Four years, $56 million. 

$18 million guaranteed.

Here’s another compilation of Tweets, wrapping up the Bears’ flurry of free agency moves in the last four days and their press conference Thursday. I’ll have a full column Monday morning and Adam Jahns will join me on the podcast next week. 

Riding in the car on way to physicals this morning with my guys @Thee_AR15 & @TGdadon1…already talking about this season & the mindset we want to bring up here to Chi-Town! Something special is brewing & I felt it the minute I walked into Halas Hall! #BearDown 🐻⬇

— Chase Daniel (@ChaseDaniel) March 15, 2018

The Bears are really following Eagles blueprint. Take a QB at 2. Hire Andy Reid’s OC as your HC. Surround your QB with weapons for year 2. Get rid of your high-priced “starting” QB. Bring in Chase Daniel as a mentor.

— Mike Mulhern (@MikeyMuls) March 14, 2018

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(Jake Roth – USA TODAY Sports)

The “legal tampering period” is another work of staggering genius by Roger Goodell. Instead of having an exciting start to the league year this afternoon, with six hours of team-changing moves, we now have this three-day, amorphous blob of leakage featuring the newest bullshit phrase “intend to”.

Nothing in the NFL improves under Uncle Rog but the television revenues. His contract extension proved nothing else matters to these owners.

Twitter is the place to be on days like yesterday, as the news comes flying in from every direction. (True story. I’m currently starting a theatre company and for some reason scheduled ALL my legal meetings for yesterday. Forgot to check the NFL calendar.) So here are the Tweets telling the story of the Bears newest signings.

Allen Robinson, Cam Meredith, Taylor Gabriel, Trey Burton, Adam Shaheen, Jordan Howard, and Tarik Cohen is a collection of actual NFL players.

— Robert Mays (@robertmays) March 13, 2018

I kinda like the Trey Burton deal – think he can by a dynamic receiving option – but that’s a great example of paying for future potential not past production. We haven’t seen it YET, Bears confident they will.

— Sam Monson (@PFF_Sam) March 13, 2018

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Per RapSheet it is 3 years, $42 million with $25 million guaranteed.

I like free agency week. It’s fun. It’s real. For the most part, unlike the draft, media and fans can accurately analyze what the acquisition of a certain player means for the acquiring club. (It also inevitably leads to NFL beat writers bitching at one another over “breaking news” and that’s ALWAYS fun.) Some thoughts for the Bears this week.

I. Don’t Go Nuts.

Yes, the fan base is hungry but free agency is almost never the time to feed them. Spend some money, sure, but spend wisely and spend young. Any long-term guaranteed cash should be invested in players who will be part of the team’s plans for the duration of Mitch Trubisky’s rookie contract.

Specifics

Don’t overpay for a Jimmy Graham or Trumaine Johnson, guys who will be well into their thirties when the Bears hope to be playing in the last game of the NFL season. The Bears are not the Eagles, trying to win another title. They are not even the Rams, who’ve been able to convince themselves they are on the precipice of a title despite a wildly misleading 2017. They need to be 8-8 or better in 2018. Then plug the final holes next off-season and go for it.

II. Make a Whitehair Decision.

The Bears have two elite interior offensive linemen. They severely hindered the development of Kyle Long by inanely moving him around the line due to a lack of a lack of sufficient talent on the roster. They are now in danger of doing the same to Cody Whitehair. Pick a position. If it’s center, fine. If it’s guard, fine. But make the decision now and approach free agency/draft accordingly.

Specifics

There’s been a lot of Zach Fulton talk surrounding the Bears and he’s a solid player. But what is he? A guard? A center? If the Bears are going to pay him substantial money, one would hope they’d have that question answered before they sign the first check.

III. Grab Two Receivers.

The Bears have two positions of dire need: wide receiver and pass rush. There are no edge rushers worth a damn on the market (and there rarely are). There are plenty of professional receivers available for purchase. Ryan Pace should not worry about whether a guy is a number one-type or a number two-type. He should simply add good, productive bodies to the room and then turn to the draft for getting to the quarterback.

Specifics

Allen Robinson will be 25 when the 2018 season begins. Albert Wilson will be 26. Are either elite receiving talents? No. But a wide receiving corps of Robinson, Wilson, Cam Meredith, Kendall Wright, Dontrelle Inman and anything from Kevin White is formidable. That’s a winning group at the position.

YOU MAY NOW LEGALLY TAMPER.

A lot seemingly going on in the land of the Bears. Let’s take a look at some of it.

Kyle Fuller, Transitioned

There was much debate this off-season about the best approach to Fuller, a player with one of the most tumultuously bizarre starts to an NFL career many can remember. He’s been at turns terrific and terrible, including missing an entire season for injury reasons the organization did not believe were valid.

Ryan Pace had to answer a simple question: did Fuller’s 2017 performance convince him the corner was worthy of top corner money? Applying the transition tag answers that question with a definitive NO. The Bears like Fuller. But if they valued him as a top corner, there were plenty of deals struck at the position last off-season to set the market.

The Bears will now see how the marketplace values Fuller. And they’ll know that if they want him on their 2018 roster, it is fully in their control.

Three Thoughts on the Draft

The official email account of DBB receives more action in the lead-up to the draft than at any other time. And thankfully there are now people like Data and Andrew writing here because my god do I find the whole draft process to be a colossal bore. Here are three general thoughts.

(1) Unless a team has designs on one specific player (Bears with Trubisky, Falcons with Julio…etc.) they almost ALWAYS want to trade back. GMs and scouting departments live for this shit. The more times they can get on the clock, the more opportunities they have to pad their resumes. (So stop emailing me and asking me if the Bears want to trade back.)

(2) Ryan Pace has made three first-round picks. Kevin White, a freak athlete who can’t stay on the field. Leonard Floyd, a freak athlete who struggles to stay on the field. Mitch Trubisky, quarterback of the future. But there’s more pressure on this off-season for Pace than any previous one. Don’t be surprised if his approach veers more conservative on draft weekend.

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On this week’s episode of DaBearsPod:

• Scott Wright of NFLDraftCountdown.com on (a) why this is not the ideal draft class for the Bears to rebuild at the receiver and edge rusher positions. (b) why he thinks the league may be sleeping on LSU wideout DJ Chark, who he compares (hesitantly) to Michael Thomas. (c) Texas OT Connor Williams possibly falling this week. (d) Quenton Nelson and what will be a hotly-debated QB class. (e) Much, much more…

•Reverend Dave wakes up in the middle of the night and mumbles his sermon into a microphone like Bukowski. It has to be heard to be believed. It’s his masterpiece.

•Prokofiev! Music!

Matt Forte formally announced his retirement Wednesday. Read the full text of that announcement HERE.

My favorite Matt Forte highlight of all time. #Bears pic.twitter.com/AflPpUYLRC

— David Chasanov (@AllThatChazz1) February 28, 2018

Three Thoughts on Forte:

• Forte should be saluted for fighting through 2014 – the most embarrassing season in the history of the Chicago Bears. That year, Trestman’s last, Forte rushed for over a thousand yards and caught over a hundred passes.
• Arguments can be made for Sayers (short spell) and Nagurski (different era) but Forte is the second best Bears running back of all-time.
• Forte was the perfect fit for the modern game, an “air back”, and I give him a lot of credit for not hanging on an extra season in order to eclipse the 10,000-yard rushing mark. Forte isn’t going to the Hall of Fame but hitting that landmark would have most likely improved any case he intended to make.

Alshon Jeffery: American Hero

Jeffery played 2017 with a torn rotator cuff. Just a few weeks after he and the Philadelphia Eagles won Super Bowl 52, it was announced that Jeffery underwent surgery for the injury that has all-but guaranteed he’ll miss the entirety of Philly’s off-season program and has put the start of the 2018 regular season in jeopardy.

A few questions:

• Did the team know? If they did, how can this not get publicly reported all season? Was Jeffery never even PROBABLE with a rotator cuff tear? He was just 100%, good-to-go? If you have a torn rotator cuff, that injury is not one that can’t be hampered more severely in-game.
• Why did Jeffery play? Cash. The league made it very clear to Jeffery’s team they did not believe he could either (a) stay healthy or (b) play through pain? This season he proved he (a) can’t stay healthy and (b) can play through pain. But what will the long-term ramifications be of his playing hurt to get a lucrative extension? We’ll know more in September and beyond.
• There’s been a lot of talk about Jeffery leaving Chicago because the Bears would not pay him. That talk is incorrect. I urge people to go back and read some actual reporting in this space that detailed what Jeffery was offered and how things turned out.

NFL Loves High School Coaches Now

A nice new twist the NFL is doing this year for players accepting an invite to the draft: Bringing the player’s high school coach with them, all expenses paid.

— Gil Brandt (@Gil_Brandt) February 22, 2018

Here’s an idea for Roger Goodell. FIX THE DAMN LEAGUE! STOP WORRYING ABOUT THE DAMN DRAFT AND FIX THE SPORT WHICH YOU COMMISSION.

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