Thread: LB McIntosh to visit Bears

Well let's keep the faith. McIntosh is another guy like Hayden that we've had an itch to get so let's home we acn make a deal to get it done. The kid from TB doesn't sound too bad either but I'd prefer Rocky because any LB with a nickname like Rocky needs to play for the Bears.

A guy named Geno should be on the Jets.

Originally Posted by soulman

If Emery and Lovie think he can do a job for us then I hope we can sign him. It's the April pre-draft "white sale" for left over FA's. This is where the bargains come from not that first week. These guys are now one or two year signings for short dollars. They've been out there for over a month now with no serious offers so they're signable.

Guys like McIntosh and Rachal came out of college as high picks and a guy like Emery has certainly had some experience scouting and evaluating them before. Maybe they were guys he liked when they were drafted but his team wasn't in need or a position to take them. It's vet depth or competition in camp on a budget and sometimes you get real lucky.

We've gotten decent play out of some of these types. Jennings, Okoye, Toeaina, Spencer and even Garza some years ago. These guys were all picked up from somebody else in the offseason and all have played starting roles and done fairly well. You don't get All Pros at this point in FA but you don't pay them like All Pro's either. It's hard to argue with the fact that an experienced vet pickup at this time is as least as good and better prepared to play now than a mid to late round draft pick or UDFA.

Both Hayes and McIntosh sound like they could be valuable additions to this team, but as far as Rachal is concerned, I don't know. It's kind of like what 4DaBERS said: it doesn't hurt to sign these crafty veteran types to one or two year deals because there are several options, including cutting them after filling needs in the draft. Besides, there is some serious upside to both Hayes and McIntosh, and I think they both could be gold for us, particularly McIntosh. One thing to note on Hayes, too, is that he played in the Tampa 2 system down with the Buccaneers under Raheem Morris, so he would be very familiar with Lovie's system on defense.

Originally Posted by Bipolar Bear

As a depth move this would be a pretty good one. Our LB depth sucks and it could keep the Bears from having to address the position in the draft.

I would probably address the linebacker problem in both free agency and in the draft simply because I don't think DeCicco and the other guy are capable of holding up for a prolonged period of time during season if either Urlacher, Briggs, or Roach goes down. I do think, however, that if McIntosh or Smith (Geno Smith, is that right?) get signed, one of them will start. I can possibly see someone like a Nigel Bradham taken in the third round, however.

He's a good pickup. Pretty much a WLB and a very good "playmaker". I'm surprised TB let him go. Too bad we couldn't sign both. Roach is OK but nothing to write home about and behind him we've got nothing but inexperience although DeCicco looks to me like he could become Hilly v2.0.