Thread: Taking Stock of Free Agency; Day Two............

Originally Posted by soulman

Just read excerpts from Emery's press conference. The basic highlights were that they went into the Marshall thing with eyes wide open. They knew about the NY thing but thought him worth the risk and got agreement all the way around.

He was very non-committal about where we go from here. He said don't be surprise if we sign a few more in the days that follow and don't be surprised if we don't. I'm guessing he's got some feelers out to guys he's interested in and a couple of our own as well. How firm he is on his offers is anyone's guess but I don't see him as a guy who'll do much chasing. He's not a big money guy so he has to depend on the numbers that Cliff Stein gives him and I think he has the worked out fairly tight. Not much wiggle room at all.

Now that Royal seems to be looking for more than we're willing to give I'm not looking for us to sign another WR in FA right now. $6 mil for #3 type slot guys is overboard IMHO. Rookies cost far less and we don't know how much better Sanz can be if he gets his confidence back and holds onto the ball. I think he was a little snakebit for a while last season. Royal would have been an immediate upgrade but I think Sanz can step up this year. I think the Bears will use Weems more as a WR than he was used in Atlanta.

I gotta think our 1st round pick is gonna be a Dlineman. If we have to jump for a DE then maybe Izzy and Okoye don't come back which means we look at a 3t DT like Cox. If we don't get a DE then ya' gotta think DE with pick #1. If we move CWill out to LT to compete then maybe we look at an OG in round two but if we bring in a FA to compete with Webb we could go any number of ways.

Right now other than Steltz what Emery does with Izzy and Okoye will tip off what his plans are for the draft. He said in his interview that they'll spend a few more days with this and then begin focusing on the draft. My guess is he's got some bait in the water in the form of some nominal offers to a few guys and waiting to see what they come back with to see whether or not he wants to re-sign any of them including our own guys. No sense bidding against ourselves.

I think that's what he did with Davis. He told him to go out and see what he was worth and then give him a shot at matching it and my guess is he's doing that with several more guys that he's interested in signing if the price is right. At least that my hunch so far based on what he'd been doing. He's made two swings at DE's and got outbid twice so maybe he's shifting gears and filling other spots in FA.

I hope so and thanks for the report. I'd like to see some additional FA help at (2 of 3) DE, LB, or DB. We still need to draft a WR, another DB, maybe a depth LB, an OG, and prob a DLman. There is no guarantee that Ingram or Reed will make it to 19 and we have already given up a trade-up 3rd. We maybe looking at Mercilus vs. Branch vs. Curry esp. if we don't sign Wimbley.

Originally Posted by WindyCity

I guess I am a little frustrated with the fact that the Bears have 16 million in cap space and we are not being the active to even fill holes in the team. Maybe the Brandon Marshall high has gone down.

Maybe we are waiting on Wimbley.

That's exactly my thought too. We still have a lot of cap space and we haven't done much at all to fill other needs or even re-sign some obvious guys we need to keep (Steltz, Okoye). If not waiting for Wimbley's release, then I don't know wtf we are waiting for.

Originally Posted by Riczaj01

I said for the past two seasons, I thought Knox(if healthy)/Hester would benefit from a #1 WR; and still think you're going to see those two explode b/c of Marshall. Add serious concern at TE, and Bennetts possession, and teams will have to leave knox/Hester 1 on 1; and their/he's shifty enough to make them pay.

I'd still like an upgrade, but if it doesn't come through FA, or #19, i'm okay w/that for now.

Yeah all receivers are definitely going to benefit from Marshall's presence. If Knox is healthy he could have a killer year, I'm not sure how much we plan on using Hester though. The Bears have shown obvious interest in Stephen Hill, it'll be interesting to see how the rest of free agency plays out and what Emery does with his first draft. I'm excited for the season.

Originally Posted by WindyCity

I guess I am a little frustrated with the fact that the Bears have 16 million in cap space and we are not being the active to even fill holes in the team. Maybe the Brandon Marshall high has gone down.

Maybe we are waiting on Wimbley.

Well they shouldn't be just looking to eat up all that cap space this year. You have to think about next year as well, when several key players will become FAs. I'd rather they make some shrewd and reasonable signings of players that will make an impact in 2012, rather than just throwing big deals at guys that aren't worth the cash.

I'm not that high on Wimbley, but pickings are slim....

Soul am I correct in saying the mckaskeys have shelled out diddly squat in signing bonuses this year yet again?

Im just not impressed with this offseason. Can't blame me when we are busy signing guys that were ja guys and part of reasons we let ja go. I get it only two days in blah blah but we started out with 43 mil and have just marshal to how for it now we are at 16 minus izzy.

It is what it is just expected a NEW direction not that same bullshit. Perhaps lovie is the real power on this team cause this offseason looks like the previous ones that came after the SUPERBOWL loss

At this point I'm accepting the bullshit oline. Maybe adding a guy like marshal will help things out since ja won't have to wait for Hester to line up right or Knox to run the right route or williams as a last resort and will be able to release the ball quicker

Thats as positive as I'm getting without new faces around here instead same old crap