And Barkley moving south to Philly.
What do the Vikings do now? Would the Bears deal Fields inside the division?
Me, too – and not happily. Not that our current RBs are stellar, but you don’t need stellar RBs to win in today’s NFL. I would have much rather see the money spent on a decent center instead of trading a 5th round pick for just another guy.
I’m not sure Swift is “just another guy”. He was #6 in rushing, with a 4.6 ypc, and almost 1300 yards from scrimmage. And his salary (reportedly 3 years at $24 million) is good value too.
Some other tidbits:
Gabe Davis to the Jags.
Josh Jacobs to Packers.
Tony Pollard to Titans.
Michael Pittman stays in Indy.
Some links.
I do not at all understand the Bears decision to pay Swift that much money. Swift isn’t exactly elite, 2 teams have already tapped out on him. The Bears could have just paid Montgomery and been better off.
I also don’t quite get the Falcons signing Kirk. Kirk is a fine player but he can’t seem to get over the hump. He’s old and coming off a serious injury. So you pay him $180M? Just wild. I’m sure I’m biased, but is that seriously a better deployment of resources than rolling the dice with Fields?
Hearing Antonio Gibson to the Patriots. An early run on running backs it looks like.
I wasn’t referring to Swift – I was referring to center/guard Ryan Bates, from Buffalo. I would rather have seen the Bears sign a better, free agent center (and keep that draft pick) instead of an upgrade at RB.
That Bates trade is so fucking stupid. He’s not a starter and I’m not sure he projects as the starting Center in Chicago or if he’s just a swing IOL. If you’re sending a 5th rounder in this loaded draft that seems to signal that you view him as a plug and play Center, but that’s a hell of a gamble. That 5th round pick could have been used on a rookie RB which might have mitigated the need to pony up for an injury prone guy like Swift. If we end up trading Fields for a 4th after spending a 5th on a backup IOL, Poles needs to be fired into the sun.
This is a loaded draft … for the first 3 rounds. Experts say the talent level drops off precipitously after round 3. Poles tried to sign Bates previously, so this wasn’t some random dude, it was a guy that Poles has wanted, and he got him. We desperately need a starting center, but we also just need solid OLine depth across the board. We had zero last year. In 1,434 career snaps, he has just 6 penalties and only 1 sack allowed. He can play all 5 positions without being a liability at any. Perfect depth piece. Maybe we draft a center. I don’t see a problem with it.
I’m convinced the Bears set out to trade one day three pick to each team in the AFC East in exchange for a player who makes no impact whatsoever:
2021: Jakeem Grant from Miami
2022: N’Keal Harry from New England
2023: Dan Feeney from the Jets
2024: Ryan Bates from Buffalo
Now that they’ve accomplished that …
Who is saying this? On its face it doesn’t pass the sniff test. If the top 3 rounds are stacked that necessarily means that the typical day 2 guys are the new day 3 guys. Also, predicting the quality of day 3 guys is not something anyone can claim any success at.
We know this class is really strong at positions the Bears need. Even if you buy the story that the top 100 picks are the cliff, giving away a 5th round pick means you will have a harder time trading up for a guy you like.
Bates was predicted to be cut. There’s strong chance we could have signed him for nothing. The Bills also cut their starter who we could have signed. Poles having a man crush on Bates is a huge red flag, dude need to make good business decisions, not fall in love with his guys.
I think that and this concerning trend are related.
Huge mistake by the Colts.
Yeah, well, don’t get me started on the Bears’ shitty drafts during the Pace era. Hitting on a pair of 2nd rounders in 2020 was the apogee of his tenure.
I think Poles has been better, despite throwing away these late rounders for marginal or no benefit. But what he does this year will define his career, for better or worse.
As much as I love me some Minshew, the Colts’ future is Anthony Richardson. No NFL team can afford $12.5 million a year for a purely backup QB.
It’s definitely on the high end for a backup but not unaffordable. With the recent increase in the cap and a starting QB on a rookie contract and more cap space than most other teams in the league, they could have matched that offer. More so if they kept the cap hit entirely within the 2 years.
That said, it’s true that it’s not the greatest idea to pay more for an insurance option than starters at most other positions get. There are other, cheaper backup options. And the Colts definitely have uses for that money elsewhere. If they have no faith in Richardson, better to figure it out now than pay big-ish money to somebody you know won’t be in the building 5 years from now.
It’s what they said back in the day about practicing what to do if Peyton Manning went down. If Manning went down, they were f’ed and they don’t practice f’ed.
When your starter is on a rookie deal you can afford $12M a year for a backup. And when he’s a runner who is highly likely to miss playing time it’s almost required.
And, as a result, the Packers are releasing Aaron Jones. This makes me a little sad; Jones had been a very productive RB for Green Bay, though he missed a big chunk of last season with an injury. And, by all accounts, he’s a quality person.
But, Jacobs is three years younger than Jones, and if he can return to anything close to his 2022 form, it’s an upgrade for Green Bay.
(It also appears that the Packers are not going to attempt to resign their other RB, A.J.Dillon; Dillon had a down year filling in for Jones in '23, but he, too, seems to a great guy.)
And, they are also releasing OT David Bakhtiari, who was an All-Pro offensive tackle, before tearing his ACL late in the 2020 season, an injury from which he’s never fully recovered – he started the season opener in '23, and played well, but his knee flared back up, and he missed the rest of the season.
I’d happily take all of those newly ex-Packers on the Giants.
Bakhtiari had apparently recently told Packers management that he was hoping to play in 2024. However, he’s now had five surgeries on that knee (including two last fall) following the ACL tear, 3+ years ago.
He was a great player before the injury, and while I wish him all the best, one has to wonder if his knee will ever be good enough for him to play again.
Washington making a few quiet moves, nothing flashy, but addressing some needs.
Drew a couple of decent young trench players on both sides of the ball from the Cowboys following Quinn here. Both just 26. Bonus, that creates a hole in the middle of the Cowboys starting O-line.
Luvu is a good addition to the LB corp which hasn’t seen much decent play since London Fletcher retired a decade ago.
Ekeler is a name, probably an upgrade over Antonio Gibson, but I doubt he really moves the needle all that much. Not signing him to be a feature back, so he should be fine.