The Chicago Bears is still looking for a quarterback. And don’t for a moment disregard the depth of your despair.
And desperation has been the fragrance of the day in the NFL quarterbacks’ transactions at the beginning of this 2021 off-season, as evidenced in the negotiations by Carson Wentz and Jared Goff and Ben Roethlisberger’s redesigned contract. And fear and despair are running neck and neck like the prevailing feeling inside Bears’ office now, as their criminal mismanagement of quarterback position has peaked with few easy outlets.
Chicago needs a major upgrade and the options are limited. League sources said the Bears were indeed very serious about Carson Wentz, and had internal discussions about Big Ben as well and were prepared to be perhaps the only landing site for him if he had not agreed to take a significant cut in pay. to stay in Pittsburgh.
So, what does it mean to move on?
Well, the sources said they are prepared to throw a lot of picks at Texans – by Deshaun Watson – and Seahawks – by Russell Wilson – in an attempt to catch up on the most important position in all professional sports. They are very serious and, as is usually the case when job security is high, future choices like 2023 are not as valuable in real time. They don’t have the kind of young, cheap talent that some other business suitors have, but you can always keep launching future choices for the problem.
“There is a real sense of panic in that building,” said an NFL executive. “Don’t underestimate how desperate they are.”
It doesn’t look like Mitch Trubisky is going to be the answer to getting back there. The Bears are looking for a major upgrade. And there are many ways to do this. If the 49ers get someone like Sam Darnold of the Jets – something that is being seen in league circles as a very real possibility – Jimmy Garoppolo is another name to watch, with the return to Illinois’ native home making sense for all parties ( although they had to fight the Patriots, who wrote and developed Jimmy G).
It won’t be easy and the next QB won’t come cheap. But that will not stop the Bears from trying.
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Someone should try to get Chandler Jones out of Arizona.
For the second year in a row, his franchise made a bold move, bringing in a Texan star and paying him handsomely before he played a game there. A year ago, it was DeAndre Hopkins. Now, it’s JJ Watt.
All Jones did was fulfill his contract – now entering his senior year – and produce, unlike almost all other NFL pass brokers. Jones was an exemplary player and adopted Phoenix as his second home, but you haven’t heard a joke about the Cardinals taking care of him, and I very much doubt he’ll do it anytime soon. And you won’t hear any complaints from him either, but that doesn’t mean he can’t see what’s going on around you.
Watt, who turns 32 this month, hasn’t been able to stay healthy in consecutive seasons for a long time and hasn’t played for Arizona, but is basically guaranteed to win $ 28 million from them over the next two years. Jones, who just turned 31, has another year at a banana price of $ 15.5 million.
I would burn your phone lines. It was not so long ago that the Cardinals traded themselves for Jones. In this negotiating climate, with a limited number of free agency pass-rush options, and with Jones having a unique pedigree, he would be a target if I needed cutting edge strength. Jones suffered a neck injury at the end of the season in October – he is fully recovered – and the Cardinals unlocked former first-round player Haason Reddick in his absence. Reddick had a career season in his walking year, so changing Jones’ salary could make it more feasible to keep Reddick as a free agent.
I would certainly ask.
Here’s what I know about Jones. Despite losing 11 games last year with the injury, this is where he ranks among all the 2017-20 NFL players: only Aaron Donald (57.5) has more sacks (50), and Jones is still the 10th in hitting passes and ninth in the total of hitting centerbacks. Between 2017-19, Jones took first place in sacks with 49 (Donald is second with 44), 10th in quarterback pressure and second in quarterback strokes.
This is a rare companion for any player, let alone for a player your team has made no offer to keep beyond this contract. The Broncos tried to wrap their arms around Von Miller. I would find out exactly how the Cardinals feel about their pass rusher coming out of a season marked by injuries. Business is in fashion. Everyone has a price.
Cowboys were devastated in the Dak business
I keep reading how the Cowboys got some part of that extension from Dak Prescott. As there were trade-offs and commitments.
Seriously? How?
Their quarterback crushed them. As their season collapsed after their injury, and with a second franchise brand for sure, $ 40 million would always be their magic number in annual value. He got it. And this is just the beginning.
The starting money is impressive – $ 66 million bonus. The length of the contract – just four years – is ideal, and if he continues to play as he has done, Jerry Jones will be back at the negotiating table in a few years – with the lid blown up – trying to keep his QB but not being able to wield another franchise label on it. After busting a deal that would have cost about $ 33 million a year ago because it didn’t include a ban on etiquette clause, Prescott now has a ban on etiquette and no negotiation clause.
Prescott and his team played this skillfully, the suspicious team built around him on the list promoted his cause as the 2020 season quickly moved away and Dak crushed it. Good for him.
“I don’t understand,” said an NFL contract consultant on the business from the Cowboys’ perspective. “If you’re giving APY and signing bonuses and warranty and non-etiquette, then Cowboys have to get it signed for five or six years. I don’t understand.”
Me neither.
More internal notes
- How did Bengals not tag Carl Lawson? Have you ever had huge problems along the defensive line, but somehow don’t they tag you a year after giving a $ 17 million grant to the damaged receiver AJ Green in a non-competitive year? And the upper corner William Jackson is going to the market too, never to return, and the corner was a problem even when you had it. And many teams see it as the best UFA corner out there. Damn. Joe Burrow is just a bargain for another two years and time is running out and good luck attracting free agents from the other team to Cincy as if it were a coveted destination. Risking losing your best young talent, in critical positions, is nothing short of disconcerting to me, but that is not so uncommon in the way they perform there.
- Urban Meyer continues to turn heads in the NFL, in his brief stint, for all the wrong reasons. No one I spoke to could understand why they would put the franchise brand on Cam Robinson. He’s a good player, but several teams I’ve talked to have classified him as a $ 10 million / year tackle; it has just been scored at about $ 15 million. Weird. But strange was already the norm in Jacksonville.
- If the Panthers fail to win over Watson through trade, expect them to be as aggressive as any team when moving on to the first three choices to get one of the top three defenders in this draft. It wouldn’t be a surprise at all.