bradjock

I know we like St. Clair, but we do like OT's with bad backs. This was from PFT: BARNES WON’T BE A RAIDER, AFTER ALL Posted by Mike Florio on March 7, 2009, 9:50 a.m. So much for those reports that free-agent tackle Khalif Barnes was set to sign with the Oakland Raiders. According to the San Francisco Chronicle and other publications, the deal has fallen apart. Per David White of the Chronicle, all talks between Barnes’ agent, Kenny Zuckerman, and the Raiders are now off. Barnes is now close to signing with an undisclosed team. As White points out, the collapse of the deal could push the Raiders back to free-agent tackle Marvel Smith of the Steelers, who has drawn interest from Oakland and Baltimore since hitting the market. Teams likely are concerned about his pair of back surgeries in two years.

I think it's a damn good possibility OL will likely be our top priority. Initially I thought we'd go DE, but there doesn't seem to be one that fits our system who's likely to be available or worth the #18 pick. The key to the possibility of drafting o-line is when JA said we wanted to look at Amiyale at guard. Assuming we resign St. Clair, who the hell will be the back-up for the fragile Chris Williams? Angelo said he wanted to flexibility to go different directions in the draft. With Amiyale & St. Clair on board, we have that flexibility. McShay's latest mock has 4 OT's going before the Bears pick, and not another one (Britton) until #32. If one of the top 4 slide, why wouldn't we draft one? The one exception to this is that our lack of urgency at the safety position makes me wonder if we'll target Jenkins or Delmas at #18. Considering our safety position has sucked for years, and we've decided to let Mike Brown walk, as of right now, safety is easily our greatest need. Maybe I'm too trusting in him, but I believe Angelo when he says you can find a good WR later. I also believe we have confidence that Hester, Bennett & Olsen will all improve if given the chance. So unless by some miracle Crabtree falls to us, we'll pass on the WR spot and address that in rounds 2 or 3.

It'd be surprising if we take a linebacker. I wouldn't complain too much, but we have so many huge gaps to fill. I'd be happy with Jenkins if we decided to move either him or Peanut to FS. I know we said we weren't moving Tillman, but that notion would likely change quickly if a guy we thought was a top tier player fell to us.

You should have titled this "T.O. Cut!" or something like that. I ignored this post at first, then went to PFT and I was stunned. That being said, if this were 2006, and we were looking at that one guy to get us over the top, I'd say, "Hell yes!" Because you have to assume that TO is going to be like any woman you're with: She'll put out for the first year, and after that she's going to be more of a pain in the ass then anything else. He's a one year player. No more, no less. Does he get us over the hump? I doubt it. Either way, Angelo has tried to stay away from these types of players.

Are there any restricted players for teams who are becoming "cash strapped" we might be looking at? We worked that angle with Tait & RMJ. Although you'd have to think Angelo would think twice about giving up draft picks the way it bit him in the ass with RMJ.

In summary, we're going to draft a WR early, draft a QB early . . . he didn't address that we REALLY need to draft a safety early . . . and we still need to draft 0-line and DE early. If we had 5 first round picks, we'd be good to go.

Chris Simms is signing with Denver, as per PFT. He wouldn't have been great, but I liked the idea of having him as a back-up, and I really don't think we'll spend the money for Leftwich. Khalif Barnes is meeting with Oakland. He's the last tackle available who'd be an upgrade over St. Clair. (At least he's still in the mix . . . ) Jermaine Phillips, the top safety available, is meeting with the Chargers & Seahawks. I just view back-up QB, safety, WR, and o-line as MAJOR problems we need to address in the draft AND free agency. We're so damn thin we need two of each position. My optimism is fading fast.

Christ that's a depressing thought. I'd say Forte only because he's proven that he's a first round talent, and he's being paid 2nd round money. MAYBE Greg Olsen. But that's a big maybe. I believe the Giants got a 2nd for Shockey & he was an ass-hat, but more proven. Certainly not Hester or Harris right now. Brad Maynard? Robbie Gould? Patrick Mannelly? God I'm depressed.

1. Angelo said he expected to make no immediate splash. I can understand why some considered this to be a smoke-screen, but I bought it. 2. When was the last time we EVER signed a significant player on free agent weekend that wasn't our own??? I'm thinking Thomas Jones in 2004. So it's been 5 years since it's happened. Other guys like Moose we're signed before free agency, and other players we signed, in most cases, weeks after it began. This includes: Tait, Fred Miller, Reuben Brown, Brian Griese, Brandon Lloyd, RMJ, Kevin Jones . . . We also, much later in each case, traded for guys like Archuletta, Darwin Walker, and Wale. Am I forgetting anybody? Seriously. I was shocked we signed Frank Amiyale that quickly. If Angelo says he's not going to sign anyone quickly, and he has a history of doing so, it's nuts to think he'd do anything different. There's still a lot of players out there who can still start for this team next season. It might be we're waiting to nab one of the restricted guys (which is much easier to do after teams have spent their money). I'm optimistic that we're just getting started.

That's an interesting thought on why the hell we're doing nothing, except there's two flaws in your theory: 1. Angelo has a history that says he HATES to trade up. The only two times I can think he traded up were to draft Justin Gage and Craig Krenzel. Both those guys were 5th rounders. 2. WE'RE 30 MILLION UNDER THE CAP!!! If we had the #1 pick overall, we'd still have tons of room to spare.

Just curous, when you say Angelo is good at knowing the market for a player and sticking to it, thus not over-paying, who are you thinking about. Briggs, okay. But one player does not mean a lot. Just means he got it right w/ one player. Honestly, pretty much every guy we've signed. In most cases, JA seems to get bargains. Even after having a crappy season, how much would Harris have made if he'd hit the open market? My guess is that it'd be more then we signed him for. Yea, I saw where TB signed Clatyor to that deal, but while you wonder about that, do you think anyone out there is wondering about our giving a 4 year backup OL a deal that could be worth as much as $15m, w/ $5.5m guaranteed. I realize Omiyale's deal isn't huge, he is the sort of player who pretty recently would not have seen much more than the veteran minimum. He's young, yet he's been in the league. He looked great at LT last season (although it was just one start) and he can play multiple positions. At worst he's a very good back-up, at best he's a starter. I think some team would have at least given him damn near that much. At this risk of starting another, "How do you define 'over-paying' for a player" argument, yes we spent a lot of money on a guy who might be a back-up. But it was worth sense we're desperate for youth and versatility at the position. If I'm Carolina with Gross & Okwo manning the position, there's no way I pay it. I think FA and the market are very subjective. I mean, we say a player is over-paid, but if several teams were making significant offers, then maybe his market was simply higher than we thought. I think often we say a player is/was overpaid based on what we felt his market value should have been, but that often proves wrong. It's true there are a lot of different ways of looking at it. The Vikings made Bernard Berrian, a good but not great WR, one of the highest paid in the game. Being the highest paid, you'd expect him to be one of the best, and he's not. I ripped them at the time. On hindsight, there's no-way IMO Minny makes the playoffs without him (they damn near didn't anyway). So while they paid too much, he was damn well worth it to them.

As per PFT, Housh signed with Seattle for 5 years, 40 million, with 15 guaranteed. Not to far off from Berrian's 6 year, 43.5 million deal with 16 guaranteed. Nate Washington signed with Tennessee, but I haven't seen the numbers. Hopefully, he cost a lot since I'll be pissed if they got him for a "reasonable" amount. Those two guys were considered the top two UFA available (not counting Marvin Harrison). It doesn't surprise me we went after them, since I think we really want to give Hester, Bennett, and Olsen a continued chance to develop. I include Olsen in that group, since he plays the WR spot at times, and we'll look to focus on him more and more in our offense. That being said, don't we HAVE to bring in a veteran WR? The way we did last year with Booker & Lloyd? While I'm sure we'll draft one in the first 3 rounds (except I'm also sure we need to draft an o-lineman, safety, DE in the first 3 rounds also) we still need to add another player to the mix. So who's it going to be? D.J. Hackett? Harrison? (I'm not a fan at this point) Do we bring Lloyd back? One of the Detroit cast-offs? Which 'bad' WR do you want.

Maybe . . . but chances are he'll be a one year player with whoever he signs with. We already have Wale who's done after this year. He'd immediately upgrade our team, but: 1. He'll be expensive. He had the choice to stay with the Redskins, but refused to do the off seasons workouts with the team. He walked away from 8 million basically. He's not going to play for cheap. 2. I still say we need to draft a stud DE in the first round to put pressure on Brown & Wale. Unfortunately, most mocks don't have any DE worth the pick near that spot. Which means we either trade up (not likely), trade down (more likely, depending on what happens with the OT position this offseason, or draft the best DE available in round 2. To me, the last makes the most sense.

Damn, I'd missed that! Whatever site I'd been looking at the time must not have updated. ESPN has a good free agent tracker, and you're definitely correct, he's gone: http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/fa?sort=gra...mp;positionId=1 They list the best available UFA not named Marvin Harrison as D.J. Hackett. He sounds good, but he's constantly injured. Either way, I'd rather have a veteran with the potential to be great, then just keep adding rookies.

Yes I would. At least to get some rumors floating around. But JA always puts out the smokescreens, so its hard to know who to believe. The rumors are always nice for the fans to hear, but if I'm a team, and in most cases an agent, I don't want the rumors out there. As for Angelo and the smokescreens, where exactly does that come from? Perhaps in his earlier days that was true, but I don't remember much of that. I do remember we never met with Cedric before drafting him, and that was considered a smokescreen, but was that even necessary? Hell, if if Cedric had went higher, we'd have gotten Ronnie Brown, Braylon Edwards, or at worst, Cadillac Williams. At this point Angelo seems to be as forthcoming as a general manager possibly can be. He told us he wasn't going to make a big splash in FA, and he hasn't/probably won't. Do you have an example of his smoke-screens? I'm honestly just curious if I'm missing something. I hope its for the vet minimum. I'm not too keen on him at this stage. For my money, we need a speed, coverage safety to pair with Payne. I know alot on the board don't like Payne, but I do. Fourth on the team in tackles, and first in INTS. For me, he was no worse in coverage or tackling than Mike Brown. Hell, I'd say he's worse then Mike Brown. Just more durable. What scares me is that if we sign him, he'd be a one year fix while we continue to draft more safeties. Agreed. Some will disagree though, but I hate overpaying for people. I would rather watch a young guy be given a shot than some dude not earning his fat contract. I even hate it when we reward our own guys and they dont play up to contract. So last year I was hating some dudes for that. Not to mention how it hurts the locker room. I know right. Shoot I hope we kick the tires on every Tampa Bay defender that was released to see if they would be an upgrade for our defense. They all are cover 2 guys and could come in and know what to do right away. It's never a bad idea to "kick the tires" but with the exception of the safety position, and adding a young stud DE, our defense is pretty complete. We have great depth at cb as of right now.

1. Wouldn't you just love to know how many offers the Bears have out?? Anybody think that Omiyale is the only guy we called at midnight last Friday? 2. I'm guessing Sharper's agent leaked the info the Bears showed interest. Telling a Minnesota newspaper a division rival wants to sign Sharper, might up the Vikings offer. For all we know, the Bears are only offering him the veteran minimum. Technically, we'd still have interest in him, but not much. 3. I suspect Angelo makes an offer for a guy and does not waver much. Last year we saw this with Briggs & Berrian where the offers did not change. Hell, we probably could have gotten Briggs to take less money by the end, but we kept our offer the same. This year we've seen Angelo not buge on his offer for St. Clair. The word is that Angelo made an offer, and St. Clair counter-offered to no avail. We have to appreciate Angelo for not getting being emotional & caught in a bidding war. He's good at determining the general market for a player and sticking to it, thus not over-paying. Did anyone notice Tampa Bay signed Mark Clayton for 5 years 26 million??? How the hell does that happen? The guy has been bad since his rookie year. Wow they got screwed. 4. Every year I tell myself I'm not going to spend free agency weekend stressing over how little the Bears have done. Yet every year I ignore my own advice. I sure hope like hell we're in the running for Jermaine Phillips.

That's the most sickening part of it all . . . the fact we're so thin at safety that damn near anybody we bring in would be an improvement. Hell, he's older then Mike Brown, and he's been part of a really bad Minnesota secondary. I guess he has extra value because he's durable . . . that's not exactly comforting though by any means. I'm guessing anything we offered him would be damn near for the minimum at one or two years. I wonder if we're showing any interest in Jermaine Phillips or anybody else? We should have made an effort to sign Gabril Wilson.

As for the Broncos not trying to trade him, PFT is reporting that the Broncos likely had a deal in place that fell through. Whether that's true or not the question is, why did the Broncos WANT to trade him? Why would they rather have Matt Cassell? They obviously don't have faith in Cutler. Also, as for acquiring Cutler, it would appear Denver wanted a good quarterback in return, like Matt Cassell. Would they be happy if we gave them Orton? Somehow I doubt it. Either way, acquiring him would cost one helluva a lot,

Agreed. There's no indication we're even looking at Barnes, so I imagine we'll get St. Clair to sign. I looked at the mock drafts at sports illustrated, Kiper, McShay, and nfldraftcountdown.com. For what it's worth, the way all 4 have it playing out, there's really not a DE worth taking at #18. The same is true for the safety position. There are WR's available, but I believe JA when he says you can find those in later rounds. Especially as deep & talented as the WR group is this year. Round 2 seems more ideal (although we still need a freaking safety!!!) That leads me to believe that we'll either: 1. Take the best offensive tackle available at #18, or 2. Trade down There's the chance Sanchez or a DE will fall in our laps, but OT makes the most sense.

Agreed! Although isn't Buenning a restricted free agent? I'd have to check on that.

Angelo said it, but it's tough to believe it. Currently on the roster: Guards: Garza, Beekman, Metcalf, and possibly Buenning. Tackles: The injury prone Chris Williams & the new guy. That's it. For us to truly look at him as a guard, we need to add not one, but two quality tackles. If we resign St. Clair and draft a tackle in the first round, then hell yes he's a guard. But until that happens, it's tough to view him as such. As far as adding a tackle via the draft, I'd previously been convined we'd draft a DE. But if you look at the current mocks that have came out since the combine, the ones I have seen don't have a DE anywhere near where the Bears are picking. A safety would also be a reach. I believe JA when he says he doesn't like drafting WR's in round one, so offensive tackle seems like it'd be the most logical choice for the Bears. If that happens I could easily see the new guy (who's name I will misspell so I don't want to type it) moving into the guard spot.

Well, Lah Dee freaking Dah. (It's better if you imagine Chris Farley saying it)

Not that the Bears were making any effort to go after Stinchcomb, but damnit anyway. The only offensive-tackle available that would be an upgrade over St. Clair is Khalif Barnes. Here's the article from PFT: With Florio covering all the stories you care about, let's get caught up on the ones you don't. The Saints have agreed to a five-year deal to bring back right tackle Jon Stinchcomb. Once considered an injury-prone second-round bust, Stinchcomb turned his career around in 2006 under Sean Payton. After starting no games in his first three seasons, Stinchcomb has started 48 straight since. The somewhat surprising move means that former Jaguars tackle Khalif Barnes' scheduled Sunday trip to the Big Easy will be scuttled or pointless. (Update: Barnes has canceled his trip.) The Seahawks, who showed interest in Stinchcomb, would be a logical suitor for Barnes. He's the next best player available in a weak crop of free agent tackles. One can question the Saints' depth, but you can't question their continuity. With Jonathan Vilma and Stinchcomb back in the fold, Payton will get back all 22 starters from his 8-8 squad.

Basically you're saying that whoever we add at WR will suck, which is perfectly understandable, especially after seeing what Marty Booker didn't do for us this past season. But I do have to wonder, how much of his crapiness had to do with the fact he was hampered by injuries most of the season? Either way, as of right now, we're apparantly planning to start Earll Bennett. Does he deserve minutes? Michael Jenkins from Atlanta caught for 772 yards last season. He's 26 years old and is a former first round pick. You wouldn't love to see a guy like that added to the Bear's roster?

On one hand it's a damn good point you make about JA not showing his hand . . . on the other hand, how the heck does not sharing the fact they are upset with Garza have anything to do with signing Frank Amiyale? Amiyale is primarily an offensive tackle. The Bears need a starting RT, AND a back-up swing-tackle. The fact they went after Amiyale should have surprised nobody. Unless you're suggesting the Bears lured him here partially by the fact that he would be able to start, something the other teams weren't able to offer him. Of course, usually these things all come down to dollar signs. Four years and 14 million is a lot of money for a player that most perceive to be a back-up.