Chisoxfn

I am pretty pumped about this. They should do at least a one year extension and restructure - at most 2 years. Keenan is such a good dude and class and whatever wideout they pick - whether in round 1 or 3rd round will benefit from having him in the lockeroom. Bears are also familiar given receiver coach worked with him in SD.

I wonder if they intend to do a short term extension with him to free up some cap space and buy one extra year. That said if you don’t he will sign and you will get a comp pick down road.

This isn’t a bad option if they choose to go that route.

Watch - 3D chess. Alt somehow makes it past Titans and Falcons now and Bears grab him at 9.

It seems like it - I also think Keenan and Moore are good guys to have around a young wideout, whenever they draft one. My optimistic hope is this means they have better offers on table for Fields than any of us think. I do think the Howell trade set the floor for Justin.

Yeah - they have made moves - they are clearly focusing on depth - maybe to sure up fact that they know they don't have a lot of picks. But it does seem they are holding out money - whether that is for someone yet to hit the market, as part of a trade, or a still to be signed FA. Brad Biggs was reporting for a while that he DID not expect the Bears to be big spenders in FA though - so his intel seemed right. With that said - we upgraded RB and FS, brought in 2 centers better than what they had (but not great) and added 2 depth oline pieces plus a backup FS/ST player and a special teams player (and used up some cap space on Sweat & JJ). My general reaction is Poles is continuing to be measured in FA market and principled (whether right or wrong) that this is not an area where you want to go wild. We ripped him last year for a couple of the guys he didn't get - but reality was he wasn't wrong in those choices. I'll admit though - I was expecting a material addition on the line and they clearly have work at wideout, but Poles might just be looking at it and saying - teams are running out of space and there are still 2-3 other wideouts I like as much as Samuel and Mooney and decide I can get them for half the price. Does he go retread and bring in Juju and Renfrow (Not sure what happened with JuJu in New England - I do know JuJu isn't the player he was early in his career with the Steelers - injuries cost him a step). The above 2 don't look that bad if you intend to grab a 1st round wideout.

Not really - cause if you were keeping Fields you would be thinking about your future cap and you would know you are getting a haul for the #1 overall pick so you need to have more flexibility. But if you were keeping Field(s) I do think they would have splurged on a defensive player.

Great pitcher, great teammate, and class act. Wish you the best Dylan!!!

Sam Howell just got traded to Seattle in a pick swap. Basically moved up a round with 2 picks and gave 2 lower round picks back. So basically there 4th and 5th round picks turned into a 3rd and 4th round pick. I would think that is probably the floor for Justin - the downside is - Seattle was probably one of the better places for Justin to go. Denver is really the main starting frontier - and I Don't think Field(s) fits Payton much but in fairness he had Tayson Hill and Winston either who probably weren't guys you would have said fit Payton's style.

There is a different mentality though in starting vs. relieving which I think gets into what Katz said. I know some people will say its "fluff" but its true. If you know you are going to face a pitcher 2 or 3 times, you are thinking about how you set them up now and down the road (I laugh when I type this - cause 10 years ago it would have been 3 or more times not 2 or 3 times). But as a reliever - you know this is all you got - so you are going to give it all you got (whether its 1 inning or 2 innings - you know that is it). I tend to think this also better fits Kopech's personality and mentality too. Add in the injury issues and other things - I wonder just how much Kopech is thinking vs. throwing and being aggressive when he's on the mound as a starter. Note: He very much could still suck - but that means he would have FOR SURE stunk as a starter, so I really see this as a no-brainer move and I'm going to be an optimist here and say as long as Kopech is healthy - this will pay off and we'll see him develop into a high leverage reliever.

I don't know why - no reason they couldn't get a chance post trade deadline to start to get experience. In particular Thorpe. I would think if Thorpe isn't up here at some point this season, something would have went wrong, given he finished the year in AA. I would suspect plan is for him to get 10-15 starts in AA before moving him up to AAA. One thing I will say about this trade - I put it as a C+ return, but I do think Getz is different than Hanh. I don't believe Hanh really trusted his scouts and development teams much on trades. I think he relied more on the perceived value of the trade and thus thought and cared more about how media would perceive a move. I think Getz targets guys he likes (regardless of rankings) and views them more isolated with his scouts. I happen to believe that is a positive - whether Getz and the crew are good at their jobs, that remains to be seen and I understand why any of us would be skeptical given how bad of a job the Sox have done consistently in that manner during the Rick Hanh era. It's hard to remember - there was a time where I actually would have said the Sox aren't half bad at that - but that goes back to when Kenny was flipping tables and super hands on.

If Kopech works out of the pen and is throwing 98+ and mixing in his breaking pitch - he will dominate and teams will pay up for that. How much, I don't know, but its worth a lot more than whatever failed attempt at making him a starter. By the time he finally could start he'd be leaving the Sox for nothing and there is no way he's going to just break-out this season to point you could get real value for him with a year of control (cause there is too much not good with him starting). As a reliever though - I think if he was bringing it and it was dominating - you could get his value up real quick. If he it doesn't work - well than you weren't getting anything for him anyway.

I actually think it makes sense. Kopech doesn't have a ton of control left and I think odds that he makes it as a starter are pretty slim given all the innings limits he has had. So I don't see much any value to the Sox in the long-run with Kopech as a starter. If he figures it out - Sox won't have control with him and he'll walk (and odds he figures it all out this year probably slim). Now - if he goes to the pen - and he can really focus on 2 pitches - I like the chances that he could become an elite reliever (He was damn good in that role way back when). If he can go there and kick butt this season - that might be best way to maximize value for the Sox as you now have a better shot in my opinion of getting real talent for him (whether this year or next year). Or am I wrong and we have more control than just this year and next year?

You know what I would love - if the Sox signed 2 guys and used $20M or so to do it - maybe even $25 or $30M. But did it knowing they would be gone by the deadline and you are basically using them to buy prospects. I know that isn't "cheap" but they would only be on the hook for the prorated part...although there is some risk, pitcher could get hurt or stink and thus no market to trade and thus you eat the full salary.

The center they picked up isn't half bad. He isn't good, but he is definitely upgrade over what the Bears had last year.

I do think Renfrow is a solid get. Not sexy and I don't know why his numbers fell apart, but presuming he doesn't have any injury issues he just seems like a solid #3 / #4 wideout who would be a good safety net for a young QB.

This is true. Rome and MHJ have the work ethic I would love in a wideout and both seem like just great all around dudes. Nabers has athleticism that is just insane though - but off field issues. The one thing I worry about with Rome is - is he good enough of an athlete to be elite (not like his 40 or 3 cone was bad). MHJ is elite everywhere. Rome seems like a really good compliment though and than sign Samuel (and if you can draft another wideout in 4th or 5th - great do that too).

I presume they really wanted good vet catcher(s) around the young pitchers but also around the Sox young catching prospects. They also probably knew Stassi and Maldonado were on their last legs but had the attributes they wanted so they doubled down in that direction. Hopefully all of young Sox catching prospects are spending a lot of time with them around the defensive and mental aspects of the game and at same time - I hope our various pitchers benefit from the experience they bring. Probably overselling all of the above - but given how bad the stench from the outside was (and presumably even worse internally) - I can live with it, but I do agree with you - why everyone wrote off Lee vs. hey give him another few hundred AB's and lets see didn't make sense. I would imagine Lee will still get plenty of AB's (it isn't like it is that hard to replace the 2 catchers they have).

At this point - my lean is go offense, we have investments to make. I still like the idea of taking a LT to be completely honest and just get to the point where we have 2 1st round top 10 tackles and than draft 2 wideouts later. I kind of like Ridley cause he's flexible. Keenan Allen would have been perfect - solid bridge guy / good vet for a young wideout and keep adding. But maybe Michael Gallup gets dumped and Bears go bargain hunting for a Samuel and than also one of Renfrow / Gallup and than take a receiver early. I don't see that as all that awful and I don't think Tyler Scott is terrible (he's not great either - but I also believe our wideouts didn't benefit from Field(s) since he was much more of a one read type of QB).

Mack restructuring - he will stay in San Diego. Bears evidently signed a swing tackle from San Fran to a 1yr deal (he also was in Indy for a year when Eberflus was there). Matt Pryror. Know nothing else about him.

Mike Williams was released - so Chargers are now under the cap. They still have decisions to make cause I think there are some roster bonuses coming due here by 1PM, so either the other 3 will restructure or get traded, but I think Chargers probalby still want to create a bit more cap space. My guess is Bosa would be the odd man out like Williams, given both have had durability issues.

I do agree with you and think Armstread and maybe some of the upcoming cap casualties could all be in play. Bears are also meeting with the Vikings pass rusher (Forget his name - but he had like 7 sacks last year and is pretty young). Know nothing about him otherwise though.

They need 3 more wideouts, in my opinion. If they intend to take one at 9 - than I'm less concerned, but they still need another vet, even if it is more the Hunter Renfroe type. For whatever reason - I am guessing they move down at 9 - pick up some extra picks and than still add a defensive player and wideout (I think they might draft 2 wideouts - given strenght of the draft).

Yeah - I presume they are as low as $30M - but its NFL - so if they wanted to - I presume they could cap maneuver and probably create as much as another $10-$15M. On the other hand - maybe they are earmarkign some money to resign Jenkins (I believe he is extension eligible). My guess is they would wait and see given his injury issues though. So tough cause when healthy Jenkins is a MONSTER, but we don't get to see that very often.

Are you taking away $10M for draft picks? I think OTC and Spotrac don't have the Everett or Byrad signing in their numbers yet. Not sure why.