Royal, 30, is a prime candidate to be released as there's little chance the Bears will want to pay him $5 million next season. That leaves White, who has legitimate durability questions heading toward his third season, Cameron Meredith and rookie Daniel Braverman under contract for 2017. That's it. Marquess Wilson is in a contract year and can't stay healthy. Deonte Thompson will be an unrestricted free agent and Josh Bellamy, who is a talented special teams performer, will be an exclusive-rights free agent.
I'll pass on my crusade to hire an Exec VP for the moment and deal with player personnel although as long as Teddy Bears still keeps the checkbook much of what should be done won't.
The very first thing Pace needs to do is evaluate the existing roster with an eye towards letting players who can't stay healthy go. Marquess Wilson has talent but is never available enough to count on. Eddie Royal will undoubtedly be released. Even Zach Miller should be looked at vs the possibility the we have others who can replace him in Brown and Braunecker. You can't run a team effectively and win when half your starters are out or on IR.
Along with this the training staff should be looked at with an eye toward some massive changes in their approach. This is the second consecutive season where our "owies" and injuries have been above average. Either they're part of the problem or part of the solution and Pace needs to figure out which this offseason.
While I don't totally disagree with his approach to not overspend on fewer UFAs the time has come to stop adding more journeyman types and add some top flight talent at some key positions like FS and OT. I would much rather see us spend on a top Safety than at CB because I see some talent in some of the younger guys we have. Kyle Fuller also needs to be evaluated. Can this guy actually play CB in this defense or should he be tried at FS? The draft should be used on a CB or two. Those top dollar UFAs who are available just aren't that good or dependable.
We still need more help on the DL and at OLB. As I suspected McPhee isn't 100% and may never be again. Lamarr Houston is coming off his second major knee injury and unless he's willing to take a pay cut I question whether or not he'll be kept. We need a better #2 NT who can also play some DE if needed. Sutton is too small and Unrein is just not that good. These are the journeyman types we need to upgrade. Can CWash play if he's elevated to starter? Can Bullard add 20lbs and play DE or should we keep him around 270lbs convert him to an OLB to replace Houston and maybe McPhee?
We'll spend some money on our own FAs but AJ is the only one in line for anything major unless they also extend Hicks which wouldn't hurt. It will be cheaper now that it will be a year from now. Even AJs ability to command top dollar is at least somewhat questionable but whatever we probably need to meet the price but structure the deal so he's tradeable if need be. That mean more salary and less amortized bonus and/or guarantees unless earned. Others will chew up cap but most won't command high dollar deals and some will be offset by vets being released.
It's really fish or cut bait time for Pace. He needs more players who can remain healthy for an entire season and he needs to limit his tendency to gamble on those with known injury issues in their past. Those guys cost more but spending less on players who can only give you 8-10 games a year is wasting money and opportunity as well. He also needs to determine why his guys are dropping like flies. In some cases it's more obvious than others but overall the trend needs to be reversed quickly.
So when you throw all this in the pot along with major decisions to be made about Fox and the coaching staff and a suitable QB to start in 2017 the guy has a load on his plate for a relatively inexperienced GM whose working for people who can't seem to get it right no matter what they do. So who does he rely on? Fox???, yeah right. He should be gone. Teddy Bears? Only if he wants to be told to spend less. GMcC whom he reports to? Do you ever ask a blind man for directions? Pace needs help and the right help but will he ever get it?
I'll pass on my crusade to hire an Exec VP for the moment and deal with player personnel although as long as Teddy Bears still keeps the checkbook much of what should be done won't.
The very first thing Pace needs to do is evaluate the existing roster with an eye towards letting players who can't stay healthy go. Marquess Wilson has talent but is never available enough to count on. Eddie Royal will undoubtedly be released. Even Zach Miller should be looked at vs the possibility the we have others who can replace him in Brown and Braunecker. You can't run a team effectively and win when half your starters are out or on IR.
Along with this the training staff should be looked at with an eye toward some massive changes in their approach. This is the second consecutive season where our "owies" and injuries have been above average. Either they're part of the problem or part of the solution and Pace needs to figure out which this offseason.
While I don't totally disagree with his approach to not overspend on fewer UFAs the time has come to stop adding more journeyman types and add some top flight talent at some key positions like FS and OT. I would much rather see us spend on a top Safety than at CB because I see some talent in some of the younger guys we have. Kyle Fuller also needs to be evaluated. Can this guy actually play CB in this defense or should he be tried at FS? The draft should be used on a CB or two. Those top dollar UFAs who are available just aren't that good or dependable.
We still need more help on the DL and at OLB. As I suspected McPhee isn't 100% and may never be again. Lamarr Houston is coming off his second major knee injury and unless he's willing to take a pay cut I question whether or not he'll be kept. We need a better #2 NT who can also play some DE if needed. Sutton is too small and Unrein is just not that good. These are the journeyman types we need to upgrade. Can CWash play if he's elevated to starter? Can Bullard add 20lbs and play DE or should we keep him around 270lbs convert him to an OLB to replace Houston and maybe McPhee?
We'll spend some money on our own FAs but AJ is the only one in line for anything major unless they also extend Hicks which wouldn't hurt. It will be cheaper now that it will be a year from now. Even AJs ability to command top dollar is at least somewhat questionable but whatever we probably need to meet the price but structure the deal so he's tradeable if need be. That mean more salary and less amortized bonus and/or guarantees unless earned. Others will chew up cap but most won't command high dollar deals and some will be offset by vets being released.
It's really fish or cut bait time for Pace. He needs more players who can remain healthy for an entire season and he needs to limit his tendency to gamble on those with known injury issues in their past. Those guys cost more but spending less on players who can only give you 8-10 games a year is wasting money and opportunity as well. He also needs to determine why his guys are dropping like flies. In some cases it's more obvious than others but overall the trend needs to be reversed quickly.
So when you throw all this in the pot along with major decisions to be made about Fox and the coaching staff and a suitable QB to start in 2017 the guy has a load on his plate for a relatively inexperienced GM whose working for people who can't seem to get it right no matter what they do. So who does he rely on? Fox???, yeah right. He should be gone. Teddy Bears? Only if he wants to be told to spend less. GMcC whom he reports to? Do you ever ask a blind man for directions? Pace needs help and the right help but will he ever get it?
I agree with your outlook Soul but for the moment I see QB as the gray area, meaning should we keep him or let him go? To play devil's advocate my latest cut proposal includes the following:
Basically the saved $$ on cutting the bottom 3 and extending AJ is a wash. And what to do about Cutler will be a little more complex than we suspect. But in the end I went with the approach they cut bait and keep on the winner of the Hoyer/Barclay sweepstakes if that evn makes sense. Let's see how Barclay does in tomorrow's matchup.