2014 NFL Offseason

[rams80]

Actually... I don't think that would be too bad of a fit for them. Schiano was WAY out of his league in the NFL (no pun intended), but his authoritarian style and propensity to micromanage EVERYTHING seems like a pretty decent fit for for a school that still faces several years of probation and bowl bans.

I dunno, after the Josh Freeman fiasco I suspect his response to the "your defensive coordinator is seen molesting little boys by a TA, who then informs you, what should you do?" question would be "frame victims and TA for drug abuse and suggest that they are habitual liars."

Honestly if Penn State hires Schiano, they deserve the "burn it all" sentiment some were tossing around in the past.

[rams80]

Schiano belongs at a basketball school where the football team sucks but can be coached up to Kinda Above Average by lots of yelling and screaming and gamesmanship. So, basically Rutgers, I guess. Does IU need a coach?

No, although there were dumbasses who advocated firing the current coach and replacing him with Schiano in game threads this year.

[rams80]

No awful hirings so far. Well, until Snyder hires Lane Kiffin for the Skins new head coach.

In terms of the cap, they are slowly becoming the Cowboys because they will have to extend older players with cash to lessen the cap in the future, and since Stafford is just 25, they are going to be with him for a while since you cannot get rid of him at age 27 or 28 (unless he gets a catastrophic injury)/

Well that's convenient, since Stafford is slowly becoming Tony Romo.

Since you are a fan of the Washington Football Club, name ten players on their current 53 which who are average to good.

...not many, right?

They are worse off post-Shanahan than post-Zorn. The cap penalties are irrelevant as the Shanahan drafts were not good.

Hell yes they are better off. Zorn was the most inept coach I've seen coach the Skins, it proves how lucky it is to have a good coach, and when you have one you should cling to him. Joe Gibbs was a great guy, and he definitely went out at the right time when he found out Snyder's stupidity and Cerrato's horrible management of the team, their simply was no way to make than team a Super Bowl contender with that management above him.

You were what? 10 when he coached?

[DS729]

No awful hirings so far. Well, until Snyder hires Lane Kiffin for the Skins new head coach.

In terms of the cap, they are slowly becoming the Cowboys because they will have to extend older players with cash to lessen the cap in the future, and since Stafford is just 25, they are going to be with him for a while since you cannot get rid of him at age 27 or 28 (unless he gets a catastrophic injury)/

Well that's convenient, since Stafford is slowly becoming Tony Romo.

Since you are a fan of the Washington Football Club, name ten players on their current 53 which who are average to good.

...not many, right?

They are worse off post-Shanahan than post-Zorn. The cap penalties are irrelevant as the Shanahan drafts were not good.

Hell yes they are better off. Zorn was the most inept coach I've seen coach the Skins, it proves how lucky it is to have a good coach, and when you have one you should cling to him. Joe Gibbs was a great guy, and he definitely went out at the right time when he found out Snyder's stupidity and Cerrato's horrible management of the team, their simply was no way to make than team a Super Bowl contender with that management above him.

You were what? 10 when he coached?

Dam dude, you act like my childhood was spent in a shed. Yes I was a Redskins fan and watched football when he coached, just because I was 10 doesn't mean I can't talk about things that occurred 4 years ago when it comes to my teams.

[rams80]

Put frankly, your childhood is ongoing. I am simply adding context to your perpetual hyperbole.

[Coast2CoastAM2006]

No awful hirings so far. Well, until Snyder hires Lane Kiffin for the Skins new head coach.

In terms of the cap, they are slowly becoming the Cowboys because they will have to extend older players with cash to lessen the cap in the future, and since Stafford is just 25, they are going to be with him for a while since you cannot get rid of him at age 27 or 28 (unless he gets a catastrophic injury)/

Well that's convenient, since Stafford is slowly becoming Tony Romo.

Since you are a fan of the Washington Football Club, name ten players on their current 53 which who are average to good.

...not many, right?

They are worse off post-Shanahan than post-Zorn. The cap penalties are irrelevant as the Shanahan drafts were not good.

Hell yes they are better off. Zorn was the most inept coach I've seen coach the Skins, it proves how lucky it is to have a good coach, and when you have one you should cling to him. Joe Gibbs was a great guy, and he definitely went out at the right time when he found out Snyder's stupidity and Cerrato's horrible management of the team, their simply was no way to make than team a Super Bowl contender with that management above him.

You were what? 10 when he coached?

Dam dude, you act like my childhood was spent in a shed. Yes I was a Redskins fan and watched football when he coached, just because I was 10 doesn't mean I can't talk about things that occurred 4 years ago when it comes to my teams.

I remember way back watching the Mark Rypien and the Redskins win the Super Bowl. It took me along time to realize Mark Rypien was an average qb. As a child the mindset was if they were winning the super bowl, they had to be a great QB. IE Joe Montana. Took me a while to realize a Trent Dilfer can lead a team to a Super Bowl win.

[CS85]

Cutler signs a 7-year deal w/ Bears, CB Tim Jennings and OG Matt Slauson re-up for 4 years.

[The_Admiral]

ahhhhh crap

[NEW.ERA]

Welp. He's better than any free agent and the Bears aren't going to get a franchise QB picking at 14th.

So more years of fun I guess!

[BigEd76]

"$126M", $54M guaranteed

[Chicageaux]

Not sure about the money and the length of deal but I'm going to assume the front office has given themselves enough room to sign some guys to the defense. I like Cutler and if he stays healthy, I think he's the best guy available for the Bears right now. I still think they draft a quarterback to become his understudy.

There's also discussion of the Bears converting McClellin to linebacker.

[NJTank]

I thought da bears would dump Cutler

[Billy B]

Not sure about the money and the length of deal but I'm going to assume the front office has given themselves enough room to sign some guys to the defense. I like Cutler and if he stays healthy, I think he's the best guy available for the Bears right now. I still think they draft a quarterback to become his understudy.

There's also discussion of the Bears converting McClellin to linebacker.

They can cut him whenever they want. Just ask Julius Peppers how secure his long-term contract is. The Bears made the move they needed to make. The rest of the offense is too good to risk it with a rookie quarterback or 35 year old Josh McCown that hasn't been a starter for the better part of a decade. Jay gets way more crap than he deserves, I'm glad he's coming back. Not to mention that letting him walk would piss off Brandon Marshall. Also glad they re-signed Slauson, the offensive line was the best surprise of the year.

About McClellin, I'm not sold on moving him to linebacker in a 4-3. What I would do is bring in more depth at tackle through free agency or the draft so that you can move Corey Wooten back to defensive end. Rotating in him and McClellin depending on the situation.

[pcgd]

I'm a Bears fan but the last 2 months has shown me how dumb a vast majority of Bears fans are. If you legitimately think 5 games of McCown being good against mediocre defenses makes him a better QB than Cutler I don't need to listen to you anymore.

Bears fans would try to run Peyton Manning out of town if played in Chicago because he doesn't yell enough on the sidelines and he was a "sissy" that year he sat out...

[The_Admiral]

It's not that McCown himself is better, rather that Cutler may be more fungible than we thought, and so the money spent on Cutler could have been better allocated to other positions. I was a Cutler defender for years, but I finally got to the point where it seemed like his greatness was by fiat more than by merit, and as annoying as the McCown brigade is, the Cutler apologists who brook no dissent are even worse. Supporting Cutler as a marker of intelligence is a disturbing trend. I don't see what's so intelligent about excuses and intractability regarding a guy who always loses to the best team in the division. The whole deal pretty much turned me off the Bears for the whole year. I watched a single quarter all year long, and it was on Sunday.

[Chicageaux]

All I want is one healthy year from Cutler. Give me 16 games to see the true ceiling and floor of this guy and I'll decide if I like this deal.

Atleast I can finally feel comfortable buying my Smokin' Jay shirt.

[The_Admiral]

See, this is what I'm talking about. Don't give me this "give me" for a 30-year-old in his eighth season and fifth with the team. He's a known commodity! That he has an injury history that has precluded a 16-game season informs what his ceiling is. This is like saying the jury is still out on Tony Romo. What the hell kind of hamster wheel are we on here?

[BBTV]

Not sure about the money and the length of deal but I'm going to assume the front office has given themselves enough room to sign some guys to the defense. I like Cutler and if he stays healthy, I think he's the best guy available for the Bears right now. I still think they draft a quarterback to become his understudy.

There's also discussion of the Bears converting McClellin to linebacker.

They can cut him whenever they want. Just ask Julius Peppers how secure his long-term contract is. The Bears made the move they needed to make. The rest of the offense is too good to risk it with a rookie quarterback or 35 year old Josh McCown that hasn't been a starter for the better part of a decade. Jay gets way more crap than he deserves, I'm glad he's coming back. Not to mention that letting him walk would piss off Brandon Marshall. Also glad they re-signed Slauson, the offensive line was the best surprise of the year.

About McClellin, I'm not sold on moving him to linebacker in a 4-3. What I would do is bring in more depth at tackle through free agency or the draft so that you can move Corey Wooten back to defensive end. Rotating in him and McClellin depending on the situation.

While technically they can cut him whenever they want, practically they cannot. They would never cut a player after a single season and pay him his guaranteed $50M for it. That up front money guarantees the player time, while providing salary cap flexibility for the team (which they eat when they cut him - again, protecting the player.)

I'm on the side of players in just about any labor dispute, however not when they say "well they can just cut me whenever - it's a one way contract". If they want guaranteed contracts, they'd have to give up the signing bonuses, which the star players would never want to do (even though the majority of the NFLPA members will probably never see a 7-figure bonus.) I have absolutely no issues with players holding out. They owe it to themselves to capitalize on any leverage they have and get more when they can. I just disagree when that is used as the defense for it.

[CS85]

It's not that McCown himself is better, rather that Cutler may be more fungible than we thought, and so the money spent on Cutler could have been better allocated to other positions. I was a Cutler defender for years, but I finally got to the point where it seemed like his greatness was by fiat more than by merit, and as annoying as the McCown brigade is, the Cutler apologists who brook no dissent are even worse. Supporting Cutler as a marker of intelligence is a disturbing trend. I don't see what's so intelligent about excuses and intractability regarding a guy who always loses to the best team in the division. The whole deal pretty much turned me off the Bears for the whole year. I watched a single quarter all year long, and it was on Sunday.

For somebody who seems married to logic and disgusted by ineptitude, being a Bears fan must really seem like a trivial pursuit.

Also here's some information on the contract for those who feel like the Bears shot themselves in the scrotum with this contract:

Cutler will make $54 million over the next three years, with a rolling guarantee that starts at $17.5 million upon signing, increases to $38 million on March 14, 2014, moves to $48 million in March 2015, and caps out at $54 million in March 2016.

The deal contains no signing bonus, creating a pay-as-you-go series of cap charges for the Bears, based only on his base salaries.

In 2014, Cutler will earn a base salary of $22.5 million. In 2015, the base salary is $15.5 million. In 2016, it increases to $16 million.

After 2016, the deal becomes a year-to-year, no-cap-hit proposition, with salaries of $12.5 million in 2017, $13.5 million in 2018, $17.5 million in 2019, and $19.2 million in 2020. In each of those four seasons, Cutler earns $156,250 for each game he appears on the active roster, for a maximum additional earnings of $2.5 million per year and $10 million over four.

Thus, he’ll get the full $126.7 million only if he’s on the active roster for every game from 2017 through 2020.

The contract also has an annual de-escalator of $500,000 based on participating in the offseason workout program. If he fails to show up, the base salary reduces accordingly. It’s a real three-year, $54 million contract, with a team-held option at lower rates for each of the next four years.

Under three years of the franchise tag, Cutler would have earned more than $60 million. He therefore reduced by more than 10 percent his total haul in exchange for shedding the injury risk.

Cutler also has shifted most of the risk of poor performance, with the Bears most likely to pay him $48 million over two years.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/01/02/cutlers-deal-is-three-years-54-million-with-year-to-year-option-thereafter/

[Cosmic]

It's not that McCown himself is better, rather that Cutler may be more fungible than we thought, and so the money spent on Cutler could have been better allocated to other positions. I was a Cutler defender for years, but I finally got to the point where it seemed like his greatness was by fiat more than by merit, and as annoying as the McCown brigade is, the Cutler apologists who brook no dissent are even worse. Supporting Cutler as a marker of intelligence is a disturbing trend. I don't see what's so intelligent about excuses and intractability regarding a guy who always loses to the best team in the division. The whole deal pretty much turned me off the Bears for the whole year. I watched a single quarter all year long, and it was on Sunday.

For somebody who seems married to logic and disgusted by ineptitude, being a Bears fan must really seem like a trivial pursuit.

Every neat freak has a messy closet somewhere.