You need to have two starting safeties… you get rid of Byard and you’ll need two new safeties. You keep Byard and you only need one (more) starting safety. That’s the point.
His rookie season where he played 15 games at Free Safety,
You have us restructuring Edmunds contract so won't that cost us money to cut him after the season now?
But he wasn't good, so i'd rather not go off of that to choose to put him back there.
Restructuring him is purely an option in the event the Bears need to make an additional move during the season.
It was arguably his best season, he had 4 sacks and 104 tackles. He is a big hitter at SS but he will be better served taking less punishment.
So don't count the 32 year old safety with one year remaining as a role needing to be filled? If you are already assuming they will need two new safeties doesnt it make sense to grab one this year and one next year instead of both safeties and possibly both linebackers in the same off season?
I see him with 94 tackles. Byard had 120 tackles and 2 sacks last year.
I didn't say he won't be released - I'd read a bit more carefully. I said he won't save them much money. He's got $25m in dead cap. That will all count, whether they break it up over 2 years or not. They aren't getting any cap relief from cutting him.
I definitely think they should draft a S somewhere around the 3rd or 5th rounds but i'm starting Byard and Brisker and worrying about getting new guys next offseason.
How many free safeties have 4 sacks in one season?
Brisker spent 2/3 of his snaps in the box or at the line of scrimmage - Jackson had the fewest snaps in the box of his career up to that point in '22 - just go back and watch tape lol its plain as day. Granted IDK why anyone would want to watch film of that god awful season.
I agree with you but i did think i saw him play there some (not much) which could of been because of an injury to Eddie Jackson or something or maybe i didn't see him play there and i'm just too old to remember correctly.
Eddie Jackson early in his career was extremely productive when the team would mix in snaps where they would show either cover 2 or have him back as the middle field S in Cov 1 or 3, but then have him step up into Robber or Hook coverages and rotate the other S or a CB/NB into the deep zone. He got a ton of picks this way under Fangio in particular. The S across from him would have to be able to handle deep zone on occasion as the Ds changeup to their normal assignments, there had to be some versatility with the SS because of that. Eberflus when he came to the Bears was somewhat similar in that he liked to disguise which S would be dropping deep middle presnap. Most teams will ask some form of versatility from both of their S, very few players will only play in the box and those that do are usually S/LB Tweeners/hybrids.
This quote was before the '24 season and wasnt about his rookie year. He was on track to play more deep zone in '24 though before he got hurt (granted it was 5 games), I think Eberflus wanted to use him and Byard as interchangeable Safetys as much as possible which is the ambiguity that Flus' scheme wants at the S position.
My prediction : assuming they are still on the board in the second round, the Bears will draft Omarion Hampton or Kaleb Johnson. Lots of different things can happen, of course in terms of trades, etc, but the new coach understands the importance of BOTH a superior O line and an elite RB.
That's fine, I also considered taking a Safety in the draft as well, its just a mock. I personally liked the effort that Byard played with and his professionalism.
