DABEARSDABOMB

Bears visit with Illini DE Mercilus INDIANAPOLIS – Coach Lovie Smith provided indications that a pass-rushing defensive end will be an offseason priority this offseason and the Bears looked in that very direction this weekend, meeting with Illinois defensive end Whitney Mercilus during the NFL Scouting Combine. “Some of the teams that I’ve talked with – Bears, Chargers – showed interest, also the Bills,” Mercilus said. “They showed interest – a lot of interest – and those are just to name a few. It sounds good, definitely, and I can’t wait to see what unfolds and to continue on throughout the process and until draft day, see where I land at.” Pro Football Weekly projects the 6-foot-3, 26-pound junior as a first or second rounder, based primarily on his 16 sacks and 22.5 tackles for loss last season, his first as an every game starter. Mercilus said that the NFL committee created for providing some guidance for underclassmen considering the NFL projected him as a third-round pick. http://www.csnchicago.com/blog/bears-talk/...mp;feedID=10330

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bears/post...ears-april-camp CHICAGO -- Chicago Bears right tackle Gabe Carimi said his surgically-repaired right knee is now pain free, and he’s aiming to participate in the team’s first offseason camp in April. “That’s what we’re looking for,” Carimi said Saturday night at a charity event for the Jewish National Fund. “We’re making good progress. Getting me out there as soon as possible is a major thing.” Carimi, the Bears' first-round pick in 2011, injured his right knee in the second game of the season. He tried to rehab the knee without surgery. But after a setback, he underwent arthroscopic surgery on his knee in early November and went on injured reserve list. He had a second surgery in late December to repair connective tissue around his patella and medial collateral ligament.

They are 4th round picks though. Melton looks like he can be an above average DT in this league. If you get that out of a 4th round pick, you hit the jackpot. In terms of Wooten, he might get cut. Clearly injuries got him, but I haven't exactly since the Bears invest a top pick in a dlineman since Tommie (and prior to that Michael Haynes, who was drafted based upon Jauron's system, IIRC). Heck, as a franchise, the Bears haven't had many draft picks in the past few years that were in meaningful spots (e.g,. 1st/2nd round + early 3rd round). This year they will actually be in a decent position and it will be interesting to see what happens.

And Michael Floyd ran a sub 4.5 40, which means he might not be there at 19. Floyd is a beast and given what is going on, I won't be surprised if the Bears target wideout in Rd 1 and than sign one of the B FA Wideouts (and maybe bring back Roy).

Absolutely. I'm all over Martin if he's there. I'd even trade a few spots to get him. Rarely are you going to find a franchise left tackle outside of the top 20 picks or so in the draft.

I think the issue was that the 16-20M figure inintially thrown out around the media wasn't correct either. Now it turns out we are looking more at 28M or so and that figure includes a couple guys that the Bears could cut. Which basically puts the 46M figure as off (and the $20M figure off) by almost the same amount (since the $46M figure I believe was assuming the Bears would cut a couple of guys). That said, as the person who posted the $46M cap number from another site, at the time, it was by far the most complete source on what the cap was vs. anywhere. Additionally, the media (on other teams) has had some significant misses. For example, in the past week the Saints cap space has jumped by about $10M. Basically put, the media doesn't have as much great info as some of you think when it comes to understanding the cap and all of the space and franchises aren't necessarily going to flat out say what type of space they have (and the Bears have been completely silent since Emery took over). The only way you get there is by analyzing what was reported and what is available and having an understanding of the cap and everything. I'm not going to spend the time to do it but I'm glad someone on that site did and they have done so for years and been very accurate, much as LT (on this very site) is one of the best and knowledgeable posters when it comes to knowing the Bears cap.

I'm assuming that is where the London bridge is?

Chiefs have a ton of money to spend though.

Great thoughts AZ.

So now it looks like it is $28M. That looks to be a pretty thorough analysis too. Maybe with a few roster moves (e.g., cap casualties) you get to 30M but it didn't look like there was much room in that regard.

Would you rather spend 11M Bowe/Jackson or spend say 6M on Wayne & Garcon; Or Meachem & Garcon. And I don't know, maybe It costs more than 6M for those 2. But it might be a question that Emery has to ask, especially if he likes some of these 2nd tier wide-outs and thinks they can step forward. In Garcon's case, he has done nothing but get better and last year with a crap QB he still put up good numbers. Put him with Cutler and that should help. In Meachem's case, he's young, has tons of talent, and the question is, is his lack of production a result of all of Bree's other weapons or is he just not very good.

I think the major problem is that a lot of teams have a lot of money to spend. And of those teams, there are quite a few that could use an impact wideout. This means a lot of money is going to get passed around at the wide receiver position. And it leads me to believe you might be better jumping on guys like Wayne, Garcon, etc, and grabbing them for a little less, while putting more of an effort on a DE (even if that DE is an older guy like Mathis). Than the Bears can add a young wideout via the draft but still be in a good spot. Garcon could actually be a pretty big-time signing. Albeit, if I'm the Colts, I'm not letting him go. He's 25 and has gotten better each of the past 2 years. He isn't small (not huge either) and is pretty fast with solid hands. Whose to say he doesn't continue to get better and turn into a real nice wideout. Than there is a guy like Wayne, whose older, and probably wants to sign with a team that wins, and the Bears offer that chance. Add those 2 with a young wideout via the draft and you have a pretty nice corp's (without having to hit on the one of the big name guys). This could allow the Bears to sign a CB and DE. They'd also be fine to extend some of there young players like Melton. And probably could even look a bit at a FA olineman.

Oh, in no way shape or form, am I comparing Moose to TO/Moss in their primes. That would be insane. I'm mearley pointing out that when the Bears signed Moose, he was one of the most targeted guys in the league via FA. The Bears were extremely agressive and swooped in and signed him to a big money deal almost immediately. The deal didn't work out great, but Moose was our #1 on the superbowl team (well along with Berrian) and while at times he was inconsistent with a better QB we probably see a bit better production out of him. Sadly, he's the best wideout we've had since Booker (and that isn't a good thing; Moose was a pretty big dissapointment for the Bears). Moss/TO are not targeted. If they didn't have major attitude problems, I'd be all for signing these guys to incentive laden deals. The risk would be very low. If they don't pan out, so what, you gave it a shot. However, with these guys, they are cancers in the clubhouse, and that means even if they don't pan out, they could very well have a negative impact on the entire team. That to me indicates you actually have severe downside scenario's in giving these guys low-risk deals. Both were tremendously talented players and in there prime's, I'd put up with there shit (neither of them had actual off the field problems; For me, those are the things that I really don't put up with). Heck, even a couple years ago, I'd have put up with there crap. I just believe these guys are more than a few years past there primes and if I'm going to go that route, I'd much rather go with someone like Reggie Wayne. Especially when we know there is a good chance the Bears are going to draft a young wideout in the 1st 2 or 3 rounds. I'd rather have that young wideout learning from a guy like Wayne than a guy like Moss. Owens, well, I don't know if he can teach or not, cause I'd love him to teach. He is/was one of the hardest working guys in the league and fundamentally was rock solid. Not only was he a physical beast but he was a tremendous route runner. The type of knowledge and ability he'd have to teach, would be phenomenal, if it weren't for the fact, that quite frankly, he's socially incompetent. If guys like Stevie Johnson credited TO as a good teacher, than I might be a little more open to working with Terrell. I've long argued, you look at most of the top wideouts in the league, and at one point in time or another, they worked with other very good wideouts. Fitzgerald grew up around some of the best wideouts in the league (not in the NFL, however, he did have Boldin, who was legit with the Cards). Owens was tutored by Rice. Moss via Carter. There are exceptions to this, clearly, but I think a good wideout can immensely help develop other wideouts.

Supposedly some research was done on Hester's cap hit and most of the listing weren't correct. I can't even pretend that this is accurate. Basically put, I think the 44 number is probably a bit high, but after the Bears clean up some space on Omilaye and others, I think they will be close to 36M or so. Which actually should give the Bears quite a bit of flexibility. I'd like to extend Melton, work out a fair deal for Idonijie, Graham, Bell, Steltz and McCown (as you talk about). Forte should be somewhere around 6-8 M (depending on whether you franchise him or sign him long term). After you do that, even if you think 8 & 8, that is 16M. That would leave the Bears with about 18M to address some other areas. That should be enough money to sign one guy to a big time deal (even potentially 2). Or you could sign one guy to a big time deal and add quite a few other quality starters.

He is indicating they have more like 80 M committed. Not sure who is right but I know in years past the media reported one thing and he ended up being right. So he has a history of being pretty darn accurate. I read this week where the Saints media was indicating there payroll was at 110M or so. Than all of a sudden, it came out that they actually were about 10-12M less than that. So don't be 100% that the media does a better job than some of these guys that grab all the details. Basically one person in the media spouts something and everyone else latches to it. I don't know what is right but there have been a ton of people looking through this guys numbers and everything seems to be pretty vetted.

Moose was signed immediately after he became available and he was coming off a massively huge season. He was a #1 at the time the Bears signed him. And he was far more in demand than Moss and TO have been the past few years.

Huh. Most everything I have seen has indicated the cap will be set around 120M (a little higher actually) for the 2012 season.

Based on a figure around 120 iirc

Mike Adams from OSU is moving up a lot of draft boards. I know there is some question as to whether he is a RT or LT, but it seems like scouts are warming up on him as an LT. Clearly someone the Bears would consider with there 1st round pick (if he's available).

I was listening to Mike Mayock chat earlier. Mayock is someone who I think is one of the better NFL guys on the draft. And he was talking about the oline and indicated that this years interior lineman class is one of the best classes in years. He went on to talk about how there will be talented guys being taken in the 3rd and 4th rounds. It also appears to be a pretty deep wideout draft (not a lot of 1st round wideouts, but some real quality in the latter rounds). I know a lot of us here have talked a bit about Nicks, but with this being the case, I think it points more towards me (if the Bears can land a good wideout via FA), looking at drafting LT/de/cb (RD 1) and guard in this years draft and than looking at one of the project type wideout's out there in the late 2nd or with one of our 3rd's.

Despite various reports, the poster on ChicagoBears.com who is supposedly exceptional at figuring out cap space, indicates the Bears have $46.834 mill in cap room. This includes approximately $8M in rollover capspace. This figure differs significantly from the media reported 20M. In years past, the cap guy on the Bears site (forums) has been very accurate. The question would be whether he is missing something in the new CBA.

I'm pretty sure that Pace stunk with the Bears. I'm also pretty sure that Marvin Harrison almost immediately retired and Torri Holt never did anything (due to being old and past his prime). Ya, I'm not going to live in these wonderland scenarios that they would have been amazing with the Bears. If they would have been amazing with the Bears (or even good), they would have gotten plenty of offers. These aren't projects we are talking about, they are veteran wideouts that were some of the best in the game, and unfortunately past there prime. I'm not going to live in some dream world where had the Bears signed Holt, he would have still had a few 1000 yard seasons.

I liked him prior to him having that one catch. IF he gets overpaid because of it, so be it. He is a body catcher that will never be a #1. I would have lived with him had the Bears targeted a 1st rounder and went the route of signing two good but not great wideouts. Manningham is just that, good/solid. He is nothing more than that.

And had they made any of those moves (in fact they did with Pace), they wouldn't even have been better off.

I had actually thought Desean Jackson would have been the most realistic target. I'm still surprised Philly is spending the coin to franchise him despite the beef Desean and the Eagles had. I even started thinking about it and had came to the conclusion that you pair Desean with Floyd (or another 1st round wide-out) and Bennett and that is a pretty talented set of 3 wide-outs. Plus, they all provide different skill-sets. Bowe is the guy I want the most.