adam

Bates' contract is great for the Bears. Two years, at $4M per year with zero dead money. Virtually zero risk outside of losing the 5th Round pick. Bears still have the 4th most cap space at $75M after this move. If they trade Fields, they gain back $3.2M, almost the entire Bates cap hit.

Now Denver needs a QB though. So there are the same amount of teams needing a QB. Wherever Wilson goes won't need a QB, but now Denver does. So it cancels itself out.

With so few picks, and the likely haul for #1, it seems that trading #1 has gained some steam by this trade. Going from 6 picks to 5, with 1 going to a QB would make this a pretty thin draft class. I know they can trade #9, but they need a trade partner, and it would seem like the only option would be a team wanting to move up for a QB.

Looks like a Patrick replacement. Can play both Guard and Center.

They were trying to sign him last off-season but he went back to Buffalo. For a 2024 5th rounder. Poles is going to have to trade down, down to 5 picks in the draft.

Absolutely. However, there feels like an element of strategy here, and Williams may have been in on it. There is a chance the Bears already told Williams they are selecting him, thus the reason why he was so relaxed at the combine. The Bears could've even told him not to do it to prevent injury. For the medicals and visit, if they schedule it early, like everyone suspected they wanted to, doesn't that show more proof that they are leaning towards him than any other option in the draft? Why make it that obvious? Everything has felt sort of artificial. The first we hear about Williams official visit to the Bears is the day before the proposed visit. Then that gets postponed until after his pro day within an hour? So are the Bears really going to trade Fields before even getting medicals done on Williams? It's possible that they aren't trading Fields OR they are planning to select a different QB OR they believe there are not going to be medical issues (Williams has never missed a game). This just got hairy for a lot of QB needy teams. Poles controls the draft and to an extent free agency. The QB plan is integral to the overall roster. You can't just figure that out later.

How do we even know anything was scheduled? Like you said, if Breer is just giving his opinion, maybe he thought they were do a visit right after the combine since Williams was close by in Indy. Who know if anything was actually scheduled, because nothing came from the Bears. Normally their visits are announced.

Albert Breer is not a trusted source? He is probably one of the top 3 or 4 dudes. He doesn't post rumors.

Man those articles are confusing. The title says they are referencing Breer's article, but when you read it, it says traditionally players do their visits in that period AFTER the March 20th pro day, but Williams was scheduled to meet the Bears on Tuesday. The other article says "and Williams' early visit will only fuel that continued speculation"

Crazy to think of how many ESPN anchors and contributors have died in recent years. From Stuart Scott, to John Saunders, to John Clayton, and now Chris Mortensen. Very sad to see another great pass away. You know you are getting old when so many people are passing away in your life.

Stinger said he heard it on the SCORE? I only listened to the Biggs part, and he is sold on the Bears drafting Williams. He basically said with all the info leading up to today, he has never been more confident in a Bears draft selection. So posters pointed out that is makes sense because the Bears never had the #1 pick before since Biggs has been on the beat.

If this is true, against what Albert Breer just put out this morning, then there is no way they will draft him. Poles can't wait that long to make a decision. They still may draft a QB, but it won't be Williams.

Then we have some conflicting reports. Here is Biggs saying that they are drafting Williams on the SCORE this morning: https://t.co/Fd88KKPafk

Here is a good chunk of info from the MMQB and Albert Breer (might need to expand the quote). Seems like there is a lot of media-driven narrative about Williams. Similar to what Fields went thru about his work ethic (which was completely false). The more info that comes out, the more I get excited about the prospect of picking Williams #1, and this has nothing to do with how I feel about Fields.

Apparently this visit is scheduled for tomorrow. Normally visits don't happen until late March and/or early April, so this is considered "early". From Breer, it seems like the Bears will make a decision this week, and definitely ahead of the start of free agency. If the Bears were planning to trade Fields, they believe his value will decrease once free agency opens. https://www.si.com/nfl/2024/03/04/combine-takeaways-bears-plan-williams-draft-quarterback-fields The bottom line is, we should know this week what the Bears intentions are going forward. This will be a relief because ever since the #1 pick was locked up, there has been this discourse between Fields v Williams. I will be glad when that is over, regardless the route they go.

Lol, yeah, I have seen an Atlanta one, Pittsburgh one, and that Giants one.

Trade on horizon?

It is still a possibility, but highly unlikely. I would say it was 40/60 that he may come back when the season ended and has slowly shifted towards probably 20/80 or more. What is super wild is, what if the Bears won 2 of the games they blew leads in, say Detroit and Cleveland, finished 9-8, but missed the playoffs. At that point, they would then have a late-teens pick with the #1 pick. Would they keep Justin, even if he had the same exact stats, but the defense held up for one drive in each of those games? The outlook on his performance might be considerably different if they finished with a winning record. The fact that he went 5-8 and Bagent somehow pulled 2-2 out of his butt is pretty hard evidence towards the QB not being a big factor in the outcome of games.

There are only so many outcomes. Free Agency is impacted by Poles' decision. He has to know what route he is going because guys like Christian Wilkins and some others are not expected to be tagged, which is going to make the first few days of free agency pretty wild. Either way, I just want to know so I can update my mock drafts.

Warren Sharp posted this today. That is not the group of QBs you want to be in.

It feels like if Nabers or Odunze are not there at #9, the Bears will look to trade back and could possibly double down on WR in the first 3 rounds. It is a very deep group.

Every QB has things they do good and bad. What I do like about Williams is, he really works on his craft as a QB. He was on PFT PM Podcast talking to Florio and Simms and he was going over his grip position, his base, and that he continually hones his craft as a QB. He said he is continually working at things to improve on which is nice to hear. He might end up a bust, but I have rarely heard that kind of discussion for the big 1st round busts like Manziel and Russell. At this point, the discussion should shift to what the Bears are going to do at #9 and what type of compensation they are going to get for Fields. I honestly think they tried to keep Fields value up as long as they could but once teams got to meet with Williams, the charade was over. I could be totally wrong and they announce that they are trading the pick, but I would be absolutely shocked if they didn't pick Williams at #1.

Oh no, nothing is set in stone. The speculation about Fields' value is interesting. Just a few weeks ago people were talking about a 1st, now magically, with what seems like overnight, his value has dropped to a 3rd? Darnold got a 2nd, 4th, and a 6th. The 2nd and 4th were for the following year, so the draft value was equivalent to the 1st pick in the 3rd round of the current year's draft. I So it would shock me if Fields got less than that. If they only get a 3rd, then it will have to come with a 4th or next year's 3rd as well. Otherwise, the total comp would be less than what NY got for Darnold. I would rather just have a 2nd and be done with it, if that is the route they are going to go. A 2nd rounder is super valuable in this year's draft. The depth at key positions for the Bears is wild. I actually expect Poles to use one of his 2x 2nds from 2025 to do some movement this year. They could pair this year's 3rd and next year's 2nd to move into this year's 2nd round. If they don't trade down, they are going to have to do some wiggling to get back into the 2nd.

and that was from 7 years ago lol.