AZ54

No he was pretty clear about looking at options for DJ. No need to tip toe around it just leave it out there and make the market as big as possible.

Work ethic

Sure if you have one buyer and one seller. $15mil could easily be converted into a bonus with lower salaries in year two or three bringing it to an AAV much less than $10mil.

https://www.profootballrumors.com/2026/02/bears-qb-tyson-bagent-drawing-interest#ref=home this appears to be more than one team with interest. Makes sense given the weak QB draft.

I watched Poles’ and Ben Johnson’s press conferences at the combine. Very clear he’s getting phone calls about players. Very clear that DJ is absolutely available. Might be Kmet too as he said he’s going to do what he feels gets the best roster overall. Stay tuned.

Now that is how you drive up the trade value. Could you find a better promo for a backup QB than Ben Johnson saying that.

The trade market rumors are heating up. Of course we still have the Maxx Crosby rumors. Now it appears the Giants are willing to trade away Dexter Lawrence and Kayvon Thibodeaux. Neither of these guys have the price tag of Crosby. Among them Dexter Lawrence is the one I’d be most interested in although neither had a particularly good year. Lawrence is still just 29 years old and can be dominant inside both on run D and pass rush. Scanning the news it appears he had an elbow injury that hampered his offseason workouts and that issue carried into the first part of the 2025 season. He’s expensive…cap hits of $27 and $29mil the next two years. We could figure that out and a trade might involve moving DJ Moore, or Kmet - not necessarily to the Giants since they too need cap space.

I see all this Lee Hunter hype but McDonald is a rare beast. IMO you take the route run stopper over the guy who will offer a good but not great mix of both. Then you just have to pair him with a good 3tech of which there are several in rounds two or three.

I agree. Too big and stiff to be a good DE and not big enough to be a full time DT. I can’t imagine him becoming more nimble if he adds weight.

I was thinking I’d take Budda Baker and a pick but then I saw his $20mil/yr contract.

Where is Matt Eberflus when you need him?

I think the team will be optimistic about Ozzy returning to full health. If that’s correct then I agree with AQ Shipley when he was interviewed at the Superbowl by CHGO and discussed our Oline. He basically said if you want to buy yourself a year then sign a vet because you can’t ever really trust a rookie even the early picks. While the veterans flaws you will know how to cover up. That makes the most sense to me unless we think Ozzy can’t return i also think we might find a decent FA player at a good price now that we have a good team

Washington is ok. He’s a day 3 pick who can get you what is there to be got. That little bit of burst would be nice to have over Roschon.

Gardner-Johnson was nearly worthless, every team exploited him in coverage. He had some value around the LOS, or any place he didn't have to run far.

Revisiting the Hendrickson option. Da German Bear put up a good video summarizing why he thinks Hendrickson is the perfect fit for the Bears over Crosby. The most obvious reason is that we do not have to give up any draft picks and high draft picks are essential for building our future depth. He showed how much better Hendrickson is on pressure rate and time-to-pressure versus Sweat. I was most surprised that he thinks Hendrickson is only going to get $25-30mil/yr. That makes him much more affordable than the $40mil/yr I was expecting at which point I'm a hard no. Hendrickson is not that good on run defense but he's not horrible. DGB also proposed trading Montez Sweat just to unload the cap hit. Sweat might garner a day 3 pick but again it's just about finding cap room. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCze5MncpaE Since that video was posted someone else showed up saying Crosby is not going to garner as much trade value as Parsons. The Raiders are not likely to get a top 15 first round pick. This essentially puts the DJ Moore + 2026 1st Rd pick for Crosby back on the table. Then I now see that Bradley Chubb just got released and once he clears waives he can sign with any team. All these options are on the table along with a strong DE draft. Which is good news for a buyer like the Bears.