add an edge or another S yet. I think they feel getting back injured players and players development is part of their getting better. If Turner, Hyppolite and Frazier give us anything that will feel like new acquisitions.

DA has put out there what he likes on his defense, speed and length. Draft Buzz gives lots of information and if the Bears want speed at S, Dillion Thieneman is listed as the 34 th rated player at 4.35 is heads above anyone else. Also great at press. If available, he could be our first pick. The DTs and edge that have length and speed fall in the second round area. After Thieneman the speeder Ss fall to mid round area. Lots of C prospects this year and the 89 or 129 pick could get one easily. If they want Hecht, he will go in the second round area. We have depth at LBer in house with Edwards and Bush as starters and Jackson backing them up. Sewell is a ST guy but Hyppolite still could develop. They aren't writing him off over his lack of showing anything last year. I expect one in later rounds. LT was addressed in house as they stated with bringing back Braxton and then added Willis. He's a wildcard that played well before his injury problems. All of this information has been brought up in this thread before and I also think they could trade back early 2nd round and get an extra top 100 pick. I heard the bears might sue the NFL over that comp pick that either ends that policy or gets us that comp pick. If would be nice to have 6 top 100 picks.

I always said, he'd make a fine kick returner and gadget play guy. He's excellent when he's running int he open field. But you can have your starting QB take those kind of hits. Hes not good with the passing game. Maybe a one read and run kind of thing, but if he is willing to do something OTHER than play QB, he could be really good for them. I always though of him kinda like Devin Hester. Same homerun ability int he open field, and also doesnt really play his position (WR for Hester, QB for Fields) If he's willing to swallow his pride and use his talent, he can be a great KR and gadget guy.

In other NFL news, KC Chiefs trade a 2027 6th round pick for Justin Fields. He will now change his jersey number to 2 since he believes wearing #1 is disrespectful to Mahomes.

I think you'll see that change is now in - no longer see desktop splitting - but confirm on your end.

Yeah that is true, Raymond does replace Duvernay on Punt Returns (I should've added that to Duvernay's comment) but based on offensive snap counts, Raymond was closer to Oz than Duvernay on offense, and Duvernay was more of a Core Special Teamer than Raymond was outside of Punt Return duties. Between Raymond and <insert new WR> will fill all the roles of Oz and Duvernay.

Yeah, they can nail it if they can get a playmaker at Edge, DT, and Safety in this draft with 3 out of the 4 top picks.

Positional value vs cap hit. Safety and Off-ball LB are cheaper in free agency than other position groups. So you can get quality for a cheaper total cost. Edge, WR, OT, and CB are the worst positions to spend on in free agency. Could be a coincidence, but I would like to think it is part of the plan.

Duvernay as returner was replaced by Raymond even though you had Raymond listed as OZ replacement. Two birds with one stone approach.

This was the strategy I was hoping for. I’m not surprised they spent big on Safety but signing Bush at LB was not something I was expecting. Signing 2 good defensive players for the price of one mediocre DE is a win, or maybe even less than one mediocre DE. I also think Poles upgraded WR3/4 with Raymond over OZ.

Comparing the Bears roster to the rest of the league by position group, they only have 5 players in the top 10 at their position in terms of AAV, Thuney, Jonah Jackson, Kmet, Odeyingbo (as Edge2), and Gordon (as Slot CB). Technically, Gordon is the highest-paid Bears player in relation to the rest of the NFL as the 2nd highest paid Slot CB. Odeyingbo is the next as the 3rd highest Edge2, then Thuney at 7, Jackson and Kmet at 8. Gordon's is the only deal that will be that high for another few years. Odeyingbo will be gone next year, and all the rest will slide out of the top 10 with other players getting new deals. My assumption is Darnell Wright will get added to the top 10 in the next year, but Dexter or Stevenson are not getting extensions, so the next group is Williams and Odunze after that, but that won't be for at least another year or two. OFFENSE: QB - 20th RB - 18th WR - None in top 32 <insert eyeballs> TE - T-8th LT - 26th LG - 7th OC - T-15th RG - 8th RT - 22nd DEFENSE: EDGE - 14th, T-25th (Edge2 - 3rd) DT - 23rd, 50th (DT2 - 18th) LB - T-17th, T-17th CB - 12th, 23rd (Slot CB - 2nd) S - 13th Outside of Gordon and Slot CB, the Bears have not committed a significantly higher percentage of cap to one position than the rest of the league. In reality, the roster is pretty well balanced.

The draft seems deep with our needs as well. It will take developing, so expect some time but it should pay off years down the road. If we traded for Crosby, we would have had to rework more contracts pushing the expense in critical years to keep our best home grown talent.

And you dont get stuck with under performers like we tend to do. Im excited to see a healthier Jarrett and Dayo redeem themselves. Not that I expect sacks from Dayo, but great run D and edge containment

All Social Media is a cesspool of hate. Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter all say the same thing. They wanted the Bears to sign Linderbaum and Hendrickson, and anything less would've been a failure. In reality, signing free agents from the lower cap hit positional groups is smarter money. You get more bang for your buck that way.

I don't mind that the Bears are being modest with their free agent acquisitions this year. They were one play from the NFCC, had a ton of injuries, and most of their offseason losses (snap-wise) were on the defensive side of the ball, where they need upgrades anyway. Also, just like every other year, there have been some outrageous deals going out. Jaelan Phillips led all free agents with $30M AAV and had 2 sacks in 8 games for PHI. Pierce resigned with the Colts but still got $28.5M, which is crazy high for a WR2. Hendrickson got $28M and Lindenbaum got $27M. Rarely do signings like that work out in the long run. Of the 15 teams that signed a new player with a higher AAV than Bryant, (CAR, BAL, LVR, WAS, MIA, TEN, CIN, LAR, NE, CLE, NO, BUF, KC, SF, and NYG), only 4, BUF, SF, NE, and LAR had a winning record last year. BUF signed Chubb, SF signed Evans, LAR signed Watson, and NE signed Doubs and Vera-Tucker. None of those are earth-shattering moves. So I like the Bears approach so far. Safety was a gaping hole, and the filled one spot with an upgrade. Cutting Edmunds created another hole that was filled by Bush. Those are good moves and what I feel are low risk compared to moves in the past.

Yet all the Twitter bots are screaming about the Bears lack of FA signings, the Bears being broke....yatta, yatta, yatta. The Bears have done well given they were over the cap a month ago.

We got faster at every position you listed.

So the BLUF is, there really aren't huge holes to fill. This team was one play away from the NFCC, and has been adding team speed on defense to make it less reliant on the takeaway. Safety seems like the only spot that they would be drafting to fill a hole. The rest can be BPA focused on DT and Edge.

With the unexpected retirement of Dalman, the Bears lost 5 of their top 9 players in snap count, and 6 out of the top 11. Those 6 were all starters. Then they also lost what I would call 4 key contributors, players with a significant number of snaps. Here is a quick rundown of the losses and gains so far and how I think they will address them: ADD/SUB LIST STARTERS: 1. C Drew Dalman (1154+15) >>> C Garrett Bradbury. On paper, a downgrade, but it may actually be a pass pro upgrade and run block downgrade) 2. S Jaquan Brisker (1072+90) >>> With the biggest contract put into Bryant, I assume they draft a Safety in the first 3 rounds and sign a vet or two to league minimum deals to compete. 3. S Kevin Byard (1071+1) >>> S Coby Bryant, biggest FA acquisition, is an all-around upgrade as Bryant is more versatile than Byard and Brisker. 4. CB Nahshon Wright (1041+18) >>> (Stevenson, Smith, Frazier) This hole will be filled from within. That's why they have Al Harris. 5. WR DJ Moore (979+2) >>> (Odunze+200, Burden+400, Walker+100) Odunze missed a lot of time, Burden didn't get going until late, and Walker probably gets more snaps to fill these snaps. If Burden gets the bulk of these snaps and targets, the offense will be more efficient. If anything, they bring in a vet minimum guy, which there are a ton (Josh Reynolds - played with Johnson, Gabe Davis, Zay Jones, etc.) 6. LB Tremaine Edmunds (813+11) >>> LB Devin Bush. Clear upgrade, Edmunds played small, Bush plays big and fast. Teams won't be able to get those easy 5 yards per carry anymore as Bush fills the hole much quicker and can recover better than Edmunds. Edmunds was like a tall tackling dummy. ---------------------------------------------------- KEY CONTRIBUTORS: 7. DT Andrew Billings (511+72) >>> DT Neville Gallimore. Billings was terrible in 2025; almost anyone will be an upgrade here. 8. WR Olamide Zacchaeus (580+2) >>> WR Kalif Raymond. Raymond's familiarity with Johnson's offense and top-notch PR ability make this a really nice depth signing. 9. CB Nick McCloud (436+143) >>> CB Cam Lewis. Just like Billings, anyone replacing McCloud will be an upgrade, besides Kindle Vildor. 10. DB Chauncey Gardner-Johnson (565+10) >>> (Gordon, Lewis). I think Gordon and Lewis take most of these snaps. They will still add a vet min guy too. ---------------------------------------------------- OTHERS: 11. TE Durham Smythe (293+230) >>> 12. DE Dominique Robinson (215+161) >>> 13. S Jonathan Owens (47+264) >>> 14. WR/KR Devin Duvernay (40+209) >>> 15. DT Chris Williams (219+20) >>> DL Kentavious Street

I had so many great thoughts that I couldn't post lol.

question: the thread Free Agency News is only a half page wide with some other stuff on the other half. this seems like the only one to do this. is there a way to make the replies full page wide? i liked the old layout better too as some have said. too much text under each thread topic and small text headline. that said thanks for getting this back on.

Dark mode is outstanding. Please don’t lose that.

I appreciate all of it. It looks fine, it'd just be better if the topics on the main page had a bigger font, that's pretty much the only "problem" - but even if nothing changes, thank you for keeping it going.

All that said - I’ll see what alternate themes exist once I start to learn the back end better.