Recruiting JJ Watt With Portillo’s and Other Bears Bullets

Someone sent me a surprise Taylor Swift t-shirt and I feel so loved.

This, indeed, will be a mood all weekend long:

But let’s get some Bullets out of the way before I play that new “Love Story” for the 13th time in the last 24 hours.

•   Now *THIS* is how you recruit:

 

•   ESPN’s Ed Werder tweets nearly a dozen teams are interested in Watt, which makes sense. He’s still good at football. But how many of those teams have a Portillo’s within shouting distance of their home stadium?

•   Watt is still good:

•   The Bears have bigger needs elsewhere, but that’s not stopping me from dreaming on a front-line featuring Watt, Akiem Hicks, Eddie Goldman, and Khalil Mack.

•   Speaking of Mack, he has been superb since joining the Chicago Bears:

•    Brace yourselves: Green Bay will be listed as a top landing spot for Watt at almost every turn. He is a Wisconsin native, grew up a Packers fan, and played his college ball in Madison. It’s the kind of homecoming story you’d write, only to watch it get rejected by some editor who thinks it’s too pie-in-the-sky. The Steelers, Bills, Ravens, and Browns make sense as AFC contenders who could thrive by adding Watt to their mix. Part of me wants to root hard for Watt to join the Bears because I like having nice things. Otherwise, I hope he finds a home in the AFC. Because a motivated star in a new place can be dangerous.

•    For a better feel on the looming Watt sweepstakes, The Athletic’s Mike Sando runs down the teams that make the most sense.

(Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)

•   The Carson Wentz predictions are rolling in. Earlier, we discussed Dave Wannstedt’s informed speculative prediction of Wentz being the Bears’ QB1 for Week 1 in 2021. Over at SI.com, Conor Orr spins the wheel and guesses at all sorts of quarterback landing spots this offseason. Like Wannstedt, Orr predicts Wentz goes to the Bears and Nick Foles returns to the Eagles in a trade. There’s no other compensation brought up in the matter, but Orr believes the Bears “have more enticing draft capital” to offer than the Colts. For what it’s worth, the Bears own the 20th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.

•   As of this post, the Bears have six picks in the upcoming NFL Draft. The Colts have seven selections. This doesn’t count any compensatory picks that haven’t been given out yet. Nevertheless, I’m curious as to how the Bears’ draft capital can be more enticing than that of the Colts. How much is one spot in the draft worth?

•   Benjamin Allbright, who is quite plugged into the Denver Broncos’ situation, is trying to put out Eagles-Broncos trade fires featuring Carson Wentz:

https://twitter.com/AllbrightNFL/status/1360430404927279108

•   This would be far more interesting if Mitchell Trubisky was under contract with the Bears beyond March. Still worth jotting down for the sake of a reference point:

 

•   It’s worth noting that the Bears’ new RBs Coach was Jermar Jefferson’s position coach in college:

https://twitter.com/PFF_College/status/1360468751804731396

•   Also worth noting: The 2021 NFL Draft is in 75 days.

•   Remembering bad QB play for the heck of it:

•   You’d be absolutely nuts to draft this guy anywhere in the top-20:

•   Chris Doyle’s time with the Jaguars was brief:

 

•   Plenty of ideas, but they’re all imperfect solutions:

•   There should be no rush to trade Zach LaVine:

•   Nailed it:

written by

Luis C. Medina, who you can find on Twitter at lcm1986, has been covering the Chicago Bears at Bleacher Nation since 2017. Since then, he has written about 3 head coaches, 5 play-callers, and 11 starting quarterbacks. Previously, Luis wrote about the Cubs and MLB at BN (2015-16) and worked in the Chicago Tribune sports department (2011-16). He also co-hosted a Cubs postgame show, Outside the Ivy, in 2019.

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