Thread: Roach agrees to terms with Raiders

I was never impressed with Roach. He was marginal as a starter, and on most teams would have been a backup. I wish him the best with the Oakland Raiders. Roach always gave his best. It's just that his best wasn't very special. He wasn't bad. Wasn't good. Just one of those mediocre players that every team has to fill out a roster. You can't have a roster full of Urlachers and Briggs.

This changes our draft considerably IMHO. Instead of being free to go BPA, watch us now reach for a LB. I'll crap if we draft Te'o. He's a 2nd or 3rd round talent, but watch us throw away a 1st round pick on him now. It sucks.

The Raiders. Figures. They are one of the most clueless teams in the NFL in judging talent. Of course their defense gave up close to 30 points per game last season - one of the worst teams in the NFL as far as defense (27.7 points allowed per game).

They probably think they have a Hall of Famer in Nick Roach.

I'm just glad we didn't overpay for Roach. Will not be hard to replace. JA would have re-signed him and went heavy on the D drafting more marginal LB's.

Originally Posted by MPBears68

Lets not overdo this. It was no surprise at all and NR is hardly irreplaceable. He was a decent yet unspectacular player who looked better than he was due to being surrounded by legit stars. His chief value to us was the ability to play 2 positions halfway decent but no way was he worth a $3-4m/yr deal. That would have been stupid. Emery had to know this scenario was a likely possibility going into FA, so I'm sure he has game-planned it.

Yep that's the way I've been looking at it all along. I never thought we'd be able to keep him paying him around $2 mil a year and his moving on seems to even more indication of the Bears intention to re-sign Urlacher. I think common sense says that if he was told that it was unlikely Urlacher would return and that they were looking to him to play MLB this year he may have stuck around but not for $2 mil or so. He'd have wanted better and he found a team willing to pay it. To the Raiders he may have been worth that but to the Bears he wasn't.

This and the struggle with finding a happy medium with Urlacher has been one of the reasons I've changed my thinking on the draft. Before FA I was pretty well convinced we had to take on of the two top OGs but now I'd say the more pressing need will be a top LB who can play both SLB and MLB as Roach could and the guy who heads that list is Ogletree. I'm watching to see Emery re-sign Louis soon and then go after another OG in the second phase of FA when prices aren't so steep.

If he's able to do both I don't think there's any doubt in my mind that he'll draft a LB in one whether at #20 or on a trade back if he can. I really doubt Te'o is his guy but if his legwork on Ogletree tells him he doesn't have much to worry about as far as character issues go then he's about as perfect a fit for our needs right now as we could get and if not Ogletree then it has to be another LB. The time has come to get that position ready for a transition.

Originally Posted by Papa Bear

So, does this give Urlacher some leverage in getting a little bigger deal from the Bears or do you guys think Emery is going to stand firm on his evaluation of Urlacher's worth?

PB I think the Bears can pay Urlacher what they can pay him and that's it. I don't think losing Roach plays into because I think Emery pretty much planned for it. Before FA began he probably had some contact with agents for all of his FAs to give them an idea of what he was able to offer.

Roach felt he could do better and I believed all along that he was correct and that he'd be leaving. I think the only thing that would have kept him here is if Emery said he was going to be the Bears starting MLB this year but as long as the return of Urlacher is on the table that wasn't gonna happen.

The worst case scenario is that we move JT Thomas up to SAM. He's very similar in size and abilities to Roach and he's been an understudy there for two years. In a pinch we could make do with him along with Briggs and Urlacher and we'd draft a LB early but maybe not in one. There are also some lower cost UFA guys Emery can bring in like he did with Hayes last year.

One way or another the handwriting is on the wall. The legendary LB strength of the Bears needs rebuilding or maybe a better term is restocking on the fly. We don't need one guy we actually need three and it's time to start evaluating who we already have that can step up. As far as guys on the roster go I'd say Thomas and DeCicco are both possibilities to replace Roach but neither of them look to me to be a good prospect to replace Urlacher or Briggs.