Official 2026 Free Agency/Offseason/Non-Draft Thread

[pbmax]

I'd argue the Russell Wilson trade was comparable, and he was 6 years older at the time.

Willis game against the Ravens was elite. Full stop. The throws were better than most of Loves throws. And don't get me started on mobility.

2 firsts, 2 seconds and a fifth. Its a haul I agree. But its not 3 firsts. Love is younger but also one big postseason game versus two time Super Bowl QB.

However, the market for new QBs was pretty depressed this offseason. Could change with injuries but no one got a haul this year. You do just need one team to be Denver Broncos stupid though.

[bobblehead]

I have concerns about the org from top to bottom these days but one I am not concerned about is QB evaluation and development. They knew what they had.

And Love's cap hit can only be spread out over 2 years max.

They knew what they had, agreed. What they were willing to do about it....

Gutes can only be smart if Willis balls out. He took him off the scrap heap and Love is a legit NFL QB. Gutes can look awful if he trades Love and his awful OL gets willis hurt. He took the safe choice. He drafted Love, gave him a monster contract. Just because he was never going to trade him and roll with Willis doesn't mean it was the smart play. Gutes is fully invested in Love's success and Love has proven he can play. He was never going to make a bold call and trade him. Now we can draft the best RAS scores and maybe sneak into the 7 seed again, but this time when Love misses 3 games we probably lose all 3 badly.

[bobblehead]

3 firsts? If you can find a comparable trade that netted 3 firsts I'd like to see it.

A lot of the Willis effect is lack of tape study. He comes in and the defense is getting unscouted looks in the passing game.

I'd argue the Russell Wilson trade was comparable, and he was 6 years older at the time.

Willis game against the Ravens was elite. Full stop. The throws were better than most of Loves throws. And don't get me started on mobility.

[pbmax]

3 firsts? If you can find a comparable trade that netted 3 firsts I'd like to see it.

A lot of the Willis effect is lack of tape study. He comes in and the defense is getting unscouted looks in the passing game.

I have concerns about the org from top to bottom these days but one I am not concerned about is QB evaluation and development. They knew what they had.

And Love's cap hit can only be spread out over 2 years max.

[pbmax]

Spread the pain over a few years. The savings in Willis contract would mitigate a lot of it. The rookie contracts of multiple firsts would mitigate some of it. I don't hate on Love (I think we could have gotten 3 firsts, how can I). I just saw a more mobile, more stout QB with a very similar arm. His throws in the Baltimore game early on were incredible. I also think MiLF called a better game with Willis in there.

The real problem with this team is we have bled talent and made too many mistakes with large contracts to the wrong guys, while refusing to cut bait soon enough (Jalex, Bak). We continue to lose talented players because we are using the barbell approach (investing term regarding heavy weights on each side. In the football sense, we wrap the cap into 5 guys on one end and have scrubs on the other end). This leaves roster holes.

I have been wildly optimistic for decades (and have been mostly right). Right now, I'm wondering if we make the playoffs next year. Maybe if we are brutally healthy we can take the division, but the Bears have a better coach and want it more. Hell, we couldn't even get it up enough to retaliate for 3 head shots on our QB.

3 firsts? If you can find a comparable trade that netted 3 firsts I'd like to see it.

A lot of the Willis effect is lack of tape study. He comes in and the defense is getting unscouted looks in the passing game.

[Joemailman]

There's this weird thing that's happened the last few years - the Packers start off hot, hot, hot, then get worse, worse, worse as the game goes on. It's really weird. We used to complain that the Packers came out of the gate slow. Now they come out firing on all cylinders and then fall apart. The Bears' playoff loss was the perfect mirror of the past couple years of Packer teams.

Yeah, it seems like they often have a hard time adjusting to the adjustments the opponent makes. Like you said, the playoff loss last year was a perfect example. Bears came out blitzing in the 2nd half, and it took until the Packers 5th possession before they were able to stop it. Once they made their own adjustments, they were able to move the ball. But it took too long.

[Fritz]

Spread the pain over a few years. The savings in Willis contract would mitigate a lot of it. The rookie contracts of multiple firsts would mitigate some of it. I don't hate on Love (I think we could have gotten 3 firsts, how can I). I just saw a more mobile, more stout QB with a very similar arm. His throws in the Baltimore game early on were incredible. I also think MiLF called a better game with Willis in there.

The real problem with this team is we have bled talent and made too many mistakes with large contracts to the wrong guys, while refusing to cut bait soon enough (Jalex, Bak). We continue to lose talented players because we are using the barbell approach (investing term regarding heavy weights on each side. In the football sense, we wrap the cap into 5 guys on one end and have scrubs on the other end). This leaves roster holes.

I have been wildly optimistic for decades (and have been mostly right). Right now, I'm wondering if we make the playoffs next year. Maybe if we are brutally healthy we can take the division, but the Bears have a better coach and want it more. Hell, we couldn't even get it up enough to retaliate for 3 head shots on our QB.

There's this weird thing that's happened the last few years - the Packers start off hot, hot, hot, then get worse, worse, worse as the game goes on. It's really weird. We used to complain that the Packers came out of the gate slow. Now they come out firing on all cylinders and then fall apart. The Bears' playoff loss was the perfect mirror of the past couple years of Packer teams.

[bobblehead]

All depends on how bad you would to suffer the next year.

Spread the pain over a few years. The savings in Willis contract would mitigate a lot of it. The rookie contracts of multiple firsts would mitigate some of it. I don't hate on Love (I think we could have gotten 3 firsts, how can I). I just saw a more mobile, more stout QB with a very similar arm. His throws in the Baltimore game early on were incredible. I also think MiLF called a better game with Willis in there.

The real problem with this team is we have bled talent and made too many mistakes with large contracts to the wrong guys, while refusing to cut bait soon enough (Jalex, Bak). We continue to lose talented players because we are using the barbell approach (investing term regarding heavy weights on each side. In the football sense, we wrap the cap into 5 guys on one end and have scrubs on the other end). This leaves roster holes.

I have been wildly optimistic for decades (and have been mostly right). Right now, I'm wondering if we make the playoffs next year. Maybe if we are brutally healthy we can take the division, but the Bears have a better coach and want it more. Hell, we couldn't even get it up enough to retaliate for 3 head shots on our QB.

[bobblehead]

I would argue the drafting of Morgan over the guy we all pretty much wanted backs of the belief that Gutey is bad at his job of GM as well.

But Flower could you moved the OL if he wanted to as well

Maybe. OL is an area flower hasn't managed well. I think back to 2x that we had stabilized around the bak injury with Yosh playing LT (average) only to promptly bench him for the playoff game. Both times that backfired. Overall I like MiLF as the HC, but he isn't perfect. Gutes on the other hand is a tire fire. He has lived off 1 good draft and a lot of TTs past picks. Now the roster is 100% his and he has to trade and mortgage the future for the 7 seed each year.

[Joemailman]

Packers announce new coaching staff. https://www.packers.com/team/coaches-roster/ Defensive coaching titles point to 3-4 base. Covington goes from DL coach to OLB coach. He may have longest job title ever on Packers:

Outside Linebackers/Run Game Coordinator/Assistant Head Coach - Defense

[pbmax]

Yet everyone insists it would have been impossible to trade Love for 3 firsts.

All depends on how bad you would to suffer the next year.

[sharpe1027]

Yet everyone insists it would have been impossible to trade Love for 3 firsts.

Who is everybody? I remember a discussion of how much dead money it would cost, not everyone saying that that it was impossible. I said we should have traded him and rolled the dice on Willis

[bobblehead]

Talk about tearing things down and starting over:

Adam Schefter
@AdamSchefter

Miami Dolphins Dead Money for this season is now over $175 million.

Tua Tagovailoa: $50M+
Tyreek Hill: $28.2M
Jaylen Waddle: $26.3M
Jalen Ramsey: $20.9M
Minkah Fitzpatrick: $13M
Bradley Chubb: $10.9M
Terron Armstead: $10.7M
James Daniels: $4.8M
Zach Wilson: $3.8M
Alec Ingold: $2.0M
Jonnu Smith: $1.7M
Nick Westbrook-Ikhine: $1.6M
Matthew Judon: $1.4M
Jason Sanders: $663K
Cam Smith: $528K
Mohamed Kamara: $160K

Yet everyone insists it would have been impossible to trade Love for 3 firsts.

[texaspackerbacker]

hahahaha Yeah right. You make me want to root for the Dolphins. Irrational panic or whatever aside, they'll get by, and they might even win some games.

I say again, the salary cap is overrated as a problem.

[ThunderDan]

Miami has more dead cap space then what they have in active players on either side of the ball.

This is a total rebuild. They can't sign anyone else. I am not sure they have the cap space to sign their picks.