The Bears signed former Colts and Falcons CB and Illinois Alum Kelvin Hayden to a 1-year contract. Excellent signing. He’s a classic Cover 2 guy and will fit into the scheme immediately. He’s not a impact starter but he’ll add depth and compete with Tim Jennings for time. We were really pretty thin at CB with Graham and Bowman leaving town and this helps. This is smart and will soften the urgency to draft a CB early.
Still hoping we can get Akoye back though, not sure what’s going on there, he was eager to come to Chicago for cheap last offseason, maybe he was expecting that “prove it” contract to lead to a fat follow up that the Bears aren’t offering, but if no one else is either I’d hope he’d stay.
The Bears added another CB to the mix in Jonathan Wilhite today. Not that familiar with him and it seems like he won’t bring much to the table aside from special teams, but as noted we needed to replace Graham and Bowman and it sounds like Wilhite will bring at least some upside for the future. All things being equal I may have preferred to keep Graham since we know how amazing he is on Special Teams but Wilhite may have more potential as a Nickel/DB/Safety in the case of injury.
The Bears also resigned Kellen Davis, Israel Idonije and Craig Steltz, but there doesn’t seem to be much fanfare about that. I just saw it on their site, but nowhere else. That being said, good to see Davis staying.
What do you guys know about Weeden? I keep hearing people saying “if he were 6 years younger, he might be taken #1 overall” but that sounds like someone just trying to hyperbolize to make some sort of point. I haven’t seen much from him but nothing about him seems all that terribly impressive from limited viewing.
On the other hand, if he really is a legit passer, it’d be cool of the browns took him in round 2. I mean, yeah, he’s 29, so you might only get 8 years out of him if he’s good… that’s worth quite a lot.
Old news, but I’m happy about it, especially Davis. Wonder if the Bears will give any thought at all to Fleener in the 1st round if Floyd is gone.
I have watched a fair number of his games and I like him a lot, the age is a real question mark but his arm and accuracy is elite. He’s a better prospect than Tannehill so long as you’re good with a max upside of like 6 years as a starter. He should develop quickly but there’s still going to be rookie hiccups. Anyone saying he’d be ahead of Luck or RG3 if he were 22 years old is out to lunch though, those guys are special.
Oh yeah, I’d rather take a roll of the dice on Weeden at #37 than Tannehill at #4, and that’s without really knowing shit about Weeden.
Richardson, Wright/Hill/whatever WR, and Weeden would certainly reshape the offense. If he can start productively right away and give 5-6 good seasons, I’m okay with that.
It’s weird to think about though, because he’s actually older than Alex Smith and Aaron Rodgers, who are both going into their 8th season…
Also makes you wonder to what degree age-related decline is actual age, and how much is wear and tear.
The funny thing about that, by the way, is that earlier in the offseason I was wondering how often a team takes a quarterback and his favorite receiver at the top of the draft, because I thought RG3 + Wright was a possibility.
But still very much on the table is Blackmon + Weeden.
I would tend to think mostly the former. Age-related decline happens in pretty much all sports, even the non-contact ones. The human body simply is not as fast or strong at 35 as at 25. The year-in year-out pounding probably costs a step, but getting older costs two or three.
And in Weeden’s case, it’s not like he was spending those years on a massage table: he was putting miles on his arm and body playing baseball.
If I’m a Browns fan I think I could get pretty excited about a Richardson, Hill, Weeden combo to open the draft. I’m not real high on Richardson but he’ll be immediately impactful at least in the short term, and I am in the tank for Hill as the 3rd best WR prospect in the draft and I think Weeden’s age will be overstated. Yeah you aren’t drafting a Hall of Famer but you will probably be getting an immediate upgrade over McCoy.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but he was a backup/rotational guy who was signed after busting in Houston as a first round pick. Shouldn’t guys like that be replaceable?
He wasn’t really a bust. He started 62 games in 4 seasons with the Texans, and had 5 and a half sacks as a rookie. He just didn’t fit well into the Texans’ scheme. He fits very well into the Tampa 2, as evidenced by his production in a backup role with the Bears. I’m excited about the signing; he could push Gerald McCoy, Albert Haynesworth and Brian Price for a starting role, although he would fit best as a situational replacement for McCoy.
Let’s not overstate things. For being drafted 10th overall, he’s a bust, good fit or not with the system. He never was more than just a guy here, and often worse than that. I’m glad that he has turned his career around, to the point where teams are competing to add him to their squads, and their respective fans are irked that he’s gone. But the best you could say about him as a Texan was ‘meh’.
From this post, here’s what Omniscient had to say about him:
Calling him a backup isn’t really accurate. He only officially started 1 game but he played in more than half of the Bears defensive snaps and was on the field on most passing downs. DTs are hard to come by and ones who can get to the QB are especially tough to find on the open market. The Bears hope to be better this year on the D Line than last year, like all teams, and fully expect Paea to step up as a full-time starter and impact player. That said, teams need depth on the D Line and there aren’t many FAs out there as good as Okoye right now. With Okoye gone we’ll probably have to draft someone at the position, which means we won’t be drafting a player somewhere else.
Supposedly the Bears are taking a good look at Eric Steinbach. Not sure how much he has left and what his health will be like, but we really need some help on the interior of the line and he might be a big upgrade.