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Has it occurred to you that Poles won’t be adding a TE other than a backup depth piece?
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Lol. Wow
I hope the majority of people on here aren’t expecting this to happen. Otherwise it’s going to be a cunting fest when the season begins and the bears are still a bottom 3rd team
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But none of these guys are long term solutions. Patrick is probably the most significant signing and even he is viewed as a seat warmer for an eventual replacement sooner than later.
Poles essentially had to turn over the roster, create cap space, and sign a bunch of band aid short term free agent solutions that at the very least could prevent the QB from getting destroyed, and prevent getting his confidence destroyed.
The only real wiggle room Poles can be fairly evaluated from is his use of available draft picks. I believe he did very well in the draft. I believe that Poles did land two future pro bowlers with Brisker and Gordon.
I believe that Braxton Jones looks alot like a young Jermon Bushrod as a rookie climbing the roaps with the Saints in his play and development. The two reflect very similar parallels. If Braxton Jones even comes close to a polished off version of Bushrod, then that's a helluva draft pick.
Let's see what Poles does with the available cap space and draft picks.
Poles wasn't my first choice for Bears GM but by no means does the hire bother me.
To me the most baffling hire from the off-season was hiring Matt Eberflus as the HC when the franchise has a young QB they desperately need to develop.
I was under the impression that Poles didn't hire Eberflus. McCaskey hired Eberflus at the behest of Bill Polian whose insights are so valuable that 31 other franchise hadn't already thought to give him the time of day. Since it worked so wonderful with Ernie Accorsi the first time around with outside consultation, let's do it again and see how bad McCaskey can REALLY **** things up this time around.
At the very least it's encouraging to see a Bears GM attempting to create extra draft capital, rather than piss it away at every opportunity to trade up for future journeyman types.
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The Hawk
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What makes you think that he will be satisfied with Kmet? Do you think Kmet is a good tight end? I don't. At best he is average.
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The new tight rope surgery on ankle sprains puts Mooney’s type of injury at a 6-8 week recovery time. N’Keal Harry returned 6 weeks after having ankle surgery in august. So I don’t believe this is the type of injury that will linger into next season.
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Have they actually said that’s what it is? Would be great news.
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You heard Poles speak right? He is going to build thru the draft, which means he’s not going to give out a bunch of 4+ year contracts (which all your guys on your list will be looking for) to guys in FA like you are expecting. He is going to resign current players, make one or two big “splash” signings in FA, and keep the rest of his $ to pay his OWN draft picks or guys who outperform their initial one-year prove it deals.
This process takes YEARS. Which will get the bears a top 10 pick for at least the first two years.
People need to get this thru their head.
My mindset is, so long as we add a legit center and tackle, and another above avg receiver for Fields, next season’s record is irrelevant just like it is this season.
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Most of those are stop gaps not build up players.
1 Patrick - Will be replaced by a FA or draft pick hopefully.
2 Pringle - Has 5 games left to determine if he can be a useful player going forward.
3 AQM - Really just a depth piece so doesn't matter if we keep him or not
4 ESB - Probably survives going forward as a 5th WR/TE hybrid who is here because of his blocking which has been instrumental on many of our big plays.
5 Reiff - Was always a stop gap.
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Just my guess based on it being an ankle injury. Even the latest estimates on ankle surgeries are 12 weeks, so they are generally not nearly as bad as knee surgeries.
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does this pan out as well if he only has skin holding his ankle together?
Mighty Joe Young
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I mean, it is and it isn't.
To be routinely Superbowl competitive? Yep, still at least 2-3 years away.
But in this league, the Bears with the cap situation they have right now, can be in the playoffs next year.
That's more a comment about the parity of the league than it is about how good the Bears will be.
To put it another way - how many 1 score games did we lose with Fields as QB?
If we had just AVERAGE NFL talent around Fields and on defense, we win those games. That's what a franchise QB does for a team.
So, let's say Poles went the early Ryan Pace route of picking up a lot of average NFL players in the second wave of free agency in order to buy time to eventually replace them all with draft picks.
Not only is that the smart play here with all that money, given we have a stud QB, but it makes the Bears playoff-competitive IMMEDIATELY.
The one thing you hope is that, while that is a good strategy, you pray Poles is better than Pace at figuring out what free agents to sign on the offensive side of the ball.
And despite who got brought in this year, it was all small contracts for guys who knew systems to expedite installing the offense and defense.
We won't know if those were a one off in a rebuild year or a trend until this next FA.
The one thing I will say - don't expect the Bears to sign more than one big contract this free agency.
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Kmet is easily a top 10 TE and flashed the ability to be near elite the past few weeks. I'm surprised to be even saying this bc I thought he was a huge disappointment up until recently. He's no doubt part of their long term future.
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I do not think adding a bunch of avg players will make this team a playoff contender immediately. I think it’s going to take more than a bunch of avg players, including at least pro bowl caliber players.
Yes bears lost a lot of close games with fields. But all but one of their 3 wins were also close. Bears could easily have the same record as the Texans.
IMO it’s been proven Flus’ defense needs stars to be successful, it is not a system that will allow average players to play beyond their capabilities. That will take years to accumulate.
Not to mention, up until last week, bears have been very healthy for most of the season, and been able to play their day 1 starters for most of the year, especially on D. Not sure u can expect that every year
Tillman33
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Poles is a DeCosta disciple. He’s slowly turning the Bears into the Ravens - a strong organization and culture that will yearly be a 10-12 win team.
Mighty Joe Young
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All I am saying is it doesn't take all that to back into the playoffs. Now to actually COMPETE in the playoffs and be a force? You're exactly right.
But just to make the playoffs in this day and age in the NFL isn't THAT hard - the Bears just make it look that hard.
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Pringle is a favor to Cunningham? Poles worked at KC, Cunningham was with the Eagles. Are Pringle and Cunningham connected in some way?
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Poles worked under Pioli, Dorsey and Veach.
How is he tied to DeCosta?
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He might be mistaking Poles for Asst GM Ian Cunningham
Ian came up with the Ravens and worked with Newsome and DeCosta
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Newsome is one of the best GM’s of all time. Hoping Cunningham learned a lot from him
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Doesn't the League require that 95% of the Salary cap (estimated $236M in 23') be spent?
That means they must spend approximately $224M.
I don't completely understand everything with the cap, but according to Over the Cap, they have $111M heading into 23' and must be at $224M at a minimum, so they do have to make some considerable moves to reach $113M.
The fact that Lazard might be the best WR (assuming he makes it to the market), means that a big $ splash player will likely not come from WR.
My honest hope is that they spend FA money on the trenches, on Defense the 3 tech is a critical piece, and we need a pass rusher or two, and all of those can be expensive, but also make a HUGE and immediate impact. On offense, the Center is the most critical upgrade needed, and ofcourse a LT.
In order to upgrade WR, I think it is going to have to be either drafting one, or trading for one. Not sure which one I think I like more.
That means they must spend approximately $224M.
I don't completely understand everything with the cap, but according to Over the Cap, they have $111M heading into 23' and must be at $224M at a minimum, so they do have to make some considerable moves to reach $113M.
The fact that Lazard might be the best WR (assuming he makes it to the market), means that a big $ splash player will likely not come from WR.
My honest hope is that they spend FA money on the trenches, on Defense the 3 tech is a critical piece, and we need a pass rusher or two, and all of those can be expensive, but also make a HUGE and immediate impact. On offense, the Center is the most critical upgrade needed, and ofcourse a LT.
In order to upgrade WR, I think it is going to have to be either drafting one, or trading for one. Not sure which one I think I like more.