Bears Aquire OL Ryan Bates from Buffalo

What makes me nervous is that Poles just signed Doug Kramer to a reserve/future contract. So if he’s the backup center, why do we need another one? Or is Bates all we’re going to get, and he’s not planning to make a serious bid for Cushenberry?  Or whatever is still on the board third round?

Maybe he surprises in our blocking scheme and becomes above average with our Oline coach. Trying to spin it positively.

Meh. Odd of actually picking starter or depth on the OL with a 5th round pick are slim. Odds of picking a rookie OL with a 5th round pick that can actually start if someone gets injured are slim. We hammer the Bears for not having depth and then when they spend a reasonable pick on depth we get our underwear in a knot.

As I see it Bates + experience he has + salary >>>>> 5th round OL-rookie + salary.

Doesn't move the needle at all. He's a depth piece who can play RG-C-LG. Cap went up $25 mil more than expected.

That does make sense.  I'm not trying to be critical of the move, so much as to try and understand it.  I did think that our OL needed better quality depth... but I also didn't know how good or bad the young guys were that we already had (practice squad developmental guys in particular).  Maybe our OL depth guys are worse than I thought, and the developmental guys didn't develop.  Anyway, I did go back and read Ryan Bates draft profile (nobody ended up drafting him).  The scouting report on him was brutal.  LINK 

Yeah, you don't want to read too much into it.  I agree.  LOL, but just scratching my bald head this morning wondering about the move a bit :-)