I wrote a blog yesterday morning how I loved a few small moves Ryan Pace had made and what I thought they meant. Find it here: https://www.thepressboxblog.com/blog/i-really-really-like-ryan-pace
After freeing up a little money yesterday morning, the Bears began the NFL's "legal tampering" period with a few moves shoring up some small parts of their team and some bigger parts. The reported signings so far have been:
1) Resigning reserve Tightend Ben Braunecker to a two year deal. Nice to retain some continuity but hardly a big move. Braunekcer is primarily a special teams player, while only catching 3 passes last season from the TE position.
2) Then things got a little more juicy when they signed former Seahakws Running Back Mike Davis to a two year deal worth about $6 million. Very underrated pickup in my opinion. Davis had a career year last year with 514 rushing yards on 112 carries and 4 touchdowns on top of catching 34 passes for 214 yards and 1 score. Very versatile back that seems to fit the scheme that Coach Nagy wants to run, you can never have enough RBs in this NFL.
3) The Bears all but told us they will not be resigning their own free agent Nickel in Bryce Callahan by signing Buster Skrine away from the Jets on a 3 year/$16.5 million dollar deal, $8 million guaranteed. Skrine is a great pickup at that rate. I think the transition from Callahan to Skrine will be seamless. Skrine has shown he is a willing tackler, 459 total tackles in 8 years, and a solid cover guy with 77 passes defended as well in those 8 career seasons.
Then we woke up this morning to the news that the Bears restructured another contract to free up some money, this time converting $13 million dollars owed to Khalil Mack into a signing bonus which freed up $11 million dollars in cap space this year. That sparked all sorts of conversations about Le'veon Bell and other big name free agents and people began to wonder if Da Bears will become big players for some big names left on the market.
Since that move they have only announced this signing:
4) The Bears agreed to a 2 year deal with WR/RB/Returner Cordarrelle Patterson. A quick reminder from this past season as to what Patterson brings to the table as a return man.
Since being drafted in the first round in 2013 Patterson has largely been a bust as a receiver but has carved out a great career as sort of an offensive swiss army knife WR/RB and an elite return man. If anyone can squeeze a bit of offensive talent out of this guy it's Coach Nagy who has shown to be as creative as any playcaller in the league.
This is what has happened so far for our Chicago Bears in the legal tampering period. Tomorrow is the official first day of the new league year in the NFL and all of these trades and signings can become official. There are still plenty of names left on the market and the Bears could be big players for... Ahem, Le'Veon Bell.....
Comments