AZ54

Here's Cooper's pick six off a tipped pass on a great play by his teammate and him being in the right spot. I like that we signed him but I'm not ready to anoint him as a starter. The fact he looks so good is because we're comparing him to what we had to watch last year. Just remember there's a guy named Peterson on the other side of the Cardinals defense doing the heavy lifting on #1 WRs, plus a safety in Jefferson patrolling the backfield. Good week... http://www.azcardinals.com/news-and-events...70-adcfe5af200d Bad week...http://www.revengeofthebirds.com/2016/10/2/13142622/winners-losers-from-the-tough-division-loss "Marcus Cooper- Now, pro have tough games. I'm not calling for Williams or Bethel to take Cooper's spot, but he was targeted today, as both Rams TDs went against him." I have to see the contract details but upfront I like the signing. This is the kind of move Pace is good at. He overpays young guys who have shown they might be able to step into a starting role. Throw enough of these darts and we'll hit on quite a few. We miss on some too. Overall I still feel he's better depth than either of Bausby, Glenn, McManis, and probably Fuller (if he decides to play). He just might get to Porter's level of play (when Porter is healthy) this season. Maybe down the road he becomes even better. Cooper's highlights. He looks pretty good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr5NA3XM-Eg Amukamara highlights. He looks pretty good too.

I hadn't seen this posted anywhere but there is still potential to bring in a good CB. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/...pats-this-year/ Yesterday Pace said he's had some trade talks among all the other negotiations but that can be in any number of directions given our roster issues. If Butler is available this could be an intriguing option for us. Given the fact we also have to pay him a big contract the highest I'd go might be a 3rd Rd pick. I want to hold onto our 1st and 2nd Rd picks. I don't really see the Patriots with any incentive to trade him other than hoping someone throws a 1st Rd pick at them. Then again they signed Gilmore to a massive deal so are they willing to pay two CBs $12-14mil/yr in 2018?

You are correct but any decent contract signed early in FA is always paying a premium for that player. Everyone we targeted got a premium deal: the OT in Detroit, Gilmore and 1yr wonder Bouye both hit it huge. Hoyer! Cornelius Washington, a fringe player on our roster, just got $3-4mil/yr from Detroit. While Glennon's deal might seem like a huge contract, for the QB position it slots him in around where he should be among QBs, 23rd, plus the early signing premium. I wanted one premium deal for a CB but when they both went off the charts I'm ok we backed off, especially considering the CB Talent in this draft. Other than that I'm happy to be playing in Pace's more familiar 2nd tier of FA as well as taking some chances on young up and coming players like Sims. If we look down the road a bit we can already see competition building for roster spots where we might see some familiar names who contributed last year get cut possibly at CB depending on the draft. We have Banks, Fuller, possibly Cooper, and McManis fighting for a spot. At S if we sign Darius Butler does HJQ make the 53?

Pleasantly surprised...if people have the patience to allow him to learn the new offense and his WRs. We will win early in the season on the backs of our running game and defense.

If Patterson is not much more than a returner then he'll only get paid as a KR/PR and not average WR money $6-7mil. If that's all he's going to get paid it'll take him a little bit to lower his contract expectations. At this point in time with a lot of big money deals still being announced any of us would also play the waiting game. He may not sign a deal for another week or two.

All the more reason to keep in mind that we did not go after him last year when he was traded to Arizona for a conditional 7th Rd pick on Sep 2nd. Not exactly a high risk deal AZ made and at the time we had just put Fuller on the shelf for at least half the season.

Wow http://bearswire.usatoday.com/2017/03/09/l...ius-washington/

Why? After watching him drop passes and otherwise fail to live up to expectations for years here in AZ I've seen enough.

I think Sims is going to surprise a lot of people with his pass catching ability. Did we overpay based on his past performance? Absolutely. NE traded to pick up the often injured Dwayne Allen's $5-6mil/yr contract. If Bennett was a better player then with all their cap space they'd have had no issue paying him $6mil/yr. If it wasn't going to be economical for them to keep Bennett around they wanted to move on. Bennett being himself wasn't in the mood to give a Superbowl discount.

Far better hands than I expected. With the 2 TE sets we like to run I think he and Miller will be a good combination. Add in Brown who I thought played well late in the season and we might have a good group of TEs across the board.

He is the Alshon Jeffrey of CBs. Talented but often injured. At least he wasn't demanding to be paid top 5 money.

Were they really that desperate? Bennett for all his whining only gets $18mil over 3 years. That's chump change for NE with all their cap space and they ran away as fast as they could. Rodgers will not be happy with Bennett's practice habits but in a twist of fate I will be.

Cooper is ok, better than McManis as a backup but I don't know about special teams. At this point we need depth at CB and special teams can get sorted out later. Depending on how the draft goes, and Kyle Fuller, I wouldn't say Cooper is a lock for the final roster.

You do some very good research! Nice job on the QB comps. I think the TE signing is a bigger upgrade that we realize. Here's some draft profiles on Sims: http://www.nfl.com/draft/2013/profiles/dion-sims?id=2540200 http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players/1700507/dion-sims We now have a 265lb TE who can run a 4.7 forty with a 35in vertical leap. He's not the most nimble guy (3-cone 7.36) but he's far more athletic than I first thought for a "blocking TE". This is a good combination of skills among him and Miller/Brown. Draft a TE if we choose but I think we can go into the season with these 3 players. CB is still a big question mark but this is the draft where you don't have to overpay FA to get help. WR is also strong in the draft but I'd love to add Pryor's size/speed combination to the mix with Glennon's strong arm. I know he's not a #1 WR but having three solid #2 WRs on the field (White, Meredith, Pryor) can be very productive. That combination puts DBs in a quandary too. I would love to see Hankins signed to strengthen the Dline.

I keep seeing this and I wonder how everyone knows this? After seeing the Jets pay Pickspatrick $12mil last year I'm not so sure they would back out at $10mil this year for a guy who has more potential than Pickspatrick. Ah but rumors say they are likely to re-sign Geno Smith so he can compete for the starting job. There is nothing in Pace's background that says he's likely to be 50% higher in salary than the market. The QB market is such that Cleveland might be willing to buy a 2nd Rd pick for $16mil and could then turn around and send that pick to NE for Garoppolo. If they do that and then have to sign JimmyG to a new contract think about how much the total investment will be. NFL teams will usually keep quiet on what they offered when it wasn't accepted but we didn't win the bidding early on so I don't believe we were that much higher than everyone else. Maybe the bidding got up to $13mil/yr and then Pace just said here's my best offer of $14.5mil/yr if you take it right now?

Hankins is still out there and if they think he can fit in the scheme I think he would be a good pickup for us.

There is still the quantity over quality option available to us and for a team desperate for depth instead of 3 big FAs (Glennon, Gilmore, Jeffrey) we will get 6-8 good players.

It seems I'm in the minority here but Pace was right on the CB contracts. http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/no-alsh...tters-to-bears/ "The Patriots reportedly gave Gilmore, whom the Bills drafted with the 10th overall pick in 2012, a five-year, $65 million contract, with a whopping $40 million guaranteed. "the lowly Jaguars — one of the most aggressive teams in free agency every year — reportedly signed Bouye, an undrafted signing by the Texans in 2013, to a five-year, $67.5 million contract." That's $67mil for a one year wonder! The same caution flags everyone here always has with NFL players. $40mil guaranteed for a CB who, love 'em or hate 'em, rated very poorly in PFF's rankings last year. 61st IIRC. Yes, I wanted one of them but never thought they'd see those contracts. Bouye is a good player but he's nowhere close to having an island, although he can now afford to buy one. Jeffrey might be tougher to accept but I already said I wasn't going to lose any sleep watching him sit on someone else's sideline. He had to have more guaranteed money on the table, with the Bears or someone else, than his 1yr deal will pay him. I think it's safe to say with Cutler gone he was leaving no matter what for a team with a better QB situation.

I'm in. You already know my concerns with McPhee's ability to return to a fulltime starting role but he should be ok with 30-40% of the snaps. Willie Young is nothing more than a backup 4-3 DE and offers nothing in coverage. Floyd/McPhee/Barwin/Young/ and hopefully Roy Robertson-Harris would be a very good group of OLB. Leaves the draft focus on the interior of the Dline.

This is a good signing. Reasonable contract for a good player at a position of need. He can clearly play the pass well. I'd have no issues putting him aside either Hooker or Adams. Along with Amos as 1st backup we'd have a very good safety group and instead of a NB, Fangio could use all 3 on the field at the same time depending on how an offense lines up (i.e. 2 TEs).

Anyone else notice how quietly New England walked away from Bennett? They traded a 6th Rd pick and took on Dwayne Allen's $6mil contract. I'm curious where he'll end up and for what salary.

Maybe but I wouldn't be surprised if we don't draft a QB until Rd 3 and likely later. The first 2 picks can definitely bring in defensive starters if we make wise decisions. Even in the 3rd Rd we can find a player to help and possibly start like Switzer. Otherwise Pace would have likely settled with Hoyer as the cheaper stopgap. We might even see someone like Kelly on day 3, if they feel he can grow up quickly. Now with us taking a step back from Gilmore, who appears headed to the Patriots, I'd say it's more likely Jeffrey returns to the Bears. Pace is hanging onto some big money for a reason.

I agree with those 3 but we should add Hooker to the list as he offers something in coverage that is rare to find in the deep middle of the field. My concern with Lattimore is his injury history, and then of course he runs at the combine and gets injured. Right now I'd say Adams is the likely pick.

Rather than paying Hoyer $8-10mil we were better off taking the risk on the upside Glennon has, even at the higher price.

That's pretty much Glennon. He can make all the throws you want from the pocket but at times he's holding onto the ball. In his defense his WRs in the game I watched usually couldn't get open so he had to throw into very tight windows unless a coverage was blown. What has he learned in 4 years? Rapaport is saying the deal is pretty much done: 3yr, ~$15mil per year.