adam

Looking at the current roster, it seems like the top 46 players are set unless something extreme happens. That leaves 7 slots open. Using last year's 53-man roster position composition, here are the battle spots, 3 on offense, 4 on defense: On offense, it looks like the last WR spot is still up for grabs and is ESBs' to lose. By adding Moore, the WR room was knocked down a slot, which makes Pettis and Webster likely cut candidates. 6 WR? Can only have one of the following 6 players: WR6 (ESB vs Pettis vs Webster vs Ford vs Fountain vs Reed) TE3 still seems totally up for grabs. Will they go the H-Back route and Tonges or try for a more traditional 3rd TE? TE3? Can only have one of the following 4 players: TE3 (Carlson, Allen, Tonges, Pinkney) Bears signed Lewis It also looks like the top 8 on the line are pretty much locked in. This one will come down to roster needs: 9 OL? Can only have one of the following 9 players: OL9 (Eiselen vs Leatherwood vs Kramer vs Diesch vs Collins vs Haskins vs Houy vs Lugg vs Mbaeteka) On defense, the Bears have a huge decision to make on the D-Line. Do they go with 5 DT or 5 DE? If they go with 5 of each, which other position goes without? Terrell Lewis has really separated himself so far and may have slid up the depth chart already. He seems like the most likely pick here, but if they want a healthy trench rotation, do they need 5 DT more than 5 Edge? 9 DL? Can only have one of the following 7 players: DT5 (Bell vs Brown vs Jeter vs Holmes) DE5 (Lewis vs Jones vs Harris) Bears signed Ngaokoue If they only go with 9 DL, they will have 6 LBs. After the first 5, there is a big drop off. Will it be the new arrival, Buddy Johnson, or one of the other young guys? If the Bears do go with 10 DL, I could see them only going with 5 LB due to the lack of quality depth here. 6 LB? Can only have one of the following 4 players: LB6 (Johnson, Baskerville, Deng, Gates) CB6 is gonna be a tight battle. The Bears added Stevenson and Smith to Johnson/Gordon/Vildor, leaving one slot open for 3 strong candidates: 6 CB? Can only have one of the following 4 players: CB6 (Blackwell, Jones, Stroman, Ojemudia) Lastly there is Safety, the Bears should keep 4 and Hicks has the upper hand as a Poles draft pick from 22, but Trahan just had a nice day with 2 picks. 4 S? Can only have one of the following 4 players: S4 (Hicks, Trahan, Thomas, Colbert) Do you guys see any other roster spot battles that I missed?

He is taking over for Run dem pockets. It looks like he accepted, so he can change the name and mark his keepers.

A little bit of both, but definitely more.

We now have 10x GMs. Here are the current keepers: Fields of Dreams - Amari Cooper - 9th, Treylon Burks - 11th SAVAGEw/LOOSEMORALS! - Amon-Ra St. Brown - 5th, Drake London - 8th Victorious Secret - Tony Pollard - 5th MotM - Kenneth Walker - 13th Nopper - Patrick Mahomes - 3rd, Garrett Wilson - 15th 5 teams need to report keepers 6 teams need to pay dues ($75) via LeagueSafe League draft is scheduled for August 31st at 730pm Central. Mark those calendars!

Thanks, invite from Yahoo and Leaguesafe sent.

From all accounts, Fields to Moore is locked in. Also seeing a lot of Velus posts, which is good to see. If he steps up, the Bears would have a really solid top 5 (Moore, Mooney, Claypool, Velus, Scott). I have seen a lot of Tonyan as well. So a very nice receiving corps for Fields. On defense, some surprise names like Terrell Lewis and D'Anthony Jones have been making plays. Buddy Johnson, the new LB, replacing Weatherford, seems to be an upgrade there too. So if the Bears can add at least one Edge vet, then let Gipson and Robinson rotate in behind the new acquisition and Walker, and I that unit will at least be serviceable.

I know Pace is gone, but it is interesting that he was relentlessly hounded for the Trubisky flop (rightfully so), but then also criticized for Fields as well; while during those two drafts, Lynch drafted Solomon Thomas, then traded up for Trey Lance, who now looks to go into his 3rd season as QB3 behind Brock Purdy and Sam Darnold. If SF drafts Mahomes in 2017 or even Watson for that matter, they probably win the SB in 2019 and have a good shot of making it back in 2021 and 2022. These are Lynch's 1st round picks since 2017: 2017 - 3rd Overall - Solomon Thomas 2018 - 9th Overall - Mike McGlinchey (no longer on team) 2019 - 2nd Overall - Nick Bosa 2020 - 14th Overall - Javon Kinlaw (passed on Justin Jefferson, CeeDee Lamb). 2021 - 3rd Overall - Lance (Micah Parsons selected with pick) 2022 - traded for Lance (Cole Strange selected with pick) 2023 - traded for Lance (Bryan Bresee selected with pick) So in 7 drafts, Lynch basically has Nick Bosa to show for all his 1st round draft picks, with 3 picks in the top 3. Pace was equally bad, but only had 1 pick in the top 3 (Lynch had 3), and 2 in the top 10 (Lynch had 4). The jury is still out on Fields, but if he becomes a franchise QB, Toney and Neal were worth it, and Pace's drafts were not any worse than Lynch's, yet Lynch is still the GM in SF. 17 - 2nd Overall - Trubisky (no longer on team) 18 - 8th Overall - Roquan Smith (no longer on team) 19 - traded pick for Khalil Mack (Josh Jacobs selected with pick) 20 - traded pick for Khalil Mack (Damon Arnette selected with pick) 21 - 11th Overall - Fields (Kadarius Toney selected with pick) 22 - traded for Fields (Evan Neal selected with pick) I didn't include 2023 because it was Poles' draft. Lastly, like we have felt in the last few years, those traded firsts eventually come back to haunt you.

It looks like Harrison is going to be a top 5, maybe even top 3 pick. We really need Carolina to suck this year and end up in the bottom 3. I don't know how many teams would move away from picking Harrison to move to something a few picks later and only pick up #32 in 2024.

If the offense looks good, "Super Bowl Bound baby!!!!", if the offense looks bad, "The Defense really stepped up today, and it's early, defenses always have the edge early in the offseason".

After the Kmet extension, $3.6M got applied to the 2023 cap, bringing the Bears cap space down to $28.4M, still the highest available cap in the NFL. The next 4 teams are the Cards with $25.9M, Jets with $23.6M, Panthers with $20.6M, and Cowboys with $19.6M. So only 2 teams over $25M and 4 over $20M left. The Bears could take on a vet for a $7.5M cap hit this year and still have the 3rd biggest cap. Poles has the Bears in a great position as they can still spend and save some to rollover for next year.

One benefit of extending him with one year left is they can apply the signing bonus to the next 5 years vs 4 from the extension, bringing his cap hit down to $11.6M per year from 24-27 compared to doing the same deal after the season which would make it $12.5M per year. This is a great deal for the Bears, and will look even better in a year, and a steal in two.

If Johnson gets one, I think it would be midseason. I don't know how Poles views him right now. It will also depend on how Gordon and Stevenson look.

He could sign 2 more before 30 lol. He just turned 24, so he could easily sign his next extension at 27, and 4th one at 29 (as long as he signs before March 10th.

Same AAV as Hunter Henry signed last year (Henry signed for 3 years), and less than Dawson Knox. T-9th highest AAV for TE in NFL With $32M guaranteed and $20M first year cash, this is a front loaded deal that will have an out after 2 years and almost no dead cap after 3. After the Engram signing (for almost $14M per year), I assume Poles wanted to get this done before the price went up.

Not if this is the new trend for rookie deal QBs. It would only be this year and next if Fields gets extended next offseason.

Why is this relevant to the Bears? Herbert signed after his 3rd year, so the Chargers didn't take advantage of his 5th year option. After this year (his 4th), his salary will go from a $8.4M cap hit to approximately $29M in 2024. If the Bears were to consider the same plan for Fields, that would be next offseason, and his big salary would kick in a year earlier than expected. That scares me. Also, I am surprised Herbert got that big of a deal. He was 18th in DVOA, 11th in QBR, and 12th in QB Rating. The only stat he was top 5 in was yards (which really don't matter unless you score). Even with 4739 yards, he still only had a 6.8 Y/A. If you took the name off and all I did was list those stats, I don't think that QB would get a contract that big. Thoughts?

It seems like it was just a procedural thing since he didn't participate before. So essentially they had to put him on the PUP to take him off it since he wasn't on it before but was injured.

I will need his email to add him as a GM of the team he is taking control of and add him to the LeagueSafe league. There doesn't seem to be a generic invite but I will check.

The only time race should come up is in the medical realms as certain demographics are more prone to certain conditions. Outside of that, race should not be a consideration for anything.

The 49ers got 2x 3rd round comp picks for Mike McDaniel, a "minority". I honestly don't even know what constitutes that status.

Sounds good, thanks.

It really is. No matter how you cut the stats up in the first two years, if you count all the games, the odds are against him but he still has a shot. I would have to look back at some of the other QBs on the list, but I don't know if any had such a bad supporting cast and team the first two years, then got an influx of talent in Year 3 like he has. So it will definitely be one of the most interesting years we have had in a long time.

The Chargers and Lions on the road is pretty shocking to be honest. 4.5 seems low for those two teams against the Bears. Even 6 (still under a TD) would seem more on point. To me, KC is really the only game that is a guaranteed loss. That would be an upset of epic proportions, but being in Week 3, anything is possible. For the Division, I feel like the Bears will go 4-2 with some combo of sweeping one team and splitting with the 2 others. They are favored in 5 non-division games, so that is 9 wins, not counting potential wins against DEN, NO, WAS, and CLE. It is hard for me to see the Bears losing to all 4 of those teams. So just say they win 1 out of those 4 where they are the underdog, like Jason said, 10 wins is there, and it really is not that far of a reach. On the flip side, if they only split the division, don't win any of those 4 and lose a 1 non-division game they are favored in (TB, LVR, CAR, ARZ, ATL), they finish 7-10. So 7-10 wins seems like the range. If 7.5 is the over/under, the over seems like a very solid bet.

Another name is Justin Houston, played in KC with Poles. Won't break the bank or be looking for a long term deal at his age. Had 9.5 sacks and an INT last year. His sack totals for the last 6 years: 9.5, 4.5, 8, 11, 9, and 9.5. compare to Ngakoue's: 9.5, 10, 8, 8, 9.5, 12 Outside of Houston's bad 2021, their sacks totals are identical for the other 5 years (interesting). Obviously Houston's age is the biggest issue. I would not be opposed to a multi-year deal for Ngakoue (2-3 years). Just one vet Edge really changes the landscape of the entire line and defense by bumping the other guys down the depth chart where they would be better suited. The Edge group would still be one of the worst in the league, but more like bottom 1/3 vs dead last.