Draft Buzz Grows, Tags Bringing Free Agency Clarity, Happy Sweetness Day! And Other Bears Bullets

Mar 04, 2023

It was good to see the Bears lose last night.

No, not those Bears. The college basketball Bears. Unless you’re a Saluki or ardent Missouri Valley Conference basketball fan, it probably wasn’t on your radar last night.

Nevertheless, it really had me thinking about how much I’m looking forward to seeing Chicago Bears football in person next year. That shared game day experience is my favorite thing about fandom. And after an offseason of wise spending and good use of draft picks, I can’t wait to see what the Bears will look like when they take the field in 2023.

Getting buzz about what the Bears are asking for in certain trade talks has me geeked:

Trading up from outside the top 5 sounds costly.

2023 1st
& 2023 2nd
& 2024 1st
& 2025 1st

Come with your best offer or don't come at all.https://t.co/U510Te8Huf— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) March 4, 2023

Part of me knows not to expect a deal for the No. 1 pick to go down any time soon. However, GM Ryan Poles opened the door to making a trade before the start of the new league year. That makes the next 11 days fun. Getting a deal sooner and not later allows for the possibility for the Bears to target a veteran player in a trade. This wouldn’t be unprecedented either. I remember when Eric Metcalf was part of the Chargers trade to move up to get Ryan Leaf. If you’ll recall, that deal had the Chargers and Cardinals swapping picks with Arizona getting Metcalf, San Diego’s first two picks in 1998 and a first-rounder in 1999. It would be interesting to see how creative a deal like this could get.

I’m gearing up to go on a campaign in which I talk, tweet, and post about the Bears getting a legitimate WR1 via the upcoming NFL Draft existence. Manifesting this will be a challenge, but I’m up for it. And there are some intriguing options:

https://twitter.com/BN_Bears/status/1631838873650356224?s=20

It might take a couple of trade backs out of the first pick to make it happen. Or maybe it would be a situation where the Bears trade back into the first round to take their guy. But there are angles for this front office to take in order to draft a potential No. 1 receiver. As of right now, I don’t have a preferred target. Although, I’ll admit the idea of teaming Justin Fields and Jaxon Smith-Njigba again is alluring. We’ve seen old college chums reuniting the pros work out in a grand fashion with the Joe Burrow-Ja’Marr Chase team in Cincy and Jalen Hurts-DeVonta Smith tandem in Philly. Why not try for that kind of thing in Chicago?

If you were looking forward to the Bears using free agency to further bolster the running backs room with a top free agent, I just want to let you know the top options are dwindling:

Report: Raiders Plan to Tag Star RB Josh Jacobs

Report: Cowboys Plan to Tag RB Tony Pollard

I was down to roll the dice on Tony Pollard before the injury he suffered in the playoffs. And even though Jacobs didn’t truly take off until having a career year last season, the idea of adding the league’s leading rusher had its appeal. But both of those players won’t even make it onto the market. That leaves Saquon Barkley’s tag situation as the last one standing. Of course, that will be up in the air until the tag deadline buzzer on March 7 because the Giants are still working through the Daniel Jones issue. That quarterback tag is expensive, but Jones reportedly wants north of $40 million per year. What a mind-blowing number that would be. As the kids these days would say: Damn, Daniel!

Maybe the Cowboys’ tag deployment leads to increased interest in tight end Dalton Schultz. Perhaps even the Bears get in on this. Don’t get me wrong. I’d still like for the Bears to extend Cole Kmet. But if they’re not paying big money to a top-flight receiver, an alternative would be to copycat the Patriots way with two quality tight ends who can contribute as blockers and receivers. It wouldn’t be the most popular path, but it is one that could conceivably work. Just something to keep an eye on.

It seems like a good year to want or need a speedy cornerback:

https://twitter.com/BN_Touchdown/status/1631782781041754113?s=20

These are the CBs standing out the most to me in these positional Combine drills:

• Christian Gonzalez
• Deonte Banks
• Cameron Mitchell
• Tre'Vius Hodges-Tomlinson
• Emmanuel Forbes
• Clark Phillips III— Jacob Infante (@jacobinfante24) March 3, 2023

The Bears met with Illinois’ Devon Witherspoon, who is the self-proclaimed best CB in this draft.

You’ve seen me reference my friend Jim’s recipes a bunch in Bullets. And now, he has a cookbook!

Bummer. I hate reading about layoffs in the industry:

Cost-cutting, layoffs reportedly coming to NFL Media https://t.co/YAXvExuaq3 pic.twitter.com/oEdvj5GUuK
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 3, 2023

The Blackhawks were busy dealing at the deadline:

2 PM CT has come and gone… #Blackhawks Trade Deadline Post-Mortem: The What — And Why — On Kyle Davidson's Moves https://t.co/D9vrla9KWN pic.twitter.com/eefWV4AXYu— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) March 3, 2023

That Bulls-Suns game went as I would expect. And of course CP3 and Pat Bev were beefing:

Uh, Was Chris Paul Taking Swings at Patrick Beverley Mid-Game?

The Cubs are soooooo back:

The Chicago Cubs Just Combined For The First No-Hitter in Their Spring Training Historyhttps://t.co/43ctSQDSkM pic.twitter.com/q3i2e4kwo6
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) March 4, 2023

Happy Sweetness Day! Enjoy responsibly.

Remembering Sweetness on 3/4 pic.twitter.com/5qsr3q72xf
— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) March 4, 2023

https://twitter.com/lcm1986/status/1632059552001667073?s=20

written by

Luis C. Medina

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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