bradjock

Agreed. Last year Dez Bryant and Demarius Thomas were both WR's who were franchised and signed on the final day of the extension deadline. I'm assuming AJ will do something similar. There are plenty of reasons for both sides to want to get a deal done.

Generally I love the idea, but it depends on where that line in the sand is. That line being the difference between guys you think who will be great (the way we felt about Kevin White) vs. guys who we just think will be really good NFL players (like Vic Beasley who was drafted right after White.) On a side note, I still wish Leonard Williams would have made it past the Jets so the Bears could take him at #7. It seems there is a glut of talent where guys all fall in a similar spot. So I vote yes to the trade down.

The knock on Grassu is that he lacks strength and that he's not much of a mauler. I can't see him being a good fit at guard in this scheme. The team seems to be invested in him and it's his job to lose. Granted, I easily see us bringing in a guy like Will Montgomery to compete with him and push him for a starting spot. While we need to address the RG position early in free agency, there are better options than Mack.

On one hand, I agree with you because I think it goes against Fox's philosophy and we are so desperate on defense. On the other hand, they are calling Elliot a game-changing NFL back and he's drawing comparisons to Adrian Peterson. If Pace feels that way, as a Bear fan, aren't you begging the Bears to take him at #11? I got to be honest, I didn't want the Bears taking White last year. We had AJ and we needed defense. But Pace's reasoning is that we need playmakers. I don't see how that has changed.

I feel like something similar happened last year. With the exception of Suh, the top guys either got tagged or signed extension. With the cap continually rising, the franchise tag seems to be a little behind. There's lots of help available for the Bears. If we front load deals, we can continue to be top 3 in salary cap and be players again next year. Granted we'll likely be giving Kyle Long the franchise tag. The one good thing about sucking in the draft is you don't have to worry about contract extensions. After Long in the 2013 draft we took Bostic, Greene, Mills, Cornelius Washington and Marques Wilson.

As for Shea, he is a fringe NFL starter who's not good on special teams. Guys like that typically earn a one year deal at the minimum. I'm guessing we offered him that and he's hoping for better. He's the type of guy who signs in April.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/...-of-real-value/ I can't believe he received 36 million with 26 guaranteed. I only mention this, because he's done very little throughout his career and it makes Cutler's deal seem like a steal.

Then who do you want on defense? With 60 million in cap room, we are in a prime position to sign an elite defense player. We need a top tier guy who is in his prime. In terms of the d-line, he's probably the best available. Heck, if we gave him and Alshon both 15 million a year, we'd still have 30 million to spend. I concede I don't know much about Jackson other than he's regarded as a top 10 available free agent. Also from a fans perspective, with interior defensive lineman, there's a lot more that goes into it than just stats. The good thing is, Fox knows him. I remember last year we were clamoring for Terrance Pot Roast Knighton. Fox didn't push to sign him and he went to Washington where he was bad. I'm probably foolish for thinking this, but I think we can be a contender next year with the right free agent signings. Who do we get?

Any rumors that we are interested in Malik Jackson? He'd been one helluva a get for the Bears. He'd been an elite d-lineman with us for the next 5 years.

It doesn't hurt for the Bears do give the impression we are interested in a QB. In an ideal Bear's draft, 3 quarterbacks are taken with the first 10 picks. Or the Bears are able to trade down with a team needing a QB. The Rams drafting at 15 are certainly in need of QB help.

But doesn't Fairly immediately become our best DE? I'm not saying he's that good and he's only a rotational player, but he's better than anybody we had last year. To me that just emphasis how bad our team is. We could easily add Fairly and two other DE's.

Good question. Although, isn't a better question how many big $$$ starters do we need to sign? My thought is DE and ILB. Then we'll try to sign a bunch of low end guys to fill out the secondary and o-line.

The difference is, RB seems to be the one position where you can draft a potential star in the 4th round. Yeah, we have a ton of spots we need to fill, but I imagine we will once again sign about 50 veterans to one year "prove it" contracts. Most of those veterans will be more ready to fill in productively than your typical 4th round draft pick. It sucks not having a stud running back. From Curtis Enis, to Anthony Thomas, to Cedric Benson . . . we finally hit it with Matt Forte. Maybe Jeremy Langford can be the guy or maybe we can have a flat out committee that works. Either way, I'd feel much better if we brought in another young player to push him.

My bad! I should have known. I'm typically only on this site between February - May. I'm still used to all the "I HATE CUTLER!" rhetoric.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2016/02/17/rep...y-david-bruton/ Is there any guy on the Bronco defense we are not interested in? The timing of this report is weird since it's 21 days until free agency and he appears to be a mediocre starting safety. You figure it came from the agent, but again, he's a mediocre safety who happened to play for the best defense in the league.

Agreed. More importantly, while Goldman could play 5T, his most natural position is the nose. Plenty of other guys we can sign.

I doubt it's catering. Fox has already proven he don't give a hoot. It's his way or the high-way. Last year at this time we were speculating Fox wanted to dump Cutler. After a year, he seems pretty damn pleased. Two of the things I heard scouts say that helped Cutler improve this year were: 1) More quick reads. 2) LESS focus on mechanics. It seems like they were just encouraging him to play.

Why not both? Langford was a pleasant surprise as a 4th rounder. Would it be a shock to see us use another 4th rounder on a RB? If not in the 4th, I got to think that one of our 3 sixth round picks will be dedicated to the RB position. That being said, we still need to bring in a veteran rb. Hillman won't make much and could be had for a one year deal. I look to see us carrying 4 RB's on the 53. Bring in a rookie, bring in a vet, and roll with what we have.

That's awesome we have 51 mil in cap space. You can't put too much stock in the following years since it will change depending on this year's signings. You look at what Pace did last year he signed one major player (McFee) and two starters (Rolle & Royal) and then a ton of guys with one year deals. I look for him to do something similar this year. We'll still have plenty of $$$ to sign Jeffrey this year and Long next.

We basically have 5 starters eligible. Jeffrey, Forte, Miller, Jenkins and Porter. Everybody is just a minimum salary type of guy. What's likely: Jeffrey: We franchise him. I'll be shocked if we don't. Forte: I think he gone. I hate to see it but I think it's likely. Zach Miller: He's a big play guy. After Jeffrey, this is a priority signing since we seem destined to give the Black Unicorn the Brandon Marshall treatment. Jenkins: He was a solid DE. Nothing special. Whatever. Porter: He was really good but we had a lot of no name cornerbacks play really good. What does that mean?

I think it was Brad Biggs who thought it was going to be WR's coach Mike Groh promoted to be quarterbacks coach. The quick hiring of Loggains goes along with what Fox said in that there would be consistency, they have a system in place, and not to expect any changes. On hindsight, at that press conference they knew it was likely Gase was gone and they new it would be Loggains. I'm a little surprised that we didn't go with a bigger name like Wisenhunt. But I was initially surprised we went with Gase as the OC because of his age. So I trust Foxy on this one.

He's no thrown a pick in camp so far. That's a plus. He doesn't have to be great. If he's a good quarterback who puts us in a posiiton to win, he's well worth the money.

Yep. Not to mention, I was at camp today, and Eddie Goldman spent time with the ones.

Agreed. What's irritating is that he's obviously had a significant injury and likely had surgery. Why not just say that???? What the hell is a shin injury and why would he need to get in shape? Just state the problem so idiots like us aren't speculating.

And Raven's Party Bus.