NEWSLETTER
Even though today will be loaded with basketball goodness, temperatures in the 60s will have me outside and on the grill for a good chunk of the afternoon. After all, we could all use a little more outside time.
• A common thread of the Bears’ offseason has been swinging and missing. Russell Wilson? Whiff (for now, at least). Trent Williams? Cut on and missed. Kenny Golladay? Strike three! Watching Chicago’s football team clank on its efforts to improve the offense has been miserable. However, this from NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport caught my eye:
I assumed the #Bears visit for WR Kenny Golladay was to push Allen Robinson. It wasn’t. It was real and Chicago went all in, willing to push money into future years to find space. But Golladay clicked with NYG coaches and never left town until a deal was done. https://t.co/UNfI1BbsX7
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 20, 2021
• Seeing Rapoport tweet about the Bears’ willingness to push money into the future on the same day they cut Kyle Fuller to create $11 million in cap space seems like quite the contradiction. There’s cap room to make a push at Golladay, but not to retain Fuller for another season? Seems odd, right? But what if, behind this paradox, is a plan. What if the Bears are flipping the script this offseason? Better yet, what if we’re about to witness a re-imagining of what this team will be?
• Based on Chicago’s early free agency rumblings, it looks like the Bears are shifting their attention to essentially sell out on upgrading the offense. Upgrade the pass-catching options. Fortify the blocking up front. Work like heck to further boost the quarterbacks room. But at the same time, see if you can get by with a little less from the defense. I realize this might be sacrilege for a franchise’s identity that is rooted in a defense-first mentality. But the NFL has long shifted the rules to benefit the offense. Everything is geared toward that side of the ball, so why continue to fight it? This isn’t to say give up on defense, but re-allocating funds to offense isn’t something the Bears have ever truly committed to in the past. And because we’ve seen how far this defense-first path can take this group, perhaps now is the time for a drastic shift.
• Back in November, Johnathan Wood (Da Bears Blog) made this astute observation: “To put it simply, the Bears have a great defense and a bad offense by choice. They have chosen to continually invest in building and maintaining a great defense, and that doesn’t leave them the resources needed to build and offense.” You’ll want to read Wood’s DBB piece for a deeper dive into the Bears’ spending habits. But the summary is this: Chicago’s pouring of assets into the defense has left it with a small margin of error when it comes to offense. Moreover, the success rate on defense simply isn’t enough to overcome the misses on offense. In other words, the Bears need to strike a balance in roster building. That means a willingness to risk biting the bullet on high-price defensive players to re-allocate funds to build a floundering offense.
• This feels like the offseason to make this type of switch. It’s a free agency class loaded with options who could be had at a bargain price. And the upcoming NFL Draft’s strengths seem to be in places (receiver, offensive line, for instance) where the Bears could benefit by flipping the script. Don’t get me wrong, Chicago should still look to add impact talent on defense, particularly in the pass-rusher and cornerback departments. But it’s clear the time has come to re-focus energy on the offensive side of things.
• And yet, I’m soooo gonna miss Kyle Fuller:
• Kristopher Knox (Bleacher Report) points out the Bears’ offseason hasn’t been all bad. In his look at every team’s smartest 2021 offseason decision to this point, Knox points out the team did right by tagging Allen Robinson II. No, there hasn’t been a resolution to his contract issue. But handing Robinson the Franchise Tag is better than the alternative of letting him walk away for nothing.
• The Bears have done well in finding fringe players who carve out niche roles. And I wonder if Jeremiah Attaochu makes sense in that regard. Jason Lieser (Sun-Times) reports the team played host to the former Broncos linebacker for a visit.
• I suppose this counts as good news, too:
Some good news for #Bears fans. One solid thing is that they are middle of the pack next year in cap space. So its a little different than a team like the Falcons that went with what looked like (and was) a lame duck group and had the 2nd or 3rd worst cap situation a year later
— Jason_OTC (@Jason_OTC) March 20, 2021
• If the Bears can get out of this offseason without butchering the future, I’d call it a net positive.
• “The Bears can’t buy a break” is the understatement of the year:
With all due respect, just when you thought the drafting of Mitchell Trubisky couldn’t get any worse for the Bears…it does this week. It gave @richeisen no pleasure to point this out. Again, with all due respect. pic.twitter.com/k86e6QtrH5
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) March 20, 2021
• RX Bars, fancy toothbrushes, outdoor tools, baby clothes, and books are among the Deals of the Day at Amazon today. #ad
