bradjock

As per Brad Biggs

Teams have to spend something like 90% of their cap room and it's likely to go up another 10 million next year. A ton of teams are way under the cap. Bennett is arguably the #1 free agent available. Just about every contract we have seen so far indicates teams will be spending crazy money this off-season.

Yep. Bennett is going to get Julius Peppers. I'm guessing he'll get 40+ guaranteed for an 80+ contract. That's a far cry from the 5 year 50 $$$ we originally thought. Do you still want to sign Bennett for that amount?

Yeah, but we're not going to find starters who are ready to play immediately. More importantly, why would you want to do that? We draft Bostic in round #2. He was awful. Why start Botstic when you can pay DJ Williams 1.25 million to play MLB. He's one helluva a lot better when healthy. We need more guys like DJ Williams and fewer defensive rookies playing immediately.

I'm not certain that we made him a lucrative offer. Last off-season there was not much demand/value for defensive tackles. Melton signed his tender the day free agency started last year when he realized he might get less money in the open market. The Bears seemed to be happy to take a "Is he really worth it?" approach.

I agree his value is here and professionally, he will regret and lament leaving. Financially he will have no regrets. I just hope we find a veteran to do what he did. When we made him our #2, nobody had faith in him and Cutler had a history of being injured. I hope we can find a similar veteran. Whoever our future #2 is, when you are throwing to BM and AJ, it does make your job easier.

So we are going to draft immediate starters at CB, Safety, AND DT? That's asking a lot. Most years we don't start any rookie immediatley. Last year we started rookies Kyle Long and Jordan Mills. Bostic and Greene sure as hell doesn't give us confidence that the Bears can draft any defensive player who can contribute immediately. Not to mention Shea McClellin

WOW. If Griffen is worth 42 with 20 guaranteerd, Michael Bennett is worth 84 with 40 guaranteed.

WOW. If Griffen is worth 42 with 20 guaranteerd, Michael Bennett is worth 84 with 40 guaranteed.

With Bennett still being in the proving state of his career, he's been in the league for 5 years and he turns 29 in November. He's likely as good now as he'll ever be.

Immediately yes. But Hub Arkush had an interesting article on how Bennett at his best is not as good as Peppers at his best. More importantly, last season we started with Peppers and Melton. If we lose both of them, even if we signed Bennett, that's a big step back from where we were at the start of the 2013 season. I'm in the minority, but I believe that Peppers could bounce back and have a big season. While I'll be happy if we signed Bennett, I'm worried about the fact we are likely going to have to over-pay for him. At his best, he's really good, but we're going to have to pay him like he's great.

What hurts Devin is the fact he is a specialist. And he'll be 32 in November. And he is a specialist who is not as special since so many kick-offs sail out the back of the end zone. We had a similar debate with Olin Kreutz & Brian Urlacher. We didn't realize Kreutz was done and nobody offered Urlacher anything substantial. I think it's likely he'll be making Patrick Mannelly money this season. The veteran minimum. My only question is why the hell wouldn't the Bears want him back for the minimum? Again, Hester's great. Whoever he is with, I hope he runs several back this season to the point he's considered for HOF recognition. I'd love to have him back, but I'll give the Bears the benefit of the doubt on this one.

I don't understand the urgency to move Tillman to safety. He was playing at a pro bowl level before the injury. You move a guy to safety because of his declining skills. This was not evident last year. He's just as likely to get injured playing safety as cornerback. I think he'd be a great safety. But he was playing great at cornerback last year also. And we still need a starting cornerback . . .

You don't want Melton? Why not keep your exact plan but replace Collins with Melton? Also, didn't Paea pretty much suck last year? If we weren't so thin at DT, would he be a lock to make the roster? I have to admit, before we resigned Ratliff, I was starting to think we were just going to blow the whole damn thing up on the D-line.

I have not been able to find any details on the Mayors suggestion of adding 5,000+ seats to Soldier Field. Any idea on where the hell these would go that makes sense? I love the idea for a variety of reasons. Not to mention, we are the 2nd biggest market and have the 2nd smallest stadium. But I can't think of any way that this is logistically practical.

I've got to disagree somewhat. It doesn't matter if we over-paid him in the past. We pay him what we think he can be this year. He's easily worth Eric Weems money in the range of 1.25+ a year. There's a familiarity and he still generates excitement within the stadium.

PFT has the top 100 free agents. The first DT available is Randy Starks at 29. The 2nd is Melton at 32. For the sake of argument, if we assume this list is somewhat accurate, no team has a greater need at defensive tackle than the Bears. I don't think anyone can assume Melton will be back, but we can assume the Bears are the front-runner. One big question is exactly what the Bears defensive scheme will look like. Do we still even want that classic 3-technique/Tommie Harris style DT? The Bears have been fairly vague about this. Trestman and Emery were both complimentary about Melton, but saying you like something about a player doesn't mean much.

Dumping Podlesh was no surprise. What's surprising is that he was the only guy cut. If more are coming, why wait? Other possible cuts include Michael Bush, Eric Weems, Peppers, and Earl Bennett. Are we going to wait to upgrade these positions? Make them go into training camp? I know Peppers has the June release date for cap reasons. Your thoughts?

Yeah. Profootballtalk.com ranked Bennett as the #2 available free agent. By itself, that doesn't mean much, but usually the guys PFT ranks in the top 10 are signed to significant contracts in 3 days. With the increased cap and few significant free agents, the starting price for Bennett will be 5 years 50+ with 30+ guaranteed. Do the Redskins have cap room this year? If so, time those numbers by 2.

With Nate Collins, based on the performance Nate had last year, we would be offering him a one year non-guaranteed contract. Similar to what Kelvin Hayden signed. Based on Kyle Long's tweet, I think we can speculate that Big N98 has not be offered that deal. Which leads me to speculate, that for whatever reason, we don't want him back. That's a reach on my part and I'd be happy if we signed him. That being said, if we decided to replace him with a guy who might be better or more durable, I'd be happy with that also. You never know how guys are off the field. He was suspended for pot possession previously. The good thing about being a Bear fan is that if we let a player go, we rarely live to regret it.

Thanks for the breaking news! I like the fact it's a two year deal. We must have seen enough from him at the end of the year to believe he can still play.

True, and there's not much I can say to argue other than we have so many damn needs on defense. My only concern is that if you're giving Bennett 10+ million per, he'd better be a game changer and a difference maker. He would immediately become our highest paid defensive player. Next would be dead money for Julius Peppers. Then it's Tim Jennings & Lance Briggs . . . damn we have no money tied up on defense. I think the concern is that he's a good but not great player and we would be paying him to be elite. That being said, Emery did one helluva job signing free agents last offseason. Bushrod, The Black Unicorn, Slauson, Jamal Anderson, DJ Williams . . . I have no complaints from any of those deals.

Beautiful and I agree 100% Madlith. So many of my best memories as a Bear fan include Devin Hester.

Yep. Craig Steltz felt terrible about that.

That's a more interesting way to look at it. I think we can agree we'd be thrilled to trade down if the right deal is in place. Adding a top shelf LT would be huge. Bushrod's more of a RT. As for Barr or Mack, if they're that talented, you find a way to make them work in your system. Talent wins. Adding a 3rd WR alongside BM and AJ? Wow. How the hell do you match up with that? Not going to happen. But you never know. When we entered the 2006 draft, we had one of the best defenses in the league and our #1 top priority was an offensive playmaker. We responded by drafting defense in the first 5 rounds (D Manning, Hester, Dvoracek, Jamar Williams and Mark Anderson). I only mention that because I feel like we were responding to Lovie's wants. He was a defensive minded guy who didn't give a damn how old our o-line was. Trestman is an offensive minded guy who might press Emery for BM's future replacement or an upgrade over Jordan Mills. It's a possibility.