The only thing I find a little strange about the TE sitch is that (Paulsen is mostly a blocker, right?) Miller is the only receiver of the bunch. Thought they'd want 2 pass catchers and one blocker.
Thats the rep he's gotten...but I think thats more due the fact that Jordan Reed was the "pass catching" TE in washington, but coming out Paulsen had a scouting report as solid pass catching TE who could also block. Think of him as a poor mans Black Unicorn. He ran a 4.7 coming out of UCLA.
So, the Gray Unicorn? I can live with that as long as he puts in the effort and isn't abusing our rookies.
Like others have said, I would expect Moeaki to be signed later.
I like all the moves made yesterday. Paulsen is a sneaky good pick up at TE, Sitton improves our line, and as much as I love Robbie Gould his time had come. We got better yesterday.
The first two I'll give you but I will be very surprised if we find that Connor Barth is the equal of Robbie Gould this year. I think we made two steps forward at TE and OG but one step back at PK.
Well...he costs a fraction of what Gould cost...so if he's not very good, we just bring in one of the other 3 dozen kickers who are looking for work. Robbie was 20th in field goal percentage and top 3 in salary last season...if we're going to get that kind of production lets at least give it a salary commensurate with that kind of production.
I like all the moves made yesterday. Paulsen is a sneaky good pick up at TE, Sitton improves our line, and as much as I love Robbie Gould his time had come. We got better yesterday.
The first two I'll give you but I will be very surprised if we find that Connor Barth is the equal of Robbie Gould this year. I think we made two steps forward at TE and OG but one step back at PK.
I don't know much about Barth, but Gould was looking bad ni camp, and didn't look very good in preseason. I thought he was fading fast the last 2 years, and was afraid he would fall off the edge sometime during the year. I think it was a good move to cut him now knowing we had a backup plan. Now whether Barth is better or worse than Gould in SF winds in December remains to be seen, but at least Pace is being proactive instead of waiting for the boot to drop.
And if Barth is no good, then we can start with the Barf jokes.
Fox has said all along that Long will play and had he been allowed to speak for himself I'm sure he would say the same. He's not the kind of guy whose gonna sit unless they make him sit and if they can fit him with a sling and he can deal with some pain he'll play. That's his mentality.
My guess is that Sitton goes to LG and Whitehair keeps taking snaps at LG and OC but Larsen will start for now. How this effects LA Kush (Couldn't resist giving him that nickname) I don't know. It's obvious Pace and Fox are pulling out all the stops as far as trying to upgrade the OL so all we can do is sit back now and see how they play it.
They aren't paying Sitton $10 mil guaranteed to be a backup to anyone so he's gonna start somewhere soon and the logical place would be LG. Larsen looks like he can handle OC for now but later in the season Whitehair may be ready to take over. The nice thing is that we now have a more experienced OL and the luxury of working Whitehair at multiple positions in practice getting him acclimated to all of them.
Soul, Biggs tweeted that Bears plan on Sitton at LG and Larsen/WH competing for C. I would guess Larsen would start at C initially and WH would ride the bench until he gets some practice time in. That's good by me--Larsen is a better C than a G IMO and I'm sure they want a vet who knows the line calls in the middle with the season only a week away.
Question is: who gets cut to make room for JS? Is it Silatolu? Proszinski?
That's the way I figured it would fall and it makes sense to keep working Whitehair at OC and OG and give him him the benefit of a year or half a year to adjust to the NFL that Grasu didn't get.
Soul, Biggs tweeted that Bears plan on Sitton at LG and Larsen/WH competing for C. I would guess Larsen would start at C initially and WH would ride the bench until he gets some practice time in. That's good by me--Larsen is a better C than a G IMO and I'm sure they want a vet who knows the line calls in the middle with the season only a week away.
Question is: who gets cut to make room for JS? Is it Silatolu? Proszinski?
That's the way I figured it would fall and it makes sense to keep working Whitehair at OC and OG and give him him the benefit of a year or half a year to adjust to the NFL that Grasu didn't get.
I like all the moves made yesterday. Paulsen is a sneaky good pick up at TE, Sitton improves our line, and as much as I love Robbie Gould his time had come. We got better yesterday.
I don't really know much a bout him. When I read we picked him up, it was just a meh for me. So he's actually pretty good?
The first two I'll give you but I will be very surprised if we find that Connor Barth is the equal of Robbie Gould this year. I think we made two steps forward at TE and OG but one step back at PK.
And if Barth is no good, then we can start with the Barf jokes.
Who are you kidding? The jokes will start regardless of his production. Players are not immune to our good natured ribbing. If we can rib ourselves, a player that lends himself to such an easy opening is gonna get ribbed too!
The only thing is if he becomes devastating on the field he goes from Barf to Barth Vader
The first two I'll give you but I will be very surprised if we find that Connor Barth is the equal of Robbie Gould this year. I think we made two steps forward at TE and OG but one step back at PK.
Well...he costs a fraction of what Gould cost...so if he's not very good, we just bring in one of the other 3 dozen kickers who are looking for work. Robbie was 20th in field goal percentage and top 3 in salary last season...if we're going to get that kind of production lets at least give it a salary commensurate with that kind of production.
I really think that's really what's at the bottom of it and I would definitely keep the phone lines open to them and their agents. I'd be more comfortable if Robbie had been beaten out in a competition this summer but that wasn't the case and who are we replacing him with but a guy who did lose his competition kicking indoors and we don't play indoors or in Florida where Barth has been kicking.
I hope I'm wrong and that we don't lose even more games this year due to missed FGs.
This is why I didn't want to get my hopes up too high. Sitton is not the typical FA you find floating around the league late in the offseason. He is going to want a healthy amount of coin, a multi-year deal, and guarantees. Wherever he signs is likely to be his last real starter's-type contract. Like Soul said, I think a reasonable compromise is a 3-4 yr deal with most/all the guaranteed money in the first 2. I hope Pace can get this done.
I'd like to think that will be Pace's starting point. I'm not aware of any reported back injury but I do know he played through a foot injury a couple of years ago. Despite that he hasn't missed any starts and although he's played the left side most of his career he's also moved around when needed.
Josh Sitton’s career statistics Games Fumbles Year G GS FF FR 2008 11 2 2009 16 16 0 1 2010 16 16 2011 14 14 2012* 16 16 2013 16 16 2014* 16 16 2015* 16 16 Career 121 112 0 1
He's only missed two starts since 2009. That's some pretty good toughness and consistency I'd say.
Right now the Porker fans seem to be as upset with this move as some Bears fans have been with our release of Matt Slauson. I'm not sure Sitton is the perfect prospect for a zone run blocking scheme either but the guy is a virtual wall as a pass blocker so in any event I don't think we can ignore any opportunities to sign him. His knowledge of the GB offense is an X factor in the whole deal too.
I also hope Pace can get a deal done with him before he even leaves to NOLA. I think we have more to offer him now and in the near future than virtually anyone else. If he can play OC or this other FA we just picked up can maybe we set Larsen sailing.
Why do I have this sick feeling in my gut like I've been down this road many times before and it has always ended in a wreck
