adam

OT for $16M AAV. Great signing for Cincy.

Since Poles took over, this is what he has done to address the trenches with substantial resources (over $5M AAV or a draft pick in the first 3 rounds): OL: Nate Davis - 2023 FA ($10M AAV) No draft pick in the first 3 rounds DL: Justin Jones - 2022 FA ($6M AAV) DeMarcus Walker - 2023 FA ($7M AAV) No draft pick in the first 3 rounds He has 4 picks in the top 3 rounds, and it would seem like at least 3 need to go to the OL/DL. Thoughts?

that's a funny one.

If he was worth way more than $6M, he would not have signed with Detroit for only $6M. That was his market and may have been the highest bidder. He is a workhorse, but not dynamic enough. Clearly Poles wanted an upgrade there, otherwise Monty would've been signed. The Bears had the money. There are a lot of things to consider. Performance and longevity. RBs do not last long in this league. How do you feel about Jordan Howard? He had a 4.3 YPC when the Bears traded him after 2018, then ultimately drafted Monty that year to replace him. Howard spent 1 1/2 years with Philly then got traded to Miami. Signed back with Philly in his 6th year, then went to NO in his 7th year (age 28), had 1 rush for 1 yard and hasn't played since. He left the Bears with 3370 rushing yards and cumulatively did not hit 1000 yards over his next 4 seasons combined.

Dallas is cutting Elliott, wow.

Edmunds with Edwards with Sanborn is such a solid LB corps. They compliment each other very well and are going to make each other better. They can all play the Mike too, which allows them to easily rotate guys in and out to keep them fresh.

Me too lol, I am like 0 for 20. I was not expecting Denver to be so busy in free agency, but I guess they need to get all they can out of Wilson and those WRs.

Though he got some tough yards, he was a terribly inefficient RB. A career 3.9 YPC, which annually put him between 30th-40th for RBs. Great person, teammate, etc, but just not someone you would want to invest in due to where the Bears are at in team building. I never understand his head juke thing he did EVERYTIME he got the ball outside of the tackles. It looked almost like a nervous tick, and more than half of the time it allowed the defender to close on him, compared to if he just hit the hole or when north and south immediately. Now he joins Swift up in Detroit, so I don't know if he will see as many touches there than he did in Chicago as the lead back. That will be something to watch.

McGary gone, but Seumalo still available.

So the top FAs left: 1. Orlando Brown, OT 2. Isaac Seumalo, OG 3. Dalton Schultz, TE 4. Rock Ya-Sin, CB 5. Byron Murphy, CB 6. Arden Key, DE/Edge 7. Yannick Ngakoue, DE 8. Will Hernandez, OG 9. Miles Sanders, RB 10. David Montgomery, RB 11. Dalton Risner, OG 12. Chris Wormley, DL 13. Charles Murphy-Bunting, CB 14. Charles Omenihu, DE 15. Mike Gesicki, TE 16. Matthew Ioannididis, DL 17. Greg Gaines, DT 18. Poona Ford, DL 19. Hayden Hurst, TE 20. Sheldon Rankins, DT Honorable Mentions: Jamaal Williams, RB; A'Shawn Robinson, DT, Samson Ebukam, DE

Skoronski, AA, several names from NW I could see.

McGary signs back with ATL:

Panthers have their QB1

Ogunjobi goes back to PIT, 3/28.75M Gilmore traded from IND to DAL. Feels like Indy is going into full tank mode. They signed a kicker to a huge deal though. How is Ballard not fired yet?

Brendel and Bradbury are signed for the Center market. Waller traded to the Giants for a 3rd rounder (so essentially they traded Toney for Waller). Waller was really good in 2020, but had 28-388yds in 2022 in 9 games. He goes from Carr to Jones. So for QB play, about equal, maybe slightly worse from a passing perspective.

If the Bears are done, so is the rest of the league. If the Bears have the most cap space, and still need to get to the "floor" they still need to sign at least 2 more higher end guys.

I still think we are have at least 2 of the top 50 FAs left to sign and probably a 3rd one that is mid-tier, all in the trenches.

McGary is still out there for RT, Isaac Seumalo, OG, and even Orlando Brown for OT. If they want to go C, then Brendel and Bradbury are still available. Arden Key for Edge/DE, Ngakoue is still there at DE. Edge feels like a huge need, but fairly weak. Another name we know, Larry Ogunjobi, is still out there for DT. Would Poles go back there? For other IDL, Poona Ford, Sheldon Rankins, Greg Gaines, and Ioannidis are all still there and under 30. If there are still looking at RB or TE. David Montgomery and Miles Sanders are available for RB, Dalton Schultz, Austin Hooper at TE. I still think they go for at least one more OL, and 2 more DL in the pre-draft FA period.

Subtract $5M for rookie pool, which puts it at about $45M. $7M for Walker, makes $38M. I know they like to have some left for late free agent window signings and in-season spending, so I would assume that is close to $10M, leaving $28M. Then, like you said, they still have some room for other contracts. They can renegotiate Jackson's and shave off $3M. Cutting Whitehair saves $5.8M, but you create another hole. I assume they will renegotiate his to get it down a couple of million as well. Vildor would be a straight up cut saving $2.7M, so those 3 could save $8M, pushing the available cap to $35M again very easily. The best part is the Bears still have the highest available cap space after all those moves, $6M more than ATL and $17M more than the 3rd team (ARZ). So they are not done, I still think they get 2x more on the DL and another on the OL. They have double the cap space than 26 teams.

Bears Twitter is something else. People saying why not just keep Roquan? He didn't like the contract offered. The Bears got a 2nd round pick AND Edmunds for less than him. Edmunds is a year younger and may actually end up being as good as or better than Roquan in this scheme. They also committed less guaranteed money for less of a term.

Could also mean Whitehair sliding back in to Center? Seems like a lot of options, but Jenkins health is a question mark.

Over $7M AAV for 2 years.

Some Edge help.

They said Edmunds contract was front loaded. Davis at $10M a year, Edwards cap hit is $5M this year, so that is probably $35M total (estimated). OTC shows $71M before Davis and Edmunds, figure they are $30M, leaving $41M left or $36M in effective cap. I think Poles will leave about $10-15M for late free agency, so they still have $15-20M left considering the rookie pool too.