Thread: PFT: Forte will only sign a long term deal

Every team knows Forte is worth the money. If he can do as well as he did with our mediocre oline last year imagine what he can do with a decent oline. At this point I don't care if we keep him because I feel we can get two more licks in the draft. The Packers have 12. For some reason the Bears do well when it comes to the 4-6 round picks. So if Forte can't be paid for then a couple mid picks should be good enough in return.

Originally Posted by Grizzblue

Draft day trade?

Realistically who would dance and whats his value im sure a first rounder is in the cards but how high?

I don't think they want to do that but Emery has certainly put us in a position to where we can if the right offer comes along. There is only one legit 1st round RB this year and that's Trent Richardson. After that any other RB in the 1st is a reach. Cleveland has two first round picks and is badly in need of a RB since Peyton Hillis didn't pan out as they would have hoped and is now gone. According to NFP the Browns are also said to be looking at a QB and may reach for Ryan Tannehill with their first pick then trade their #22 pick and others with Miami to move back into the top 10 to draft Richardson.

Suppose instead that trade Cleveland offers the Bears #22 for Forte instead. It's difficult to imagine we could get more than this even though we may feel he's worth a top 15 pick. Mike Holgren is running the show in Cleveland and Forte is the kind of all purpose back he's preferred during his years as a HC. If a draft day offer for Forte comes along that allows us to potentially draft a DE like Mercilus or Perry or a DT like Cox at #19 then use that #22 pick on Olineman like Glenn or Konz would that be a fair way to go about relieving ourselves of one problem while at the same time solving two others?

I could even see us looking at two top Dlineman in one like DE's Perry or Mercilus and DT's like Cox or Poe if he falls out of the top 15, then use our 2nd round pick on a stud OG like Zeitler or Brooks or maybe Osemele.

I love Matt Forte and what he brings to the team but I'm getting a little tired of this game, his refusal to participate in offseason work and the threat of being a "no show" once camp opens in July. Even if he plays under his tag I'm beginning to see another CJ or DWill year on the horizon because he'll no longer be playing to prove he deserves the deal he's asking for and has been refused and the other additions to the offense will reduce his impact from what it was last season. I'm no longer getting a good feeling about this no matter what Lovie and Ted Phillips have to say.

Cutler said it best when he said both sides have to do what they feel is best for them and I think the Bears are doing just that. Matt Forte can be an important part of the Bears offense but he isn't the only top notch offensive weapon we'll have. His role will be reduced and because of that the amount of $$$ we're able to devote to him as a #1 RB. With the addition of Bush it's more likely that their shared productivity may be a 60/40 or 70/30 proposition and Forte can't expect to be paid like it's 90/10 between he and his backups anymore. The offensive additions of Marshall and Bush along with retaining Davis and Bell mean that Matt Forte won't be anywhere near 45% of the Bears total offense from this point forward.

None of us have any idea what this last offer was but I think it's safe to say that it's very likely that it's a significant amount more than he was offered last fall when these negotiations began. The Bears are also leaving that offer on the table which tells me they've gone as high as they intend to go. The next move is up to Forte. If the deal pays him in the neighborhood of $30 mil or so over 4 years and guarantees him 60% of that in the first two years he's being a stubborn fool if he doesn't take it. Maybe we tack on another $1 mil each in years 3 and 4 if his production hits a certain level but $7.5-$8 mil per year with an amount equal to or slightly greater than the amount he'd get if he was franchised for two year is IMHO a fair deal.

If he won't settle for that then put the price of a mid 1st round draft pick on his head and let him and his agent see if they can find any team willing to pay that price. If we traded him and were able to walk away with another 1st round pick that got us a top lineman on either side of the ball I would call it a day. His refusal is now costing us the ability to keep a guy like Okoye or add other talent at positions of need. Come draft day it's time for him to crap or get off the pot.

Originally Posted by BigBadPapaBear

Solid post as usual Soul. You raise a lot of good points. I really like Forte a lot. Its a frustrating situation for me to watch as we are putting together a team that should be a serious contender for a SB, especially if we add some guys in teh draft that willmake an immediate impact. Forte is the best RB we've had since TJones and he is better than Jones was. If the Bears did hypothetically get offered the Browns #22 pick...the Bears may just have to take it. It wouldn't be too bad a deal considering he was originally a 2nd rd pick and you also save the $8 million 1yr franchise contract and are out of this squabble. And like you said, you can add a DL and an OL or if Michael Floyd falls to #19 you can take a WR and DL. lol

All that aside, I really hope an extension can be worked out. Forte makes this a very dangerous offense. And I would love for him to have another season like last year. So hopefully they can work this out. I swear I hate agents. lol

Thanks BBPB. I just posted the details of the Briggs extension in that thread. I think Briggsy finally realized that, much like things were when he agreed to his last deal, around $6 mil per year IS the top of the market for a consistent Pro Bowl OLB who isn't a sack machine. I've seen decent starting or #2 LB's signing deal for $1-$2 mil per year. They aren't getting big $$$ unless they are a Briggs type perennial Pro Bowler or a sack artist. Not when you can draft guys in the first three rounds and those guys will cost you anywhere from $500k to about $1.5 mil per year. The cap hasn't gone up much if at all in three years and the $$$ just isn't there unless you're a team like KC or TB who underspent so dramatically these last couple of years.

This is gonna hurt Forte's chances I'm certain of it. Emery, Phillips and Stein are quietly going about this in a very methodical and calculated way. From what I can see they're very skillfully spending money to improve what needs to be improved and retain existing talent without overspending. The only guy I think they reached for a bit was Kellen Davis and that was only because they had to meet competing offers. And $3 mil only seems like too much based on his past productivity. I'm betting this year once Tice gets him into the passing game that $3 mil is gonna look like money well spent.

Then for about the same money than VJax is getting they got us Marshall, Weems and Devin Thomas. Not only is Marshall every bit as good or better but they got us two ST coverage standouts, KR Specialists, and WR depth by spending that extra $$$ on these guys as opposed to jumping into a bidding war for VJax. Those two "kickers" (Weems and Thomas) will make some noise on ST if nowhere else and Thomas is a bigger version of a downfield threat in the event that Knox is still not able to play in 2012 and Weems can take his spot as a KR.

From what I can see our front office triumvirate has spent their cap resources very wisely and improved both the frontline talent and our depth very nicely. I do believe Lovie and Emery wanted to keep Okoye too but with so much cap shelved to reserve $$$ for Forte's tag we just couldn't come up with $2 mil to match the offer TB gave him. He was worth it but we didn't have it. That may also be keeping us from adding a more experienced vet MLB to back Urlacher as well.

I'm just gonna repeat what I said before. Matt Forte's refusal to agree to a long term deal is beginning to hurt us in other ways. Briggsy saw the light and took a fair offer when it was put on the table. To me all indications are that to mollify Forte, especially after the Bush signing, the Bears have also put a fair offer on the table for him. It looks to me like he's not being realistic about his value to this or any other team and that's he's now playing hardball. We haven't had a contract issue like this since Briggs previous contract was signed. I get sick of hearing how the Bears are too cheap. The very fact that we haven't had holdouts over the years tells me we're pretty damn good at knowing what the market sets as a players worth and paying it but never getting ourselves in "cap hell" by overpaying or structuring deals poorly.

If the sentiment on this board represents that of Bear fans in general I'd say that Matt Forte has about worn out his welcome in Chicago. We're basically a "get er done", "blue collar bunch" and when a guy acts offended that he's only gonna make $7.74 mil this year and says he's been disrespected because we're protecting our asses against his holdout while at the same time strengthening our short yardage and goaline running game (something he's not very good at) I'm about two shakes away from saying go fvck yourself.

If I'm the Bears front office I'm now saying to his agent that the deal on the table is the best we can offer you. If that isn't good enough we grant you permission to seek a better off from another team with the understanding that your price tag is a mid first round pick. Somewhere in the top 15 or if higher than #20 it will be a first and a third or a fourth. Of course we're unlikely to get that extra pick but it never hurts to ask and come draft day somebody may be desperate enough for a top ten RB to do it. We can always settle for less.