We all sit on Quarterback Watch 2021.

So what else is happening?

• As we veer towards the draft, Mac Jones is veering towards having his name called quite early. In Nick Shook’s piece for NFL.com, former teammate Tua refers to Jones as a “more mobile Tom Brady”. A month ago, many believe the Bears would be reaching for Jones at 20. Now it’s becoming quite clear the Bears would need to make a significant trade to acquire his talents.
• Jason Fitzgerald at Over the Cap provides pretty solid analysis re: the Bears releasing Buster Skrine this week. Many have wondered if the Bears would designate Skrine a June 1 release. Fitzgerald poo poos that notion: “I would say that the June 1 is very unlikely as the Bears are hoping to be active in free agency and the June 1 would force them to carry the $6.03 million cap number until June 1st. Using a regular cut allows them to free up $2.7 million immediately.”
• Somehow I ended up reading about George Blanda in a piece by Tom Lamarre on Raider Maven. I’m not sure how I ended up there but the writing wasn’t bad. Here’s a Bears-related cut: “Playing on the same team with Sid Luckman and Bulldog Turner and against people like Sammy Baugh, those were nostalgic days for me,” Blanda said years later. “Halas was a great coach, but the only problem I had with him, the problem all the players had with him, was that we didn’t get paid very much.”
• ACTUAL BEAR NEWS! Have you ever seen photos of a bear waking up from hibernation? Well you have now because News 22 has a terrific slideshow of the aforementioned occurrence in Belchertown, Massachusetts.
• When new Bears analyst Tom Herman was asked about his job status in December, this is how he answered: “When you don’t get on the internet and you stick to Yahoo News and Words with Friends and the Chive app when you’re bored, you tend to stay above the fray a little bit.”
• There are very few local reporters as connected to the organization they cover as (former podcast guest) John McClain in Houston. When he writes it is time for the Texans to entertain trade offers for Deshaun Watson, he knows which way their ownership is trending.

Once Russell Wilson has been dangled in front of the faces of Bears fans, little else will do. And recent reports out of Seattle make two things clear:

• Wilson doesn’t want to keep beating his head against the wall in Seattle.
• Seattle doesn’t want a QB who publicly speaks his mind.

None of that would matter except, shockingly, the Chicago Bears just so happen to need a quarterback and Wilson listed them on his list of teams to which he would accept a trade. Like the Texans with Deshaun Watson and the Packers with Aaron Rodgers, the Seahawks seem to have little interest in trading their star quarterback right now. Doing so would actually cost Seattle $39 million in 2021; keeping Wilson would cost them $32 million. Paying $7 million to get rid of a franchise quarterback is bad business, no matter how upset they might be with him.

So, what can the Bears do? Well, there is an unconventional way in which the Bears and Seahawks could work out a trade.

The teams would have a handshake agreement to finalize the trade after June 1, and doing so would mean trading Wilson is only a $13 million cap hit for Seattle in 2021 and they’d save $19 million — that math is much better for them. The teams couldn’t necessarily exchange draft picks in 2021, but — in theory — the Bears could make a pick with the idea that they’d be trading that player to Seattle. The cleaner way would be to not include any draft picks until the 2022 season, but the Bears have to be flexible.

The problem, however, is that Seattle couldn’t use any assets they would get from the Bears to make trades. If they’re trading a franchise quarterback, they’d surely like to get one in return and there’s no telling if that could happen with the 20th pick. The Bears would surely want to know if they have the 20th pick to use or if it’s traded before then. Then again, Seattle doesn’t ever want to pass anyway, so maybe Nick Foles would be good enough for them.

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The following is Reverend Dave’s response to Adam Hoge’s suggestion that the Bears buy the Arlington Park property in Arlington Heights and irrationally move the team into the suburbs. 

I like Hoge, but what is the point of this article?

Question answers itself.

Didn’t stop me from getting riled up like everyone else.

“Soldier Field offers nothing in terms of convenience. It’s hard to access, with limited public transportation options…”

The fuck it does.

Hoge claims the Arlington Metra stop makes it more accessible than Soldier Field. Accessible to who? The northwest suburbs? Are those the only people who count? From Joliet south and anywhere East, Arlington is a longer drive than Solider Field.

Meanwhile, there are multiple Metra stops in walking distance of the stadium. There’s the El train. Hell, Union Station itself is only 40-minutes. I can already hear the outcries at that ambulatory demand, but as someone who has taken the train from the Meadowlands (departing a mere 50 yards from the stadium entrance) many times, a 40-minute walk is way better than 40 minutes squashed in a mass of humanity waiting on that one method of egress.

“What Chicago needs – a legitimate multi-purpose, 80,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof.”

The fuck it does.

Why do we need a roof? I don’t romanticize freezing but sitting in the cold can be fun at a Bears game, even if it’s not for Hoge. Feels a lot more like football in the cold. Would the Pack put a lid on Lambeau?  

More importantly though, how does the fan experience benefit from an extra 20,000 people? Will that make parking or accessibility easier? Do I want the air to be even thinner when I buy tickets in the nosebleeds? Do I care if the McCaskey’s make more off ticket revenue?  

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Russell Wilson has told the Seahawks he wants to play in Seattle but, if a trade were considered, the only teams he would go to are the Cowboys, Saints, Raiders and Bears, his agent Mark Rodgers said to ESPN.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 25, 2021

(1) The only time I’ve gotten a scoop wrong on Twitter was during a conversation I had with Robinson last spring, suggesting he would be extended shortly. That suggestion came from directly inside the organization and there was a firm belief the deal was done. It was not. Robinson wanted more. (Way more.) And now it seems ARob has taken his situation to the media in hopes of avoiding the franchise tag and securing about a $100 million contract.

That same individual inside the organization told me this week the team has NOT ruled out a long-term deal with Robinson. An extension is still their best case scenario, despite what Robinson says publicly.

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(2) Tagging Robinson is a no brainer. And if any team is willing to part with a first-round pick for him, the Bears should not even hesitate to make that move. As Andrew wrote Tuesday, if trading Robinson makes it possible for the Bears to acquire a potential franchise QB, nothing else matters. Make the deal. If the Bears don’t find themselves acquiring an established starter (Watson, Carr) before the draft, they must come out of that first round with a quarterback to inspire the fan base and give hope for the future. With two first rounders, that should be fairly easy to accomplish.

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(3) This piece at CBS from Cody Benjamin has a passage I simply don’t understand:

If Chicago hasn’t met his demands by now, it’s hard to believe the team will retain him any longer, unless it’s on the franchise tag Robinson doesn’t want.

Who cares what Robinson wants? This is a business. The Bears are not going to determine whether or not to tag Robinson based upon the player’s preferences! It’s been amazing to see national writers only see the team’s options as tagging (and keeping) him or letting him go onto the open market.

Some days we just have to fill the space around here. This is one of those days. Here are some links worth reading.

• Brad Biggs raises an issue one can’t imagine is on the front burner for the Bears right now: re-signing Cairo Santos. (For the record, I can’t see a scenario where Santos is not back but the Bears are trying to solve the most important position in sports. That takes a bit of priority.)
• Albert Breer at SI lays out the most updated franchise tag numbers and explains why teams won’t be rushing to tag players until the salary cap for the 2021 season is settled.
• The quarterback series at The Athletic has been terrific but I’m partial to Adam Jahns’ piece on Jim Miller, one of the more ludicrous figures in Bears’ quarterbacking lore. Miller was once fined a fortune and (I believe) suspended for diet pills. That only happens to one position in sports: Bears QB.
• The Colts have their new starting quarterback. But he won’t be playing with number 11 because of…Michael Pittman? How is that possible? ESPN has the story. (Somewhere, in the deep recesses of Bears twitter, folks are still wrongly arguing the Bears had interest in Wentz. They never made a single offer.)
• Eddie Goldman has told Sean Desai he’ll be returning to the Bears for 2021 – something that was certainly not a foregone conclusion. (This link does not overtly confirm Goldman’s return. But he’s coming back.)
• ACTUAL BEAR STORY: ‘Something bit me’: Woman surprised by bear while using outhouse. (People call it ‘clickbait’ but how exactly would you avoid clicking THAT link?)
• ESPN’s Dan Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham produced a stunning piece of journalism on NFLPA boss DeMaurice Smith, one of the more complicated figures in the business of professional sports. Why was Smith so fundamentally opposed to 18 games but open to 17? Why would he allow the franchise tag to continue to exist? Every question you’ve ever had about Smith’s role in the game is addressed in this piece.

It certainly doesn’t seem as if the Chicago Bears are going to be re-signing Allen Robinson to a long-term extension, which means they have to find a way to make his exit a positive for the future of the franchise. The best way to do that is by moving him in a deal that would help the team draft the next franchise quarterback.

As I wrote last week, the team’s options at quarterback are relatively limited and trading up would cost them more picks than most GMs would be comfortable with unloading. Their most valuable asset could be Robinson through a tag and trade scenario.

In recent years, worse receivers have been traded for first round picks, so that’s where the bidding could start for Robinson. Last year, Stefon Diggs was traded for the 22nd pick and some change after a season in which he caught just 63 passes. Considering he’ll be on the franchise tag with a hefty raise coming, it’s not unreasonable to consider Robinson as having the same value as Diggs.

Trading Robinson makes the Bears future prospects at least a little more interesting.

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Sometimes really good things are posted on Twitter. And then they’re gone. I found Bill Zimmerman’s thread –  documenting what the Bears would need to give up to move up in the draft – quite illuminating. So I’m sharing it here.

Hadn’t seen this video posted in the last few days but I wanted to make sure to get it posted here.

Sometimes as a silly hobby, specifically in years where the Bears might draft an early quarterback, I find myself scouring mocks in February to see which way the wind is blowing. Yesterday, I looked at three such mocks.

Daniel Jeremiah at NFL.com had the Bears taking a wide receiver at number 20.

Kadarius Tony, WR, Florida

The Bears are going to need more offensive playmakers whether pending free agent Allen Robinson is re-signed or not.

Chris Trapasso at CBS had the Bears taking an offensive lineman at 20.

Alijah Vera-Tucker, OL, USC

Vera-Tucker is a valuable prospect because we’ve seen two high-caliber seasons from him at different positions (guard then tackle).

John Clayton at the Washington Post (apparently) had the Bears also taking a receiver at 20.