adam

The #Bears are giving edge Dayo Odeyingbo a 3-year deal worth $48M, $16M per year.

Garrett got $40M per year, but somehow that can total $204M over 4 years.

Thuney's cap hit is $16M, Jackson's is $11.8M, assuming Dalman's is $14Mish and Wright is $5.7M with Jones at $3.7M, the total OLine investment is almost $52M. It's about time.

I would not mind if they brought Pryor back as a backup. He was solid too.

Thuney was literally the top OG and Dalman the top OC available via any means. Jackson has huge potential under Johnson. This is the first time since the Olin Kruetz days that the Bears actually have a legit Oline.

The worst player on the line is Jones, who is solid. Still have Bates as a backup.

Oh wow, Im shocked.

This is updating: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/44012706/2025-nfl-free-agency-tracker-live-updates-signings-trades-cuts-contracts

Mack back to LAC:

2 hours until we should start getting alerts from the usual suspects on social media. Last year Swift's deal was announced exactly at 11am. So I assume the Bears first deal will come in that initial madness. With 2x larger deals handed out to Thuney and Jackson already, they may go for a lesser Center upgrade than Dalman. From a money allocation standpoint, I think they may go Edge and DT with the last "bigger" deal. Then address the other positions of need in the 2nd wave.

One concern for Dalman is reps, he missed 8 games last season with an ankle injury. He also has a better Run Block Grade than his Pass Block Grade for what it is worth. Can he anchor against huge DTs at 300 lbs? If they do sign him, I just hope it is not to top money for the position.

A bunch of DTs and Edge getting released. It will be interesting to see what Poles does in the early wave. Based on recent FA periods, we will know a few of the guys tomorrow by lunch. We knew about Swift at around 11am last March 11th.

Another reason not to use PFF in a vacuum. I just thought it was interesting.

Work travel season, on the road a few weeks, back for one, rinse, repeat.

If they go Center in FA, they are not paying top tier money. So I think Dalman is out, but someone like Josh Meyers (GB) or Evan Brown (ARZ) may be who they target. An upgrade over Shelton but not a huge one.

I know most people hate PFF, but it is another data point. Surprisingly, Pryor had a better grades than Jackson last season, even when he was in DET. Pryor graded out at 69.9 and 78.1 in Pass Pro. Jackson's overall season grades have been 67.6 with the Rams, and 61.0, 66.1, 69.3, and 57.0 with the Lions. Looking at his grades, he seems more of a road grader and is better at run blocking than pass blocking. So it will be interesting to see what they do with him. A 6th is nothing, but his cap hit is. Is he playing Center like he did for the Rams or back to Guard?

With Smith off the board, I figure Dalman and Zeitler are probably two of the top targets as well as an Edge or DT. It will be nice to get free agency underway and see the 2025 team take shape. We have been let down before, but Ben Johnson and this staff feel different. For the first time since the 80s, we have a franchise QB, a legit coaching staff, a proven playcaller, a solid core, a ton of cap, and some great draft picks.

Yeah, I would rather use that pick than one of the first 4 on a RB.

Everyone has their peak, it is ok if Bieniemy's is a position coach. He comes in with OC experience, Allen comes in with HC and DC experience, so overall this is probably the best coaching staff the Bears have ever had from top to bottom if you include Harris, Randle El, and Hightower. I really think this team is going to surprise next season. I am not going to get all hyped like I did last season, but a 10-win team is not that crazy if you consider they should've been an 8-win team this year (3 Flus losses). Johnson is easily worth 2-3 wins from Flus/Waldron/Brown. The leap in coaching, scheme, playcalling is almost hard to quantify.

Arthur Smith left TEN, and made the 16th scoring offense into the 26th scoring offense in ATL. So this looks to be very situational. He got a dying Matt Ryan, then Mariota, then Ridder as his 3x QBs. He has never replicated his offense in TEN again. McDaniels left NE and made the Raiders jump from 18th to 12th on offense. Shottenheimer left SEA in 2020, then didn't OC or HC until 2023 where DAL ended up with the #1 offense, up from 4th the year before, so a slight improvement. Carmichael left the Saints and in 2024 was on the DEN staff but not as OC. DEN did improve from 19th to 10th. VanPelt left CLE and joined NE where he made the 31st offense slip up one to 30th. So no big change there. So only Arthur Smith left as an OC and didn't improve his next team as an HC or OC.

So I looked back 5 years at the top 10 scoring offenses. I found 5 teams that lost/fired their OC after a season where they finished in the top 10 in scoring. Every one of them dropped out of the top 10 the following season with a new OC: TEN 2020-2021, 4th > 15th (lost A. Smith) SEA 2020-2021, 8th > 15th (lost Shottenheimer - gained Waldron lol) NE 2021-2022, 6th > 17th (lost McDaniels) NO 2023-2024, 9th > 24th (lost Kubiak) CLE 2023-2024, 10th > 32nd (lost VanPelt) My next one is to see how the top 10 OC faired on his new team (if he had one).

The OC/Playcaller will dictate the scheme and plays. So it is up to Morton, and I don't know if I have ever seen a new OC come in and adopt someone else's playbook. Before Johnson, the offense was 25th, in his first year they jumped to 5th with basically the same players. In the two seasons before Johnson, Goff averaged 3500 passing yards, with Johnson? Over 4,500. He went from 20 TDs per year to 32. A massive jump. That will likely come down. Also remember Goff has had McVay, Lynn for his first year in DET (his worst), then Johnson. Morton is no McVay or Johnson, so Goff having a year closer to 2021 is more likely than him having another 4600 yard season.

Yeah, that was it. When was the last time you can remember a team losing their OC/Playcaller and DC/Playcaller and follow that up with a great year?

It takes a good play caller, look at what Waldron did to the Bears and Seahawks. It was like a trail of tears. Morton comes in as a failed OC and hasn't called plays in the NFL in 8 years (2017). I honestly don't think he will last and DET will end up with the rotating OCs like Lovie had. The speculation was they would promote from within, and that did not happen.