Post by davidl on Jan 28, 2023 9:19:13 GMT -6
It is pretty sobering - staggering - to see how radical the teardown was this year. I can not remember a time in the past 60 or so seasons when the Bears needed a dozen starters added to the roster.
And keep in mind, the team needs starter-quality players. Not just playing deadbeats as starters like the Bears did this season. Quality players and not crap players - the "hope and a prayer" guys who struggle and fail on gamedays. 12 quality starters, and also better depth players.
We may all disagree on the exact number of players critically needed, but the fact we all can agree on is that the Bears have the worst roster talent in the NFL - that is evident in having the #1 overall pick in the NFL draft. Talent-wise the team is on life support. Consequently, the Bears don't have the luxury of using that #1 pick on a single player. They have to leverage that so that they can get as many quality starters as they can. Personally, I don't believe the Bears can afford Anderson or Carter. I think it would be irresponsible to pursue that. If they do, then all bets are off as far as being a rebuilt team in 2024. It adds (at least) one more year to the roster rebuild. JMO.
Though the Bears can at least pencil in a “starter” at most roster spots, many of those players should not be starting in 2023, and the team should be looking to add new starters at the following positions this offseason:
RB – Khalil Herbert is a great runner, but the Bears clearly don’t trust him in the passing game, so they at the very least need a more pass-oriented RB to pair with him.
WR – Equanimeous St. Brown is not a starter.
C – Lucas Patrick is not a starter.
RT – Larry Borom and Alex Leatherwood can compete for the top backup OT spot.
DE (2) – Trevis Gipson and Dominique Robinson can be productive rotational options. Al-Quadin Muhammad does not belong on the roster.
DT (2) – Maybe Justin Jones starts, but to me he’s ideally your top backup DT.
LB (2) – Jack Sanborn can start. The other two starters are not currently on the roster.
CB – Corner is a position where you need multiple bodies, but Kindle Vildor should be competing with Jaylon Jones to be the top backup.
That’s 11 starters, and doesn’t include left guard, where Cody Whitehair was awful after his early season injury and could be a cap casualty
RB – Khalil Herbert is a great runner, but the Bears clearly don’t trust him in the passing game, so they at the very least need a more pass-oriented RB to pair with him.
WR – Equanimeous St. Brown is not a starter.
C – Lucas Patrick is not a starter.
RT – Larry Borom and Alex Leatherwood can compete for the top backup OT spot.
DE (2) – Trevis Gipson and Dominique Robinson can be productive rotational options. Al-Quadin Muhammad does not belong on the roster.
DT (2) – Maybe Justin Jones starts, but to me he’s ideally your top backup DT.
LB (2) – Jack Sanborn can start. The other two starters are not currently on the roster.
CB – Corner is a position where you need multiple bodies, but Kindle Vildor should be competing with Jaylon Jones to be the top backup.
That’s 11 starters, and doesn’t include left guard, where Cody Whitehair was awful after his early season injury and could be a cap casualty
This is not a one-year aberration caused by Ryan Pace. It is a one-year aberration caused by Poles. You can go back at least 20 years of history, and no GM has ever done a tear down this radical.
I am not going into the whole debate with MP again about whether this is a good idea. I know his position. He knows mine. I just wanted to point out a different statistic to illustrate that what Poles did is historically nowhere close to a “normal” rebuild.
