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Signings, Cuts, Trades
- Thread starter RavensMania
- Start date
Grim
Ravens Ring of Honor
I always saw this draft as one to replace Stanley. I think the team will go big on OL this year and revamp the OL for Lamar. Tyler is our OL centerpiece (pun intended) & we will look to build around him with more elite & good talent. We've invested some later picks into OL but nothing major. I'm expecting 3rd or earlier for OL this year and wouldn't be shocked with 2 in the first 2 days. I do think we will have 2 OL before the 4th round ends.
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
Ahh, makes more sense. I thought it was $500K/game, totaling $8.5M. $500K in total makes more sense.
So yeah, he took a major haircut on this one.
One would assume incentives are things like pro bowl, all pro, some sort of team success… since they’re not likely to be earned.
Basically, stay on the field and play well and you get your money. Don’t play well and we’re off the hook with only slightly more dead money on the cap.
QtR Nevermore
Pro Bowler
He's not top 20, quite possibly not even top 25, but that still makes him a starter in my view.
Chicago never put him in an offense that remotely suited him, so he could look better in the right situation. I'm not saying he's on their level, but how would Hurts have looked in a pure dropback offense, or Tua in a scheme that didn't use any quick game?
All_black_everything
Pro Bowler
So, paint a clear picture for me. What are the savings against the cap with this new deal for Stanley?
All_black_everything
Pro Bowler
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
A little under $10M.
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
Agreed.
My thing is this though... Eberflus (and I'd argue Pace also) doesn't have the luxury of figuring out whether Fields is the problem or the coaching/scheme is the problem. They'll be fired by the time they figure that out.
If they don't draft Williams or a QB, keep Fields, they have literally like half a season to right the ship. I don't even think they get a full year. Eberflus for sure gets fired, and Pace is probably 50/50 to survive. Neither of them has the luxury of saying "lets go all in with Fields", he flops for a year or two, and then you start over at QB.
There's only two ways they save their jobs:
1. they draft Williams and he's pretty good early
2. they stick with Fields, and he's like a top 10 QB this year
Anything other than that and Eberflus is gone and Pace is, at a maximum, a year away from being gone.
People were questioning Lamar because he had spent 3 years regressing and ended the last 2 early with injury. Those are red flags and people were right to raise them because they are issues that matter.
However lets talk Fields for a second. Lets talk about every team in the NFL right and look for ones who you could argue would bring him in to start. In the AFC you have Denver, who are in a full rebuild the next 2 years so are not going to be looking to get a QB for 1 year anyway, the Steelers, who are taking their shot with Wilson, and the Raiders but I am not sure he could beat out Minshew (yes he has been that bad). In the NFC you have just the Vikings but, aside from the fact that I do not think he can beat out Darnold, everyone knows from their trade earlier what they are looking to do in the draft so the QB position is about to be fully occupied.
Fields fundamentally does not have good enough mechanics to be a starter in the NFL. The entire rest of the NFL realizes this and are not pulling the trigger on him to start which means any trade for him is going to probably be a day 3 pick and the Bears have to make peace with that.
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
Whether he gets a starting job or not I'm not sure, but I still think there's a handful of teams that would give up mid-round picks to see how good he is for a year or two in their offense.
In a worst case scenario, they should be able to get what Howell or Jones or any of these other "starters who are really backups" got. My guess is at the moment the Bears asking price is just far too high, and I don't even know what it is.
The thing is though if you are not one of the best 25 you probably do not have a spot available. We have 3 teams this year for sure drafting a QB who will start and 1-2 drafting one that will be their future. Then you have teams like the Colts and Panthers who have a young QB they are not going to give up on. Maybe if he were a FA he could sign onto Steelers or or Broncos and be a cheap bridge starter but that is all he has and no one is trading assets for that.
I think the Bears went into this hoping someone would overpay a 1st but thinking they might get a 2nd and worst case a 3rd. I think now they have to realize they are getting none of those and the best case is likely a 4th but very possibly a 5th.
QtR Nevermore
Pro Bowler
I agree.
Chicago shouldn't keep Fields, not with the #1 pick in hand, but they should've had a real go at making him work in an appropriate system over the last couple of years.
Again, I'm not saying he's on the same level, but look at what Russ managed to achieve with mobility and a deep ball as his main strengths and the same weakness of taking too many sacks.
I think Pittsburgh with Russ. Minnesota with Darnold, Vegas with Minshew/O'Connell should have considered him. I'd rather watch Fields than Carr if I was a Saints fan, too. Frankly, aside from one half against us, Fields has done more than Watson over the last couple of years too.
RaineV1
Ravens Ring of Honor
Teams don't want to start the 20th best qb in the league. That guy would have to be young with the potential to get better like Lamar when he first came into the league, or a stop gap they settled for. They aren't going to trade for the 20th best qb to be a starter.
QtR Nevermore
Pro Bowler
Not typically, but it depends on the trade terms.
Teams will pay Daniel Jones or Derek Carr huge salaries to be about the 20th best. They'll pay c. $10M for QBs who have flopped worse than Fields to be bridge starters. He'd probably go somewhere in the top half of the first if he was in this draft.
I think the NFL is too low on Fields - he did enough to make a lot of Bears fans and players want to keep him and he still has some upside. Genuine QB running ability in the right offensive system just works.
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
Welcome to Philadelphia, Kenny Pickett.
He is Josh Allen without the ability to throw. If Fields were a rookie he might be the 4th or 5th QB off the board, but he is not. At year 4 it is time to start talking about what a player can be and focus on what they are and what Fields is is, at best, a bridge starter.
You referred to Darnold but Darnold is the same level of player. A player who if he is your starter you know you aren’t good enough to contend and you are looking to improve, like what the Vikings are clearly doing.