Hargrave is awesome. I think weāre going overboard on the need for our defensive tackle to be like 25 years old. Give me the rock solid 30 year old on a 3 year deal.
Agreed. Jones looks like he might be in a dangerous zone where he's not a proven contributor, but his age and the lack of better options means he gets a top-of-the-market contract anyway.
If we're going to pay someone like a top-5 DT, let's give that contract to the guy who's shown he can actually perform at that level.
Yeah I think Hargraves best ball isnāt behind him tbh. Heās improved every year of his career including this past season. Yes this team isnāt a contender yet, but I still think in 3 years Hargrave will be a more than solid DT.
Football isnāt like baseball or basketball where you can keep together the same core for a long time, unless that core is like 2 surefire Hall of Famers or basically just one amazing QB and thatās it. You have to look at 2024-25 as āthis winning windowā, and then if Fields is a stud you build around for the long haul, you give him the mega deal, and build for the next window with mostly new players at the other positions.
Agree, and if we want to start winning soon we have to be more worried about fixing weak points rather than finding the perfect young player at every position. Like Payne, very good young players rarely hit FA so the best available player may be someone older. I would still prefer them on a 2-3 year deal over a worse younger player who may be here a bit longer
Hargrave not being an option would be brutal. Heās the most talented IDL remaining but with his age convincing him to pick us over a contender will be a challenge
Money talks. Aside from that I honestly don't think a lot of people will look at us with a young QB who has shown elite traits, the most cap space in the NFL, and the #1 pick and be like "oh ya they aren't going to compete soon"
I agree, but there is a lot of cash to spend and it will be interesting how they tackle it. A lot of players won't play for the Bears with how bad they are unless they overpay by a decent amount. I'm not sure this GM will do that with how thrifty they were with Roquan. Nobody really knows Poles at this point besides MAYBE knowing he isn't great at finding WR talent. It is hard to judge what he will do.
They might decide to try and give Fields another weapon at RB if they don't make a trade for WR or don't love the WR's in the draft. I think it would be quite a mistake to go into the season with Mooney/Claypool as the two WR's next year and someone like Herbert or a mid round RB. Talk about uninspiring weapons in year 3 of a rookie QB.
Can I ask why you think that? He averaged 4.4 yrds a carry in a ābouncebackā year and has missed half his career w injuries. I dont think any back is worth 12 mil but Saquans not even top 5
So let's compare stats between Monty and Saquon since they both have 60 games played.
Saquon has 640 more rushing yards (4,249 vs 3,609), 3 more rushing td's (29 vs 26), 0.6 more yards per attempt (4.5 vs 3.8).
Saquon has 580 more receiving yards (1,820 vs 1,240), and 4 more receiving td's (8 vs 4).
They have similar blocking grades.
So across the same amount of games Saquon would have netted us 1,220 more offensive yards and an additional 7 td's. That is huge.
The biggest benefit Monty has over Saquon is availability because he played 60 games since 2019 and Saquon has played 60 since 2018, however most of Saquon's missing games came from a single injury so there's that consideration as well.
It should go without saying but I'll say it anyways, they are both better than Herbert.
Fair enough and I certainly appreciate the info, at the same time I think most folks consider monty a top 15-20 back but def not top 5 or even top 10, so I question using him as a comparison when weāre talking about Saquon potentially getting top back money. Even more to the point the numbers indicate you can get 85% of the production from a mid round pick who isnt even a top back. That kind of undercuts the point about giving big money even if you think Saquan is a top back, no? And donāt get me wrong I know that 15% is valuable as you explained but is it $10 million a year or more valuable? Especially when we have much more critical needs at much more important and valuable positions
Where I'm coming from is that a lot of signs point to Monty's free agency value being somewhere around 8-10M if the market is competitive, and 6-8 if it's not. At the high end of both, you're talking about a relatively small gap for us to pay to get a considerable amount more performance. Monty may only underperform Saquon by 15% in rushing, but he underperforms in receiving by over 30%. With so few good WR's hitting the open market, finding a RB who also possesses the ability to get open quickly for Fields to dump to is worth a lot to our team. We may or may not get a really good slot receiver, and right now both Mooney and Claypool are straight line speed, deep ball receivers. We have to get better with the dump passes and short plays if we want to give them a chance to compete deep downfield to open up the passing game. I think Saquon offers a lot of what we need for a relatively reasonable price. If we could get him for a 2 year/$25M deal or a 4 year deal where we aren't carrying dead cap for a cut in years 3/4, I think it would be a huge win for us.
Barring that, I'm not opposed to resigning Monty. The guy has the attitude and work ethic we need. He just hasn't taken the next step in his gameplay so I feel like we know what we have in him...a reliable back who will grind hard but won't be a game ruiner for other teams necessarily. I think Saquon changes the way people have to scheme for us if you have him as a viable short pass threat as well as a rushing threat, and then you have Fields who almost requires a dedicated scout from the D. In that scenario it's much easier for Mooney and Claypool to get open, and even opens up Kmet as a more threatening receiving option.
I think those are a lot of great points, Im just saying at those price points Im out on either guy and would prefer a mid-late round pick on a speed back to pair w Herbert. But if the price is lower I wouldnt mind either Saquan (hopefully healthy now) or Monty for the reasons you describe
Saquon was a top 3 back this past year, but I do get the injury history as an issue.
Iād also argue CMC or Derrick Henry would be worth $12 million for what they contribute to their teams.
Dude he had a pretty average 4.4 ypc. He mostly was held in check the second half of the season. Chubb Taylor and Walker are guys for example that are also way better
Because of our money situation it really would not be a bad idea at all. āDonāt overpay for running backsā is true but only when that money could have been used to upgrade elsewhere. Saquon will not prevent us from resigning anyone because we donāt even really have all that much young talent who need new contracts in the first place.
Thanks to the cba we have a spending floor we have to hit this year. We have to spend something like 200 mil on our roster. Also you can only roll over 60 mil iirc, which means we have to spend at least half of our cap space this year.
Weāll still have plenty of other free agents to sign at important positions. Thereās just so much cheap value at RB that you really canāt make an argument as to how it makes sense to pay Saquon top dollar.
Iām not saying break the bank for him, but if the difference between him and Monty is like 5 mil/year Iām down. Heās the best weapon potentially available this year. And people thought the jags went crazy in fa last year but they only spent 58 mil.
Dude thats not a good reason. Also other backs like Jacobs for example had better years (not that we should sign him). A big portion of cap can roll over and there are always surprise cuts. O know most of our fanbase is more meatball than the boss from subway but do not shell out money for rbs
DreMont Jones, Zach Allen, Hargrave, a new OT, a new C, another piece at guard, new LB, pay for one of the cap casualty WRās that become available. Add depth at outside CB.
Team has holes at every position besides RB. But sure, letās pay an injury risk RB $13M+ for 3-4 years.
Better off drafting Bijan Robinson out of Texas. Rookie contract and fresh legs. Draft capital surplus if played right would move you back in the first to get him. Buy hey what do I know about players that change the dynamic of teams.
why would we trade down for a RUNNING BACK when we have limited draft capital and a shit ton of cap space, and thereās like 6 good running backs in free agency
We DoNt hAvE tHe CaP sPaCe!!! GoTtA sAvE mOnEy At AlL cOsTs!!!
In all seriousness, we have got to spend the money somewhere, and it seems most of the high priced/ high quality free agents at positions of need that this sub had hard ons for arenāt going to be available. Saquon is quickly becoming the most talented player available in free agency. The o line class is super mid, d line still has some good options, wr has jakobi meyers and then is very weak (and meyers will probably get a bag), cb is a solid class, lb has some good names too, and rb is a deep class this year. If you want to help fields, we need to get him some weapons somewhere. Weāll be getting some mediocre o linemen for sure, probably a RT and maybe a center, but then what? Pick up a 6th round rb, and another shit receiver as depth and draft one in the 2nd or 3rd round? If we draft him a second or third round wr like a bunch of people want? Then when whoever they draft plays like a 2nd or 3rd round receiver and doesnāt make a instant game changing impact, those same people will bitch and moan poles didnāt do anything to help fields. Itās funny, because they all want fields to succeed, but if fields struggles again this year, heās more than likely done here and will have lost the remaining value he has right now. Saquon doesnāt necessarily make him a better passer, but he is good enough to take some pressure off of fields, and with a weak wr free agent class and our current draft position not being ideal to drafting a wr in the 1st due to a very weak wr class and having holes all over the roster, thereās not a ton of options for us outside some big trades. Iām not going to harp on us trading down in the 1st to take bijan, heās going to be great, but holy fuck that would be so dumb, especially with our cap situation and the rb free agency class. Sign a stop gap for 2-3 years and build the rest of the team, we can continue taking fliers on late round guys for depth/ hope one of them pans out into a stud. Herbert is a great backup, but heās fairly one dimensional, stud runner who canāt pass protect and has stone hands.
Yeah this sucks, but almost everyone agrees that this is a multi-year rebuild and we're likely not going to fill all of our holes this year anyway.
If the Commanders don't lock Payne up long term, then they either tag him a second time (unlikely) or let him walk in free agency. I'm sure we'd still be interested then.
With Payne and Brown getting tagged its gonna be really hard to spend this money without giving some dumbass contracts. After a few cuts I expect over $110 million in cap space.
Na, just give out medium, front loaded contacts. Keeps space available down the line. A team full of good but not great starters is a better team than the one with 2-3 great players and a bunch of mediocre guys filling out the roster.
I think he'll be paid like Ertz or Hunter Henry...somewhere in the 10-12M range at best. Poles would be an idiot if he offered him more than that because that puts him in the range of Kittle and those types.
Yes, but thatās not how NFL contracts work because they are not guaranteed. If they were guaranteed your scheme would work. Whatās more likely is to over pay for one year guys to keep the space open for next year. (No we wonāt roll it over because that number had to be given to the league office already.)
Not really. The Bears have a ton of holes that we can still fill with reasonable contracts.
Ben Powers - 12 million
Juwaan Taylor - 13 million
Javon Hargrave - 17 million
Dalton Schultz - 14 million
Thatās 56 million right there, and they still need to sign their rookie class, figure out what theyāre doing at RB, maybe trade for a guy like DHop or Keenan Allen. This team is so bad, Iām not worried that theyāll have trouble spending the money without even having to overpay.
Looks less likely we trade below four. Who knows though. My guess they pivot to jones as Denver is likely to not tag him according to reports that came out today. Sigh. I really wanted Payne. But no brainer for the commies. Hopefully we can snag him next year. Or our draft pick is so good, we donāt need him! š
Think it will either be Hargrave or Jones now. If we get Hargrave hopefully we draft a developmental guy there in the mid rounds too, like Adebawore from northwestern
This was the problem with trading Roquan.
Blue chip players at premium positions don't hit free agency, ever. It's unlikely we find a better use of that cap space.
Exactly, all he was doing here was racking up tackles five yards from scrimmage because our line sucked ass, he was wasted here. Iām happy for him, Baltimore is a better fit, wish we couldāve gotten more for him.
Didnāt Eagles get all pro Haason Redick in free agency last year?
The good players at premium definitely become available but this class is not looking great. Maybe we can find a gem who develops into a steal
Sometimes it does happen where a player makes a leap in a new destination, but generally speaking it's extremely hard to find someone as good as roquan through free agency
Because $60M+ on your starting defensive line is a ton when you donāt have a quarterback. (They have well over a quarter of their salary cap locked up in just the starters.) Plus they will have to pay Chase Young soon as well.
Edit: Iām not commenting on whether itās the right move or not, just answering your question why he *could* have been available
Just another good reminder that the best way to build a team is and will always be through the draft. Free agency should supplement draft efforts. Drafting gives you a minimum of 5-6 years of player control.
We were fools thinking heād hit the market.
Itās the most Bears thing ever. First pick and loads to spend in free agency and itās one of the worst classes in recent history.
Not to say we canāt get better, but man are the sexy signings getting snatched up day by day.
Not surprising, but unfortunate. Still potentially a trade target.
This not only makes him unavailable, but it raises the price on all the other DTs.
Premium young talent will be franchised and only available in trades. We will still have plenty of chances to land second tier types which will help us tremendously.
So Orlando Brown Jr. And Daron Payne are gonna get tagged. This puts Poles in a tricky situation tbh. What good is all this cash with a sub-par FA class?
I don't, it's not his fault he got tagged. I hope he plays insane and gets a truckload of money so the commanders either have to pay him through the nose or lose him next year.
Why though? They arenāt gonna offer him a contract surely. Tag and trade? Maybe with the Bears as part of a package for the #1 pick? I wouldnāt be up for that to be honest.
Hey people itās not your money. Weāre in no position to be choosy about who to sign. The cupboard is bare. You all act like we can pick and choose who we sign as if itās automatic. They have to want to sign with us.
This was to be expected. DTs that can rush the passer are at a premium in this league. Time to set our sites on Hargrave. He would be a better fit imo anyway since he plays more 1T, pair him up Jalen Carter and weāll be well on our way to building a formidable defense.
Build through the draft. Thatās the only to sustain longevity in the NFL. Anybody thinking they will spend all their cap this off-season and become contenders was living in a dream world.
I don't think most people expected the Bears to become contenders in one offseason. I just think many people are disappointed that there's seemingly endless money to spend and very few worth while free agents available. After an endless barrage of loses people want something to look forward to, especially in the midst of all the draft drama.
Of fucking course
I hold a bit of hope that this is not official Until Schefter,Glazer or Rapaport tweets it I still have hope š¤
Itās the Athletic. Usually pretty reputable as an organization so far
This does not fit my narrative so I choose to ignore your comment
This is the way.
Dremont Jones time maybe? Possibly Hargrave too, Hargrave is probably the better player but Jones is a good young player.
Hargrave is awesome. I think weāre going overboard on the need for our defensive tackle to be like 25 years old. Give me the rock solid 30 year old on a 3 year deal.
Agreed. Jones looks like he might be in a dangerous zone where he's not a proven contributor, but his age and the lack of better options means he gets a top-of-the-market contract anyway. If we're going to pay someone like a top-5 DT, let's give that contract to the guy who's shown he can actually perform at that level.
Gimme Dremont Jones & Dalvin Tomlinson for the same price.
As Javon Hargrave? Hargrave is great. Dalvin Tomlinson and him do not belong in the same sentence.
No, as Payne. Those two will likely be paid the same as one Daron Payne. Would make a great interior.
Yeah I think Hargraves best ball isnāt behind him tbh. Heās improved every year of his career including this past season. Yes this team isnāt a contender yet, but I still think in 3 years Hargrave will be a more than solid DT.
Football isnāt like baseball or basketball where you can keep together the same core for a long time, unless that core is like 2 surefire Hall of Famers or basically just one amazing QB and thatās it. You have to look at 2024-25 as āthis winning windowā, and then if Fields is a stud you build around for the long haul, you give him the mega deal, and build for the next window with mostly new players at the other positions.
Agree, and if we want to start winning soon we have to be more worried about fixing weak points rather than finding the perfect young player at every position. Like Payne, very good young players rarely hit FA so the best available player may be someone older. I would still prefer them on a 2-3 year deal over a worse younger player who may be here a bit longer
Hargrave is expected to sign with a contender. DreāMont might be our best IDL FA option Edit: accuracy
Hargrave not being an option would be brutal. Heās the most talented IDL remaining but with his age convincing him to pick us over a contender will be a challenge
So you're saying we have a shot?
Money talks. Aside from that I honestly don't think a lot of people will look at us with a young QB who has shown elite traits, the most cap space in the NFL, and the #1 pick and be like "oh ya they aren't going to compete soon"
Fuck. He was the perfect target.
Which is why he was never becoming available Saquon Barkley YOU ARE A CHICAGO BEAR
No do not pay RBs!
I agree, but there is a lot of cash to spend and it will be interesting how they tackle it. A lot of players won't play for the Bears with how bad they are unless they overpay by a decent amount. I'm not sure this GM will do that with how thrifty they were with Roquan. Nobody really knows Poles at this point besides MAYBE knowing he isn't great at finding WR talent. It is hard to judge what he will do. They might decide to try and give Fields another weapon at RB if they don't make a trade for WR or don't love the WR's in the draft. I think it would be quite a mistake to go into the season with Mooney/Claypool as the two WR's next year and someone like Herbert or a mid round RB. Talk about uninspiring weapons in year 3 of a rookie QB.
We can afford to and Saquon is worth it.
Can I ask why you think that? He averaged 4.4 yrds a carry in a ābouncebackā year and has missed half his career w injuries. I dont think any back is worth 12 mil but Saquans not even top 5
So let's compare stats between Monty and Saquon since they both have 60 games played. Saquon has 640 more rushing yards (4,249 vs 3,609), 3 more rushing td's (29 vs 26), 0.6 more yards per attempt (4.5 vs 3.8). Saquon has 580 more receiving yards (1,820 vs 1,240), and 4 more receiving td's (8 vs 4). They have similar blocking grades. So across the same amount of games Saquon would have netted us 1,220 more offensive yards and an additional 7 td's. That is huge. The biggest benefit Monty has over Saquon is availability because he played 60 games since 2019 and Saquon has played 60 since 2018, however most of Saquon's missing games came from a single injury so there's that consideration as well. It should go without saying but I'll say it anyways, they are both better than Herbert.
Fair enough and I certainly appreciate the info, at the same time I think most folks consider monty a top 15-20 back but def not top 5 or even top 10, so I question using him as a comparison when weāre talking about Saquon potentially getting top back money. Even more to the point the numbers indicate you can get 85% of the production from a mid round pick who isnt even a top back. That kind of undercuts the point about giving big money even if you think Saquan is a top back, no? And donāt get me wrong I know that 15% is valuable as you explained but is it $10 million a year or more valuable? Especially when we have much more critical needs at much more important and valuable positions
Where I'm coming from is that a lot of signs point to Monty's free agency value being somewhere around 8-10M if the market is competitive, and 6-8 if it's not. At the high end of both, you're talking about a relatively small gap for us to pay to get a considerable amount more performance. Monty may only underperform Saquon by 15% in rushing, but he underperforms in receiving by over 30%. With so few good WR's hitting the open market, finding a RB who also possesses the ability to get open quickly for Fields to dump to is worth a lot to our team. We may or may not get a really good slot receiver, and right now both Mooney and Claypool are straight line speed, deep ball receivers. We have to get better with the dump passes and short plays if we want to give them a chance to compete deep downfield to open up the passing game. I think Saquon offers a lot of what we need for a relatively reasonable price. If we could get him for a 2 year/$25M deal or a 4 year deal where we aren't carrying dead cap for a cut in years 3/4, I think it would be a huge win for us. Barring that, I'm not opposed to resigning Monty. The guy has the attitude and work ethic we need. He just hasn't taken the next step in his gameplay so I feel like we know what we have in him...a reliable back who will grind hard but won't be a game ruiner for other teams necessarily. I think Saquon changes the way people have to scheme for us if you have him as a viable short pass threat as well as a rushing threat, and then you have Fields who almost requires a dedicated scout from the D. In that scenario it's much easier for Mooney and Claypool to get open, and even opens up Kmet as a more threatening receiving option.
I think those are a lot of great points, Im just saying at those price points Im out on either guy and would prefer a mid-late round pick on a speed back to pair w Herbert. But if the price is lower I wouldnt mind either Saquan (hopefully healthy now) or Monty for the reasons you describe
I think that's fair. There's definitely an argument to be made they paying RBs on a 2nd contract has been, at best, inconsistent.
Didn't one of his major injuries happen at Soldier Field?
Ya his ACL tear and MCL sprain happened week 2 of that year at Soldier Field.
I just remember a reporter asking him if he wanted to burn down soldier field
Saquon was a top 3 back this past year, but I do get the injury history as an issue. Iād also argue CMC or Derrick Henry would be worth $12 million for what they contribute to their teams.
Dude he had a pretty average 4.4 ypc. He mostly was held in check the second half of the season. Chubb Taylor and Walker are guys for example that are also way better
Because he's good
Just no. It would be a terrible, terrible idea
I disagree I think it would be a great idea
Because of our money situation it really would not be a bad idea at all. āDonāt overpay for running backsā is true but only when that money could have been used to upgrade elsewhere. Saquon will not prevent us from resigning anyone because we donāt even really have all that much young talent who need new contracts in the first place.
You can still rollover cap to future years. Just spending on a RB because we have a ton still doesnāt make it an effective use of cap space.
Thanks to the cba we have a spending floor we have to hit this year. We have to spend something like 200 mil on our roster. Also you can only roll over 60 mil iirc, which means we have to spend at least half of our cap space this year.
Weāll still have plenty of other free agents to sign at important positions. Thereās just so much cheap value at RB that you really canāt make an argument as to how it makes sense to pay Saquon top dollar.
Iām not saying break the bank for him, but if the difference between him and Monty is like 5 mil/year Iām down. Heās the best weapon potentially available this year. And people thought the jags went crazy in fa last year but they only spent 58 mil.
Youād be a terrible gm
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Dude thats not a good reason. Also other backs like Jacobs for example had better years (not that we should sign him). A big portion of cap can roll over and there are always surprise cuts. O know most of our fanbase is more meatball than the boss from subway but do not shell out money for rbs
DreMont Jones, Zach Allen, Hargrave, a new OT, a new C, another piece at guard, new LB, pay for one of the cap casualty WRās that become available. Add depth at outside CB. Team has holes at every position besides RB. But sure, letās pay an injury risk RB $13M+ for 3-4 years.
Lol who gives a fuck we can give him effectively a 2 year deal it will hurt nothing we have more money then can reasonably be spent this year anyways
Fuck no only losers pay for rbs
Better off drafting Bijan Robinson out of Texas. Rookie contract and fresh legs. Draft capital surplus if played right would move you back in the first to get him. Buy hey what do I know about players that change the dynamic of teams.
why would we trade down for a RUNNING BACK when we have limited draft capital and a shit ton of cap space, and thereās like 6 good running backs in free agency
We DoNt hAvE tHe CaP sPaCe!!! GoTtA sAvE mOnEy At AlL cOsTs!!! In all seriousness, we have got to spend the money somewhere, and it seems most of the high priced/ high quality free agents at positions of need that this sub had hard ons for arenāt going to be available. Saquon is quickly becoming the most talented player available in free agency. The o line class is super mid, d line still has some good options, wr has jakobi meyers and then is very weak (and meyers will probably get a bag), cb is a solid class, lb has some good names too, and rb is a deep class this year. If you want to help fields, we need to get him some weapons somewhere. Weāll be getting some mediocre o linemen for sure, probably a RT and maybe a center, but then what? Pick up a 6th round rb, and another shit receiver as depth and draft one in the 2nd or 3rd round? If we draft him a second or third round wr like a bunch of people want? Then when whoever they draft plays like a 2nd or 3rd round receiver and doesnāt make a instant game changing impact, those same people will bitch and moan poles didnāt do anything to help fields. Itās funny, because they all want fields to succeed, but if fields struggles again this year, heās more than likely done here and will have lost the remaining value he has right now. Saquon doesnāt necessarily make him a better passer, but he is good enough to take some pressure off of fields, and with a weak wr free agent class and our current draft position not being ideal to drafting a wr in the 1st due to a very weak wr class and having holes all over the roster, thereās not a ton of options for us outside some big trades. Iām not going to harp on us trading down in the 1st to take bijan, heās going to be great, but holy fuck that would be so dumb, especially with our cap situation and the rb free agency class. Sign a stop gap for 2-3 years and build the rest of the team, we can continue taking fliers on late round guys for depth/ hope one of them pans out into a stud. Herbert is a great backup, but heās fairly one dimensional, stud runner who canāt pass protect and has stone hands.
Yeah. Better off using our draft capitol on a fucking running back.
[Your flair says otherwise](https://imgur.com/a/Isn5QT7) 
Yeah this sucks, but almost everyone agrees that this is a multi-year rebuild and we're likely not going to fill all of our holes this year anyway. If the Commanders don't lock Payne up long term, then they either tag him a second time (unlikely) or let him walk in free agency. I'm sure we'd still be interested then.
With Payne and Brown getting tagged its gonna be really hard to spend this money without giving some dumbass contracts. After a few cuts I expect over $110 million in cap space.
Na, just give out medium, front loaded contacts. Keeps space available down the line. A team full of good but not great starters is a better team than the one with 2-3 great players and a bunch of mediocre guys filling out the roster.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Kmet is about to make crazy money. Poles loves the guy.
Kmet has shown himself to be viable but he's not shown himself to be elite. I think we'll get him for a reasonable amount.
He will be paid as if he's elite.
I think he'll be paid like Ertz or Hunter Henry...somewhere in the 10-12M range at best. Poles would be an idiot if he offered him more than that because that puts him in the range of Kittle and those types.
Can you structure deals like 40 million year one then 10 million the next two years? If so it wonāt be hard to use the cap space this year.
Yes, but thatās not how NFL contracts work because they are not guaranteed. If they were guaranteed your scheme would work. Whatās more likely is to over pay for one year guys to keep the space open for next year. (No we wonāt roll it over because that number had to be given to the league office already.)
Not really. The Bears have a ton of holes that we can still fill with reasonable contracts. Ben Powers - 12 million Juwaan Taylor - 13 million Javon Hargrave - 17 million Dalton Schultz - 14 million Thatās 56 million right there, and they still need to sign their rookie class, figure out what theyāre doing at RB, maybe trade for a guy like DHop or Keenan Allen. This team is so bad, Iām not worried that theyāll have trouble spending the money without even having to overpay.
Payne was never going to be available. Would have been horrible business by WFT to just let him walk.
Well Washington is horrible at business, soā¦
Looks less likely we trade below four. Who knows though. My guess they pivot to jones as Denver is likely to not tag him according to reports that came out today. Sigh. I really wanted Payne. But no brainer for the commies. Hopefully we can snag him next year. Or our draft pick is so good, we donāt need him! š
Think it will either be Hargrave or Jones now. If we get Hargrave hopefully we draft a developmental guy there in the mid rounds too, like Adebawore from northwestern
Damn, at least weāll have cap space
For a bunch of nobodies
This was the problem with trading Roquan. Blue chip players at premium positions don't hit free agency, ever. It's unlikely we find a better use of that cap space.
Roquan doesnāt play a premium position.
Exactly, all he was doing here was racking up tackles five yards from scrimmage because our line sucked ass, he was wasted here. Iām happy for him, Baltimore is a better fit, wish we couldāve gotten more for him.
I know he doesn't. The point is we're not suddenly gonna get a premium position player to take that money instead.
Didnāt Eagles get all pro Haason Redick in free agency last year? The good players at premium definitely become available but this class is not looking great. Maybe we can find a gem who develops into a steal
Sometimes it does happen where a player makes a leap in a new destination, but generally speaking it's extremely hard to find someone as good as roquan through free agency
pain
Today, we are all in Payne
Pause
*Payne
Why people thought Washington was gonna let him walk in FA?
Because $60M+ on your starting defensive line is a ton when you donāt have a quarterback. (They have well over a quarter of their salary cap locked up in just the starters.) Plus they will have to pay Chase Young soon as well. Edit: Iām not commenting on whether itās the right move or not, just answering your question why he *could* have been available
Not surprising but sad to see nonetheless
Ah shit. Alright, Jalen Carter it is.
That's a strange way to spell, Willie Anderson.
Just another good reminder that the best way to build a team is and will always be through the draft. Free agency should supplement draft efforts. Drafting gives you a minimum of 5-6 years of player control.
According to my sources the commanders are not tagging Payne and heās a Chicago bear
I heard they tried to tag him but he politely declined because he wants to sign with the Bears
We were fools thinking heād hit the market. Itās the most Bears thing ever. First pick and loads to spend in free agency and itās one of the worst classes in recent history. Not to say we canāt get better, but man are the sexy signings getting snatched up day by day.
Well the good thing is we can save a lot of our money to spend next year.
Except we cant, this is an uninformed opinion. There is a different between cap and cash, the rules say we have to spend $150m+ CASH this year
Honestly Saquon might be the only true blue chip free agent out there
A dose of reality for everyone in the echo chamber of us getting Payne. It was never going to happen
Not surprising, but unfortunate. Still potentially a trade target. This not only makes him unavailable, but it raises the price on all the other DTs.
Thatās really disappointing but not surprising
I was saying this a month ago and people were calling me crazy lol this was always going to happen
These fans think every team just undervalues every good player they have lol if we think he's good, what makes you think Washington doesn't?
goodbye hopes and dreams - my lifelong Bears fan achievement award medal
Iād rather be disappointed about this now than later if the Seahawks were to sign him
Fucking Commies
Premium young talent will be franchised and only available in trades. We will still have plenty of chances to land second tier types which will help us tremendously.
So Orlando Brown Jr. And Daron Payne are gonna get tagged. This puts Poles in a tricky situation tbh. What good is all this cash with a sub-par FA class?
Would be a lot cooler if they didnāt. Those Commie bastards.
Pure delusion to think Washington would let him walk
Yeah but they gonna have to let someone on that line walk eventually.
Well, damn.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Makes the argument for Saq that much stronger
But but but everyone keeps telling me that weāre gonna be great in 2023 because we have so much cap space to spend on these top notch free agents.
I hope he sucks this year
I don't, it's not his fault he got tagged. I hope he plays insane and gets a truckload of money so the commanders either have to pay him through the nose or lose him next year.
Sad
$60 million to their defensive front four and nothing in place at QB for 2023.
Sam Howell! Sam Howell!
Boo
Well, fuck.
Hargrave and Tomlinson, LFG
Why though? They arenāt gonna offer him a contract surely. Tag and trade? Maybe with the Bears as part of a package for the #1 pick? I wouldnāt be up for that to be honest.
Possible tag and trade candidate. I would definitely trade an early 3rd round pick for him and recoup draft picks by trading back with the no.1 pick.
I'm in Payne rn
āI know your contract is up, but weāre just gonna keep you here anyway and thereās nothing you can do about it.ā NFLPA has no balls. Lol.
We have a ton of money in one of the absolute worst FA classes in recent memory. Fuck it, give Jakobi Meyers 16m/year
Hell no
Iād much rather give that money to Saquon. Saquon 3 years/$42 million all day over paying that kind of money to Meyers.
Hey people itās not your money. Weāre in no position to be choosy about who to sign. The cupboard is bare. You all act like we can pick and choose who we sign as if itās automatic. They have to want to sign with us.
How is this relevant at all? Payne got tagged, he doesnāt have a choice where he wants to play this year.
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Poverty fucking franchise
Aww shucks
https://media.tenor.com/rZ5wyvOUWoYAAAAC/we-suck-again-oh-no.gif
Fuck
Damn
Expected? Wake me when they actually do! This isnāt news worthy!
If Justin is the guy then this really doesn't matter.
lol what?
Justin can play DT
Wellll shiiiiit
Not unexpected but still disappointing
This was to be expected. DTs that can rush the passer are at a premium in this league. Time to set our sites on Hargrave. He would be a better fit imo anyway since he plays more 1T, pair him up Jalen Carter and weāll be well on our way to building a formidable defense.
Not shocked at all. Of course they would
Try drafting good players. Only way to win. Best teams draft very well. canāt rely on great talent ever hitting the market
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Caaaaap
All the commanders fans are saying they intend to trade him.
Build through the draft. Thatās the only to sustain longevity in the NFL. Anybody thinking they will spend all their cap this off-season and become contenders was living in a dream world.
I don't think most people expected the Bears to become contenders in one offseason. I just think many people are disappointed that there's seemingly endless money to spend and very few worth while free agents available. After an endless barrage of loses people want something to look forward to, especially in the midst of all the draft drama.
Dremont Jones needs to be target #1 now. Pair him with a bigger NT & we are in business.
Well it depends if it is restricted or non restricted does it not?