Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2018 16:16:48 GMT -6
Column: Reminder as NFL free agency begins: It's really just a glorified garage sale
NFL shopping season arrives Monday when the negotiating window opens, preceding the start of the new league year at 3 p.m. Wednesday. The Bears, for the third straight year, have an abundance of salary-cap space. They sit at more than $64.5 million. (Brad Biggs)
Dan Wiederer Dan WiedererContact ReporterChicago Tribune
www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/ct-spt-bears-ryan-pace-free-agency-20180312-story.html
Ryan Pace had been on the job less than seven weeks when he arrived at the 2015 NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis. He was, at the time, a 38-year-old rookie general manager beginning his attempt at reviving the Bears.
But so little was known then about Pace’s vision and philosophies. So it only made sense to probe him on his approach to free agency.
“What I like doing is balancing the strengths of the draft versus the strengths of free agency,” Pace said. “I’ll know the positions that are strong and areas that we can attack. And we’ll be calculated.
“In a perfect world, you address a lot of your needs in free agency to open up the draft for best player available.”
A year later, Pace summed up free agency as follows: “We have a lot of needs, we have a lot of cap space. … Now it’s just a matter of being smart and calculated with how we approach. Because free agency is risky. We’ve got to be careful with this.”
And in 2017? Much of the same.
“There is a delicate balance between being aggressive and being decisive but also being responsible,” Pace said. “You can always recover from the player you didn’t sign; you can’t recover from the player that you signed at the wrong price.”
Go on.........
“Free agency is dangerous,” Pace added. “You’re stepping through land mines, and you’ve got to be careful you don’t step on the wrong one. A lot of times, these guys are available for a reason. You have to sort through that.”
So there was Pace again last month, inside the Indiana Convention Center, discussing his team, his roster and his plans for the months ahead. One reporter questioned Pace directly on the March tug-of-war that might be coming as he pushes to remained disciplined and practical in free agency even with an enormous amount of salary-cap room to go nutty if he so desired.
He agreed that the Bears’ well-documented financial flexibility might create a false impression they would charge into the open market with pure aggressiveness.
“Just because you have cap space doesn’t mean you can be reckless with these decisions,” Pace said. “So we have to be strategic, disciplined and calculated as we enter free agency.”
OK. There it was again. Four years running. A reiteration by the Bears GM that he’s determined to build through the draft and supplement through free agency with a push to be smart, practical, calculated, careful.
Those are his words. And that approach has to be kept in mind and fully understood as the NFL’s hyperventilation week intensifies.
Ready, set ...
Officially, the free-agent market opens at 3 p.m. Wednesday. And with that, we’ll get the inevitable annual mania that can’t be stopped.
Twitter timelines will explode with developments that make it seem like the Super Bowl is being played next weekend. Adam Schefter will juggle multiple phones like a circus acrobat, then emphatically pump his fist when he breaks the signing of a player such as Ronald Leary. Fans from coast to coast will get sucked into believing the first 48 hours of free agency — with all of its commotion and hysteria — constitute the entirety of a team’s offseason progress.
Here in Chicago, there will be an explosion of disappointment when one of this year’s biggest names lands elsewhere. Trumaine Johnson maybe? Malcolm Butler? Sheldon Richardson?
How could the Bears be so helpless? Why can’t they ever get anything right?
And then there will be a festive feel when the Bears make their first few notable signings and introduce those hopeful players at a Halas Hall news conference. (Recent guests of honor have included Mike Glennon, Markus Wheaton, Quintin Demps, Dion Sims, Bobby Massie, Pernell McPhee, Lamarr Houston and Ryan Mundy.)
It’s all one big reminder to keep this week’s chaos in proper perspective. This is NFL free agency. A glorified garage sale. A flea market. Sometimes a great bargain can be found. Occasionally something truly special can be scooped up and taken home. Mostly, though, it’s other people’s junk.
By this time next week, there will be countless columns across the Internet proclaiming the winners and losers of free agency. Somehow that award still hasn’t made it into the annual NFL Honors show on the eve of the Super Bowl. In fact, believe it or not, being declared a free-agency winner before St. Patrick’s Day has not been shown to have any correlation to becoming a playoff contender by Thanksgiving.
Keep dreaming
Whatever the Bears do this week and in the weeks that follow, it needs to be run through the proper filters. These are mostly moves to add depth and competition to a roster full of holes.
The Bears need help at receiver. Badly. They need to give their pass rush some teeth. They need to create a stronger combination of playmakers in the secondary.
And they also need a kicker, a backup quarterback and ultimately more than three dozen more bodies to take to training camp in Bourbonnais.
Each signing must be seen through that prism, understood for its intent. And it must be remembered that Pace has laid out his free-agency philosophy over and over.
Without question, Pace’s free-agency track record has been spotty at best over the previous three offseasons. And it’s fair to fire criticism at the high-profile misses. Glennon and Wheaton. Antrel Rolle and Eddie Royal.
But to be fair, Pace has never been out to “win” free agency and has never promised to deliver big-ticket gifts in the middle of March. That’s just not his M.O.
For the most zealous of football fans, this week can feel a lot like Christmas. So much anticipation. So much excitement. So many grand visions. And then, yes, many times that inevitable fizzle of disappointment.
It’s just a warning in case that shiny Lexus SUV with the oversized bow isn’t sitting in the driveway come Thursday or Friday morning. Sure, it was on your wish list. But such is life.
Oh, and don’t forget to check your stocking. There’s probably a half-ripe orange, a couple pieces of chocolate and a “101 Fun Football Facts” booklet to hold you over until the draft hysteria kicks in.
dwiederer@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @danwiederer
NFL shopping season arrives Monday when the negotiating window opens, preceding the start of the new league year at 3 p.m. Wednesday. The Bears, for the third straight year, have an abundance of salary-cap space. They sit at more than $64.5 million. (Brad Biggs)
Dan Wiederer Dan WiedererContact ReporterChicago Tribune
www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/ct-spt-bears-ryan-pace-free-agency-20180312-story.html
Ryan Pace had been on the job less than seven weeks when he arrived at the 2015 NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis. He was, at the time, a 38-year-old rookie general manager beginning his attempt at reviving the Bears.
But so little was known then about Pace’s vision and philosophies. So it only made sense to probe him on his approach to free agency.
“What I like doing is balancing the strengths of the draft versus the strengths of free agency,” Pace said. “I’ll know the positions that are strong and areas that we can attack. And we’ll be calculated.
“In a perfect world, you address a lot of your needs in free agency to open up the draft for best player available.”
A year later, Pace summed up free agency as follows: “We have a lot of needs, we have a lot of cap space. … Now it’s just a matter of being smart and calculated with how we approach. Because free agency is risky. We’ve got to be careful with this.”
And in 2017? Much of the same.
“There is a delicate balance between being aggressive and being decisive but also being responsible,” Pace said. “You can always recover from the player you didn’t sign; you can’t recover from the player that you signed at the wrong price.”
Go on.........
“Free agency is dangerous,” Pace added. “You’re stepping through land mines, and you’ve got to be careful you don’t step on the wrong one. A lot of times, these guys are available for a reason. You have to sort through that.”
So there was Pace again last month, inside the Indiana Convention Center, discussing his team, his roster and his plans for the months ahead. One reporter questioned Pace directly on the March tug-of-war that might be coming as he pushes to remained disciplined and practical in free agency even with an enormous amount of salary-cap room to go nutty if he so desired.
He agreed that the Bears’ well-documented financial flexibility might create a false impression they would charge into the open market with pure aggressiveness.
“Just because you have cap space doesn’t mean you can be reckless with these decisions,” Pace said. “So we have to be strategic, disciplined and calculated as we enter free agency.”
OK. There it was again. Four years running. A reiteration by the Bears GM that he’s determined to build through the draft and supplement through free agency with a push to be smart, practical, calculated, careful.
Those are his words. And that approach has to be kept in mind and fully understood as the NFL’s hyperventilation week intensifies.
Ready, set ...
Officially, the free-agent market opens at 3 p.m. Wednesday. And with that, we’ll get the inevitable annual mania that can’t be stopped.
Twitter timelines will explode with developments that make it seem like the Super Bowl is being played next weekend. Adam Schefter will juggle multiple phones like a circus acrobat, then emphatically pump his fist when he breaks the signing of a player such as Ronald Leary. Fans from coast to coast will get sucked into believing the first 48 hours of free agency — with all of its commotion and hysteria — constitute the entirety of a team’s offseason progress.
Here in Chicago, there will be an explosion of disappointment when one of this year’s biggest names lands elsewhere. Trumaine Johnson maybe? Malcolm Butler? Sheldon Richardson?
How could the Bears be so helpless? Why can’t they ever get anything right?
And then there will be a festive feel when the Bears make their first few notable signings and introduce those hopeful players at a Halas Hall news conference. (Recent guests of honor have included Mike Glennon, Markus Wheaton, Quintin Demps, Dion Sims, Bobby Massie, Pernell McPhee, Lamarr Houston and Ryan Mundy.)
It’s all one big reminder to keep this week’s chaos in proper perspective. This is NFL free agency. A glorified garage sale. A flea market. Sometimes a great bargain can be found. Occasionally something truly special can be scooped up and taken home. Mostly, though, it’s other people’s junk.
By this time next week, there will be countless columns across the Internet proclaiming the winners and losers of free agency. Somehow that award still hasn’t made it into the annual NFL Honors show on the eve of the Super Bowl. In fact, believe it or not, being declared a free-agency winner before St. Patrick’s Day has not been shown to have any correlation to becoming a playoff contender by Thanksgiving.
Keep dreaming
Whatever the Bears do this week and in the weeks that follow, it needs to be run through the proper filters. These are mostly moves to add depth and competition to a roster full of holes.
The Bears need help at receiver. Badly. They need to give their pass rush some teeth. They need to create a stronger combination of playmakers in the secondary.
And they also need a kicker, a backup quarterback and ultimately more than three dozen more bodies to take to training camp in Bourbonnais.
Each signing must be seen through that prism, understood for its intent. And it must be remembered that Pace has laid out his free-agency philosophy over and over.
Without question, Pace’s free-agency track record has been spotty at best over the previous three offseasons. And it’s fair to fire criticism at the high-profile misses. Glennon and Wheaton. Antrel Rolle and Eddie Royal.
But to be fair, Pace has never been out to “win” free agency and has never promised to deliver big-ticket gifts in the middle of March. That’s just not his M.O.
For the most zealous of football fans, this week can feel a lot like Christmas. So much anticipation. So much excitement. So many grand visions. And then, yes, many times that inevitable fizzle of disappointment.
It’s just a warning in case that shiny Lexus SUV with the oversized bow isn’t sitting in the driveway come Thursday or Friday morning. Sure, it was on your wish list. But such is life.
Oh, and don’t forget to check your stocking. There’s probably a half-ripe orange, a couple pieces of chocolate and a “101 Fun Football Facts” booklet to hold you over until the draft hysteria kicks in.
dwiederer@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @danwiederer
