Roster Moves

[Mikefive]

Why would Kush get cut? Quality interior depth at that price is a bargain

That's what I thought when I saw the list too.

[BR0D1E86]

My ideal offseason at this point is cutting Glennon, Wheaton, Demps, Freeman and Young. I’d approach McPhee about restructuring his deal to pay him like a 15-20 play a game guy. If he won’t, I’d probably cut him.

Throw big money at Malcolm Butler and resign Prince if he’s reasonable. Throw big money at one of the best wide receivers.

Round 1 best pass rusher available. Round 2, either the best receiver or OL on the board.

And a competent head coach. All that, I think the Bears are not in bad shape.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bearsfaninaz]

I'd keep Young over McPhee personally.
Cut the rest on list.
Sign Fuller and Prince imo
Tender Meredith
Sign Inman
Try for Adams from Packers

Trade back in draft if any takers. Draft best olb cb rt and ilb available. Possibly a speedster wr in later rounds.

With new coaching staff (hopefully) coming in can assess the situation better.

[malk]

I find it fairly incredible that people aren't more concerned that we have $15.5m of 2018 cap space currently tied up in three players (Wheaton, Cooper, Demps) that are backups this year. Then there's $16m allocated to Glennon.

To cut those players will cost $7m of 2018 cap making dead money the 4th highest hit to our cap after Hicks, Long and Sitton.

In 2017 those players accounted for $28.5m of cap space. Throw in the $7m wasted on Amukamara's one year deal in a year we are winning nothing in and it's $35.5m.

Now no one knows what we offered AJ Bouye and Jeffery but I find it hard to believe that we couldn't have signed both of them with that amount of cap space. Maybe Jeffery wanted no part of staying but after going to the Jags I'm utterly confident that Bouye comes for 5 years $75m and probably less.

This is probably getting boring but Pace is pretty awful at free agency. Hicks, Sitton and Trevathan are the successes. McPhee was a worthwhile shot at risk/reward that hasn't quite panned out and Freeman was a great contract before the PED issues. The rest are mostly terrible bar for, Unrein?

Frittering away cap space on mid priced players on short term deals is a terrible improvement strategy. It has worked once for Pace with Hicks but even then he's now just on a market deal rather than a market beating one.

This isn't just about looking back and picking out the mistakes, it's about the poor strategy that makes the odds of success so small. It's by far and away my biggest worry about the bears right now.

[mmmc_35]

Good post Malk. Pace has not looked particularly adept in the Free agent market. This is painful because the Bears have been in great cap position those 3 years also.

My biggest fear, is he may not be good at drafting either. Obviously both these are to early to truly gauge but a case could be made that he is a bad GM. (I have not drawn that conclusion).

However if I where I would start with something like this.

First Draft
1.5 starters ( Goldman Amos)
2 likely to be out of the league, can't stay healthy, have not played well when they are,
2 already out of the league

Second Draft

3 starters 1 who regressed, 2 whom I fear injuries may keep their careers to 5 years

5 back ups, 2 who don't fit the system, 1 who has injury concerns, 3 of the group likely won't be on the team next year.

Third Draft

1 QB of the future completing 52% and is looking worse.
1 midget whom is being used wrong
1 Ogre who needs to develop
1 legit talent who will be broken in 4 years
1 Guard won will never be on the 53.

[Mikefive]

I find it fairly incredible that people aren't more concerned that we have $15.5m of 2018 cap space currently tied up in three players (Wheaton, Cooper, Demps) that are backups this year. Then there's $16m allocated to Glennon.

To cut those players will cost $7m of 2018 cap making dead money the 4th highest hit to our cap after Hicks, Long and Sitton.

In 2017 those players accounted for $28.5m of cap space. Throw in the $7m wasted on Amukamara's one year deal in a year we are winning nothing in and it's $35.5m.

Now no one knows what we offered AJ Bouye and Jeffery but I find it hard to believe that we couldn't have signed both of them with that amount of cap space. Maybe Jeffery wanted no part of staying but after going to the Jags I'm utterly confident that Bouye comes for 5 years $75m and probably less.

This is probably getting boring but Pace is pretty awful at free agency. Hicks, Sitton and Trevathan are the successes. McPhee was a worthwhile shot at risk/reward that hasn't quite panned out and Freeman was a great contract before the PED issues. The rest are mostly terrible bar for, Unrein?

Frittering away cap space on mid priced players on short term deals is a terrible improvement strategy. It has worked once for Pace with Hicks but even then he's now just on a market deal rather than a market beating one.

This isn't just about looking back and picking out the mistakes, it's about the poor strategy that makes the odds of success so small. It's by far and away my biggest worry about the bears right now.

You make some good points here, but you ignore others.

We were told by Pace that he offered the 2 top CBs more $$$ than they got signing with other teams. Are you saying he's lying? Is it inconceivable that another player would look at the 3-13 Bears and say "I'm not playing for them even if I have to take less $$$"?

What is your expectation on hitting on FAs as a percentage? And who else achieves that?

[Mikefive]

Good post Malk. Pace has not looked particularly adept in the Free agent market. This is painful because the Bears have been in great cap position those 3 years also.

My biggest fear, is he may not be good at drafting either. Obviously both these are to early to truly gauge but a case could be made that he is a bad GM. (I have not drawn that conclusion).

However if I where I would start with something like this.

First Draft
1.5 starters ( Goldman Amos)
2 likely to be out of the league, can't stay healthy, have not played well when they are,
2 already out of the league

Second Draft

3 starters 1 who regressed, 2 whom I fear injuries may keep their careers to 5 years

5 back ups, 2 who don't fit the system, 1 who has injury concerns, 3 of the group likely won't be on the team next year.

Third Draft

1 QB of the future completing 52% and is looking worse.
1 midget whom is being used wrong
1 Ogre who needs to develop
1 legit talent who will be broken in 4 years
1 Guard won will never be on the 53.

Don't you think you could offer a more balanced view than that? A R5 pick did make the Pro Bowl and was 2nd in the league in rushing after all and still in the top 20% this year. But which is the word for him? Regressed? C'mon man.

[Gaytoe]

Good post Malk. Pace has not looked particularly adept in the Free agent market. This is painful because the Bears have been in great cap position those 3 years also.

My biggest fear, is he may not be good at drafting either. Obviously both these are to early to truly gauge but a case could be made that he is a bad GM. (I have not drawn that conclusion).

However if I where I would start with something like this.

First Draft
1.5 starters ( Goldman Amos)
2 likely to be out of the league, can't stay healthy, have not played well when they are,
2 already out of the league

Second Draft

3 starters 1 who regressed, 2 whom I fear injuries may keep their careers to 5 years

5 back ups, 2 who don't fit the system, 1 who has injury concerns, 3 of the group likely won't be on the team next year.

Third Draft

1 QB of the future completing 52% and is looking worse.
1 midget whom is being used wrong
1 Ogre who needs to develop
1 legit talent who will be broken in 4 years
1 Guard won will never be on the 53.

Don't you think you could offer a more balanced view than that? A R5 pick did make the Pro Bowl and was 2nd in the league in rushing after all and still in the top 20% this year. But which is the word for him? Regressed? C'mon man.

I think he was saying that Whitehair has regressed, that Howard's style of play will shorten his prime and that there are some serious concerns about Floyd staying healthy.

I'd even argue that Floyd alone will probably not become "the guy." I think getting an edge rusher is going to be our top need going into the draft. Tied with WR (depending what we do in FA) and as always o-line.

[Hematite]

Good post Malk. Pace has not looked particularly adept in the Free agent market. This is painful because the Bears have been in great cap position those 3 years also.

My biggest fear, is he may not be good at drafting either. Obviously both these are to early to truly gauge but a case could be made that he is a bad GM. (I have not drawn that conclusion).

However if I where I would start with something like this.

First Draft
1.5 starters ( Goldman Amos)
2 likely to be out of the league, can't stay healthy, have not played well when they are,
2 already out of the league

Second Draft

3 starters 1 who regressed, 2 whom I fear injuries may keep their careers to 5 years

5 back ups, 2 who don't fit the system, 1 who has injury concerns, 3 of the group likely won't be on the team next year.

Third Draft

1 QB of the future completing 52% and is looking worse.
1 midget whom is being used wrong
1 Ogre who needs to develop
1 legit talent who will be broken in 4 years
1 Guard won will never be on the 53.

I'd argue that most of what you claim as Pace's failures actually fall on coaching. Words like regress, used wrong, and develop, fall on coaching long before a GM.

[Moriarty]

Good post Malk. Pace has not looked particularly adept in the Free agent market. This is painful because the Bears have been in great cap position those 3 years also.

My biggest fear, is he may not be good at drafting either. Obviously both these are to early to truly gauge but a case could be made that he is a bad GM. (I have not drawn that conclusion).

However if I where I would start with something like this.

First Draft
1.5 starters ( Goldman Amos)
2 likely to be out of the league, can't stay healthy, have not played well when they are,
2 already out of the league

Second Draft

3 starters 1 who regressed, 2 whom I fear injuries may keep their careers to 5 years

5 back ups, 2 who don't fit the system, 1 who has injury concerns, 3 of the group likely won't be on the team next year.

Third Draft

1 QB of the future completing 52% and is looking worse.
1 midget whom is being used wrong
1 Ogre who needs to develop
1 legit talent who will be broken in 4 years
1 Guard won will never be on the 53.

I'd argue that most of what you claim as Pace's failures actually fall on coaching. Words like regress, used wrong, and develop, fall on coaching long before a GM.

Correct.
Also, injuries to guys who had average to good medicals and injury history shouldn't count against the GM, either, unless they clearly had a small/frail body type for their position.

[mmmc_35]

Not going to quote you all but I did say that it wasn't my opinion, but a claim could be made.

So I through out a quick claim without much effort. Now if needed I could make a much better well thought out response, but it's pretty early.

I will say on the injury post. A lot of those guys did have questions. White had injury history. Grasu was small. Floyd is and was a bean pole. Howard's style can shorten careers. Jackson another bean pole with history.

To think about it Pace dues draft a lot of thin hipped guys.

[Moriarty]

Not going to quote you all but I did say that it wasn't my opinion, but a claim could be made.

So I through out a quick claim without much effort. Now if needed I could make a much better well thought out response, but it's pretty early.

I will say on the injury post. A lot of those guys did have questions. White had injury history. Grasu was small. Floyd is and was a bean pole. Howard's style can shorten careers. Jackson another bean pole with history.

To think about it Pace dues draft a lot of thin hipped guys.

From how low you're setting the bar, I'd guess at least 150/256 draftees per year would be considered 'injury risks'.

I don't recall the 6'3 215 Kevin White having above average concerns before the draft
http://www.nfl.com/draft/2015/profiles/ ... id=2552422" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.si.com/nfl/2015/04/21/nfl-d ... t-virginia" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://walterfootball.com/scoutingrepor ... hiteWR.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And Howard is an injury risk because he's too powerful?

[mmmc_35]

No but he gets hit hard a lot. He probably isn't a great example of my non opinion. White had injury history in Juco and high school if I remember correctly.

[DaSuperfan]

Speaking of White, does anyone know if he has a chance to play again in 2017? I heard he was with the team in Philly, I know that's not a guarantee that he's coming back this season but was wondering if anyone has heard anything?

[bearsfaninaz]

Speaking of White, does anyone know if he has a chance to play again in 2017? I heard he was with the team in Philly, I know that's not a guarantee that he's coming back this season but was wondering if anyone has heard anything?

The last I heard he was in a sling yet, but I'd like to see him get some kind of reps with Trubisky

[thunderspirit]

White had no significant injury flags coming out of West Virginia.
Grasu was small for a lineman, true. The thought was he could get bigger and stronger. Obviously he hasn't.

Like Mori says, many of these kids come out of college with some dings. It's a rough sport.

[crueltyabc]

With the FA signings being such an issue, I wonder if Pace will be willing or able to replace that part of his scouting team. Is Anthony Kelly to blame for the lack of hits in FA? Is this another situation where Pace looks too much like a lame duck for a good pro personnel guy to come over?

[Hematite]

Tre McBride released.

[Boris13c]

Tre McBride released.

nice to see the Bears embrace the concept of addition by subtraction

[Otis Day]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... e-mcbride/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Bears waive Tre McBride

Posted by Charean Williams on November 28, 2017, 4:14 PM EST



Mitchell Trubisky targeted Tre McBride six times in Sunday’s loss to the Eagles — Yes, the obvious question is: Why? — and McBride caught only two passes for 20 yards.

The Bears waived McBride on Tuesday.


Why he asked? Who the fuck else is he going to throw to you jagbag?

[Funkster]

With the FA signings being such an issue, I wonder if Pace will be willing or able to replace that part of his scouting team. Is Anthony Kelly to blame for the lack of hits in FA? Is this another situation where Pace looks too much like a lame duck for a good pro personnel guy to come over?

This is a good thought but I'm not sure it holds true. Look back at the available FA and who Pace signed most end up with football injuries, don't know how you can predict that?

[mmmc_35]

Maybe you can't predict injuries, and maybe you can't prevent them.

There is a strong possibility you can do both which is why NFL teams put a lot of money into those areas. In one way or another the Bears for a few years now have been horrendous at one, the other, or both.

[Adipost]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... e-mcbride/


Bears waive Tre McBride

Posted by Charean Williams on November 28, 2017, 4:14 PM EST



Mitchell Trubisky targeted Tre McBride six times in Sunday’s loss to the Eagles — Yes, the obvious question is: Why? — and McBride caught only two passes for 20 yards.

The Bears waived McBride on Tuesday.


Why he asked? Who the fuck else is he going to throw to you jagbag?

Here’s a little nugget from Sunday. Coincidence???

According to The Athletic's Kevin Fishbain, White made the trip to Philadelphia with the Bears for Sunday's game at Lincoln Financial Field. White is currently on injured reserve

[ramentaschen]

Unleash the Kraken!

(kraken bones)

[malk]

I find it fairly incredible that people aren't more concerned that we have $15.5m of 2018 cap space currently tied up in three players (Wheaton, Cooper, Demps) that are backups this year. Then there's $16m allocated to Glennon.

To cut those players will cost $7m of 2018 cap making dead money the 4th highest hit to our cap after Hicks, Long and Sitton.

In 2017 those players accounted for $28.5m of cap space. Throw in the $7m wasted on Amukamara's one year deal in a year we are winning nothing in and it's $35.5m.

Now no one knows what we offered AJ Bouye and Jeffery but I find it hard to believe that we couldn't have signed both of them with that amount of cap space. Maybe Jeffery wanted no part of staying but after going to the Jags I'm utterly confident that Bouye comes for 5 years $75m and probably less.

This is probably getting boring but Pace is pretty awful at free agency. Hicks, Sitton and Trevathan are the successes. McPhee was a worthwhile shot at risk/reward that hasn't quite panned out and Freeman was a great contract before the PED issues. The rest are mostly terrible bar for, Unrein?

Frittering away cap space on mid priced players on short term deals is a terrible improvement strategy. It has worked once for Pace with Hicks but even then he's now just on a market deal rather than a market beating one.

This isn't just about looking back and picking out the mistakes, it's about the poor strategy that makes the odds of success so small. It's by far and away my biggest worry about the bears right now.

You make some good points here, but you ignore others.

We were told by Pace that he offered the 2 top CBs more $$$ than they got signing with other teams. Are you saying he's lying? Is it inconceivable that another player would look at the 3-13 Bears and say "I'm not playing for them even if I have to take less $$$"?

What is your expectation on hitting on FAs as a percentage? And who else achieves that?

There's a long way between Pace lying and that statement not being meaningfully true. If Pace offered $68m with less guaranteed his statement is true but not meaningfully so. It isn't inconceivable that a player turns down the 3-13 bears but it's at the very least odd that they then sign with the 3-13 Jaguars. As I said above, I'm uttlerly confident that he would have signed for $75m and I'd be happy to pay it, not least given it's the cost of Amukamara, Cooper and change.

Going from memory Pace was out courting Longneck the Red in the early stages when he could have gone hard after Bouye. That doesn't make sense to me. Pace either thought he could have been a franchise QB (in which case he's a lousy talent scout!) or he would do well enough to be flipped for a pick and outsmarted himself.

I said at the start of the off season that I thought the team wasn't that far off but lacked difference makers and depth. I'm happy with Pace identifying depth through the draft and we're much closer there. I'm less happy with his penchant for signing vets that end up being depth for a decent cap hit. I'm even less happy that he went into an offseason with good cap space and signed zero difference makers in free agency.

[alexwilkins]

CB Alex Carter signed to the practice squad. Not a huge deal, but I was really high on this guy coming out of Stanford.

[malk]

Out of general interest, how much money does McPhee get on the open market if we cut him? He's going to get cut which costs us $1m in dead cap space and around $695k for a replacement player at vet exception level.

Just flagging this early as another player we're going to lose rather than keeping on at a reasonable rate because teams don't restructure contracts.

[UOK]

@ZachZaidman
1m
#Bears DL Mitch Unrein has been placed on IR. The team has signed LB Howard Jones and OL Cameron Lee.

@BobLeGere
now
#Bears sign OL Will Pericak and TE Colin Thompson to practice squad.

[ysleblanc]

@ZachZaidman
1m
#Bears DL Mitch Unrein has been placed on IR. The team has signed LB Howard Jones and OL Cameron Lee.

@BobLeGere
now
#Bears sign OL Will Pericak and TE Colin Thompson to practice squad.

Unrein is a guy that's impressed me this year. Will likely get decent money as a FA, my guess is the Bears let him walk and go with Bullard plus may add in secondary FA or draft.

[The Marshall Plan]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... e-mcbride/


Bears waive Tre McBride

Posted by Charean Williams on November 28, 2017, 4:14 PM EST



Mitchell Trubisky targeted Tre McBride six times in Sunday’s loss to the Eagles — Yes, the obvious question is: Why? — and McBride caught only two passes for 20 yards.

The Bears waived McBride on Tuesday.


Why he asked? Who the fuck else is he going to throw to you jagbag?

Here’s a little nugget from Sunday. Coincidence???

According to The Athletic's Kevin Fishbain, White made the trip to Philadelphia with the Bears for Sunday's game at Lincoln Financial Field. White is currently on injured reserve

I cannot stand Kevin White. I have been a Bears fan since I was a child during the Walter Payton days beginning with '84. I remember crying on the couch after we lost to the Redskins in '86 and the look on Payton's face.

I do not remember a 1st round pick as bad as Kevin White. I remember Enis, McNown, Benson, Stan Thomas, and the list goes on and I think White is the worst. I know it's subjective and I'm not expecting any of you to agree with me, but that's what I think.