Free Agent Rumors

[soulman]

37 minutes ago, RunningVaccs said:

Ha, this was one of those times when you read a post, say "that dude's right" then read the next post, which says almost the opposite, and say " now that dude's right!"

If Trubisky is out for more than a couple games, the season is very likely done.  Would be awesome to trade Daniel to some team needing a spot starter Midway through season. That can happen, right?

It can happen but I can think of many reasons why it won't happen.

At $6 mil against the cap Daniels is priced higher than some backups but ya' have to ask yourself, would you prefer Glennon for $2 mil?

He's still in the range that top vet backups are getting and his knowledge of the entire offense and his ability to help Mitch learn it and coach him through stuff on game days is a whole lot of what he's being paid for.  Without him IMHO Mitch doesn't progress as quickly as he did last year and I expect that to be even more accelerated this year because they'll have an entire offseason to work on it.

[malagabears]

Anyone the slightest bit curious as to why we are not seeing any meetings lined up, especially with OLB FA's?

[AZBearsFan]

6 minutes ago, malagabears said:

Anyone the slightest bit curious as to why we are not seeing any meetings lined up, especially with OLB FA's?

There’s a logjam of vet OLB on the market right now and because of that we don’t necessarily need to add one now if we see them all as pretty comparable. Those players may also be looking to wait until after the draft now too since once the draft passes the leverage of scarcity switches from the team (who right now can point to the draft and argue that they’ll just draft a guy unless the player takes their offer) to the players (since they can’t after the draft passes). 

[GOGRIESE]

1 hour ago, AZBearsFan said:

There’s a logjam of vet OLB on the market right now and because of that we don’t necessarily need to add one now if we see them all as pretty comparable. Those players may also be looking to wait until after the draft now too since once the draft passes the leverage of scarcity switches from the team (who right now can point to the draft and argue that they’ll just draft a guy unless the player takes their offer) to the players (since they can’t after the draft passes). 

Rumor has it that they want Aaron Lynch back 

[soulman]

2 hours ago, malagabears said:

Anyone the slightest bit curious as to why we are not seeing any meetings lined up, especially with OLB FA's?

Owners meeting in AZ this week and a lot of work being put in on the draft board to work in around that.

I believe Pace knows who he'd like to add and what he'll offer.  He may already have been in contact with their agents a well.  My guess is all are looking for more than he'll pay and still hoping they'll find betters offers.  I'm betting they won't.  But if he's playing it smart he won't dicker over term 'til whoever is ready to sign and so far it hasn't happened.

I also think this draft will entail a little more work since 1st and 2nd round picks may be easier to predict in term of who you actually may have a shot at. 

The mocks I've seen have a lot of variations from one to another with only a few names being repeated who may not even fall to us.  If you also figure in the possibility of trades I think this draft will be tougher to call and with less time on the clock we'll have to move quickly once we are.  But it should also be more interesting to see who Pace can pull out of the mid round pool.

[beardown3231]

2 hours ago, GOGRIESE said:

Rumor has it that they want Aaron Lynch back 

Who has that?

[soulman]

1 hour ago, beardown3231 said:

Who has that?

Yeah, not that it doesn't make sense, but other than by an educated guess I haven't heard anyone claim that.

[AZBearsFan]

5 hours ago, GOGRIESE said:

Rumor has it that they want Aaron Lynch back 

I don’t doubt that they want him back. They have some leverage to be able to control at what price he may come back though. Him not being under contract yet suggests they’re using it, and I don’t have any issue with that. If they lose Lynch because of it then there are several comparably priced other vets available to them who IMO are better players anyway. I don’t doubt that they may want Acho back too as OLB4 if they can get him back at about half of what he was set to make before being released. He was decent experienced depth, a good ST player and a GREAT locker room presence. 

[soulman]

3 hours ago, AZBearsFan said:

I don’t doubt that they want him back. They have some leverage to be able to control at what price he may come back though. Him not being under contract yet suggests they’re using it, and I don’t have any issue with that. If they lose Lynch because of it then there are several comparably priced other vets available to them who IMO are better players anyway. I don’t doubt that they may want Acho back too as OLB4 if they can get him back at about half of what he was set to make before being released. He was decent experienced depth, a good ST player and a GREAT locker room presence. 

Hadn't given much thought to Acho but as a fall back I suppose he also an option.

Not much of a pass rusher but he's a guy who knows the defense and won't screw up.

[malagabears]

59 minutes ago, soulman said:

Hadn't given much thought to Acho but as a fall back I suppose he also an option.

Not much of a pass rusher but he's a guy who knows the defense and won't screw up.

I would rather have a more skilled OLB who can line up on either side of Mack or Floyd. We still don't know what we have in Fitts/Irving. I would not mind seeing both Fitts & Irving together but only in garbage time like late 3rd or entire 4th qtr if we are up 3 TD's or something similar.

[AZBearsFan]

7 hours ago, soulman said:

Hadn't given much thought to Acho but as a fall back I suppose he also an option.

Not much of a pass rusher but he's a guy who knows the defense and won't screw up.

Per PFR, Acho in 2017 had 3 sacks and 18 QB hits in 639 defensive snaps. Lynch in 2018 had 3 sacks and 8 QB hits in 353 defensive snaps. So Lynch is a bit better at closing but they hit the QB at about the same rate of efficiency. Lynch also benefitted from playing with the lead much more often and from Mack and Floyd across from him. Acho didn’t have Mack and only had Floyd some of the time. Acho has been much less injury prone in his career too, last year notwithstanding, and he’s a 4-phase ST player and a leader in the locker room and the community. 

Im not so sure that Acho shouldn’t be plan A and Lynch plan B between those two. 

[soulman]

51 minutes ago, AZBearsFan said:

Per PFR, Acho in 2017 had 3 sacks and 18 QB hits in 639 defensive snaps. Lynch in 2018 had 3 sacks and 8 QB hits in 353 defensive snaps. So Lynch is a bit better at closing but they hit the QB at about the same rate of efficiency. Lynch also benefitted from playing with the lead much more often and from Mack and Floyd across from him. Acho didn’t have Mack and only had Floyd some of the time. Acho has been much less injury prone in his career too, last year notwithstanding, and he’s a 4-phase ST player and a leader in the locker room and the community. 

Im not so sure that Acho shouldn’t be plan A and Lynch plan B between those two. 

But remember Acho started 12 games in 2017.  The last time he put up numbers like that was in 2012 when he started all 16 games. 

In four seasons with Chicago he has only 4 sacks and 25 hits total most of those coming in 2017.

I'd love to see Acho return on a vet minimum deal or something close to that but I feel we'd still need a younger #3 guy like a Lynch or Marsh.

[SLCbear]

On Monday, March 25, 2019 at 3:12 AM, soulman said:

Why would Pace wait 'til August to sign a vet OLB unless he thought that Irving or Fitts might be ready for a role in the rotation as 3rd OLB?  Releasing Acho and not re-signing Lynch before FA would tend to indicate he thinks more of them than you might.  We don't really know that yet.

If Pace thinks Irving and Fitts aren't the answer that would tend to push him toward signing a vet OLB long before camp as opposed to hoping someone better may come along later.  Remember teams no longer cut down to their 53 man rosters 'til after preseason has wrapped up so the pickins' for quality edge rushers will be pretty slim and we're near the bottom as far a waiver claims go.  If we do find someone better we cut someone else.

Why would a mid or late round draft pick be any better than Irving or Fitts and will Pace even spend a mid round pick on an OLB/Edge?

Irving has 20 games of NFL regular season experience under his belt and has led the team in sacks and pressures in the previous two preseasons.  He's an RFA in 2020 so 2019 is kind of a make or break year for him as far as picking up a tender and sticking around.   He may get his shot at it.

Fitts is probably still a year away and needs more development but his size and basic skill set are what teams look for in an edge rusher.  His issue and why he dropped as far as he did in the draft is he couldn't stay healthy in college or he could have been a day 2 pick.  Too soon to say on him.

I'll just say I expect him to sign a vet at his price because it makes sense to have an experienced #3 OLB to rotate with Floyd and Mack for now.  Who he signs and when he signs him is what we're all looking at but eventually we'll want that spot filled by a player we've drafted or signed as a UDFA because it's far less expensive than continuing to sign vets when we have to pay both Mack AND Floyd big money and that's coming up in 2020.

I do see more upside with Fitts than I do with Irving ..  I said Pace 'may' wait to see how what we currently have, along with what we may add via dtaft, looks like before signing a vet ..

I believe he will sign a vet ..  and that this could happen at any point all the way up to the start of reg season ..

 

I'd love to see Irving and/or Fitts shine ..  I'd also love to see a newbie pick come in and shine, who wouldn't  ..  this is our #3 and no reason for Pace to be quick about it 

[soulman]

4 minutes ago, SLCbear said:

I do see more upside with Fitts than I do with Irving ..  I said Pace 'may' wait to see how what we currently have, along with what we may add via dtaft, looks like before signing a vet ..

I believe he will sign a vet ..  and that this could happen at any point all the way up to the start of reg season ..

 

I'd love to see Irving and/or Fitts shine ..  I'd also love to see a newbie pick come in and shine, who wouldn't  ..  this is our #3 and no reason for Pace to be quick about it 

If Pace can bring back Lynch or sign his equivalent it would make his draft a bit simpler.

Then he has the option of passing on drafting and edge rusher early and if he needs more depth he might offer Acho a lesser deal to return for a year.

It's been awhile since I've seen it posted anywhere but it's always been tougher to get effective pass rushers after the first two rounds.  Not that it's impossible but rather the odds are against you and you end up with projects like Fitts who has upside but needs more seasoning and development before he can be trusted to start in a 3 man rotation. 

I fear anyone we might draft in the middle rounds would be much the same especially with us drafting as late in each round as we are.

I see Irving handling the role Sam Acho played in the past.  Most of his work will be on ST but by now he should have gained enough experience to take some snaps on defense as well.  I don't think he'll hurt us I'm just unsure that he'll ever be a consistent pass rusher at this level but with some help from Mack who knows.  He's done well in preseason against lesser OL.  If can up his game he may surprise us.

I agree with you that Fitts has more upside.  He has the size and physical tools but needs to learn how to turn them into production.  If he can he'd probably be a guy like Aaron Lynch who can give us 4-5 sacks and consistent pressure once he reaches that point.  Much of what I've read about him in scouting reports said he could have been a Day 2 pick had he stayed healthy in college but there was just too little game tape on him to rate him that high.

[malagabears]

35 minutes ago, soulman said:

If Pace can bring back Lynch or sign his equivalent it would make his draft a bit simpler.

Then he has the option of passing on drafting and edge rusher early and if he needs more depth he might offer Acho a lesser deal to return for a year.

It's been awhile since I've seen it posted anywhere but it's always been tougher to get effective pass rushers after the first two rounds.  Not that it's impossible but rather the odds are against you and you end up with projects like Fitts who has upside but needs more seasoning and development before he can be trusted to start in a 3 man rotation. 

I fear anyone we might draft in the middle rounds would be much the same especially with us drafting as late in each round as we are.

I see Irving handling the role Sam Acho played in the past.  Most of his work will be on ST but by now he should have gained enough experience to take some snaps on defense as well.  I don't think he'll hurt us I'm just unsure that he'll ever be a consistent pass rusher at this level but with some help from Mack who knows.  He's done well in preseason against lesser OL.  If can up his game he may surprise us.

I agree with you that Fitts has more upside.  He has the size and physical tools but needs to learn how to turn them into production.  If he can he'd probably be a guy like Aaron Lynch who can give us 4-5 sacks and consistent pressure once he reaches that point.  Much of what I've read about him in scouting reports said he could have been a Day 2 pick had he stayed healthy in college but there was just too little game tape on him to rate him that high.

I agree on Fitts. I think he can get some reps. He has excellent size and some upside. He just needs more seasoning.