Bears pursuing Holt

[Ed Hochuli 3:16]

I was watching NFL Total Access earlier and they said the Tribune reported it.

 

Still looking around for a link anywhere.

 

 

Thoughts?

[madlithuanian]

Definitely happy thoughts!

 

I was watching NFL Total Access earlier and they said the Tribune reported it.

 

Still looking around for a link anywhere.

 

 

Thoughts?

[DrunkBomber]

I would be a fan

[DABEARSDABOMB]

This would be a fabulous freakin move.

[Ed Hochuli 3:16]

Agreed. Then we could go Robiskie or Barden in the 3rd.

[bowlingtwig]

I was watching NFL Total Access earlier and they said the Tribune reported it.

 

Still looking around for a link anywhere.

 

 

Thoughts?

 

 

Hey guys I don't think I would read to much into this. I deliver the Tribune and I didn't see anything in there. I checked several rumor sights as well as chicagotribune.com and I haven't found anything to confirm this.

[balta1701-A]

Hey guys I don't think I would read to much into this. I deliver the Tribune and I didn't see anything in there. I checked several rumor sights as well as chicagotribune.com and I haven't found anything to confirm this.

The Bears would be foolish to not have their hands in going after every WR on the market.

[bradjock]

It sounds bogus. Holt is still under contract with the Rams. What motivation do they have to dump or trade one of their most popular players who is still very productive? They only reason they'd dump him is because they have a huge roster bonus due.

 

If they do owe him a huge roster bonus and we trade for him, then it becomes our roster bonus. Plus whatever we gave up.

 

If they cut him, we'd be smart to pursue him. But there's no way in hell we trade for him. Which means at this point there is nothing to this story.

 

I was watching NFL Total Access earlier and they said the Tribune reported it.

 

Still looking around for a link anywhere.

 

 

Thoughts?

[AZ54]

I agree we'll probably be rumored going after every single WR available in FA or trade. Especially now that we cut ties with Booker (6 months too late IMO).

[BearSox]

It sounds bogus. Holt is still under contract with the Rams. What motivation do they have to dump or trade one of their most popular players who is still very productive? They only reason they'd dump him is because they have a huge roster bonus due.

 

If they do owe him a huge roster bonus and we trade for him, then it becomes our roster bonus. Plus whatever we gave up.

 

If they cut him, we'd be smart to pursue him. But there's no way in hell we trade for him. Which means at this point there is nothing to this story.

 

I don't know if you've heard or not, but Holt and Pace are all but done in St. Louis.

[chwtom]

Holt seems like he might be almost done. I like him better in a pass-happy dome team that is close to complete, like Arizona or New Orleans. I don't think an again, downside of his career, banged up WR fits in to a rebuilding, cold-weather team. Don't get me wrong we need all the help we can get, but I'd rather they put money into younger players who can help for more than a year or so.

[bradjock]

I don't know if you've heard or not, but Holt and Pace are all but done in St. Louis.

 

After the past two seasons Pace has had, he might be done period. If a guy hasn't really played in two years, and he's getting up there in age, it's tough to get excited about him.

 

As for Holt, I've heard the speculation he might be cut, but that's far from a done deal. Have you heard rumors other then, "The Rams could save money by dumping Holt"?

[Wesson44]

Bottom line here is we cut Moose and Booker, Holt lie the other two are good players but they are just now too old for our team. We need speed guys on the outside and they can't do that anymore. We have too many slot players, Davis, Bennett, Hester, we need the outside catch everything, go deep guy like Moss, Fitzgerald etc

[bradjock]

Bottom line here is we cut Moose and Booker, Holt lie the other two are good players but they are just now too old for our team. We need speed guys on the outside and they can't do that anymore. We have too many slot players, Davis, Bennett, Hester, we need the outside catch everything, go deep guy like Moss, Fitzgerald etc

 

Aren't you over-simplifying things? By saying we need guys like Moss & Fitz, you're saying we need one of the best WR's in the NFL. That's one helluva a lot easier said then done.

 

And any rookie we bring in is likely to suck his first year.

 

I'm assuming we'll draft a WR fairly early. We'll still need to add at least one more. Nobody things we'll make a run at Housh, Boldin, or any other top-tier WR. That pretty much leaves Washington from Pittsburgh, who I don't know anything about, or a guy like Brandon Lloyd.

 

I'm assuming we won't draft two WR to bring in with the mix of Hester, Bennett, Davis, and soon to be drafted rookie.

 

I'm just how the hell are we going to fix this if we're not willing to break the bank?

[Pixote]

Aren't you over-simplifying things? By saying we need guys like Moss & Fitz, you're saying we need one of the best WR's in the NFL. That's one helluva a lot easier said then done.

 

And any rookie we bring in is likely to suck his first year.

 

I'm assuming we'll draft a WR fairly early. We'll still need to add at least one more. Nobody things we'll make a run at Housh, Boldin, or any other top-tier WR. That pretty much leaves Washington from Pittsburgh, who I don't know anything about, or a guy like Brandon Lloyd.

 

I'm assuming we won't draft two WR to bring in with the mix of Hester, Bennett, Davis, and soon to be drafted rookie.

 

I'm just how the hell are we going to fix this if we're not willing to break the bank?

 

I like Nate Washington from PIT.

 

I also would not mind taking a look at Devery Henderson from NOS or Jabar Gaffney from NEP. Heck, even Shaun McDonald from DET might be an improvement over some WRs we have.

 

Hopefully Hester can continue to develop, Bennett gets up to speed, and we draft a WR high in the draft.

 

I sincerely hope they give Rideau a shot. I am still disappointed they let Haas be snagged from the PS.

 

I love TJH but I would rather see us use the $$$ in FA for OL, S, DE, or CB.

[jason]

Agreed. Then we could go Robiskie or Barden in the 3rd.

 

So, you think the Bears should have...

Hester

Davis

Bennett

Holt

AND Robiskie or Barden

 

I just don't think that much is necessary. Who starts? We have to assume that Hester starts. And if Holt is picked up, then he starts. So, what you're saying is, we just throw away the Bennett pick...not to mention probably throwing away the Robiskie/Barden pick.

[Pixote]

So, you think the Bears should have...

Hester

Davis

Bennett

Holt

AND Robiskie or Barden

 

I just don't think that much is necessary. Who starts? We have to assume that Hester starts. And if Holt is picked up, then he starts. So, what you're saying is, we just throw away the Bennett pick...not to mention probably throwing away the Robiskie/Barden pick.

 

Depth at WR? Insurance against injury? Rookie WRs in most cases take 2-3 years to develop.

[bradjock]

So, you think the Bears should have...

Hester

Davis

Bennett

Holt

AND Robiskie or Barden

 

I just don't think that much is necessary. Who starts? We have to assume that Hester starts. And if Holt is picked up, then he starts. So, what you're saying is, we just throw away the Bennett pick...not to mention probably throwing away the Robiskie/Barden pick.

 

I'd be completely in favor of these five:

Hester--He needs to see more of a reduced role on offense. As we saw this year, when he's on the field for every offensive snap, his returns suffer.

Davis--Needs to go back to being a special teams player & back-up.

Bennett--Can he play? While I don't want to throw the pick away, I also don't want to see the job handed to him because he's a 3rd round pick.

Holt--IMO, he stays with the Rams. But if he were here, yes he should start.

Robiskie or Barden--I'm going to assume that any rookie we draft will get the "Bennett" treatment. So this draft pick would be more for the future then this season. Especially IF we had an aging Holt on our roster.

 

To me, this is what an NFL group of WR's is supposed to look like.

[defiantgiant]

I'd be completely in favor of these five:

Hester--He needs to see more of a reduced role on offense. As we saw this year, when he's on the field for every offensive snap, his returns suffer.

Davis--Needs to go back to being a special teams player & back-up.

Bennett--Can he play? While I don't want to throw the pick away, I also don't want to see the job handed to him because he's a 3rd round pick.

Holt--IMO, he stays with the Rams. But if he were here, yes he should start.

Robiskie or Barden--I'm going to assume that any rookie we draft will get the "Bennett" treatment. So this draft pick would be more for the future then this season. Especially IF we had an aging Holt on our roster.

 

To me, this is what an NFL group of WR's is supposed to look like.

 

Yeah, I agree with that, for the most part. Rashied Davis isn't a starting-caliber wideout. He's good on special teams, so we should keep him for that, but he needs to be 4 or 5 on the depth chart.

 

I'd love to see Hester and Holt starting on the outside, with Bennett in the slot. Then have Rideau, Davis, and a draft pick (in no particular order) as the 4, 5, and 6. I think we should probably keep six receivers next season, since there's really no proven player at the position.

 

Holt would be an upgrade as a #2 receiver, and he'd allow Bennett to learn for another year or two (while still contributing as a slot receiver) before moving into the #2 spot. Then either Rideau or our draft pick would (ideally) be able to move up to #3 on the depth chart. We need to build a receiver corps through the draft, it's true, but we also need a 1-2 year stopgap. Holt could definitely be that.

 

EDIT: If anyone's still wondering whether this is a legit possibility, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the Rams were shopping Holt and Orlando Pace at the Senior Bowl. They were only asking for a third-rounder, according to the report.

 

I think Holt still has some gas in the tank, the Rams just didn't throw to him nearly as much this season. When he was targeted, his production was pretty close to 2005 and 2007, albeit not quite at those levels. He got 148 targets in 2007, and made 93 catches for 1189 yards, for 12.8 yards per catch. If you factor in the number of times he was targeted, he caught 62.8% of the passes that went his way and the Rams averaged about 8.03 yards for every time they threw in his direction. In 2005, it was 163 targets, and he caught 102 for 1331 yards. That's a 62.6% catch rate and an 8.16-yard average per pass attempted to him.

 

There's kind of an outlier year in 2006: Holt's catch rate dropped to 52% and his yards-per-target went down to 6.65. However, that's probably because he got a massive number of targets (179) and it's hard to produce at the same level when you're the focal point of the passing game to that extent. Only two receivers came close to that number in '08, Brandon Marshall (182 targets) and Andre Johnson (170).

 

In 2008, though, he got just 109 targets, of which he caught 64 for 796 yards. That's almost a 59% catch rate and 12.4 YPC. He dropped off a fairly small, but significant, amount if you put it in terms of production-per-target: in 2007, the Rams averaged 8.03 yards every time they threw at Holt. In 2008, they averaged 7.3 yards throwing his way.

 

So he's not producing quite like he used to, but he's close. Now compare that to Marty Booker. In 2008, Booker was targeted 49 times and made 14 catches for 211 yards. That's a higher YPC (15.1) but an abysmal 28.5% catch rate, and an average of 4.3 yards gained by throwing to him. In fact, nobody on the Bears' roster this season was better than Holt in terms of production-per-target or catch rate. Devin Hester caught 52 of 92 (56.5%) for 665 yards - an average gain per target of 7.23. Lloyd caught 26 of 50 (52%) for 364 yards - averaging 7.28 per target. Rashied Davis caught 35 of 67 (52.2%) for 445 yards - averaging 6.64 yards per target.

 

Factor in that Orton played better than Marc Bulger did this past season, and it's not crazy to think that Holt would do at least as well in Chicago as he did in St. Louis. Statistically, Holt would be a massive upgrade over Booker and a moderate upgrade over Davis, too. Given that Booker and Davis had 18 starts between them in 2008, I'd say that replacing them with Holt should have a significant impact on the passing game.

[nfoligno]

I would MUCH rather the problem of too many potential starters, rather than what we dealt w/ this past year choosing the best of a weak bunch.

 

The thing w/ Holt is, he is not a long term solution (which means young WRs like Bennett and a new rookie) would not be destroyed for the future) and he is not going to be a ton of money, as players like Boldin, TJ, etc would.

 

Honestly, I know it is all about the OL for you, but I do not see why you can not upgrade other areas. We drafted Bennett last year, and while I am NOT going to write him off, why should we at the same time not have backup plans in the works. Do you trust Angelo's drafting of WRs so much that you expect everyone to become starters, and quickly?

 

Yea, Hester and Holt are the likely starters. Davis should not even be a factor. In a group w/ talent, Davis goes back to where he belongs (special teams). That means you have a slot opening, and a 4th WR role for the rookie. #3 and #4 WRs can get plenty of playing time, so there is no reason to say we are giving up on either.

 

So, you think the Bears should have...

Hester

Davis

Bennett

Holt

AND Robiskie or Barden

 

I just don't think that much is necessary. Who starts? We have to assume that Hester starts. And if Holt is picked up, then he starts. So, what you're saying is, we just throw away the Bennett pick...not to mention probably throwing away the Robiskie/Barden pick.

[BigDaddy]

I would MUCH rather the problem of too many potential starters, rather than what we dealt w/ this past year choosing the best of a weak bunch.

 

The thing w/ Holt is, he is not a long term solution (which means young WRs like Bennett and a new rookie) would not be destroyed for the future) and he is not going to be a ton of money, as players like Boldin, TJ, etc would.

 

Honestly, I know it is all about the OL for you, but I do not see why you can not upgrade other areas. We drafted Bennett last year, and while I am NOT going to write him off, why should we at the same time not have backup plans in the works. Do you trust Angelo's drafting of WRs so much that you expect everyone to become starters, and quickly?

 

Yea, Hester and Holt are the likely starters. Davis should not even be a factor. In a group w/ talent, Davis goes back to where he belongs (special teams). That means you have a slot opening, and a 4th WR role for the rookie. #3 and #4 WRs can get plenty of playing time, so there is no reason to say we are giving up on either.

 

I don't believe that Angelo and Smith have the luxury of thinking long term for a WR. They need help next year to save their jobs. Besides, this coaching staff has not proven capable of developing a young WR so we need a proven commodity who can help us the next 1-2 years and if we get someone like a Bennett who miraculously sees the field and actually produces, that's just a bonus. Davis will be a solid ST player but I can't see him doing anything at the WR position. Besides, I sincerely hope that Turner will make a 2 TE set a staple of this offense and MAYBE evn look at a 3 TE set. I think we have the personnel to make it work. BTW, I'm also a offensive and defensive line guy. I want us solid there ASAP. We need a big name RT and DE. Those guys need to come from FA. The good news is, I think JA knows he's on the clock as does Smith and they know that they need a stellar off season.