Cam Meredith's Fortunes Have Fallen Badly

[Damikeeeee]

10 minutes ago, soulman said:

I do have confidence and I don't believe Earl Bennett was bad.  He was no super star but he was a decent possession receiver.

Decent players playing on a bad team struggle to reach their potential.  I saw a lot of that playing ball for 15 years.  Top shelf guys may rise above it but even some of those may not.  Bennett was a 3rd round pick who had a couple of good seasons but was never destined to be a #1 WR.

Over the years we've had far worse WRs playing than guys like Meredith and Bennett.  This is more than likely the best and deepest group I've seen in 50 years so I'm a happy camper and even more so if guys like Bennett and Meredith couldn't make this team.  But....we still don't know that either.

That's an incredibly optimistic way of looking at it. With that being said.  Do you not know if you, me, anybody would or wouldn't make the team?

[soulman]

1 hour ago, Damikeeeee said:

That's an incredibly optimistic way of looking at it. With that being said.  Do you not know if you, me, anybody would or wouldn't make the team?

Let's just say that I've seen my share of Bears teams over the years and that is the basis for some of my opinions one of which is the Cam Meredith of 2016 would certainly be competing for a spot on this team and probably making it or losing out to Wims or Gabriel.

NOLA thought enough of him to offer him a $9.5 mil/$5.4 mil gtd deal to catch passes from Drew Brees and now NE is willing to roll the dice on him resurrecting his career so he hasn't been exactly attracting the bottom feeders.  He looked good when he was in Chicago.

At his best he could certainly be a #2 for some teams but in this offense I can't say other than he'd be in the rotation.  ARob is surely our #1 guy but whose the #2?  The way Nagy schemes it's hard to say because guys can shift around in so many different formations.  This isn't your typical old school WCO type offense.  It's quirky.  How many teams have a hybrid like Cohen who can catch like he does?

So to a degree who makes the team is as much based on their fit and usefulness in Nagy's schemes as it is on raw talent.

[AZBearsFan]

Let’s not lose sight of the fact that had Meredith been healthy and thrived in 2017 instead of on IR our whole WR room would look different. Even if we would have still signed ARob and Gabriel last offseason (a legitimate if especially without knowing what Meredith would have been able to do in a healthy 2017 as our #1) at minimum we probably don’t trade up for Miller meaning we probably wouldn’t have him but would have had a 2nd round pick this year to use on another player like a TE, taking Montgomery earlier without another trade up, etc. It’s a terrible thing that happened to Meredith, but it’s also a big reason our WR group is as strong as it is in 2019. Ripple effect everywhere. 

[soulman]

6 minutes ago, AZBearsFan said:

Let’s not lose sight of the fact that had Meredith been healthy and thrived in 2017 instead of on IR our whole WR room would look different. Even if we would have still signed ARob and Gabriel last offseason (a legitimate if especially without knowing what Meredith would have been able to do in a healthy 2017 as our #1) at minimum we probably don’t trade up for Miller meaning we probably wouldn’t have him but would have had a 2nd round pick this year to use on another player like a TE, taking Montgomery earlier without another trade up, etc. It’s a terrible thing that happened to Meredith, but it’s also a big reason our WR group is as strong as it is in 2019. Ripple effect everywhere. 

That would also be a major point as far as whether or not Meredith was still here and how he would fit.

IMHO there's really no way to tell because it didn't happen but for my money coming off his 2016 season he could have been a #2 guy for most anyone.

The fact that it did happen is to me a big part of why Pace has reinforced the WR position as much as he has.  We're now looking at possibly being 6-7 deep and all of them can play plus we may have 1-2 more on the PS who could develop. 

Contrast that to where we were in 2017.  It was pathetic.