adam

We will probably never know anything other than the result. Why wait until after free agency is this far along before making the trade? For me, Poles couldn't even get what the Steelers got for Pickett, and they are telling the Bears that they would rather have Fields over Pickett. Very odd timing on this, and the team is left empty handed in this year's draft. The entire time, it was get an extra pick or two back with the Fields trade. My fear is that they are going to trade back out from #1 to recoup trade value now, it would be so Bears to do so.

It was almost a guarantee once Poles spoke at the combine, I think he made a mistake there. The Jaguars got a 6th in the current year's draft and a conditional pick in the following year's draft for Gabbert. There are a ton of trades for bad QBs with less potential than Fields that got more. Here is one kicker, the Steelers won't pick up the option, then can decide on which QB to go with next season, as both Wilson and Fields will be UFAs. Guess what they get if the QBs sign elsewhere? A comp pick. With QB salaries naturally higher, even backups command a 3rd or 4th round comp pick level. The compensation is shocking.

What pisses me off is the Steelers have no fleeced Poles twice. After the Claypool trade, I would've blacklisted them from that point on.

What it comes down to is their own internal evaluation of Justin. If they didn't think he could improve enough to pay him, and based on the compensation, 31 other teams felt the same way, then what can Poles do? There would've been way too much drama in the locker room and with the fanbase, so this is an unfortunate set of circumstances.

My assumption is Poles made sure he went to a good franchise and didn't care about the value in return, ie, doing good by Justin, but he clearly did not do the second part of that statement and do what's best for the franchise. No way do you get less than what SF got for Trey Lance. That's embarrassing. Also, this is obviously a 2025 pick and no way he plays 51% of the snaps to make it a 4th, so this has a current year 7th round value on the trade.

DE depth piece, probably filling Green's role. Can't be as bad as Green was when he was in there.

ouch! He is slightly overrated. He had a stacked team with Allen, Williams, Johnston, Palmer, Ekeler, Kelley, Everett, and Parham and only had 3,134 passing yards and 20 TDs.

Just for fun, here is the Bears best group of skill position players for the Bears in the last 20+ years, and how they did in 2013, their best year together: 2013 Bears Offense Alshon 89-1421-7 Marshall 100-1295-12 M Bennett 65-759-5 Forte 74-594-3 E Bennett 32-243-4 Total 360-4312-31 ---------------- *No other player had more than 4 receptions on the team (they were extremely top heavy) Now compare that to the 2023 stats of the Bears current top 5 skill position players: Top 5 2023 Stats Moore 96-1364-8 Allen 108-1243-7 Kmet 73-719-6 Everett 51-411-3 Swift 39-214-1 Total 367-3951-25 --------------- Not only that, but the current roster has 3 more players that had 15+ receptions in 2023, so if include them: Roschon 34-209-0 Herbert 20-134-1 Scott 17-168-0 Total 438-4462-26 So the collective offense, as constructed today, has the potential for 4,400 passing yards and 25+ TDs. How about rushing? The trio of Swift, Herbert, and Roschon had 2,012 rushing yards last season with 9 TDs. In 2013, Forte+Bush had 1,536 rushing yards and 12 TDs. So this offense has the potential to match or exceed the 2013 team's offensive output with the same number of snaps. Forte, Swift and Herbert all averaged 4.6 YPC.

I did not realize Swift finished 5th in the NFL in rushing last year, only behind McCaffrey, Henry, Williams, and Cook. I honestly had no clue he finished that high. He had more rushing yards than Herbert and Foreman combined, lol. I think he is an under-rated signing.

For anyone worried about Allen's age, which is a minor concern. Players 32 or older have hit 70-900 55 times since 2000. So there is an average of 2 players 32 or older hitting those totals every season. The last guys to do it were Thielen, Edelman, Fitzgerald, Smith, Boldin, Johnson, and Roddy White. The one thing that age doesn't account for is games played. People talk about mileage on RBs, but it is the same for any position. Allen missed some time early in his career, so he only has appeared in 139 games. So of the players with 10K receiving yards since 2000, Allen has the 4th fewest games out of 26. Davante has 150g, Evans 154g, Julio 166g, Steve Smith had 219g, and Fitzgerald had 263g (which is insane). So it is likely that the Bears can get 2-3 good years out of Allen if they want to, without it being much more of a risk than his last season in LA. Also, a fun fact, who do you think is taller Davante or Keenan? I was surprised to find out that Allen is an inch taller.

Dante Pettis back in the fold, that should fulfill the WR/PR spot that Taylor had. That leaves 5 roster vacancies from last year remaining: 1. DT - Jones (49.3/740) > Poona Ford or DJ Reader 2. DE - Ngakoue (39.9/592)> Chase Young 3. DE - Green (50.6/385) > Shaw Lawson or Solomon Thomas 4. TE - Lewis (77.1/330) > Adam Trautman or Josiah Deguara 5. WR - St. Brown (55.1/211) > Tyler Boyd or Josh Reynolds or KJ Osborn

Steelers swap a 4th to get a 3rd and 2x 7ths for Pickett. According to trade value chart, the equivalent to an early 4th rounder in total for Pickett. For Fields, he isn't available, the price is too high, or no one wants him. I guess this puts Pittsburgh back in play as Wilson's backup. RW is 35. If Fields doesn't play much an extension wouldn't be in the $50M range.

He is working out, looks like he added some muscle.

Keenan Allen only trails Davante Adams for most receptions since 2017. Allen and DJ Moore are 2 out of 9 players to have over 400 receptions and 5,000 receiving yards since 2019. The group include Adams, Diggs, Kelce, Hill, Kupp, Godwin, and Lockett. Justin Jefferson is widely considered the best WR in the NFL. Since he entered the NFL in 2020, Jefferson has 392 receptions. Since 2020, Keenan Allen has 380.

That's how much the roster has improved in 2 years.

Yep, Greg Gabriel lost Cliff Stein, and it's clear the insiders connections are no longer there or connected to people spilling the beans on social media.

If Scott and Dexter both improve, then the only real "hole" would be Edge2 from the key starters.

Starting 22: QB - Fields or Williams RB - Swift WR - Moore TE - Kmet OT - Jones OG - Jenkins OC - Shelton RG - Davis RT - Wright TE - Everett or WR3 - Scott WR - Allen DE - Sweat DT - Billings DT - Dexter DE - Walker LB - Edmunds LB - Edwards CB - Johnson CB - Stevenson CB - Gordon FS - Byard SS - Brisker So the worst players in these 22 are Scott on offense, and probably Walker and Dexter on defense. So WR3, Edge2, and DT are really the only spots where an upgrade is likely.

1. DT - Jones (49.3/740) > Poona Ford or DJ Reader 2. DE - Ngakoue (39.9/592)> Chase Young 3. DE - Green (50.6/385) > Shaw Lawson or Solomon Thomas 4. TE - Lewis (77.1/330) > Adam Trautman or Josiah Deguara 5. WR - St. Brown (55.1/211) > Tyler Boyd or Josh Reynolds or KJ Osborn 6. WR/PR - Taylor (51.8/121) > Braxton Berrios or Nick Westbrook-Ikhine So far Poles has basically doubled the production from the same amount of roster spots. That is how you upgrade the team.

Once they replace Ngakoue and Jones on the D-Line, they are basically done with any signings above vet minimums. I would say this is a high B or low A like PFF. I like how the contracts worked out. I hope they can extend Allen for a few years to lower the cap hit this year.

From last season, the Bears lost this much production from their passing game (Mooney, Tonyan, Foreman): 53-603-2 This is what they gained from adding Allen, Everett, and Swift: 198-1868-11 That is such a massive jump in production it would make the Bears have a 4500 yard passer with the difference (145-1265-9) added to last year's passing totals. For rushing totals, they go from: 109-425-4 to 229-1049-5. So 120-624-1 difference there as well. Adding over 2K yards of offense and 10 TDs cannot be understated.

This feels like a now move, and his contract lines up more with Fields than Williams. It's a free pick so this is low risk to me. Allen was a WR1 but is a WR2 now. They will draft one early and have a high end top 3. The Bears now have the #9 and #11 WRs according to PFF, 2nd best duo to Hill and Waddle.

I don't know if Poles is going off my list, but he has been clearing off the top of the list at a pretty consistent rate. If he keeps it up, a WR (1,096 total snaps needed), DE (977), or DT (740) should be next: 1. WR - Mooney (55.2/764) > Curtis Samuel or Cedric Wilson 2. DT - Jones (49.3/740) > Poona Ford or DJ Reader 3. DE - Ngakoue (39.9/592)> DJ Wonnum or Chase Young 4. DE - Green (50.6/385) > Shaw Lawson or Solomon Thomas 5. TE - Lewis (77.1/330) > Adam Trautman or Josiah Deguara 6. WR - St. Brown (55.1/211) > Tyler Boyd or Josh Reynolds or KJ Osborn 7. WR/PR - Taylor (51.8/121) > Braxton Berrios or Nick Westbrook-Ikhine

1. G/C - Patrick (50.5/953) > Coleman Shelton (64.5/1113) 2. C/G - Whitehair (45.0/787) > Jake Curhan (55.7/296) 3. WR - Mooney (55.2/764) > Curtis Samuel or Cedric Wilson 4. DT - Jones (49.3/740) > Poona Ford or DJ Reader 5. DE - Ngakoue (39.9/592)> DJ Wonnum or Chase Young 6. DE - Green (50.6/385) > Shaw Lawson or Solomon Thomas 7. TE - Lewis (77.1/330) > Adam Trautman or Josiah Deguara 8. WR - St. Brown (55.1/211) > Tyler Boyd or Josh Reynolds or KJ Osborn 9. WR/PR - Taylor (51.8/121) > Braxton Berrios or Nick Westbrook-Ikhine Not really a positional replacement, but Curhan fills in as a Swing Tackle competing with Borom and Collins I assume.

Jake Curhan come on down. More O-Line depth for Waldron. Played most of his snaps at RT.