Bears have OT Morgan Moses for a visit

[WindyCity]

 

https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1399717049635684352?s=20

 

 

 

I am not sure why Ryan Pace woke up and decided to go hard at the OL this offseason, but I love every second of it.

Moses would be a significant upgrade to Ifedi.
He has played LT at a high level in the past and could be depth over there.
He is 30 and has been durable.

I am fine with a 1 year, 2 year or 3 year deal for Moses, whatever works with the cap better.

[dll2000]

I don't see it happening for cap reasons.

But Pace always does this.  Lets a position get weak and then brings in a 100 bodies and hopes one hits.

He has done it in past at WR, TE, LB, Edge, Kicker, CB and now O line.

 

[MonserinNC]

2 hours ago, WindyCity said:

 

I am not sure why Ryan Pace woke up and decided to go hard at the OL this offseason, but I love every second of it.

I don't if its the McCaskeys themselves or what, but the Bears like hate competitions haha

Like if we got a linebacker or whatever, we don't even look for another one

[Epyon]

I'm all for it. Ifedi is nothing special and I doubt Borom is in the plans for year 1. I'd also mention I'm not thrilled with Mustipher at center, so maybe Whitehair can take back the center job and once of Ifedi or Borom can step in at og

[soulman]

If he really is serious about bringing in Moses then I see three possibilities for opening up some cap.

1) Get a deal with ARob done.  That could free up $9-$10 mil.

2) Restructure Quinn and pick up around $4500

3) Extend Hicks through 2022 and pickup $4000-$5000.

After that all Pace is left with is releasing Graham and we trade more OL strength for a massive weakness at TE.

[soulman]

7 hours ago, dll2000 said:

I don't see it happening for cap reasons.

But Pace always does this.  Lets a position get weak and then brings in a 100 bodies and hopes one hits.

He has done it in past at WR, TE, LB, Edge, Kicker, CB and now O line.

 

Ah yes, the old blind squirrel and the acorn approach.....LOL.

[Epyon]

1 hour ago, soulman said:

If he really is serious about bringing in Moses then I see three possibilities for opening up some cap.

1) Get a deal with ARob done.  That could free up $9-$10 mil.

2) Restructure Quinn and pick up around $4500

3) Extend Hicks through 2022 and pickup $4000-$5000.

After that all Pace is left with is releasing Graham and we trade more OL strength for a massive weakness at TE.

I feel like Arob could be likely after a few days of him getting to play catch with Fields.. but I wouldn't see it happening without Arob seeing what Fields can or can't do, since he'd betting basically the rest of his career on Fields being decent.

[BEAR FACE DOWN ARROW]

13 hours ago, soulman said:

If he really is serious about bringing in Moses then I see three possibilities for opening up some cap.

1) Get a deal with ARob done.  That could free up $9-$10 mil.

2) Restructure Quinn and pick up around $4500

3) Extend Hicks through 2022 and pickup $4000-$5000.

After that all Pace is left with is releasing Graham and we trade more OL strength for a massive weakness at TE.

Yikes only option 1 doesn't feel like throwing a turd straight into the future.  

Restructuring Quinn would be crazy as you really need to see whether it's 2019 or 2020 that was the fluke before doing anything with him, and even if he plays out in 21 I still hate to see him guaranteed for a longer term.  Extending Hicks, well, he deserves it, but do we really want to keep him here until he's  essentially guaranteed to be declining?

[WindyCity]

There is a good chance if the Bears don’t get a deal done with Allen Robinson that he is going to hit the market next offseason and the Bears won’t be able to tag him.

That means the Bears could very easily be looking at needing to replace their #1 and #3 WRs, which would be easier to do if the OL was stabilized.

[soulman]

4 hours ago, RunningVaccs said:

Yikes only option 1 doesn't feel like throwing a turd straight into the future.  

Restructuring Quinn would be crazy as you really need to see whether it's 2019 or 2020 that was the fluke before doing anything with him, and even if he plays out in 21 I still hate to see him guaranteed for a longer term.  Extending Hicks, well, he deserves it, but do we really want to keep him here until he's  essentially guaranteed to be declining?

I selected Hicks because he may be the easiest to work with.  You just add some gtd $$$ and another year or two, chop his base salary way down, and add voidable years like we did with DT.  The annual cap hit for those voidable years is minimal compared to taking it all in one shot.  Here's DTs deal.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/chicago-bears/danny-trevathan-10009/

Hicks and DT are roughly the same age but whereas DT's play, especially in coverage, has declined Hicks can still dominate an OL when he's 100% and while his sack numbers may suffer between Hicks and Goldman they are an f'n wall against the run.  So you give him less snaps and if needed replace him on some of the obvious passing downs.  I don't see Hicks declining as much as others may and even with some decline much like DT his leadership is invaluable.  He's the BIg Boss of that DL.

If that "drop foot" condition Quinn suffers from is permanent then he's a medical risk and yeah, you may not want to mess with his deal before seeing if he bounces back from his 2020 disaster big time but theoretically the same kind of deal might be worked out to chop his cap costs down as well.  He's also out of gtd $$$ after 2021.

The thing with Edge Rushers and Interior DL is you really have to evaluate them medically and physically to be able to decide when they might hit a wall.  The guys who keep themselves in top physical condition can easily keep producing into the mid 30s and beyond as guys like Pep and Reggie White did to mention just two.  There have been many others as well.  Hick might add a few more year by dropping 15lbs or so.  The problem is we don't know enough about their overall condition and mental state to evaluate them well.

[WindyCity]

15 minutes ago, soulman said:

I selected Hicks because he may be the easiest to work with.  You just add some gtd $$$ and another year or two, chop his base salary way down, and add voidable years like we did with DT.  The annual cap hit for those voidable years is minimal compared to taking it all in one shot.  Here's DTs deal.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/chicago-bears/danny-trevathan-10009/

Hicks and DT are roughly the same age but whereas DT's play, especially in coverage, has declined Hicks can still dominate an OL when he's 100% and while his sack numbers may suffer between Hicks and Goldman they are an f'n wall against the run.  So you give him less snaps and if needed replace him on some of the obvious passing downs.  I don't see Hicks declining as much as others may and even with some decline much like DT his leadership is invaluable.  He's the BIg Boss of that DL.

If that "drop foot" condition Quinn suffers from is permanent then he's a medical risk and yeah, you may not want to mess with his deal before seeing if he bounces back from his 2020 disaster big time but theoretically the same kind of deal might be worked out to chop his cap costs down as well.  He's also out of gtd $$$ after 2021.

The thing with Edge Rushers and Interior DL is you really have to evaluate them medically and physically to be able to decide when they might hit a wall.  The guys who keep themselves in top physical condition can easily keep producing into the mid 30s and beyond as guys like Pep and Reggie White did to mention just two.  There have been many others as well.  Hick might add a few more year by dropping 15lbs or so.  The problem is we don't know enough about their overall condition and mental state to evaluate them well.

The problem with extending Hicks is it will make it harder to keep Nichols who is young, more durable, and looks like he is becoming more productive.

You would have 3 big salaries on the DL at that point.

[soulman]

Just now, WindyCity said:

The problem with extending Hicks is it will make it harder to keep Nichols who is young, more durable, and looks like he is becoming more productive.

You would have 3 big salaries on the DL at that point.

That why I suggested taking the DT approach where you shave the salaries way down and use the voidable years to stretch out the bonus and cap hits.  DT's 2021 salary is only $3 mil and his cap hit is just over $5 mil.

Eventually we "pay the piper" but not 'til 2023 when the cap should be well over $200 mil.  There's usually a way to find cap room provided you're willing to kick the can down the road a few years.  I would risk that with Hicks.

Goldman and Nichols will have higher cap hits but if done correctly we may be able to brings Hicks hit down significantly and keep him around.  The bigger question is how long can Hicks play at a higher level if he really wants to?

 

[soulman]

As a somewhat related issue IMHO the whole salary scale for vets is somewhat messed up but it might take amendments to the CBA to fix it.

Ideally players should be earning top dollar during the prime earning years of say age 25 to age 30.  After age 30 their salaries should be scaled down with production bonuses for hitting certain targets or milestones.  It's even possible the NFL might fund those from a league pool like they do with players on their rookie deals who over perform.

As it stands still valuable players become too pricey and are released only to sign a lesser deal elsewhere whereas if their own team could scale their salaries down those same players might not be released.  With the majority of NFL players all their contracts are really good for is whatever their gtd $$$ is and maybe one year more to get past a huge dead cap hit.

I'm not actually expecting anyone to agree with this idea most of all the NFLPA but it might help still producing vets remain with their teams longer and even retire with them like they once did.  How often does that happen any longer?

[WindyCity]

1 hour ago, soulman said:

That why I suggested taking the DT approach where you shave the salaries way down and use the voidable years to stretch out the bonus and cap hits.  DT's 2021 salary is only $3 mil and his cap hit is just over $5 mil.

Eventually we "pay the piper" but not 'til 2023 when the cap should be well over $200 mil.  There's usually a way to find cap room provided you're willing to kick the can down the road a few years.  I would risk that with Hicks.

Goldman and Nichols will have higher cap hits but if done correctly we may be able to brings Hicks hit down significantly and keep him around.  The bigger question is how long can Hicks play at a higher level if he really wants to?

 

You could. We are likely going to pay the piper with Trevathan next year and the year after when we are paying real money to a severely declining player.

Personally, I think the best approach is to not touch Hicks or Quinn and get them off the books as soon as possible. The sooner that money is back in the bank and can be spent on O the better.

Hicks would be the one I extended if I had to make a move. Quinn needs to be cut at as little penalty as possible as soon as possible.

[Heinz D.]

1 hour ago, soulman said:

If that "drop foot" condition Quinn suffers from is permanent then he's a medical risk and yeah, you may not want to mess with his deal before seeing if he bounces back from his 2020 disaster big time but theoretically the same kind of deal might be worked out to chop his cap costs down as well.  He's also out of gtd $$$ after 2021.

I'd imagine they'd have done an injury settlement if he hasn't healed up (or looks like he will)--wouldn't you?