adam

With all the needs, especially in the trenches, I can't see going for gadget guys until at least the 5th. Being the shortest player ever at the combine scares me. Sproles was 5'6" but 190 lbs, Boston Scott is 5'6" but over 200 lbs. Vaughn is mid-170s.

The Bears still have the most cap space and probably $15-18M more to spend.

Down to: 1. DE - Ngakoue, Fowler, Green? 2. DT - (after signing Billings still need one more) - Ford, Robinson, Ioannidis, Gaines? 3. RT - (Borom is not it) - Isaiah Wynn, Donovan Smith, George Fant? 4. CB - (Vildor feels like the weakest link) - Rock Ya-Sin? 5. LB - (big drop off after top 3 LBs) - a lot of option for vet min deals here

The bold guys are the 53-man roster slots where the Bears can easily upgrade whether that is starter, rotational, or sub. They won't upgrade them all, but with 10 picks and several FA signings left, at least 6 draft picks with some additional FA and UDFA signings will push some of the bold guys off the roster or to the PS. For LT, it is probably Jones-Borom right now.

Thanks, I will need to get into the weeds a little more on exact position needs. Right now I just did position groups as I don't know exactly where everyone will lineup. However, RT looks like a upgrade need regardless of who they put there right now based off the current roster (Leatherwood, Borom, etc) with Reiff gone.

Yeah, so initially I went with actual roster losses (Monty, Evans, Blackson, Smith, etc) as holes. So technically at RT, the Bears don't have a hole, they just need an upgrade there. I just listed the need as OL right now, but it can definitely be RT. For Center, they have Patrick, Kramer, and Whitehair as options. With the addition of Davis, a true Guard, and Jenkins, I think they will go with the "best-5" in training camp with guys competing at multiple positions.

Moore, Foreman, and Walker all ex-Panthers. Should make for an easier transition for all of them. Trade updates: So Pick#1 for Pick #9, #61, 2024 1st, 2025 2nd, DJ Moore, D'onta Foreman, and PJ Walker?

So technically 3 "holes" left on the 53-man roster, 2x DL (1x DE, 1x DT), and 1 LB. Not bad for 4 days in. Poles can still also upgrade a few positions before the draft, OL, DL, LB and CB most notably.

Hmmmm 2022 Rushing Stats: Montgomery 201-801 yds, 4.0 YPC, 5 TD Foreman 203-914 yds, 4.5 YPC, 5 TD Tonyan an upgrade over any of the Bears backup TEs last year. Foreman a huge upgrade over Evans.

Foreman fills RB void.

TE hole filled with Tonyan.

Evans? I was just saying from a roster perspective, those are the actual holes and where is looks like upgrades are needed (bold).

There is the vet TE (Getsy special):

The difference right now with Herbert vs Monty is production and usage. Monty has a lot of tread on his tires after 4 years and didn't produce: There are 26 RBs from 2019 until 2022 with at least 500 carries and 2000 yards rushing. of those 26th, Monty was tied for dead last in YPC at 3.9 with Najee Harris. He is also 1 of 9 RBs with over 1000 touches since 2019 (high wear and tear). Looking up these stats, I can't get over how much Joe Mixon's cumulative stats look just like Monty's over the last 4 years even though the individual seasons look very different. Here are their 4 year totals: Mixon - 51 GS, 1057 touches, 899 rush att, 3584 rush yds, 4.0 YPC, 28 TD, 158 Rec, 1180 rec yds, 9 TD Monty - 51 GS, 1070 touches, 915 rush att, 3609 rush yds, 3.9 YPC, 26 TD, 155 Rec, 1240 rec yds, 4 TD I can tell you this, there is no way Cincy is keeping Mixon beyond his current contract, and I would not be surprised if they cut him after 2023 when his dead money is minimal.

I don't know if people realize how good DJ Moore is. Since his rookie year (2018), there have been 11 WRs with a total of 300 receptions and 5000 yds, with Moore being one of them. However, if you sort those 11 by Yards Per Reception, Moore is 2nd only to Mike Evans. Tyreek Hill is 3rd. Here is the list sorted by Y/R, now think about the other WRs and the QBs they had over that span and what Moore had to deal with in Carolina. He is also the youngest of this group. 1. Evans 2. Moore 3. Hill 4. Cooper 5. Lockett 6. Adams 7. Diggs 8. Godwin 9. Hopkins 10. Kupp 11. Allen

Offense (25) QB (2): Justin Fields, PJ Walker RB (4): Khalil Herbert, D'onta Foreman, Travis Homer, Trestan Ebner FB (1): Khari Blasingame WR (6): DJ Moore, Chase Claypool, Darnell Mooney, Velus Jones Jr., Equanimeous St. Brown, Nsimba Webster TE (3): Cole Kmet, Robert Tonyan, Chase Allen OL (9): Braxton Jones, Nate Davis, Larry Borom, Cody Whitehair, Lucas Patrick, Teven Jenkins, Doug Kramer, Dieter Eiselen, Alex Leatherwood/Ja'Tyre Carter Defense DL (9): Trevis Gipson, DeMarcus Walker, Justin Jones, Dominique Robinson, Andrew Billings, Rasheem Green, Andrew Brown, Jalyn Holmes, DL8 LB (6): Tremaine Edmunds, TJ Edwards, Jack Sanborn, Dylan Cole, Sterling Weatherford, Terrell Lewis S (4): Eddie Jackson, Jaquan Brisker, Elijah Hicks, A.J. Thomas CB (6): Jaylon Johnson, Kyler Gordon, Jaylon Jones, Kindle Vildor, Josh Blackwell, Michael Ojemudia Specialist K: Cairo Santos P: Trenton Gill LS: Patrick Scales Holes (1): DL Upgrades (12): WRx1, TEx1, OLx3, DLx2, LBx2, S, CBx3 My guess is they won't want to go into the draft with actual holes in the 53-man roster, so I suspect that they will look to sign a few more FAs to fill those holes. Then they have to figure out how many upgrades they can afford to get between the remainder of FA, the draft, UDFAs, and late FA. Thoughts?

Siemian released, Walker is QB2, they basically swapped Siemian's cap hit with Walker's.

Just going off lost snap counts, Walker and Billings replaced Watts and Blackson. Now the Bears still need a replacement for Muhammad at DE and Pennel.

I expect more of these 1 and 2 year deals for guys with some upside. Billings was one of the better DLinemen on the Raiders last year. As a rotational guy on mainly 1st and 2nd Down, he will eat up some space. Poles doing his research:

There have been very few backs in recent history to exceed their previous seasons totals after signing their 2nd contract when it is $5M or more. The track record is terrible. At most some guys like Henry did the first year, but then dropped off after that. It seems like in the 80s and 90s, mid-30s was the age to stop giving contracts to RBs, then it dropped to 30 in the 2000s, and it is really getting close to 5-6 years in the league is the new line. So 2nd contracts are becoming risky propositions for RBs. I find this somewhat interesting considering the league has transitioned to a more passing league, you would think that would give RBs a little longer peak career windows, but that doesn't look like the case.

PJ Walker fills this position perfectly and has history with Moore.

This is only the beginning of Year 2, still a lot of work to be done. Look at the 2019 draft, the Bears should have several key contributors from that class on the roster. They don't. So in order to fix deficits like that, it takes more than one year. The team has huge upgrades at WR and LB and ultimately only needs upgrades on the O-Line and D-Line going into the draft. My assumption is Robinson/Gipson will rotate on one Edge, leaving the other DE a need. For DTs, they still have Jones, and now Walker who can play both DT and DE. So there are probably 2 more needed here, I am assuming one more free agent and the rest of the DLine addressed in the draft (2 picks). For O-Line, they got Davis, so they probably only need one more, a RT (1 pick). After those 3 picks in the trenches, they can go RB, TE, and CB. They can get 4 of them in the top 64, and with another trade down potentially have 5 in the top 64. So if they can sign 2 more legit starters in FA, they have enough draft capital to address the other needs early in the draft. Needs priority (some free agents remaining): 1. DL x3 (a ton of holes here to address) - Ford, Robinson, Ioannidis, Gaines, Ngakoue? 2. RT - (Borom is not it) - Isaiah Wynn? - or go Center with McGovern? 3. CB (Vildor the weakest link) - Rock Ya-Sin? 4. RB (RBBC for Herbert/Homer) - Foreman? 5. TE (Compliment to Kmet) - Schultz, Moreau? What else is there to address?

The Jets are shooting themselves in the foot. They were not a QB away from a Super Bowl at 7-10 in arguably one of the toughest divisions with Buffalo, Miami, and New England. In 2023, they have to play KC, LAC, PHI, DAL and NYG while also playing improved teams in DEN and LVR. That is 13 tough games. Then they have WAS 8-8-1, CLE 7-10, ATL, and HOU. I know Zach Wilson was bad, but I don't know how much better Rodgers is going to be on a new team. In order to get Rodgers, the Jets are going to have to give up some draft capital which is going to hurt them when they need players after Rodgers ultimately retires to his dark space after this season. GB is screwed this year, they are going to eat $40M in dead cap with very little cap to resign players or sign anyone of value. So they are going to be at best the same team as last year, which is their ceiling. Then in 2024, that is Love's 5th year option year, so if they don't have the roster built properly, they are basically hosed in 2025 when they have to shed $40M+ to keep Love (if he is the guy). If Love is not the guy, the Packers can start the QB carousel like the rest of the league has over the last 30 years.

Poles knows Brown. He still has quite a bit to spend unless he is saving for extensions for guys like Kmet and Mooney. Just interesting that Brown got less than McGlinchey and Taylor.

PJ Walker new backup QB? Much closer to Fields than Siemian.