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I would prefer Jared Verse over Rome.

Poles came here in 2022 and thanks to Ryan Pace we had no first round pick, clearly the best round to draft a supreme edge rusher. Poles made a trade and got 4 first round picks in 23, 24 25 . Darrnel Wright (OL), Caleb and Rome, Loveland. He clearly is building offense which is the direction the NFL has been going to in the last 10 yrs. You only have so many picks and had we prioritized edge, we wont have any one of those 4 picks. Its the path he choose to take, and who did you want instead of those 4 players? It would be hard to say he has ignored defense with Gordon, Brisker, Stevenson, Dexter, Shemar Turner with high picks. If he has us to a point to be a winning team for the next 3 yrs, did he do it wrong?

So in conclusion this is just FF and this trade would never happen.

right. thats what im saying. Ofcourse he would never be a free agent, but i was just saying thing to make the point that it isnt the cap space thats the problem, its the trade value i think will prevent us from getting him. Like if they want 2 firsts, a second and Montez Sweat - Im feeling like that second first rounder is too steep. but if we could interest them in a player or two to get some draft capital out of the deal, then it becomes interesting. Thats why i was throwing out trading guys like Jaylon Johnson - hes a big stud (or so it's currently thought) he gets the new deal he wants. I mean i really like JJ as a player. But if hes gonna be the top payed CB in the league, Id rather be paying a top edge rusher like Parsons or Hendrickson. Especially when we have so much depth in the DB room. Is someone ready to be a real #1 if we lose JJ - well were getting a good look at them in camp with JJ out, and you can bet Ryan Poles is thinking the same thing "can someone in this group replace JJ eventually?" and "all DBs look better with a good pass rush in front of them" Dont forget, next year you can look at Edmunds cap $ too. There is definitely opportunity to move cap money around in the defense. But Im not paying two firsts, a second and a player. That seems too high. But it's probably the price, and we will probably not make that deal. This is just what the numbers say to me.

Yeah - he’ll never hit free agency with franchise tag etc but my problem is the combination of draft capital combined with cap space. If it was purely cap space cause you are getting him as a UFA - back up the truck and pay the man.

this is the general wisdom. I agree. and when you look at a team like the Eagles, they keep going back to the DL. But we've drafted nothing on the edge for a decade, Maybe you can count Shemar Turner as an edge player? So it's pretty clear that next year, we're gonna take an edge with our first round pick. Parsons is 26, and coming into his prime years. I don't mind paying a guy like that what he's worth while Caleb is on his rookie deal. Anyway, we will probably all agree that the trade price is too high, so its not so likely to happen. Im just saying it's the draft capital that makes it tough for me, not the cap space. Check this out: as a franchise we havent drafted Edge Rushers much at all. 2025 2nd Rnd Shemar Turner 2024 5th Austin Booker 2023 None 2022 5th Dom Rob 2021 None 2020 5th Trevis Gipson 2019 None 2018 6th Kylie Fitts 2017 None 2016 1st Leonard Floyd 2015 None 2014 None

💯 The Superbowl teams don't buy edge rushers anymore. The days of getting a Charles Haley or Reggie White are over. Pay the offense, draft the defense.

We need to see them play then we eliminate the guessing and assuptions. Poles built the team over the last 3 yrs, having a starter at LT allowing him to get a QB, WRs, RT, CBs. Because of a low payout at LT, he was able to sign OL and DL. It absoutley was a win win.

Its about the money it would cost, you can make lots of arguments about the talent, but it disrupts the next 3 yrs of contracts he set up to come due when Caleb is ready for a contract. It just doesnt work out.

Well you need a QB that is 100% for sure. But you need a pass rush too. We didnt have a QB when we got those DEs. And I agree, I am totally against trading 2 first rounders and more - I think we need to build through the draft. That's why I suggested trading players. Trading a single first rounder is a no brainer because we are going to likely use that pick on an edge player anyway. So if your #1 pick is a proven NFL star, that's a win for sure. It would be the additional #1s that i object to. But if JJ isnt in your long term plans, adding him to the trade makes sense, and he is worth a #1 pick+ too.

Pass, what did Adewale, Peppers, or Mack bring us? No trophies. Trophies come from QBs and I would hold on to all of our assets until we know if Caleb can get us there or not. Caleb has a dream team around him, so we should find out sooner than later. If he doesn’t produce this year, I might consider drafting one to sit behind him for competition or replacement. If Caleb comes out and produces as a top 10-12 QB and Parsons is still a holdout, I might consider. I just dont want to see the Bears go back to trading picks for that final piece like they have for decades.

nah you have it backwards. if you can get one of the game's best DEs, and pay them like it, you do it. Thats one of the 2 most important positions on a football team. We cant trade away the future for it in terms of draft picks, but if the only question is salary cap space, you do it in a heartbeat. I really dont understand why you think the way you do? If you watch the teams, they all make moves that are the opposite of what youre saying. If you could get Trey Hendrickson as a free agent, for example, and pay him what hes worth you do it in a heartbeat. thats what the $ is FOR. Also you dont pay dead cap for 3 years. You pay it all at once, or you split it over 2 years if its a post June 1st designation. If we trade him this year, its $5M against our cap and $16M free cap space. Add Kmet for another $11M and youre already halfway there before cap games - the Bears could afford this if they wanted to do it. And keep in mind, JJ wants a bigger deal soon too, so thats cap space as well.

If we could sign Parsons as a free agent, and not pay draft value in trade (hypothetically) and then pay him as the #1 paid DE, we would do it in a heartbeat. The question here is the trade value.

so there is a difference between a 5th round pick playing like a 3rd round pick, which is a great move by Poles and great value, and someone playing well at LT. Just because someone is value doesnt mean they are GOOD, and given the revamping of the roster, I dont value Braxton Jones at all right now. If he outplays the others and takes the job and dominates then of COURSE I want to keep him and pay him. But if he plays like he has the past few years, he sould be a backup and trade bait (or free agent loss with compensation) But being good value, and playing well are two different things. And I also dont see how you can discount Trapilo for being a 2nd round pick, or Amagadje for being a 3rd round pick. As you know 1st round picks can flame out and 5th round picks can become superstars. Once they are picked, its how good the player is that matters, not the round they were taken in. Right now, I would guess that Trapilo is better than Jones today. The real competition should be between Trapilo and Amagadje. Im basing this on Jones' previous NFL film. If he comes back different, then that changes everything, but I dont see how anyone can assume that Jones would be better than hes already been? Also the free agency thing includes offsets for us signing free agents too - so it might be that a 4th rounder for Jones is more than wed get in compensation for him?

I would say we got 3 yrs of average play from a 5th round LT. Plus a 3rd round comp pick. I would have to say that is one of Poles good moves over the last 3 years. It is hard to assume a 2nd round RT pick transitioning to LT in his rookie year has some growing to do before he may be ready to take over the starting position. Doubt that is at the start of the season. If at some time this year he is ready, then Braxton leaves for big money and no harm done.

I just addressed this in Tidbits, no use repeating it,(IMO) its a stupid trade.( TJ Watts just got an average of 41 mil a year contract). (JJ is hurt, generally teams dont trade for injuried players). ( 4 high end assets over the next 4 years) So instead of rookie friendly contracts, we pay guarranuteed 41 mil a year? Besides the 41 mil we would have to pay 15 mil in dead cap space over the next 3 yrs on JJs contract. To be fair, the money is the big problem, not the quality of players in the trade.

Well the (trade for Parsons is back). Pundits and some fans are just getting clicks again. How many times are they going to print the same story again. Not intended to be funny but would Dallas take Kmet and Braxton for Parsons? That would free up money to help pay his new contract. It would free up 13.5 mil against the cap, the problem is Parsons is going to want 35+ mil with a new contract. Just looked it up, Micah is making 24 mil this year , forget I mentioned that stupid trade.

So it looks like Micah Parsons wants a trade. Hes only 26 and hes a dominant edge rusher. We sure could use him. Trade values I've seen look like the Khalil Mack trade tho. 2026 1st round pick 2026 2nd round pick 2027 1st round pick Montez Sweat and more Its a steep price, and Parsons would eat up a lot of cap with a new deal too. But as i think it through, a few thoughts come to mind: 1) Next years 1st is no problem, because we were probably going to use it to draft a DE anyway. If we took Micah Parsons with our 1st rounder next year, wed all be thrilled. A proven vet etc. 2) Where will the salary cap space come from? 3) We are flush with DBs, and all DBs play better with Micah Parsons in front of them. 4) With Trey Hendrickson also still not happy, the price might be lower than it would otherwise be. So it makes me wonder if this trade would work: 2026 1st rounder 2027 2nd rounder Jaylon Johnson Braxton Jones, Cole Kmet, Dayo or Dom Rob - Dallas picks one. I think I would do that trade, and it would be a good trade for us. Thoughts? And if you immediately go back to the "no those guys are valuable" take the fandom out of it and ask yourself, if we had Micah Parsons, would you trade him to get Jaylon Johnson, Braxton Jones and a first round pick? Of course you wouldnt. So it's a pretty good deal for both sides?

Saw this play pop up on social media yesterday, but this angle adds a layer of context that makes the play look even better. I think Jenkins is correct here. It's a designed sprint action throwback towards the opposite sideline. You can see the route the receiver runs is synced up perfectly to Caleb stepping back up into the pocket after fooling the defense with misdirection. These are the kinds of plays I imagine Ben Johnson is designing specifically for Caleb to take advantage of his mobility. More of this please.

McLaurin and now Parsons want to be traded. So nice not to have major issues like this going on.

I think the best part is this could burn GB, who went WR Matthew Golden. Who really only had 40 speed going for him. He might work with Love who likes to toss the ball to locations and hope his guy gets there. Burden will have more value in time playing slot, x, and maybe some RB.

This is the crossroad. Braxton is 26 and a three year starter. I'd imagine that several teams would love to have him. IMO, we would love to be one of those teams. Of course there are factors in play, like health and play. If health is good, his play should continue to ascend. Like I said a month ago, if he's the worst starting OL on the team, that's not a bad thing. Jordan Mialata was that once. IMO the only thing that pushes him out the door is one of the youngsters and it's not like either had a first round grade. It's the best of both worlds of they do.

When the Bears jumped on the chance to draft him in round 2 when I dont think that was the plan, shows you they thought he was a special player. Now he still has to prove that on the field, but we are seeing signs that will end up being a good pick.

Obviously I agree with your opinion. He led the league in catch rate the last 2 yrs for TEs. He had 35 less targets last yr than in 2023. It was because of the inept offense and coaching, not do to talent. I dont understand the notion that because we drafted a TE we should get rid of Kmet. Depth is a stength for good teams. Dumping good players when you are trying to establish a winning team is counter productive. If Braxton plays well that will be a plus for the team. As much as we know what Braxton is, Ozzy is still a rookie and lots of questions he has to answer that is not just going to show up in the preseason. With all the injuries we have had along the line the last two yrs, having 4 OTs is a plus. (as you stated)