adam

Played for Waldron and is familiar with the offense.

Yeah the Bears have to lose more free agents than they sign, and based on salary range. So Mooney signing helps the Bears, but then is negated by one of the Bears FAs who signs for a similar amount.

Here is my list for Day 2: Curtis Samuel, Josh Reynolds, Tyler Boyd - WR Braxton Berrios - WR/PR Gerald Everett, Adam Trautman - TE (signed Everett 2/12M) Evan Brown, Brian Allen - C DJ Reader, Poona Ford, Sheldon Rankins - DT Danielle Hunter, Chase Young, DJ Wonnum, Shaq Lawson - Edge

2 years, 12M Finally a real TE2. He is a perennial 50 catch, 450 yard receiver. Now 18M tied to the TE group. If you take Everett's production + Swift's in the receiving game, that is basically 100 receptions a year added to the roster, while replacing Foreman and Tonyan lol.

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Swift averages 50 receptions per year. The Bears have not had a pass catching RB this good since Forte.

So the first 3 acquisitions point to keeping Fields. Bates - 2 years left on contract Byard = 2 year deal Swift = 3 year deal with a 3rd year no guarantees Those all align to Fields 5th year option, and they would all come off the books when Fields is due big money.

This could be a huge psyop, and if it was, I would be impressed. or the league is not as high on Fields as most of the Bears fans are.

Potential spots for Fields if Cousins goes to ATL: NYG, DEN, LVR, TEN, or CLE.

With so many guys available, I am shocked Poles moved so fast on this one. 2 yrs for $15M seems a little high for me, that puts him in the top 15 in terms of Safety contracts AAV. It will be curious what guys like McKinney gets. I preferred McKinney.

New coaching regime in NE. I am sure there was not a big market for Jones, but that doesn't help Poles nonetheless.

Ryan Leaf went #2, so he wasn't anywhere near a consensus pick. People loved his size, and one thing he couldn't handle was the spotlight. Russell? Just like Leaf, people loved his size, but that's it. He had one good season in college and that only amounted to 3100 passing yards and 28-8 INTs. Also, with all the analytics nowadays, I think we will see less and less busts like that. Dudes may not turn out to be all-pros, but they won't be busts like that.

Here is a good fair eval from two QBs (Palmer and Allen) both who recently played in the league (Allen still does). They tend to believe that Williams has a few traits that are rare for QBs to have coming out of college. Basically they say QBs that can make time and space in the pocket while keeping their eyes downfield normally succeed in the NFL.

I added PFF Grade and snaps to the list. 1. C - Whitehair (45.0/787) > FA/Rookie 2. G - Patrick (50.5/953) > Rookie 3. G - Feeney (44.8/90) > Bates (78.7/35) 4. TE - Tonyan (49.6/319)> FA 5. TE - Lewis (77.1/330) > FA 6. RB - Foreman (74.0/267) > FA 7. WR - St. Brown (55.1/211) > FA 8. WR - Mooney (55.2/764) > Rookie 9. WR - Taylor (51.8/121) > FA 1. FS - Jackson (58.6/646) > FA 2. DE - Ngakoue (39.9/592)> Rookie 3. DE - Green (50.6/385) > FA 4. DT - Jones (49.3/740) > Rookie 5. LB - Cole (50.1/3)> FA 6. CB - Blackwell (28.5/21)> FA The top 5 snap leaders that need to be replaced: G - Patrick (50.5/953) C - Whitehair (45.0/787) WR - Mooney (55.2/764) FS - Jackson (58.6/646) DT - Jones (49.3/740) Check out their PFF grades, lol. There are only two players with very good PFF grades that would need to be replaced: TE - Lewis (77.1/330) > FA RB - Foreman (74.0/267) > FA That's only 597 snaps. No other players lost was over a 60 grade.

If feels like a lot, but it's really not. Here is a list of players signed in the free agency window before the draft last year: 1. P.J. Walker, QB 2. Nate Davis, OG 3. D’Onta Foreman, RB 4. Travis Homer, RB 5. Robert Tonyan, TE 6. Andrew Billings, DT 7. DeMarcus Walker, DE 8. Rasheem Green, DE 9. Tremaine Edmunds, LB 10. T.J. Edwards, LB 11. Dylan Cole, LB So 8-10 seems fine when you consider several are on vet minimum or lower end deals.

It makes sense if the stadium is really going to get developed soon. Not a day to day operation with so many contractors they would have to interface with.

Here are the players lost from the 2023 roster that need to be replaced. It seems that they will have 5 picks to address these positions, so they will need 8-10 FAs. What is good to see, most of these guys were underachievers and are addition by subtraction (Whitehair, Patrick, Tonyan, Mooney, Jackson, Ngakoue, and Green) and replacing them with league average players would be an upgrade. The good thing is the Bears can add 3-4 blue chip players to replace these guys, that will feel like huge upgrades. 1. C - Whitehair (45.0/787) > FA/Rookie 2. G - Patrick (50.5/953) > Bates 3. G - Feeney (44.8/90) > Rookie 4. TE - Tonyan (49.6/319)> FA 5. TE - Lewis (77.1/330) > FA 6. RB - Foreman (74.0/267) > FA 7. WR - St. Brown (55.1/211) > FA 8. WR - Mooney (55.2/764) > Rookie 9. WR - Taylor (51.8/121) > FA 1. FS - Jackson (58.6/646) > FA 2. DE - Ngakoue (39.9/592)> Rookie 3. DE - Green (50.6/385) > FA 4. DT - Jones (49.3/740) > Rookie 5. LB - Cole (50.1/3)> FA 6. CB - Blackwell (28.5/21)> FA

The Hightower connection from SF. Nice move indeed.

If they trade Fields, I really hope they at least get a 3rd rounder for him and at least one more pick, even if it is a conditional pick in 2025. The 49ers got a 4th rounder for Lance, so anything less than a 3rd for Fields will be a failure on Poles part. I am thinking like a 2024 3rd rounder with a conditional 2025 4th rounder that can become a 3rd or 2nd depending on performance/play time, etc.

You are making me thirsty lol.

A tale of 2 rumors: then like 2 hours later: This is beyond comical at this point.

I am 60/40 they are taking Williams right now, just based on the body of evidence to this point. The JJ extension has $21M cap hits in 25, 26, and 27. Sweat is out to 27, Kmet as well. I would expect deals to have an out before 26 if they were keeping Fields. So far the trade for Bates is Fields friendly and the JJ extension points towards a rookie QB. So we are 1 for each side.

Like I said, Fields is on the roster. So it is easy to say they are keeping him, because they have to do nothing to make that occur.

Brad made an error, it is $6.8M compared to the franchise tag. So even better!