Alshon shares his thoughts of things not working out here

I don't think it's fair to say the Bears clearly did not want him back.  I think the Bears absolutely wanted him back, but there were enough legitimate concerns about his ability to stay healthy (not to mention the PED suspension, though I don't think that was a huge factor) that they didn't want to pay top dollar. I don't fault the Bears for sticking to their guns because I was just as concerned about paying top dollar for a guy that couldn't stay healthy. I also don't fault Jeffery for wanting to move on somewhere else. Like Alshon said above, "It is what it is."

yeah. I never bought into that myself. He definitely did not seem to latch on to Chicago though

Bears: What Went Wrong with Alshon Jeffery?
BY JACK SOBLE ON FEBRUARY 1, 2018 • ( 2 COMMENTS )
When the Bears’ dreadful, injury-laden 2016 season came to a close, then Bear Alshon Jeffery issued a bold proclamation. He guaranteed that “we’ll win a Super Bowl next year.”

He did not specify which team “we” referred to.

We now know that Jeffery signed a one-year prove it deal with Philadelphia and will start in Super Bowl 52 on Sunday to try to make good on that promise. His decision to leave and the Bears’ choice to let him walk brought forth a number of knee-jerk reactions, ranging from “Fire Ryan Pace immediately” to “He isn’t that good anyway, it was the right call.”

Neither of those extremes is on the money in my opinion, and today I’ll take a deep dive into three questions: What happened, what should the Bears have done, and what can they learn from it?

The final one is particularly imperative for the Bears’ personnel department and coaching staff to understand in order to build a roster to be competitive what is going to be a very good NFC North in 2018.

What Happened?

Jeffery, after back to back successful seasons under Marc Trestman in 2013-2014, suffered through an injury-deterred 2015 season. However, he produced enough in the nine games he played and the difference in the Bears’ scoring output with and without him was about seven points. This was the last year of Jeffery’s rookie contract and the Bears after some negotiations about a long-term contract didn’t get very far. They then decided to use the franchise tag on him.

The logic in doing this was clear.

Let him get another year to prove that he can stay healthy and produce at a consistent rate, with a quarterback in Jay Cutler coming off his most efficient and least mistake prone year in his mercurial Chicago tenure. Then 2016’s injury bonanza happened. The Bears ended up with the most money’s worth of players on Injured reserve by a significant margin. That included Cutler, who only lasted five games and reverted back to his interception-happy form.

Jeffery failed to make nearly as much of an impact on the team as he did in the season prior, with only two touchdowns in 12 games, and was hit with a four-game PED suspension, strengthening concerns that he could not stay on the field.

The Bears then decided not to use the franchise tag on Jeffery a second time, given that it would have paid him around 17 million dollars for the 2018 season. They could not reach a deal before the start of the league year, meaning that the Bears’ best receiver would hit the open market.

He had a number of suitors, but one thing became clear after the dust settled. Jeffery valued himself as a bona fide elite receiver, worthy of being paid as one of the league’s best, which would have been around $14 million per year. He did not get that, from any team. Instead, he reportedly turned down slightly less affluent long-term offers from the Bears and Vikings in favor of a one-year incentive-laden deal with Philadelphia, and the rest is history.

What Should the Bears have Done?

This has been a much-debated topic over the last 11 months. Did the Bears make a grave mistake in letting Jeffery walk? Or was it a calculated decision that was for the long-term benefit of the franchise?

What is not up for debate is the futility that was displayed in the Bears’ efforts to replace Jeffery. Markus Wheaton was a disaster. Kevin White put on a poor showing against Atlanta before predictably going down yet again with a third different injury. Kendall Wright was a good signing but cannot carry a receiving corps like he was tasked with doing. Dontrelle Inman didn’t cost them anything but was not a solution. Josh Bellamy is Josh Bellamy. And yes, Cameron Meredith went down with a terrifyingly gruesome injury but would not have solved all their problems at the receiver position.

Jeffery, meanwhile, put up mediocre yardage stats, finishing 34th in the league, but was a valuable red zone contributor with nine touchdowns (not including the two in the NFC Championship game) and developed a nice rapport with stud quarterback Carson Wentz. It’s clear by this point that Jeffery aided the development of Wentz, and would certainly not have hurt the development of the Bears’ own young signal caller.

There was more than one factor in the Bears’ decision, though. The most important of which was that he wanted out. Jeffery was, quite understandably, sick of losing. But the more significant factor in Jeffery’s thought process was the uncertainty at quarterback. He desired to play with Wentz and has said that said desire was one of if not the main reason he went where he did.

For this reason, the Bears would have had to pay him what he wanted in order to get him to return: a five-year deal worth at least 70 million dollars. And the fact that he was negotiating with Chicago shows that even though he wanted to leave, he could have been swayed by a gigantic offer.

This would also have been an extremely bad idea, and to be frank I would rather they let him walk than give him that offer.

The Bears would be taking a massive amount of risk in giving Jeffery an offer like that. You simply cannot sign a receiver top five money at his position, long-term, when he hadn’t played more than 12 games or gained more than 850-yards or scored more than four touchdowns in either of the two seasons prior to the contract. And with Jeffery not willing to accept less than his ideal offer to return, a multi-year extension was completely out the window.

This means that the only option left is the one that the Bears should have utilized in this situation: the Franchise Tag. That does not mean there would not have been downsides to that decision. It likely would have angered Jeffery for at least a month and a half, as someone who wanted to either be out of Chicago or long-term stability and would be achieving neither. It also would have given him an excessive portion of the 2018 salary cap.

The latter would not have been a huge issue in my opinion. The Bears have plenty of cap space to spare in the short term. But how would they convince Jeffery not to seek an avenue out of town after the tag is no longer an option? The name of their marketing pitch would have been Mitch Trubisky.

Remember, the main reason Jeffery wanted to leave was instability at quarterback. If he sees the same potential in Trubisky as the Bears and a good majority of the league do (despite an up-and-down season) he would have been much more inclined to come back than he was when the Bears didn’t have a single signal caller under contract. Even taking into account the Bears’ poor record, remember that the team he chose was quarterbacked inconsistently in 2016 and finished 7-9. He chose them because he saw potential.

The last loose end to tie up would be what to do with him after the franchise tag year expires. Let’s assume he has the exact same year he has in Philadelphia (he would have gotten a higher percentage of targets given that the Bears don’t have the weapons around him that the Eagles did, but that would be canceled out by the horrendous offensive play-calling and inconsistent/Mike Glennon for 4 games quarterbacking): 16 games, 57 catches, 789-yards, and 8 touchdowns.

What happened in Philadelphia was a four year, $13 million per year extension.

I still believe that this is too much for Jeffery.

He is quite talented and useful for developing a young quarterback, but he simply does not produce enough yardage and impact outside of the red zone to warrant that kind of money. I would offer him a deal with an average of about $11 or $11.5 million, similar to what Doug Baldwin or Keenan Allen got. I believe that Jeffery is a very good receiver but not in that upper echelon of elite players.

If he does not accept that deal, even with a clear plan and a bright future at quarterback, then let someone else overpay.

What can the Bears learn from it?

There are multiple lessons that the Bears can learn from what happened with Alshon Jeffery.

It’s very important for young general managers like Ryan Pace to admit, fix, and learn from their mistakes. One extremely important aspect that could have prevented the Jeffery situation seems to already be happening at Halas Hall. That is extending and/or deciding what to do with the talent on the roster before they hit free agency.

We saw this with their left tackle, Charles Leno when they got a deal done with him shortly before the season began. They looked at the upcoming pool of free agent left tackles and realized that although Leno is by no means perfect, he would be the most attractive option on the market. And it would not be particularly close, either.

The next best man is probably Nate Solder, who is four years older than Leno. They then signed him to a relatively affordable deal at four years and $37 million when he very well could have gotten upwards of $12 million per year on the open market.

A couple weeks later, the Bears robbed Akiem Hicks of a truckload of money when they took him off the market and gave him a four year $48 million dollar contract. This was fantastic re-signing in every sense of the word. Again, Pace was ahead of the curve here as he foresaw Hicks’s breakout season that would have earned him a monster deal. My guess would be around five-years and $75 million, given how good he was in 2017.

Those are the kinds of deals that had Pace discussed them with Jeffery earlier, he may have brought him back on a fair contract. This is also something that he should continue to do with soon-to-be free agents and for the first time players that he himself drafted, in starting defenders Eddie Goldman and Adrian Amos.

Other than that, the Bears can take away that quarterback stability cures many ills. Other than Jeffery, Ted Ginn and Kenny Stills both reportedly turned down more money from the Bears in favor of New Orleans and Miami (who had a healthy Ryan Tannehill at the time), respectively (this also means that they offered Kenny Stills more than four-years and $32 million which might be the bigger issue here).

Obviously, the Bears believe that they have their franchise quarterback on the roster, and significant free agents are fairly likely to agree. Hopefully, the Bears realize that they have much more appeal for said free agents and don’t feel the need to massively overpay for them like they would have needed to do with Jeffery.

Finally, the Bears should be perfectly aware that letting drafted talent walk like this is a very bad look and is never good for the franchise. In short, the Bears should know that they cannot afford to let Kyle Fuller walk. Yes, he is unproven. Yes, if he hits the open market he will get paid because starting caliber cornerbacks are very hard to find. I wrote last week that they should place the franchise tag on him.

Overall, the whole ordeal was a mixed bag for Chicago.

Did they handle the situation as poorly as they could have? No. Did they handle it well? No. Will the future of the Bears’ franchise be crippled by this decision alone? Probably not. Will it be crippled by more free agency periods like 2017? That’s where we get into the “yes” section.

Ryan Pace knows that he is officially on the clock. He has his quarterback. He has his head coach. He’s rid the team of the vast majority of the walking dumpster fire Phil Emery’s fingerprints. But that clock is ticking. And he needs to add more talent to the roster and get the pieces in place to develop the quarterback before it hits midnight.

I wish Alshon future success, but he wouldn't sign a deal to stay with the team that drafted him coming out of college. He left USC with a reputation for being out of shape (i do think that was not deserved, but his conditioning is still suspect considering how injury prone he was here). Can you blame a GM that didn't draft the guy balking at franchising Alshon twice? The bears wanted a show me deal and Alshon signed that contract with another team.

I wish the two parties worked something out, but Alshon should just keep mum on it imo unless he's willing to acknowledge he took a similar contract from another team rather than return to the Bears.

He took a one year 9m deal to play with the eagles after being franchised by the bears and getting suspended for PEDs. that deal was 6.5 mil less than his 2015 salary: www.spotrac.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/alshon-jeffery-9855/

the 14m number in the story is based on his new deal.