AZ54

This could be a time to use the transition tag. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_tag http://nfltraderumors.co/projected-2017-fr...ise-tag-totals/ However, that opens up the risk of him getting some kind of poison pill deal that we may not like. The transition tag requires at least a 1yr deal worth $12mil with zero guarantees of compensation if the player leaves (i.e. we don't match the long term deal he receives), and the Franchise tag requires $14mil but guarantees us two 1st rd picks if Fuller leaves. For ~$2mil more Pace can guarantee that Fuller or his 1st Rd replacement will be here this season.

http://www.chicagobears.com/team/injury-report.html Not looking good for our Oline. Compton likely returns but Sitton still out, Massie sitting out practice although I expect he'll try to play, and Bradley Sowell.

If we don't overpay Fuller someone else will. Average good CBs get $10mil/yr. Elite CBs are getting $15mil/yr. Any FA we sign will be overpaid, I'd rather stick with the devil we know and reward one of our own.

Rosen is not going to walk away from $30mil.

I don't understand the love for Ricky Wagner as the highest paid RT in the NFL.

A few weeks ago in the depths of our losing streak I said the team needed to make a decision on whether or not to keep Ryan Pace within the next two weeks. I believe that decision has been made and he is staying. Nothing has been made official of course but the signs all point in this direction. With the rumors this week that Ted Phillips was contacting teams inquiring about HC candidates many were up in arms thinking he was taking over (again). It is now apparent that the team is simply following league protocol for inquiries about available coaches and in fact Pace is making the hiring decision. https://sportsmockery.com/2017/12/huge-ques...nally-answered/ (for the record it is the link to Berntstein/CBS inside that article that I trust) Pace signed a 5yr deal when he came on. With ownership satisfied he is the GM they want, and now him being allowed to hire his own HC, they will need to give him a contract extension. No decent HC candidate will want to come here knowing his GM will only be around for perhaps 2 seasons. That could be just be one more single season were the Bears to win just 6 games next year. That type of instability can affect FA signings too. HC candidates will need the confidence to know they'll have a few years to work with Pace to get it turned around. I expect to see a contract extension for Pace announced early this offseason but I'm not sure what they'll do. Maybe a 2yr extension to sync him and the new HC for 4 years?

I added up the points: 1350 value for #9 and with Pitt drafting so late the point value of their picks isn't very high. Next years' draft picks are generally valued as one round lower so that's swapping our first round picks and in exchange two second rd picks plus a 3rd. They really can't get enough value to us this year without using next years' first. Or they give us next 2019 2nd/3rd but two years in a row with very few draft picks is hard on any team. There is a blue print for this deal: KC traded up from #27 to #10 for Mahomes. Giving up 1st Rd picks in 2017/2018 plus a 2017 3rd but Buffalo came up ~140pts shy of the trade chart values. I don't want to come up short on value and I figure anyone that interested in moving into the top 10 from the end of the 1st Rd is coming to the table highly motivated to make the deal. https://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/2017-nf...lo-bills-042717

Good analysis. If 4 QBs go ahead us that would mean a top talent at another position is likely to be there when we pick. That may help us trade back. It is still not certain that Darnold enters the draft and all of the QB prospects behind Rosen have a lot more question marks. That won't stop the frenzy but, assuming Rosen is gone, it could mean that the Giants don't draft a QB at #2 as expected. There would be nothing wrong with a new GM giving Eli Manning another year or two before bringing in the new QB talent. It certainly gives the team a better chance to win early than a rookie QB will. The frenzy then takes place between picks 6-10 and so it's still possible we trade back with someone like AZ, Buffalo, and even the Steelers. Let's talk Pitt for a min. If Ben walks away after this season they will have a team all set to compete for in the playoffs minus one piece: QB. They will be drafting late first. If they offer us 2018 #28, #60 2nd, #92 3rd, plus their 2019 1st Rd pick do you take it? I would. I don't think Pitt would try to trade up that far, I'm just curious if fans are willing to trade back that far.

Both Chicago and INdy have young GMs. Pace has more of a track record to date for sure but Toub does know Ballard personally. I think if offers are similar then Toub will look at ownership and how that affects things. Given his long tenure here I think Chicago wins out. He'll also have more time here to get the team up to speed. Of course the Colts have Andrew Luck but it's not a given anymore what that means with his injury and poor record of bad INTs. On the other side he's got a D that is already top 10 and with several key young players in place. What does defense win? In those Lovie years it won a lot. I think it's highly likely he'd work to keep Fangio here if he were given the HC job. For OC I think we'd see someone from the Andy Reid coaching tree, but I have no clue who would be on that list. Despite all their years working together I can't see him pursuing anyone from the Lovie Smith coaching tree for OC.

He may have the worst record but his teams are far better prepared than what Trestman was putting on the field. As soon as he had to rely on Trubisky this year, and that was pretty much right after we all saw game 1 of the preseason with Glennon, he was set to lose his job. He's not a perfect coach, they don't exist but he has changed the culture of this team and players are still playing hard out there late in this season. That was clearly not the case when Trestman was in his last four games as our HC. I was too young to remember much about the Gibron era. We lost, a lot. That much I remember but it seems like we at least had a hard hitting defense even if they couldn't really stop anyone. That was actually when I started to become a football fan and to this day I still love a hard hitting defense. It is interesting to look back at history a bit. I still feel like Fox has put together a much better foundation that what Gibron or Trestman left behind. Those guys left complete rebuilds, not just from a talent level as the GM is involved there as well, but also from a locker room leadership view point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_Gibron "It was initially thought that Gibron would make good on his promise to deliver a championship to Chicago; he was regarded as one of the best line coaches in the game. However, he inherited a Bears team in the midst of a generational transition.[2] Running back Gale Sayers, who had anchored Chicago's offense during the mid- to late-1960s, had suffered two knee injuries and was forced to retire during training camp in 1972.[2] Star linebacker Dick Butkus was also hobbled by knee injuries and had to retire nine games into the 1973 season.[2] Quarterback Bobby Douglass ran for 968 yards in 1972, setting an NFL record for quarterbacks, but passed for only 1,246 yards.[2] In his three seasons, the Bears compiled an 11–30–1 record, finishing last in the NFC Central each time.[2][46][47][48] His .268 winning percentage is the worst for a non-interim coach in Bears history.[49] Gibron was fired two days after the final game of the 1974 NFL season.[50] Halas hired Jim Finks as the Bears' general manager in 1974 to formulate a new strategy following the 4–10 record the Bears compiled in Gibron's last season.[2] Chicago had the fourth overall pick in the 1975 NFL Draft, using it to select future all-time rushing leader Walter Payton.[2]

I've been around long enough to know Fox is not the worst coach in Bears history but we only have to go back to the Trestman to prove that wrong. I can't remember much about our coaches from the 1970's and there's a reason for that. Anyway. Here is one rumor that is sure to spark a lot of interest including mine. He's an excellent coach and I think the organization requirements of special teams with all the changes year after year demonstrate that he is an excellent administrator. It can't be easy to always bring in new talent so quickly into your group and succeed. http://www.thetenyardline.com/2017/12/22/f...interview-list/ Who would he bring in as coordinators? One thing is for sure, over the years he's seen a lot of good and bad so I think he has a grasp on what he'd need to be successful.

He'll be back. He has a lot of work cutout coming back off this torn labrum, very painful rehab work, but there's no reason to think that will hinder him in the least in the job he does. I'm guessing the ankle gets some cleanup work to improve flexibility and movement. But again, he's an OG he'll be back and playing well.

He's still a dog but he can't hunt anymore. Time to move on.

I'd love to see him back. He brings an energy to our D with his hits that has been missing. He was a full participant in practice Wed and no longer listed on the injury report on Thursday so it appears we'll see him this week. I'd cut Demps this offseason and gladly give his money to Amos on a nice contract extension. We have built a good defense and need to start securing some pieces for the longer term while the price is reasonable. The Safety tandem of Amos and Jackson I think can become a long term fixture for the Bears. Right now after one good season I don't think we'd need huge guarantees here so Pace can minimize the long term risk. Eddie Goldman is another player I'd like to see get an extension this offseason. Then Pace has the middle of the D set for a couple years while he works on to shore up the edges. http://www.chicagobears.com/team/injury-report.html

Oh HEEELLL No! Fisher was done in LA and to be honest it was obvious during his last year or two in StL. I always felt he got the contract extension before the move to LA just as a way for the owner to keep some continuity during all the turmoil. What good HC candidate is going to want to take on a team that is might be about to move to a new city? Fisher stayed with it and got rewarded with some extra cash and then they amicably parted ways. I just think all the years of coaching burned him out and it's way too soon for that fire to be reignited in the way Vermeil did years ago. No to Harbaugh. He'll ruin Trubisky by running too much read-option and taking the easy way out instead of developing him for the long term. It's one thing when you are the early adopter of something new but the NFL always catches up quickly. I'm not in the FireFox mode either. I'm not in the camp that says we must keep him either. I want Pace to make a full evaluation after the season. Weeks ago I felt Tru wasn't improving and that would be the end of it. The last three weeks that has flipped and I've seen improvement in our rookie QB. Not everything is perfect but each week he adds more to game. If that continues I'd rather not break the continuity and just see what we get next year. I'm not as down on Loggains as the rest of the fans because he's found ways to be productive with poor QB play. I think eventually his name rises to the next tier of up and coming NFL HC candidates. It might take him another 5-10 years but I think he'll get there. His offense looks like crap without any WRs but I'm pretty sure nobody could have made this WR corps shine early in the season. Except somehow lately Trubisky's numbers are starting to move in line with real offenses, and that's with the same bad WR corps. We're talking trend line here not worried about the details but we are seeing throws legit starting NFL QBs make. https://www.windycitygridiron.com/2017/12/2...a-play-nfl-2017 Trubisky yards per game: 128, 113, 107, 164, 297, 179, 147, 102 (big red flag here), 271, and 314. I like what Fangio has done with our defense. We're still 8th in total yards allowed per game, and 12th in pts/game given up. That's all while carrying a struggling offense with a rookie QB, and while playing many young players on D. There is a foundation here. Vic is on a 3yr contract so if we want him back we'll likely have to give him a couple years more and risk losing that last year if we move on from the entire staff. I want to see how the team and the rookie QB finish the season before making an evaluation.

I wasn't expecting this surgery but at least he's in good spirits afterwards and on the road to a long offseason of healing. https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/bears-g...ergoes-surgery/

Unrein's position can certainly be upgraded. The hope is that we see the upgrade come from within between Bullard, and RRH. I think Robertson-Harris has already been productive in just his first season at a new position. Long term I think he has the ability to really step into a starting role. Bullard has had some splash plays as well. Somewhere between the two I think we're ok at DE. FWIW I'd like to keep Unrein as a backup heading into next year. I have no issues with adding competition to this spot but I don't see it as a priority.

Absolutely. I assumed when he was cut he was done for the season. Now we achieved some cap savings with the cut but bringing him back for a deal with little guarantee would be well worth it.

When it comes to the running or passing game we need to get one thing clear: Grasu is really bad. On the flipside of this nobody is talking about the good game Jordan Howard had as a receiver. There's nothing spectacular about 4 rec for 26yards but he caught the ball. If he can develop this part of his game going into next season it will help the team quite a bit.

I'm with you on Eddie Jackson today. Many people focus on the turnovers he's had but I think this was by far his best game as a Bear. It was very encouraging to his growth in both coverage and run support. We may have found our new leader in the secondary. Nobody here seems to like Amos (I do at SS) but I feel like we missed him on many of the run fits today. --- Trubisky laid an egg but this was bound to happen. Team relied on him heavily today. For all those complainers about run-run-pass well today we got pass-run-pass and it didn't work the first two series. There was a bit of talk before the game they were going to open things up a bit for Trubisky and I have no problem with that at all. That's because after last week I think he's ready for it at this point in the season. Do this in his first four outings and we might have seen 3 INTs in the first half. He needs this experience and we've seen a trend where he learns from his mistakes. This will only help him improve during the offseason and there are still some issues with throwing mechanics. Of course I don't like any of the INTs and I wanted to win this game today. Yet there were signs of growth outside that. We saw him effectively use a hard count to get a couple offsides penalties, for the first time that I recall. With the in-game Oline changes he maintained his composure and still kept the offense moving forward in the 2nd half. That's a leadership aspect that I think will serve him well down the road. He was clearly pushing the ball downfield this game and it paid off quite a few times including a 3rd and 18 late in the game. It's in a bits and pieces but I still feel he's improving and I'm looking forward to seeing how he responds in the next game.

...or a CB in Rd 2 makes much more sense IMO.

Get the wrong rookie QB and Beckham will whine his way out of town within a year, two at the max.

If I'm a rookie QB I know I want to throw to someone who has a catch radius like Beckham's, not to mention his ability to get YAC.

You need a star to sell tickets, even during a rebuild, and none shines brighter than OBJ in New York. I think he stays and everyone else goes.

Impossible to know but sometimes fun to speculate. Sometimes it's depressing. I don't think Kevin White would have helped Glennon simply because Glennon didn't like throwing to him. When I was at the preseason game against the Cardinals Glennon rolled out of the pocket (slowly) and threw right over a wide open Kevin White into triple coverage 15 yards behind him. Cam Meredith OTOH would have helped Glennon quite a bit. Until we got Inman he was the only guy who could get open beyond 10 yards on his own. Of course none of that would help Glennon be more accurate so we'd still see Trubisky on the field but maybe they'd have split the season. This team was more competitive until we lost Zach Miller. It's not like the offense was really good but when he was out there we had more consistency. Look back at the season and how many games we were in up to the end against good teams: Atlanta, New Orleans (partially stolen by idiots in NYC IMO), the vaunted Vikings beat us 20-17 without any ILB left except Christian Jones. On top of that we beat the Steelers and Panthers. People say those were anomalies but then what we were doing being so close in those games against Atlanta, NO, and the Vikings? In the end injuries are why you need depth on the roster. That takes years to build. We're still trying to finish out the top end of the roster let alone the 2nd tier.