The Bears are in First Place and Other Bullets

Well, I guess I picked the right day to write a post discussing the various ways the Lions manage to beat themselves. They showcased quite a few of those on Monday night, falling at home to the Ravens 18-16. Matthew Stafford threw three interceptions, including one of the worst throws I’ve seen attempted this year, a patented sidearm flip into traffic. (Sadly, the rival play that is springing to mind is the Josh McCown toss that ended up in the hands of Kyle Long against Minnesota. Sorry for bringing your morning down by bringing that play up.) Detroit also committed 8 penalties for 89 yards.

The Lions did score a go-ahead touchdown with 2:21 remaining, and then forced the Ravens to attempt a 61-yard field goal on 4th and 7 with :43 seconds left. But just as he’d done all night, kicker Justin Tucker nailed it, tying for the 7th-longest field goal in league history. Tucker finished 6-6 for the game, accounting for all of Baltimore’s points and swinging countless fantasy football playoff matchups in the process. The Lions took over and Stafford promptly threw his third pick; one Ravens first down later, and the game was over.

This obviously means good things for the Bears; I’ll have a more complete look at the playoff implications later this afternoon. But for now, it’s enough to say that Chicago has a one-game lead in the division, with two games remaining. Not a bad place to be.

“I would say ‘disregard completely’ is an oversimplification of what the franchise tag is in relation to contracts and caps and player contracts overall,” Emery said. “What I had said before was that just make sure when you look at the franchise tag (you know) what that means from a quarterback’s contract perspective and the amount of room and space that it eats up. It’s not necessarily a solution. It’s not the first thing we would think about. The first think we’d think about if we wanted to sign a player is a long-term contract. That fits better in our cap situation.”

This goes back to an online chat he held a few weeks ago, and I said this on the topic at the time:

“Regarding the potential use of the franchise tag Emery noted that for quarterbacks, if you can’t reach a long-term agreement after the tag is applied, it becomes a real hindrance to the salary cap for next season. I take that to mean that if Cutler is tagged, it won’t be for a one-year experiment, it will be with an eye on signing him to a long-term deal.”

I still believe this to be the case. The tag is a nice leverage tool for the Bears, and it essentially prevents Cutler from being poached by another team looking to throw money at a quarterback. His chat response was a typical thoughtful Phil answer; he didn’t commit one way or the other, but he tried his best to give a substantive response. That got him into trouble, as multiple people somehow misinterpreted his position, and things spiraled from there. Attempting to read the tea leaves (which I already sort of tried to do) I really do think Emery wants to sign Cutler to the most team-friendly deal he can get; whether that comes before a tag is necessary or under the tag, I’m not sure. I don’t think Cutler has much interest in playing under the one-year tag either; suffering two fairly major injuries this year and seeing how quickly opinions can turn may encourage him to shave a few million off of his asking price. (The desire to play with one of the best collections of offensive talent this side of Denver must also be quite appealing.)

Before I leave you, here’s a reminder: the Bears are in first place!