Bears Rebuild:

Folks, I just got off the phone with George Halas's ghost himself, and he told me that he was hiring me as the Bears New GM, as well as reminding me to stop taking cold medicine before deciding to stay awake for Sunday Night Football. So here's what I'd do to turn around the Monsters of the Midway:

1. Clean house. Fire everyone and their mothers. This feels like an organization that needs a deep cleaning from top to bottom. Everyone on the football side of things at least, because the last thing we're going to do is get rid of all the ushers and vendors and sales people that bust their dicks for this garbage franchise and aren't getting paid hundreds of thousands, if not millions to absolutely suck. Nagy+Ted Phillips+Pace+Literally everyone whose ever made a decision is gone.

 2. Move on from Mitch Trubisky and Allen Robinson. Mitch is a really cool dude, and he's far from the biggest issue with the Bears right now. But he's certainly not the answer, and with his contract expiring this season, the Bears almost certainly are going to have to offer him a pretty lengthy extension or move on from him this offseason. In my opinion, the damage is done, and there's no coming back from this. Robinson will be a much more gutting blow, but the star wide receiver is disgruntled after not receiving an extension yet, and rebuilding teams probably shouldn't spend $75,000,000 on a wide receiver when cap space is already incredibly tight. We'll franchise tag Robinson and try to trade him similarly to what the Texans did with Jadeveon Clowney, just hopefully with a slightly hire return. 

3. Clear up more cap space by trading and cutting veterans. The Bears salary cap flexibility is currently sitting between dire and a word worse than dire. They currently only have $2,700,000 of spendable cap space this offseason, which means there's really no other option than to start blowing it up and rebuilding. 

First, Akiem Hicks is one of the best interior linemen in football. But he's also 31, going into the last year of his deal, and is represented by Drew Rosenhaus. It's his last chance to get a significant contract, so I think I'd rather trade him and try and recoup a 2nd or 3rd round pick on him, and also save about $10,000,000 in cap space. 

We're just going to flat out cut Jimmy Graham, Bobby Massie and Charles Leno. That would save us another $20,000,000 in cap space, which lets us get a little more frisky. 

 Next to go is Kyle Fuller. Fuller is a very good corner, but he's also 28 and will be heading into the last year of his deal. I don't think tying this roster down with aging, and expensive players is the way to go, so unfortunately we're going to move on from him. Due to some mid level ineptitude from Ryan Pace, we're going to have to eat a chunk of dead cap this year and a bit more next year, but it'll save us $11,000,000 this year alone and could recoup a 4th or 5th round pick for the veteran corner.

 It'll be nearly impossible to move Robert Quinn this offseason, but there's a potential out for his contract next year, so we'll let him play it out and deal him by the trade deadline if we're not in the divisional race. 

We're keeping Khalil Mack, unless someone offers at least a first round pick for him. Other than that, these moves would open up around $50-$60,000,000 in cap space after another few restructurings. 

4. Trade down in the draft. The Bears are currently projected to pick 14th in the upcoming draft, but with the teams recent skid, games that seemed winnable against the Texans and Lions now look much tougher. I think the Bears finish the season 7-9, which should get them a draft selection in the 8-11 range. The Bears roster is running on bare bones when it comes to young, exciting, players with cap efficient contracts due to trading significant draft capital to acquire Khalil Mack, trading up for Mitch Trubisky, and trading for Nick Foles. The Bears already have too many wins to be in the running for a top 3 pick and a shot at Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields, and I'd rather try and take advantage of a team trading up for one of the remaining quarterback projects and try and net another 2nd round pick and a couple cursory mid rounders. If the Bears had the #9 pick, they could probably exchange it for a package like pick #18, #50, and #120 according to the pick value chart that many teams use. Obviously it takes two to tango, but I think if the Bears were to be able to acquire a couple more picks in the second-fourth rounds, they can rebuild the depth a little bit quicker and assemble a roster that's capable of turning it around soon. 

5. Draft Smart: As for the draft itself, I'm really not a huge proponent of draft culture. I think that the organization and the fit matters a lot more than what a prospect does in underwear or how much potential you think he could have from a small sample size in college. Just using a quick mock draft simulater, I was able to take Trey Smith, Rashawn Slater, Kary Vincent, and Jamie Newman in the first 3.5 rounds. Trey Smith and Slater can help revamp a declining OL, Kary Vincent is a DB from LSU and I like DBs from LSU, and Jamie Newman is a flyer at the QB position. We're more than a QB away, so right now I'd rather focus most of our resources on building up our offensive line before we throw a high pick to the wolves. Jamie Newman was very productive at Wake Forest, grad transferred to Georgia, and then left before the season started. I think a guy like him is worth a third or fourth round pick in the hopes of uncovering the next Dak Prescott, Russell Wilson, or Kirk Cousins. We're not expecting much from him, but if we're going to suck next year, I'd at least like to suck with someone with more potential than Nick Foles before taking the Franchise QB the following year. 

6. Oh yea, I'm hiring Matt Eberflus as head coach. There's no rhyme or reason to this, other than he's a defensive minded guy with strong midwest connections, and I he's helped develop great defenses everywhere he's been. But plenty of coaches would be well qualified for this role, I'm just throwing a dart here. Fuck it, his name is fun to say. 

7. Keep longterm financial flexibility in the hopes of building up the roster to the point that it can become a favorable destination for a free agent QB at the twilight of his career or allows the team to trade up for a rookie passer using the additional cap space to build around them similar to the Seahawks, Eagles, and Rams with Wilson, Wentz, and Goff. Badabing baby, that's a gold mine.

DeAndre Hopkins Just Put Every NFL Agent on Notice

 

A sports agent; one of the most lucrative and opportunity giving jobs in the entire sports industry. People like Scott Boras and Rich Paul have made an absolute killing off the contracts of the players the represent. I remember hearing about Jay-Z becoming an agent and Roc Nation subsequently signed Kevin Durant; and I tried to figure out every possible avenue to becoming a sports agent before I figured  out that I'm really bad at math. 

Nonetheless, being an agent for a high-profile player is the gift that keeps on giving, although maybe less so in the NFL. For some context: MLB agents like Scott Boras make between 4% and 10% of their player's contract value. NBA agents come in at no more than 4% and NFL agents make no more than 3%. 

So despite the fact that NFL agents take the lowest percentage of a player's contract, the Arizona Cardinals' DeAndre Hopkins said "forget that" and structured his new contract by himself. Not only did he negotiate a deal that would keep him in Arizona for the next 5 years, but he made himself the highest paid non-QB in professional football history. Forget an agent, forget sharing contract value, DeAndre Hopkins is one of the best wide receivers in the game right now and he wanted to get his money for himself. 

Absolutely have to applaud the effort, but let's not ignore the trend this might start. It may not happen as much in football, because as we mentioned before, those agents take the smallest cut of any professional sports agent. But NBA and especially MLB agents are getting put on notice. Players are smart, they know  their value and have access to all the stats they need to compare themselves to other players and get the salary they know they deserve. I would not be surprised at all if this starts a trend of players coming into the respective major sports leagues without an agent. 

The NBA provides an easier way to do that; especially for high-profile college and international players, as Twitter does most of the work for them. Social media provides highlights and insight the wasn't nearly as readily available to the public 10 years ago. Baseball will be a bit harder to do just because of the sheer volume of  MLB and MiLB players there are. If you combine that with high school and college-eligible players as well as the international market, most players will need an agent to advocate for them at least until they make it to the show.

The NFL may have the easiest path to making it without an agent however. Sure, for certain positions, or unproven but high ceiling players there is the need for some assistance. But the majority of NFL players are heavily marketed from the time they are in college. NFL execs and scouts know who they are targeting in future drafts at least 3 years ahead. Also, NFL rookie contracts are typically pretty cut and dry based on which round players are drafted in. All of this adds up to a simple contract for players after being marketed for years and subsequently drafted, thereby giving them around 3 years to prove themselves in the league before they can take their stats and use those comparisons to get the contracts they deserve.

I know it's not as simple as this, but I think we will start to see a trend of players getting huge contracts all on their own.

Shoutout to DeAndre Hopkins, lastly, get that money.

-Theo