Free Agency will be better for us this time around

[Adipost]

3.5, dude.

The year before? 5.5.


I don't want him on this team if he wants to be paid like a top 5-8 WR.

5th in the league in RZ target % (32.4%) and 1st in the league in RZ receptions (18). He's an unconventional receiver but there may be an argument for him getting paid.

Targets don't mean much to me when you're running an average of 3.5 yards downfield and catching the ball, man. Look at his career YPC: 10.1

Top NFL WRs career avg:

A.Brown - 13.5
OBJ - 14.1
Hopkins - 14.2
Jones - 15.5
Fitzgerald - 12.6 (13.4 through the age of 30)
D.Thomas - 13.8
Green - 14.8
Bryant 14.0

Hard pass on Landry unless it's a team-friendly deal.

Landry had identical numbers to Antonio Brown his first year under Adam Gase. 2017 Miami was an abortion of an offense led by Cutler and that offensive line/running game. Gase couldn’t get the ball out of Cutler’s hands fast enough.

Pretty damning read on Jarvis Landry:

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-a ... lue-part-i" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-a ... ue-part-ii" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://mobile.twitter.com/NFLFilms/status/936308477483298816

[MrPrettyBoyFancyLad]

great article!!!

[G08]

I mean yeah Adi, Landry had the ball thrown to him 161 times and Belichick is notorious for taking away the opposition's best player. Double the guy that the Dolphins force-feed the ball.

[Adipost]

I mean yeah Adi, Landry had the ball thrown to him 161 times and Belichick is notorious for taking away the opposition's best player. Double the guy that the Dolphins force-feed the ball.

It’s a rebuttal to “the more catches he gets, the worse the team is” argument. You’d think teams wouldn’t be doubling a slot receiver, as it is incredibly dangerous to leave the back end open and outside receivers one on one. Landry actually opens up space for his outside receivers, as crazy and backward as that might sound.

“I usually have an idea what’s going on going into the game,” Gase said. “It’s not breaking news to anybody that I’m pretty sure I know who most teams try to take away on the offense. You just try to make it hard on them and try to keep Jarvis (Landry) doing the things he does well (and at the) same time, don’t make him a sitting duck where he lines up in the same spot play after play after play and everybody knows where he’s at.”

Stats don’t always tell the whole story. The analysts fail to actually watch the film, they just go by raw numbers. It doesn’t take into account many factors. For example, since Landry is doubled a lot, the only way Gase can get him the ball consistently is with quicker passes closer to the line of scrimmage. But since the analysts don’t watch the film, they just make it a knock on Landry and his skill set.

[G08]

Is there a way to determine on what % of snaps Landry is actually doubled? I can't imagine it's any more than game breakers like Antonio Brown, Julio Jones etc.

[G08]

Sooooo, I went back and watched a bunch of Sammy Watkins from this past season and I'm sincerely hoping he doesn't get tagged and hits free agency.

I don't care if we have to severely overpay for him, he has insane burst that would be tremendous in this offense.

Can you imagine, in an alternate universe perhaps, where Watkins and White are killing it on the outside and Meredith is destroying the slot?

I think we will have to overpay for his services (think Alshon Jeffery or more) but we really have no other choice. This is what we have to deal with since we let Marshall/Jeffery walk for nothing and Kevin White has been a bust. I think 4 years/$52 million/$28 million guaranteed will get it done. He'll lock down our WR1 and be a perfect hedge to Kevin White, we can draft a WR in round 2 to be our WR2 if/when we let Kevin White walk in 2019. Meredith will be the perfect #3.

If Kevin White stays healthy and has a decent season we could bring him back on a modest deal and let White/Meredith/Rookie battle for spots 2, 3 and 4. It's a win-win in my book.

[wab]

First - It's weird to see you talking positively about Kevin White.

Second - I don't think there's any way Watkins gets out of LA.

[G08]

First - It's weird to see you talking positively about Kevin White.

Second - I don't think there's any way Watkins gets out of LA.

I'm trying to turn over a new leaf regarding Kevin White. I still hate the pick but it doesn't mean I want to see him fail -- nothing would make me happier than him becoming a Pro Bowler in Chicago and serving me a huge plate of crow.


The LA angle... I'm digging around and there's some smoke around Joyner potentially getting tagged. That might be with the idea that Watkins wants to stay in LA and is willing to forgo testing the market. Still, if he's a FA I'd get on the phone immediately. Nobody else in FA moves the needle for us at WR as much as he does.

[G08]

My targets:

WR
Sammy Watkins - reasons stated above, true #1 WR that creates competition for WR2-4 among Meredith, White, Rookie

Allen Robinson - another true #1 WR, is his knee healthy? Will JAX tag him?

Albert Wilson - more of a low-end WR2 high-end WR3... familiarity with Nagy's offense, speed, production

Marqise Lee - heavy does of meh. More of a low-end WR2 with some potential upside, hands are questionable

John Brown/Taylor Gabirel/Paul Richardson - speed but each comes with size limitations

OLB
Trent Murphy - experience as a 3-4 OLB and 4-3 DE, had 9.0 sacks in 2016 before getting injured in 2017. Only 27 years old, offers size at OLB and a pass rushing presence at DE in base defenses.

Barkevious Mingo - yes, that Barkevious Mingo. Just turned 27 but I envision him being used how Fangio liked to deploy Leonard Floyd. Drop him in coverage at times, blitz him, spy the QB, etc. He can't simply be a pass rusher on every down, so his presence should allow Floyd to rush more than he has to worry about dropping back in coverage (although he can still do that from time to time).

Jerry Attaochu - probably more of a last option, has been a bust thus far but is still only 25 and has some burst/wiggle to his game. Reminds me of a younger Sam Acho with perhaps a touch more upside.

CB
Kyle Fuller - tag him with the hope that he will sign a longer deal to stay with us for the next 3-5 years.

Trumaine Johnson - solid backup option for us if Fuller doesn't seem interested, may not come very cheap however

Bashaud Breeland - I like him more as a CB2 than a CB1, but he's young (26) and I think Donatell could help him with some of his coverage inconsistencies. Plus the kid likes to stick his nose up in there in run support, which always endears a corner to me

Prince Amukamara - Turns 29 in June so I'd only want him back on a 1-2 year deal for depth purposes.

[wab]

Gah, free agency is pretty uninspiring. When we are pining for Trent Murphy and two busts at OLB, undersized and inconsistent/injured WR's, and a laundry list of corners that have struggled to live up to lofty expectations...it's a underwhelming time.

[G08]

Gah, free agency is pretty uninspiring. When we are pining for Trent Murphy and two busts at OLB, undersized and inconsistent/injured WR's, and a laundry list of corners that have struggled to live up to lofty expectations...it's a underwhelming time.

It's far from ideal but you want to know the worst part? These players are upgrades

[wab]

Gah, free agency is pretty uninspiring. When we are pining for Trent Murphy and two busts at OLB, undersized and inconsistent/injured WR's, and a laundry list of corners that have struggled to live up to lofty expectations...it's a underwhelming time.

It's far from ideal but you want to know the worst part? These players are upgrades

Are they though? I mean I know we look through a pretty salty lens at fans at Bears players. But aside from age, is Murphy an upgrade from say...Houston? Murphy has had 15 sacks in 4 years. Houston had 12 in his last two healthy seasons with the Bears...4 of those coming in 3 games to end the season.

Robinson is a clear upgrade, but he's likely not an option and even if he was, that means the Bears top 3 WR's will be coming off season long injuries.

Fuller is the only one on the whole list that I'd pound the table for, because I'm tired of seeing homegrown talent walk out the door. Attaochu is interesting because he got hurt and was caught in a scheme change.

I'm basically dreading this FA season because the fans will want the Bears to pour out tons of money, but they'll be spending just to spend.

[G08]

The only place I want the Bears to spend just to spend is WR. We need to get someone with an elite skill set at WR in here as soon as possible.

Watkins hasn't lived up to his draft billing/hype, but I don't care at this point. He turns 25 in June and has elite speed/burst which is sorely lacking in our receiving corps. None of the other FA WRs really offer much unless Pace/Nagy/Helfrich are content with Meredith/White being our #1 and #2 (which is just stupid at this point).

[crueltyabc]

My worry is Paces focus on value because all of these players will be overpaid by someone and we still need them. Beer is $10 in the stadium but we still need it yknow? That’s the situation we are in


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[G08]

My worry is Paces focus on value because all of these players will be overpaid by someone and we still need them. Beer is $10 in the stadium but we still need it yknow? That’s the situation we are in


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Someone said a similar thing on another forum: nobody would pay $100 for a glass of water, but you wouldn't think twice if you were stranded in the Sahara. We're stranded, bros.

[Rusty Trombagent]

[video][/video]

[G08]

[video][/video]

I don't hate him, but he's not a #1 to me. Rail thin and is more of a decent #2. We need a true #1 WR on this roster, badly.

[Otis Day]

Captain Obvious here:

Free Agency will be better for us this time around.............only if it works. I don't care if they bring in the big names, the best FA out. If that/those player(s) come here and don't perform, it didn't work.

I just do not get too excited about it anymore. The money that gets thrown around for future performance is absurd. It takes one dumbass owner (Snyder) to throw all kinds of shit out of wack.

[Adipost]

Sooooo, I went back and watched a bunch of Sammy Watkins from this past season and I'm sincerely hoping he doesn't get tagged and hits free agency.

I don't care if we have to severely overpay for him, he has insane burst that would be tremendous in this offense.

Can you imagine, in an alternate universe perhaps, where Watkins and White are killing it on the outside and Meredith is destroying the slot?

I think we will have to overpay for his services (think Alshon Jeffery or more) but we really have no other choice. This is what we have to deal with since we let Marshall/Jeffery walk for nothing and Kevin White has been a bust. I think 4 years/$52 million/$28 million guaranteed will get it done. He'll lock down our WR1 and be a perfect hedge to Kevin White, we can draft a WR in round 2 to be our WR2 if/when we let Kevin White walk in 2019. Meredith will be the perfect #3.

If Kevin White stays healthy and has a decent season we could bring him back on a modest deal and let White/Meredith/Rookie battle for spots 2, 3 and 4. It's a win-win in my book.

He flashes incredible talent.

[video][/video]

[G08]

Sooooo, I went back and watched a bunch of Sammy Watkins from this past season and I'm sincerely hoping he doesn't get tagged and hits free agency.

I don't care if we have to severely overpay for him, he has insane burst that would be tremendous in this offense.

Can you imagine, in an alternate universe perhaps, where Watkins and White are killing it on the outside and Meredith is destroying the slot?

I think we will have to overpay for his services (think Alshon Jeffery or more) but we really have no other choice. This is what we have to deal with since we let Marshall/Jeffery walk for nothing and Kevin White has been a bust. I think 4 years/$52 million/$28 million guaranteed will get it done. He'll lock down our WR1 and be a perfect hedge to Kevin White, we can draft a WR in round 2 to be our WR2 if/when we let Kevin White walk in 2019. Meredith will be the perfect #3.

If Kevin White stays healthy and has a decent season we could bring him back on a modest deal and let White/Meredith/Rookie battle for spots 2, 3 and 4. It's a win-win in my book.

He flashes incredible talent.

[video][/video]

That explosion in his route makes me fucking hard. He's a Ferrari and I want him in navy and orange badly.

If we can't land him, I have a feeling Rusty's guy Paul Richardson will be next.

[GSH]

Eagles projecting to be over the cap and having to make some difficult cuts. one player im interested in that looks like a likely cut due to cap space is WR Torrey Smith. Think he looked awesome in the playoffs and would look even better in navy and orange.

[Rusty Trombagent]

lolllllll
https://247sports.com/nfl/chicago-bears ... -115626560" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

really all but confirms what's going to happen.

[G08]

From Biggs re: Fuller

“He won’t get tagged,” texted one source not affiliated with the Bears.

“I don’t think they will use the tag,” said a personnel director for another club in the market for cornerbacks. “It’s a deep corner class in free agency.”

[malk]

My worry is Paces focus on value because all of these players will be overpaid by someone and we still need them. Beer is $10 in the stadium but we still need it yknow? That’s the situation we are in


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Someone said a similar thing on another forum: nobody would pay $100 for a glass of water, but you wouldn't think twice if you were stranded in the Sahara. We're stranded, bros.

Nope!

I see it completely the other way. Last season was an almost unprecedented shitstorm for our passing game: Longneck the Red; rookie Trubisky on a leash; an incredibly basic offence; injuries to Meredith and White later than they could be replaced.

It's reasonable to want to jump from that to getting a #1 guy but instead I'd rather make some easy gains and see where we really are. In my reckoning:

1. The coaching staff will be an improvement.
2. Trubisky will be better in his second year.

These aren't a given in abstract but there's no point thinking they won't be true as we're just screwed if they're not and there's nothing that can be done about them in the short term.

3. Meredith and White back from injury.
4. Any of the non top WR free agents.
5. More burn for Shaheen.

These could go wrong but its hard to believe we won't improve from the worst passing offence in the league. Our top receivers by yards were Wright, Bellamy and Inman with 614, 376 and 334. Shaheen had 127 yards. Let's say Wright and Inman stick around, replicating this year's production (over a full season for Inman). Then Shaheen modestly improves, up to 400 yards (I'd be disappointed but let's be pessimistic). White, for simplicity, replaces the production of the departed McBride and Thompson.

That adds 700 yards to last season's total which puts us around middle of the pack for passing yards and could be done with improving to around league average yards per attempt and a few more attempts (to around 500-510). For those last two metrics, I'd be absolutely flabbergasted if we didn't improve from a league worst attempts in 2017. Then the Chiefs had the 2nd best yards per attempt last year, I'm not expecting that much but some improvement over 6.5 to 6.9/7.0 is certainly feasible.

Now bring back Meredith and take the attempts up to 530-540 and we could be solidly top half.

Essentially, KCs offence with Hill and Kelce getting about 800 and 600 yards rather than 1200 and 1000.

Of course, if we can get Hill's production out of someone then perfect! But we don't necessarily need to do it this off season. Obviously the closer Shaheen can get to Kelce the better too.

[wab]

I'm just enamored with any WR this year save for a few guys that might be had between rounds 2 and 4. The problem is that only White, Gentry, and Wheaton are under contract. So they have to sign guys. Meredith is pretty much a lock to be back, and I've stumped for the resigning of Wright.

Hell, I just read an article yesterday that said the Chiefs should sign Wright as a replacement for Wilson because Wright can do things in the KC offense (you know, the Bears offense) the Wilson can't.

I probably feel a little more optimistic about Wheaton than most, if only because he's a really good fit for what Nagy does.

Resign Wright and Meredith and draft a guy. That's my approach. But it's not overwhelmingly popular.

[Mikefive]

My worry is Paces focus on value because all of these players will be overpaid by someone and we still need them. Beer is $10 in the stadium but we still need it yknow? That’s the situation we are in


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Someone said a similar thing on another forum: nobody would pay $100 for a glass of water, but you wouldn't think twice if you were stranded in the Sahara. We're stranded, bros.

Nope!

I see it completely the other way. Last season was an almost unprecedented shitstorm for our passing game: Longneck the Red; rookie Trubisky on a leash; an incredibly basic offence; injuries to Meredith and White later than they could be replaced.

It's reasonable to want to jump from that to getting a #1 guy but instead I'd rather make some easy gains and see where we really are. In my reckoning:

1. The coaching staff will be an improvement.
2. Trubisky will be better in his second year.

These aren't a given in abstract but there's no point thinking they won't be true as we're just screwed if they're not and there's nothing that can be done about them in the short term.

3. Meredith and White back from injury.
4. Any of the non top WR free agents.
5. More burn for Shaheen.

These could go wrong but its hard to believe we won't improve from the worst passing offence in the league. Our top receivers by yards were Wright, Bellamy and Inman with 614, 376 and 334. Shaheen had 127 yards. Let's say Wright and Inman stick around, replicating this year's production (over a full season for Inman). Then Shaheen modestly improves, up to 400 yards (I'd be disappointed but let's be pessimistic). White, for simplicity, replaces the production of the departed McBride and Thompson.

That adds 700 yards to last season's total which puts us around middle of the pack for passing yards and could be done with improving to around league average yards per attempt and a few more attempts (to around 500-510). For those last two metrics, I'd be absolutely flabbergasted if we didn't improve from a league worst attempts in 2017. Then the Chiefs had the 2nd best yards per attempt last year, I'm not expecting that much but some improvement over 6.5 to 6.9/7.0 is certainly feasible.

Now bring back Meredith and take the attempts up to 530-540 and we could be solidly top half.

Essentially, KCs offence with Hill and Kelce getting about 800 and 600 yards rather than 1200 and 1000.

Of course, if we can get Hill's production out of someone then perfect! But we don't necessarily need to do it this off season. Obviously the closer Shaheen can get to Kelce the better too.

I'm not quite as optimistic to say we'll be in the top half of passing offenses. But your points here are well taken, assuming Nagy knows his stuff and can put it into practice while also running the whole team, which is the elephant in the room unknown. There's a lot of reason to think we'll be a better pass offense, largely with the guys we have on the roster, IR and a re-sign or two.

Now if we could pull a #1 WR out of a hat...................

[Mikefive]

I'm just enamored with any WR this year save for a few guys that might be had between rounds 2 and 4. The problem is that only White, Gentry, and Wheaton are under contract. So they have to sign guys. Meredith is pretty much a lock to be back, and I've stumped for the resigning of Wright.

Hell, I just read an article yesterday that said the Chiefs should sign Wright as a replacement for Wilson because Wright can do things in the KC offense (you know, the Bears offense) the Wilson can't.

I probably feel a little more optimistic about Wheaton than most, if only because he's a really good fit for what Nagy does.

Resign Wright and Meredith and draft a guy. That's my approach. But it's not overwhelmingly popular.

That makes a lot of sense to me. But if Allen Robinson doesn't get tagged... I'm pulling out the checkbook in a big way.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the sky's the limit talented, but thus far pretty flawed Sammy Watkins.

[G08]

Ryan Pace keeps talking about football IQ when discussing the offense and WRs.

Don't be shocked when Albert Wilson comes here in FA.

[Adipost]

Ryan Pace keeps talking about football IQ when discussing the offense and WRs.

Don't be shocked when Albert Wilson comes here in FA.

Does it concern you that almost 1/3 of Wilson’s entire 2017 production came in the final game of the season?

[G08]

Ryan Pace keeps talking about football IQ when discussing the offense and WRs.

Don't be shocked when Albert Wilson comes here in FA.

Does it concern you that almost 1/3 of Wilson’s entire 2017 production came in the final game of the season?

No, because the bulk of his production occurred once Matt Nagy started calling plays.

wab has been talking about Wheaton being a good fit for this offense and I think he's right if you look at size/speed/cone. I think Wilson gives us the ability to play the slot and outside from time to time. Kevin White, it was interesting to hear Ryan Pace say today that since he had an upper body injury he can still run and work on his route quickness (which tells me that's exactly what he's doing this off-season, which makes me happy).

It won't shock me to see something like:

Meredith/White/Wilson/Wheaton/Rookie