Anywho, so the biggest player in this early NFL free agent market is clearly the Chicago Bears signing former San Diego TE Brandon Manumaleuna, former Baltimore and Minnesota RB Chester Taylor, and the big daddy of them all former Panthers DE Julius Peppers.
Here's some of my recent GOI tweets and facebook statuses to help you get a better idea of where I was coming from before the NFL free agency period begun
March 4th on Twitter:
The most underrated FA this offseason will be Chester Taylor. He'll be cheap and he's really good. I hope the Bears sign him.
March 4th on Facebook:
I hope the Bears don't get Peppers. He's good, but his contract will be too big and they won't get Pro Bowl Peppers. They'll just get better-than-Wale&Brown&Anderson-Peppers
1) Julius Peppers for 6 yr/ 91.5 million dollars. OK, so after listening to sports talk radio this entire afternoon, I think I've changed my mind on Julius Peppers. After the Bears traded for Jay Cutler this past off season, I initially got really angry because I thought they gave up WAY too much. But then I thought, the Bears need a QB, and they don't efficiently use their draft picks anyway, so what the hell. Analogously, when I draft in fantasy, I know which players I want to make the best team, I don't really care about which round or "value" I'm getting the player, as long as I have the best team. That's sort of how I feel about this Peppers signing.
The Bears are in desperate need for a pass rusher. Wale is getting old, Alex Brown is fine but nothing special, Mark Anderson hasn't shown anything since his wonderful rookie season, and Gaines Adams is deceased. The Bears needed someone. They weren't going to get anyone in the draft because all the good pass rushers will be taken by the time the Bears pick and there's no one else really of value, other than Peppers in the FA pool. Peppers is by far and away the Bears best DE and he WILL make the team better. I've heard everyone complaining that the Bears need a safety, but guess what, an improved defensive line makes the linebackers better which in turn makes the defensive backs better. Remember in 2006 when Nathan Vasher was a pro bowl? Yeah, he went to the Pro Bowl not because he is a good talent, but because Tommie Harris and the D-line got a lot of pressure on the QB.
The one problem I've always had with Peppers is that he's extremely lazy. You talk to any Carolina Panther (although I wouldn't talk to Jake Delhomme or John Fox right now, I don't think they'd be in the mood), they'd tell you Peppers took many plays off and that he never really played to his potential towards the end of his contract. I want to convince myself that he's just like Corey Dillon and just needs a new scene and team to play better. But I'm just worried that Peppers will be more like Brian Urlacher and Tommie Harris- guys who played well in the past, got a huge contract from Jerry Angelo, and then produced nothing on the field.
Again, the MASSIVE contract doesn't bother me as much because it was not like the Bears could have gotten another DE that has Peppers' talent and I'm sure many many many other teams were also courting Peppers- so the Bears, I'm sure, had to offer Peppers as high of a contract as they did in order to sign the Pro Bowler.
ESPN has a program that will make you depressed called Salary Crunch. You type in how much money you make and it tells you what Peppers has to do to earn your yearly salary (i.e. if you make $30,000 a year, all Peppers has to do to earn that much is play in .03 games which will produce about .08 tackles, .02 sacks, and .01 forced fumbles)
2) Chester Taylor for 4 yr/ 12.5 million. I love Chester Taylor. His biggest problem is that he's never gotten consistent playing time. Taylor has only gotten over 160 attempts once (303 in 2006) and in that season- he gained 1216 yards with a 4.0 YPC. Taylor has a career 4.3 YPC. Taylor is also really good at catching the ball out of the backfield. But best of all, he's a damn good backup to help the Bears running game and to take pressure off of Matt Forte. Now, the BEST solution to improve the Bears running game is to improve the offensive line. But the second best solution is Taylor. I was a big fan of the Bears getting Taylor a few days ago, and I'm a much bigger fan now than the Bears got him. In fact, I almost like this signing more than the Peppers one.
3) Brandon Manumaleuna for 5 yr/ 17 million. Apparently, in Mike Martz' offense, the purpose of the TE is to mainly be a blocker and rarely be a pass catcher. And from what I'm told, Manumaleuna is a very good blocker- which is a good thing because the Bears O-line sucks. He's only getting $6 million guaranteed so why not?
I've heard rumors that the Bears are thinking about trading Greg Olson. Good. Greg Olson sucks. I don't care about this whole "Mike Martz system" excuse, the Bears need draft picks and Olson is not good. Good riddance.
SIDENOTE: The Ravens gave up a third and a fourth pick for Anquan Boldin. Even without a first and second round pick, I would gladly give up a 3rd and 4th round pick for Boldin.
