The Bears might be the NFL’s best example right now of an organization with no plan

wonky73

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NFL offseason head-scratchers, great moves, and leaps: Things we’ve learned for all 32 NFL teams


The Bears might be the NFL’s best example right now of an organization with no plan. Their moves reflect a GM and a coach who are simply trying to keep the team competitive to save their jobs.

Chicago used the franchise tag on Allen Robinson and signed Andy Dalton to a one-year, $10.5 million deal. The Bears released cornerback Kyle Fuller and will replace him with Desmond Trufant. They signed kicker Cairo Santos to a three-year, $9 million deal. Santos has been on five different teams in the last four years.

“It’s just a mess,” Fitzgerald said. “There’s nobody they can get at quarterback, so I get why they went after Dalton. Why they went after Dalton at $10.5 million, who are you gonna lose him to? I just don’t see the purpose of that at all.

“The Robinson stuff has made no sense at all. There’s no reason to have him on the tag. You either get a long-term extension done, which should’ve been last year, or you let him walk. I don’t get it. I don’t get anything they’re doing at this point. The kicker for $3 million per year. Ok, he had a good season last year. He’s bounced around team to team for some time. And you have such a bad salary cap situation. You can’t spend $3 million a year on your kicker. You’ve got to get everything else in order.”
 

Leomaz

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At least they didn’t give away 3 draft picks for a quarterback that was going to be released by the team that drafted him.


this isn’t a endorsement for Phillips, Pace or Nagy.
 
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Montucky

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I guess some Bears fans find it fun to wallow in misery but the Bears woes are nowhere near as profound as those of the Houston Texans. Not even close. At least there is some talent on the Bears and the Bears are working with (mostly) full drafts.
 

discplayer

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I guess some Bears fans find it fun to wallow in misery but the Bears woes are nowhere near as profound as those of the Houston Texans. Not even close. At least there is some talent on the Bears and the Bears are working with (mostly) full drafts.
Ok, so I am supposed to be comforted by knowing there is one team that is worse off than the Bears? So we’re 31st out of 32?
 

Montucky

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Ok, so I am supposed to be comforted by knowing there is one team that is worse off than the Bears? So we’re 31st out of 32?
All the teams in the Bears division got worse this off-season. The Lions were the only team that did so intentionally as part of a broader plan. The Bears have had a bad off-season, arguably the NFL's worst, but such despair at their overall state isn't really warranted. They are in the bottom third of the NFL, but its a league of cyclical contention and there's nothing fundamentally wrong with them that won't be fixed by this time next year.
 

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I thought someone on CCS said it's going to be as much to sign AR as it would be to tag him. If they were right with that claim that is a very good reason.

The real head slapper with this team goes back to Mack's trade and contract. That is why we are here. Our QB didn't get a fair chance, we don't have an offense for any other QB, and we're in cap hell.
But we upgraded the top 10 defense so the NFL rules and refs could negate having a good defense.
 

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I don't agree the with Robinson commentary. It's not as simple as either signing him or letting him walk. They obviously want Robinson but disagree with his asking price. That's what negotiations are for and the tag can certainly be used as a negotiation tactic. And why let him walk for nothing? But I agree with the overall position that the team lacks direction.
 

tcmtrinity

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We all know they have direction. Right into the shitter lol.
 
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Zion

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I think the plan is to milk the fanbase to our last nerve with perpetual 8-8 seasons

It snowed in Texas and Southern California before the Bears could find one decent QB
 

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I don't agree the with Robinson commentary. It's not as simple as either signing him or letting him walk. They obviously want Robinson but disagree with his asking price. That's what negotiations are for and the tag can certainly be used as a negotiation tactic. And why let him walk for nothing? But I agree with the overall position that the team lacks direction.
they lost their direction in 1986
 

gilder121

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They have a plan, they want to win. They just don't have the assets to do it.

My concern is that they have already pushed as much cap as they can into next year to win now, the next logical step is to trade future draft picks. I really don't want Pace doing that. Even to trade up for a QB (Wilson would be a different story but I think that's dead at this point).

Bears need to catch up on the deferred cap numbers, shed some bad money, and acquire more future draft picks for 1-2 years. Pace and Nagy probably can't afford that timeline and Pace has NEVER been one to play the value game in the draft, so that isn't likely.

This situation incentives desperation and that's bad news.
 
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HearshotKDS

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I also believe that the Bears don’t have a plan in place, but a bunch of the reasons in the article are bad examples. $3m is maaybe a slight overpay for a kicker, it is more important position for a defensive team, and solidifies a huge need for them. AR didn’t want to sign here for a contract that FO was willing to give, franchise tag was only way to make sure you get him here. Bad examples, it’s the wrong formula but he got the answer the right anyway.

Bears did have a solid plan - they maximized their assets to get the most out of the last 3 seasons. Plan was to have their star QB on a rookie contract mature fast enough to take advantage of the fantastic D before salary cap and age forced it to regress. Unfortunately Pace chose the 1 out of 3 QB who wouldn’t be able to do that. Now there is no plan, at least long term, this is what “do your best to put together a team that win more games than you lose, and if you don’t magically go deep in the playoffs we’ll come up with a new long term plan next year” looks like. AKA punted rebuild for a day later and dollar shorter version of last years team. I’ll still root for them every game but I’m gonna call a duck a duck.
 

Menchifus

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This writer gets no credibility for criticizing one of the few moves the Bears got right - signing Cairo Santos for 3M/year. And they absolutely played the Robinson situation right. We're getting him for one of his prime years without committing to a long-term contract during uncertain times. The fact that Robinson didn't want to sign the contract says that it's to the Bears' advantage. And the fact that he signed in the end says that the Bears won the confrontation. Criticize the Fuller move and the Dalton move if you want, but not the Robinson and the Santos moves.
 

msadows

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Huh?

They had a plan. The plan failed.

Everyone knew if the mitch experiment didn't work out this team would become bad around this point with aging vets and limited depth. They mortgaged the future on mitch and mitch let them down.

The plan was not a bad one, the execution was terrible. If pace picked the right qb 5 years ago this team would probably have two super bowls by now. Such a shame.
 

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