Thread: It's All in the Plan Stan............

I love the fact that so many are not patient enough when it comes to Emery. It's the slow time of the year and he plays things so close to the vest that it frustrates some but you KNOW he has a plan and executes it with surgical precision when it's time to strike. What a refreshing change from the "Angler".

Another good article by Sean Jensen that delves into Phil Emery's thinking as it related to his cap situation and FA. I don't think there's any question about the facts that he wanted to solve his personnel problems at LT and TE in FA rather than the draft and that he's a very good poker player. Both seem true to me.

Loadholt may have been in play but I don't think there's any question that Bushrod was who he wanted and Loadholt was a fall back based on NOLA's stated intention to aggressively pursue Bushrod and re-sign him. Getting him for an average of $7 mil a year in change may have been the kind of deal you'd expect from a guy giving a "hometown discount" but not signing with a new team. Thanks to the presence of Aaron Kromer we got our LT for our price. This also seems to indicate that while Emery has some respect for PFF it's not his bible as far as decision making goes which I think is very good. In this case I think he had to throw some of those stats out the window and go with his gut feeling as well as Kromer's and other intangibles.

As for TE Bennett was as much the smart move as Cook would have been the dumb one. Jared Cook is a very good TE but he was looking to become an $8 mil per year version of Greg Olsen who gets half that. Because of he's considered somewhat "flaky" and also having just one "breakout season" under his belt as a starter Bennett would attract less interest and be available for far less money and I think Emery also knew enough about the Giants cap situation to understand that they were unlikely to be able to keep him. We were looking for the best all around TE for a price we could afford and we got one who can do more for 40% less than Cook got. This was another pretty shrewd deal that not many saw coming.

Two key players signed for deals totaling around $56 mil/$21.8 mil guaranteed and whose 2013 cap costs are less than $5 mil. That was a nice parlay all things considered and neither one plays STeams either. Take that Jerry Angelo, LOL, and you weren't able to get Bushrod when you took your shot at him.

The priorities with the limited cap space were a tackle and tight end — and Emery’s patience seemingly paid off.

As of Friday, the Bears have $5.6  million in salary-cap space, nearly half of which needs to be allocated for the rookie pool. If they choose to do more, they can create more space with restructures, releases and extensions, but they’re looking for bargains now — especially with their own free agents.

These last two paragraph answers other questions we've had one of which is just how much of that remaining cap space is earmarked for signing draftees and the answer is about half so it's not $5.8 plus another $3 mil or so for the rookies. It's around $5.8 mil period.

The other is how Emery will proceed with signing the rest of our own FAs he'd like to have back and that answer is "with patience" and "at a price" he can justify based on his priorities for the team and how much those players can be expected to contribute this year.

Originally Posted by omc1969

I love the fact that so many are not patient enough when it comes to Emery. It's the slow time of the year and he plays things so close to the vest that it frustrates some but you KNOW he has a plan and executes it with surgical precision when it's time to strike. What a refreshing change from the "Angler".

From one angler to another huh R?

Good that you noticed that and it's why I'm not panicking about it either. The first wave of FA is over and all of the big signings have taken place. Now the market will reset itself for the rest of the guys who are left. This is where the true bargains are found, Emery knows that, and he needs to fill out his roster with some bargains including his own UFAs.

Two years running he's been very specific about who he would spend his big dollars on and last year he won a huge prize trading for Marshall after Miami threw up their hands over what turned out to be much ado about nothing.

This year he pretty much ignored what PFF had to say about Bushrod and chose to believe what he saw on tape and what his OC had to say and got a good young LT and greatly improved our pass protection. Now we can move Webb back to RT and have a competition with Carimi over that position where it should be as opposed to that farce Tice played out with Webb and CWill last year.

Bennett was a similar pickup to Marshall. Another big target for Jay who can run, catch, and block and someone who you also had to ignore some of his past and look at how he might do in this environment rather than in that zoo he was in at Dallas. He showed last year that when he was finally "the man" at TE he could produce and I think he'll produce with the Bears as well.

You really couldn't have done any better for the $$$ spent than these two guys. Now the market is gonna help dictate what the others are worth for this year and that gives him an opportunity to bring back his own guys at a price he can justify given how tight his cap situation is and he's not the only GM with that same issue. That's keeping prices down and you can see it.

Originally Posted by soulman

From one angler to another huh R?

Good that you noticed that and it's why I'm not panicking about it either. The first wave of FA is over and all of the big signings have taken place. Now the market will reset itself for the rest of the guys who are left. This is where the true bargains are found, Emery knows that, and he needs to fill out his roster with some bargains including his own UFAs.

Two years running he's been very specific about who he would spend his big dollars on and last year he won a huge prize trading for Marshall after Miami threw up their hands over what turned out to be much ado about nothing.

This year he pretty much ignored what PFF had to say about Bushrod and chose to believe what he saw on tape and what his OC had to say and got a good young LT and greatly improved our pass protection. Now we can move Webb back to RT and have a competition with Carimi over that position where it should be as opposed to that farce Tice played out with Webb and CWill last year.

Bennett was a similar pickup to Marshall. Another big target for Jay who can run, catch, and block and someone who you also had to ignore some of his past and look at how he might do in this environment rather than in that zoo he was in at Dallas. He showed last year that when he was finally "the man" at TE he could produce and I think he'll produce with the Bears as well.

You really couldn't have done any better for the $$$ spent than these two guys. Now the market is gonna help dictate what the others are worth for this year and that gives him an opportunity to bring back his own guys at a price he can justify given how tight his cap situation is and he's not the only GM with that same issue. That's keeping prices down and you can see it.

Yeah, but I'm the better angler bc I never have to second guess my decisions.
I really don't see anything getting done until the draft and that's going to drive some people nuts around here. Patience is a virtue.