Sitton signed for 3 years!

A) First of all, let's leave the Gould sentimentality aside.  I'm sure he's a great guy and I was a huge fan of his too in his prime.  Don't worry, he won't starve to death. The guy made many millions in his career and he will probably get another 1 yr. contract or two before it's ultimately over.  But he's clearly well past his prime and was very overpaid so Pace made the right move (kinda late in my opinion) to move on.  Gould's KO distance has been slipping noticeably for a while and his FG accuracy has really suffered lately.  To top it off, he had a terrible preseason in which he missed 2 PATs and 2 FGs and generally looked like ass. My main complaint is....what took so long?  Frankly, he should have been cut when Slauson was with a replacement already in hand.  

B) The Sitton thing was the Mother of all Gifts no one could have predicted.  Pace got caught with his pants down when Ramirez retired and Grasu got hurt after letting Slauson go prematurely (couldn't that have waited until 1st cuts AFTER his replacements were proven?).  Signing JS was as close to a no-brainer as any GM is ever presented with only 7 days before the season opener.  Even if he had to over-pay a little to make it happen.  What are we concerned about?--that it's possible if Grasu and Whitehair both pan out great next year that we may have TOO MANY good interior linemen?  Gee, what a terrible problem!  In that case, you trade Sitton to an OL needy team (they exist every year) for a late round draft pick and woila!....problem fixed.  The fact that this guy weakens your chief divisional rival and strengthens you in the process makes the deal worth doing for sure.  Doubly so when you happen to be sitting on plenty of cap space to pull it off.  

We just got better today while at the same time Green Bay got worse.  Let's celebrate that.

It would seem like he has regretted the Slauson cut, that being said I think there is no doubt, that we in the end got a better guard than Slauson. 

Now as for item B here we agree completely.  Sitton was a need based signing and IMHO a very good one.  I don't even see Pace as having over paid.  I took a stab at a 3 yeast deal for $15 mil but with just $10 mil guaranteed.  I got the length and guaranteed $$$ correct but not the total bill which unless Sitton continues to play at a high level he won't see all of anyway.

Given what other top OGs got this past offseason and what we just gave Long in his extension I though it was a bit of a pipe dream we'd ever get him for just $5 mil a year anyway so I'm not bothered by the value of the entire deal as long as the rest was team friendly and it is.  No matter how you slice it up this was a good move to make and somewhat of a coup equivalent to the Porkers getting Pep two years ago when we released him.

We need to let that Slauson deal go.  That horse is so dead by now that he's nothing more than a zombie every time his name is brought up.  They're more up in arms up in GB right now over losing Sitton to us and in comparison I'd trade off Slauson for Sitton at LG any day.  We had a real need for more talent and depth on the OL and we got that much earlier than I ever anticipated we would.  Now all Fox has to figure out is what to do with who and who stays and who goes.

Nor do I but as it stands it makes no difference.

It's just that on the basis of Robbie's preseason (5 for 6 on FGs) and especially his game against against Cleveland where he was 3 for 3 on FGs but missed an XP and had one blocked (don't know if that was on him or not because I didn't see it) releasing him seemed like an abrupt move and even sketchier when it comes right after Pace lays out $40 mil in guaranteed money for two Pro Bowl OGs.

That alone is pretty suspect and leads me to my conclusion that Robbie was a cap casualty. Now whether the Bears will admit that or not the facts and the timing sure seem to lead in that direction don't they?  He's gone now but what bothers me even more is if this had been on their minds at all this summer just how poorly they planned to replace him.

For a team and a coaching staff that loves a lot of competition for roster spots there was not a single whisper or even an attempt to bring in another PK or two for competition.  How different is that?  Nah, I think his recent performance was not bad enough to scream replace him.  Only his salary and cap hit were enough to induce that.  We'll know more for certain when we see the stricture of Long's and Sitton's deals. But I'm guessing they're front loaded and ate up a lot of the remaining 2016 cap. 

If not then I can't see Pace's rationale for replacing Robbie with a PK whose quite possibly not even as good or as dependable as Robbie had been until last year.  The prior year he was dealing with an injury so to me that can't be counted against him.  And I still related this decline in his accuracy to the loss of Pat Mannelly two years ago and the revolving door of LS we've had since.

Yeah, I'm sorry to see him go as I was with Matt Slauson and Matt Forte but I would feel much better about it had we replaced him as well as it appears we have the two Matt's.  I just don't think we have is all.