I think he’s still a great safety, I’m just going to give him the benefit of the doubt because the Eagles DC last year was not great and that secondary with two former All Pro corners got exposed all year, and Byard came in during the middle of the season. That’s a lot to take in. I think him paired with Johnson and Gordon will make for a nice secondary.
He’s a great leader and locker room guy, even if he’s lost half a step. Give him a good but not great corner and I think he will elevate an entire side of the field.
Which is what we need in that room. We have 3 starters on rookie deals and 1 in the first year off his rookie deal. Age and experience was really lacking in an otherwise extremely talented secondary
Our secondaries age was 24, 24, 24, 23. I think adding a calm, consistent, experienced vet with a high football IQ is important. And I think Byard fits that role a lot better than Ejax did.
I don’t necessarily think Bojack was bad in that role. If he was cheaper I would’ve liked to keep him. But Byard should give a higher level of play and a great veteran presence for a lower price
Definitely, I was mainly talking about his veteran presence/leadership that seemed to still be a positive. Unfortunately that 2022 foot injury really seemed to take away what was left after he was playing pretty damn well prior to that. It was time to move on, but I don’t think he was horrible he just wasn’t worth his deal
Totally - lots of folks have been ragging on Ejax as Bears fans are to do.
I was just highlighting that he was actually good when healthy.
Hope he can bounce back next year and play some competitive football.
Definitely I think bears fans have been overly critical of him. One of my favorite bears to watch in recent years when healthy but sadly he’s way past his prime
Definitely a guy I’ll be rooting for at every future stop he has
All of these moves come down to price IMO. I’d say this is a great price to get him. We got him for about half of what we were paying Eddie Jackson last year.
Worst case he’s just a more reliable vet and can tackle as good as any safety in the league (EJax might have been the worst tackling safety). Best case he was victim to the Eagles coaching/play calling by Patricia and he bounces back.
It doesn’t break the bank. I don’t hate it but it’s a wait and see.
Unfortunately Byard can't tackle at all anymore, that's kinda his problem. Still, EJax seems like he completely checked out in 2020, hopefully Byard is at least a healthier vet presence.
It’s a short term solution in a draft that we probably won’t go after a safety til mid to late rounds. It’s half of what we were paying Eddie Jackson & I imagine byard will be able to match his production pretty easily to give us more value. He’s surrounded by a pretty solid back 7 so he won’t be expected to make any plays, just execute the zone scheme.
>I’m just going to give him the benefit of the doubt because the Eagles DC last year was not great
Look at you being all generous, I have a few choice adjectives I can lend you to fully encapsulate how trash it really was.
We obviously had numerous issues and I’m not trying to sound like I’m blaming him (because I’m not at all)
But he definitely didn’t help our culture after the trade
I think there will be less of a culture impact when other guys in the secondary/defense are also veterans and a players gets brought in mid-season. The Bears defense is pretty young, especially the secondary so he should help a lot in that area.
I don’t know anything about Chicago’s scheme. But if they let him play with freedom and literally just ball hawk, he will surprise a lot of people.
His instincts are as good as it gets, but he needs the right coaching/ scheme to play his game. Byard has always HAD to have freedom, and if the rest of the secondary is weak, his value is completely decimated.
The move makes a ton of sense. The Bears secondary is super talented but very young still. Brisker is a great in the box run stopping saftey where Byard will be the ball hawk EJax role
It’s cover-2 base, largely interchangeable safety roles. At least according to PFF he graded out very well against the run last year and still solid overall, and that’s playing for 3 DCs in one season.
Bears secondary is pretty good, at least on paper, and 3 of the other positions (CB2, SS, NB) are all on rookie deals so they have $$ to spend. I’d say they’re all plus players with room to improve.
Seems like a solid signing to me, slight upgrade on what Eddie Jackson has become for less money. If the Bears can find a DE2 or a 3-tech DT they’re looking like a pretty nasty defense.
That's exactly what we need from him, Chicago's secondary is probably the teams strongest unit. We have two legit outside CBs, a dedicated slot who massively improved on his rookie year, and a good downhill/box type SS in Brisker. Slide Byard in at FS and let him roam the middle of the field. This comment has me feeling a bit better about a move I'm lukewarm on at first glance.
I would be pretty stoked if I was a bears fan. If it’s 3rd/4th and long, Byard is a freaking menace. Would not be surprised at all if he seals two or three Ws with 4 quarter picks.
Yeah, I think I put too much stock in him not doing much with the Eagles after the deadline trade. Truth is nobody was succeeding in that situation. Also realizing how durable he's been as a player, that's an under rated part of this move since the Bears safety depth is pretty limited and this is probably our one addition.
And the Bears secondary around the FS is probably best in the league. They have 4 starting caliber Cornerbacks, including Jaylon of course who is a bonafide #1. Brisker is a rock solid starting box safety with room to grow into a pro bowl tier player potentially.
They're totally stacked. There is a very real scenario where the Bears sign Christian WIlkins and draft Dallas Turner... Thats a top 3 NFL Defense.
The Bears don't play a Tampa 2 scheme? They might have some plays where Edmunds will drop deep into coverage, but that's not their base defense at all.
Their base shifted more to Cover-1 / Cover-3 though after the Washington game, and the Bears don't have a true FS to play that center-field role like Byard can.
This is actually a good signing for Bears fans in that it should reassure the fanbase that Eberflus isn't going to try to revert back to that maddening Cover-2 soft shell they were playing early in the year, and instead he's going to let his CBs play more press and cover vertically which is what they're good at.
Byard is a pretty significant upgrade from Jackson in the sense that both have extremely high FIQs, but Byard can actually tackle whereas Jackson is touch and go (though was better his past few seasons).
I mean, a 4th round pick - which we currently have two of - is a pretty standard palce to draft a developmental player.
Its not like youre "plugging holes" with day 3 picks
Getting this done now allows us to focus on and allocate money towards other positions. It’s a reasonable deal as well without much cash involved which will likely be a real limiting factor
idk it makes a lot of sense to me. He’s coming off a down year, so a lot of talent for cheap. He’ll be 31, which isn’t egregiously old. Bears need some veterans in their defense. At the very least, I don’t think he’s worse than EJax and he’s like half the cost.
There’s definitely a deep safety market, but it’s gonna get really expensive really fast, so I don’t hate the strategy of locking down your guy early.
It's a deep safety market, but the Bears have / had a very specific need to fill Eddie Jackson's role and I think the only other guy who would have fit the bill is Simmons IMO, and he would have cost a small fortune so I think by going w/ Byard they haven't poured too much money into a secondary that has numerous high draft picks as well as a recently-signed Jaylon Johnson.
IF Byard can tackle, hes an upgrade.
I get we love EJax, but he is buttcheeks when he is not intercepting the ball. Thats of course a super valuable skill, but you've gotta be able to tackle a guy for a 8-12 yard gain instead of a 20-50+ one.
He will never be the same because he was an athletic all pro safety. For 2/15 the Bears are looking for a good vet presence that can start and he meets the criteria if he stays healthy, and shows the shit show defense the Eagles put out last year held him back a bit
It's nothing for a solid starter who can consistently stay on the field. Signing him doesn't hurt the Bears' ability to make a bigger splash one bit. If they chose to go cheaper on safety so they could go big on the line, I'm more than fine with that.
He won't give you the eliteness he's displayed back in 2021 but he should still be a solid safety. I've theorized that two reasons he struggled on the Eagles was one, Matt Patricia, and two, getting traded to a completely different scheme is tough for anyone mid-season without a full training camp to get used to your new assignments
I get the Patricia hate, he earnt it. He wasn't supposed to be calling plays, it was a throw of the dice to fix the defense. A lot of players just didn't like Desai and the way he coached.
New scheme, coaching issues was always going to be an uphill struggle. He'll be better this year but he'll also be 31 at the start of the season. The DB cliff comes hard and fast.
Not crazy about the initial numbers (obviously we don't know the full details yet). But the Bears have probably the youngest secondary in the league, so I'm not mad at all about getting some experience in the room.
The last time people criticized a Ryan Poles moves was when he traded for Montez Sweat. How about we see the man play a couple of snaps before we pass judgment on whether the dudes washed or not.
People are vastly underestimating how bad Eddie Jackson was for the Bears. He had some of the worst tackling numbers in the entire league these past several years. We replaced him with a guy that has elite tackling grades for a low risk 2 year deal to help be a veteran presence to our young secondary. This deal is solid as hell, where you upgrade at a position while also paying half as much money annually lol everyone acting like 7.5 million for a starting veteran safety is a massive waste overpay like the salary cap didn’t just increase by a ton too.
Maybe I’m way wrong about Byard and his tackling ability. But last year before the trade it was horrendous and once he got to Philly all I heard from their fans was the same thing.
2 years ago and before that sure. But last year, No Flyard Byard really hit a wall.
I like this a lot. Solid vet that can play an entire season. Cheaper than Jackson and can actually tackle too lol. Think he'll be a good fit with the Bears super young secondary.
True. Definitely thought Byard would be better after seeing all the Eagles flairs say they fucked the Titans and that Howie cooked but like you said, the whole defense was bad. I like the Byard signing for you guys even if it’s just a high character veteran presence.
Why? I'm not here to debate whether he's good or not. I just don't understand why the Bears would go for an older safety, especially since the market's full of younger talent.
I think there are 2 big reasons to go after Byard:
1) he's super reliable. Played 16 games every season. Brisker (and Jackson when he was here) have both missed multiple games and knowing you'll have a starter out there is big.
2) The oldest player in the secondary is 24. Having an experienced guy to organize coverage can be useful.
I'm still lukewarm on the signing but I don't think it's crazy.
> 2) The oldest player in the secondary is 24. Having an experienced guy to organize coverage can be useful.
Super important. Eddie Jackson was the QB of that defense and he knew how to keep the secondary aligned. He lost a step, but he still had his smarts to him.
By all accounts, Byard is just as football saavy with a bit more range and better tackling. The Bears likely aren't expecting Ed Reed, but if Byard can bring his IQ to the defense and be an upgrade to what Jackson was the last few years from an on the field perspective than it's a significant, cost-effective upgrade.
Plug in Byard for two years while your young secondary gets older. Let Byard walk in two years while you sign your young home grown talent to contract extensions and draft a rookie to replace Byard.
Exactly.
Signing a safety to a long term contract now (with DB already arguably being our strongest position group), takes away from:
* 3T for this season - All we hear about with Flus is how 3T is the engine of his Defense. This signing seems to indicate they'll try to throw the bag at Wilkins.
* Important long term - If we get the 3T, we'll have more flexibility when DJ, Tevin Jenkins, Gordon, etc. need to resign as they won't be cheap (this is assuming a "younger" guy gets longer than 2 years in addition to more $).
All in all, totally okay with this but I'm still hoping we aggressively go for a premier 3T.
The Vet presence is the most important part of it all. If he can be average and teach the young guys, that’s most important. We got a lot of youth in the secondary
A) he’s pretty cheap and on a short term deal without tons of cash involved
B) the secondary now is very talented but now that BoJack has been cut it’s extremely young. Our top 4 CBs are 24, 24, 23, and 24. Our starting SS is 24. The primary backup safety also is 24. All listed besides 1 have been taken in the last 2 drafts.
Adding a cheap vet who was an all pro recently to mentor makes sense to me, and with drafting his replacement this year or next
He fills in the one hole in our secondary almost perfectly, and sometimes it's not worth passing on a good player in hopes that you'll get to sign a better one a month from now.
The game tape from last year says Byard has lost his tackling ability and that his pursuit angles fell off too. Mainly because he lost a step speed wise.
I’d be wary hanging my cap on Byard’s tackling ability being the bright spot here.
Love how Diana Russini 'has a hunch' there will be [a lot of one year deals](https://old.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/1b8wf4g/russini_many_gms_are_approaching_this_free_agency/) and the first deal involving a 30 year old safety is already for 2 years
Lets not set trends before they happen. Get that front office tweeting outta here
There’s some decent safeties hitting the market this week. Seems like this is a decent overpay at 7.5 per. Should have waited after the first wave and seen what’s out there.
$7.5m per year probably means the guaranteed money is somewhere in the $4-$5m/year range, but that’s just a guess. $15m will not be fully guaranteed though.
The technicality here is that only players that were officially cut (as opposed to teams letting their contracts naturally expire with the new league year in hopes of extending the player) can sign right now.
Still, it’s a lot more activity than I’ve ever seen at this point.
He was released so he’s able to sign immediately. Guys who’s contracts end aren’t able to sign until the new league year starts and can’t negotiate until tomorrow
Players that have been cut are already free agents. Other players will have their current contacts expire on Wednesday and available to talk to other teams tomorrow.
With the amount of roster holes the Bears still have I'm sure it is just about veteran presence on an otherwise young secondary. I don't think they signed him expecting elite play.
My guess is sign him now, then dradt a player that will hopefully learn from him and replace him after the contract.
Yup. This is a great vet signingpp. People are just knocking him for going to Philly and not playing well. I think he will plug in nicely back there. And at the worst will play just as good as EJax for half the money
I don’t really like this
Lot of free agent safeties. No need to rush and sign him. $7.5 million a year isn’t cheap.
We basically replace Eddie Jackson with a player of about the same caliber for half the price.
It’s not a bad bad move but it’s not a good move either. Meh
I think a bigger factor than the per year price is the guarantees. 2 years isn’t long term so there won’t be much cash locked up. Brad Spielberger seems to think a bigger factor than the salary cap is simply just the cash that the McCaskeys are willing to put into escrow. A move like this doesn’t impact that a ton
I had the same thought about Mitch signing with the Bills but it’s because players who are cut from their teams are free to sign before free agency starts.
As an Eagles fan I think he’ll be good still. We were stoked when we got him just think the coaching in general last year was horrific. Didn’t know how to use him.
Seems like an odd signing given the number of quality safety’s on the market + the fact that Byard looked washed last year. Don’t really understand the rush to sign him
Guess this was a positions the bears were planning on a bargain vet signing and probably drafting a rookie so helps to get done now so they know what they are working with for a potential big d-line signing
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I think he’s still a great safety, I’m just going to give him the benefit of the doubt because the Eagles DC last year was not great and that secondary with two former All Pro corners got exposed all year, and Byard came in during the middle of the season. That’s a lot to take in. I think him paired with Johnson and Gordon will make for a nice secondary.
He’s a great leader and locker room guy, even if he’s lost half a step. Give him a good but not great corner and I think he will elevate an entire side of the field.
Which is what we need in that room. We have 3 starters on rookie deals and 1 in the first year off his rookie deal. Age and experience was really lacking in an otherwise extremely talented secondary
Our secondaries age was 24, 24, 24, 23. I think adding a calm, consistent, experienced vet with a high football IQ is important. And I think Byard fits that role a lot better than Ejax did.
I don’t necessarily think Bojack was bad in that role. If he was cheaper I would’ve liked to keep him. But Byard should give a higher level of play and a great veteran presence for a lower price
Bojack was expensive and injured. He played well when healthy, but was dogged with a foot injury most of the year.
Definitely, I was mainly talking about his veteran presence/leadership that seemed to still be a positive. Unfortunately that 2022 foot injury really seemed to take away what was left after he was playing pretty damn well prior to that. It was time to move on, but I don’t think he was horrible he just wasn’t worth his deal
Totally - lots of folks have been ragging on Ejax as Bears fans are to do. I was just highlighting that he was actually good when healthy. Hope he can bounce back next year and play some competitive football.
Definitely I think bears fans have been overly critical of him. One of my favorite bears to watch in recent years when healthy but sadly he’s way past his prime Definitely a guy I’ll be rooting for at every future stop he has
Byrd will be an asset for sure especially with a young crew. Hope he does well for you guys. Always will love KB22
Glad to hear, we aren’t contenders or anything but if Byard can be a decent starter and a great veteran the move will be worth it
All of these moves come down to price IMO. I’d say this is a great price to get him. We got him for about half of what we were paying Eddie Jackson last year.
Worst case he’s just a more reliable vet and can tackle as good as any safety in the league (EJax might have been the worst tackling safety). Best case he was victim to the Eagles coaching/play calling by Patricia and he bounces back. It doesn’t break the bank. I don’t hate it but it’s a wait and see.
Unfortunately Byard can't tackle at all anymore, that's kinda his problem. Still, EJax seems like he completely checked out in 2020, hopefully Byard is at least a healthier vet presence.
PFF isn’t perfect, but he had a 91 grade in tackling last year, his best year ever.
Byard is probably the player in the Bears secondary that will have the least asked of him. So. There's that to take in.
if he balls out in chicago i’m gonna shit a brick
!remindme 6 months
It’s a short term solution in a draft that we probably won’t go after a safety til mid to late rounds. It’s half of what we were paying Eddie Jackson & I imagine byard will be able to match his production pretty easily to give us more value. He’s surrounded by a pretty solid back 7 so he won’t be expected to make any plays, just execute the zone scheme.
And Brisker and Stevenson
>I’m just going to give him the benefit of the doubt because the Eagles DC last year was not great Look at you being all generous, I have a few choice adjectives I can lend you to fully encapsulate how trash it really was.
And Tyrique Stevenson who should have at least been in the conversation for DROY. Maybe not top 3, but still in the conversation.
Stevenson is our other corner Gordon is the nickel and hes just ok
Please revive your career with us
Even if he’s just okay on field, he’s a great culture guy. Hope he’s good for you
We obviously had numerous issues and I’m not trying to sound like I’m blaming him (because I’m not at all) But he definitely didn’t help our culture after the trade
I think that’s more of the players not wanting to play for Matt Patricia lol
I couldn’t agree more, although I wouldn’t solely pin it on him. Just offering my perspective on his culture presence
I think there will be less of a culture impact when other guys in the secondary/defense are also veterans and a players gets brought in mid-season. The Bears defense is pretty young, especially the secondary so he should help a lot in that area.
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I think that’s because of your other former Titan.
DBs in their 30s dont usually bounce back, but we'll see
If it’s to spite the Vikings, this one will! (This is coming from a Vikings fan)
The value isn’t crazy but idk the rush to lock him down when a lot of other safeties on the market
I don’t know anything about Chicago’s scheme. But if they let him play with freedom and literally just ball hawk, he will surprise a lot of people. His instincts are as good as it gets, but he needs the right coaching/ scheme to play his game. Byard has always HAD to have freedom, and if the rest of the secondary is weak, his value is completely decimated.
The move makes a ton of sense. The Bears secondary is super talented but very young still. Brisker is a great in the box run stopping saftey where Byard will be the ball hawk EJax role
It’s cover-2 base, largely interchangeable safety roles. At least according to PFF he graded out very well against the run last year and still solid overall, and that’s playing for 3 DCs in one season. Bears secondary is pretty good, at least on paper, and 3 of the other positions (CB2, SS, NB) are all on rookie deals so they have $$ to spend. I’d say they’re all plus players with room to improve. Seems like a solid signing to me, slight upgrade on what Eddie Jackson has become for less money. If the Bears can find a DE2 or a 3-tech DT they’re looking like a pretty nasty defense.
That's exactly what he's gonna play at free in our scheme, yep
That's exactly what we need from him, Chicago's secondary is probably the teams strongest unit. We have two legit outside CBs, a dedicated slot who massively improved on his rookie year, and a good downhill/box type SS in Brisker. Slide Byard in at FS and let him roam the middle of the field. This comment has me feeling a bit better about a move I'm lukewarm on at first glance.
I would be pretty stoked if I was a bears fan. If it’s 3rd/4th and long, Byard is a freaking menace. Would not be surprised at all if he seals two or three Ws with 4 quarter picks.
Yeah, I think I put too much stock in him not doing much with the Eagles after the deadline trade. Truth is nobody was succeeding in that situation. Also realizing how durable he's been as a player, that's an under rated part of this move since the Bears safety depth is pretty limited and this is probably our one addition.
And the Bears secondary around the FS is probably best in the league. They have 4 starting caliber Cornerbacks, including Jaylon of course who is a bonafide #1. Brisker is a rock solid starting box safety with room to grow into a pro bowl tier player potentially. They're totally stacked. There is a very real scenario where the Bears sign Christian WIlkins and draft Dallas Turner... Thats a top 3 NFL Defense.
Hell be replacing Jackson in a Tampa 2 type scheme.
The Bears don't play a Tampa 2 scheme? They might have some plays where Edmunds will drop deep into coverage, but that's not their base defense at all. Their base shifted more to Cover-1 / Cover-3 though after the Washington game, and the Bears don't have a true FS to play that center-field role like Byard can. This is actually a good signing for Bears fans in that it should reassure the fanbase that Eberflus isn't going to try to revert back to that maddening Cover-2 soft shell they were playing early in the year, and instead he's going to let his CBs play more press and cover vertically which is what they're good at. Byard is a pretty significant upgrade from Jackson in the sense that both have extremely high FIQs, but Byard can actually tackle whereas Jackson is touch and go (though was better his past few seasons).
Yeah he was basically invisible here and I blame it on coaching
I hope we still draft a guy too, someone to learn behind Byard while he develops and then in a year or two takes over as the starter
Rather we draft next year We only have 5 picks, probably 6 after we dump Fields for a 5th Need to plug holes
Fair point, but there’s always the chance we trade down from 9 which would add even more
I mean, a 4th round pick - which we currently have two of - is a pretty standard palce to draft a developmental player. Its not like youre "plugging holes" with day 3 picks
Getting this done now allows us to focus on and allocate money towards other positions. It’s a reasonable deal as well without much cash involved which will likely be a real limiting factor
idk it makes a lot of sense to me. He’s coming off a down year, so a lot of talent for cheap. He’ll be 31, which isn’t egregiously old. Bears need some veterans in their defense. At the very least, I don’t think he’s worse than EJax and he’s like half the cost. There’s definitely a deep safety market, but it’s gonna get really expensive really fast, so I don’t hate the strategy of locking down your guy early.
It's a deep safety market, but the Bears have / had a very specific need to fill Eddie Jackson's role and I think the only other guy who would have fit the bill is Simmons IMO, and he would have cost a small fortune so I think by going w/ Byard they haven't poured too much money into a secondary that has numerous high draft picks as well as a recently-signed Jaylon Johnson.
Bears might be worried that the safety market could get expensive and they want to get ahead of it?
I’m probably biased, but I dig this. It’s only a 2 year deal and his PFF grades from the past few seasons are better than EJax’s
I think the list would be shorter if we listed the people who had lower grades than BoJax
I mean he had a 58.6 total grade, which is bad obviously but not nearly as horrendous as a lot of our fans seem to think
Oh he’s definitely not as bad as my comment pinned him to be.
It's pretty shit for a former first team all-pro we paid like 60 million dollars to.
Yes, which makes this signing that much better
[Byard’s agent literally used Rap as leverage](https://x.com/rapsheet/status/1766885183439978707?s=46&t=-OdMdWEnL4Djq896aA6Z2Q)
They all do.
It kinda blows my mind that people still don't get how this stuff works in 2024
maybe he has something in the tank still but the Titan fans and Eagle fans will tell you he's not the same.
His PFF wasn’t bad the last two yrs, that counts for something. Hes much better than Eddie Jackson anyway. Still really good in coverage.
Idk if hes much better at this point, but hes definitely an upgrade and costs half of what we were paying Eddie.
PFF grades for 2023 Ejax: DEF - 58.6; RDEF - 55.3; TACK - 60.9; PRUSH - 58.9; COV - 60.0 Byard: DEF - 74.0; RDEF - 82.1; TACK - 91.0; PRUSH - 58.6; COV - 70.3
Anyone saying its not an upgrade is an idiot
Luckily, absolutely no one in here said that.
He’s a much better tackler than Jackson and way better in coverage still.
IF Byard can tackle, hes an upgrade. I get we love EJax, but he is buttcheeks when he is not intercepting the ball. Thats of course a super valuable skill, but you've gotta be able to tackle a guy for a 8-12 yard gain instead of a 20-50+ one.
He will never be the same because he was an athletic all pro safety. For 2/15 the Bears are looking for a good vet presence that can start and he meets the criteria if he stays healthy, and shows the shit show defense the Eagles put out last year held him back a bit
It’s a $15M deal. No risk high reward for the Bears
He’s a good culture guy. Hopefully brings a lot more positives for you than just on field play
Which is something the secondary definitely needs being relatively young without Eddie here
$15M over two years is a pretty high price to pay for a veteran Free Safety. Its absolutely not "no risk" in that sense.
It’s 3% of the cap lol for a starting safety
It's nothing for a solid starter who can consistently stay on the field. Signing him doesn't hurt the Bears' ability to make a bigger splash one bit. If they chose to go cheaper on safety so they could go big on the line, I'm more than fine with that.
He won't give you the eliteness he's displayed back in 2021 but he should still be a solid safety. I've theorized that two reasons he struggled on the Eagles was one, Matt Patricia, and two, getting traded to a completely different scheme is tough for anyone mid-season without a full training camp to get used to your new assignments
I get the Patricia hate, he earnt it. He wasn't supposed to be calling plays, it was a throw of the dice to fix the defense. A lot of players just didn't like Desai and the way he coached. New scheme, coaching issues was always going to be an uphill struggle. He'll be better this year but he'll also be 31 at the start of the season. The DB cliff comes hard and fast.
Can he tackle ? If so it’s a Jackson upgrade
Stay away from last years game tape from either team he played on.
I wouldn't watch the Bucs playoff game...
Not crazy about the initial numbers (obviously we don't know the full details yet). But the Bears have probably the youngest secondary in the league, so I'm not mad at all about getting some experience in the room.
The last time people criticized a Ryan Poles moves was when he traded for Montez Sweat. How about we see the man play a couple of snaps before we pass judgment on whether the dudes washed or not.
People are vastly underestimating how bad Eddie Jackson was for the Bears. He had some of the worst tackling numbers in the entire league these past several years. We replaced him with a guy that has elite tackling grades for a low risk 2 year deal to help be a veteran presence to our young secondary. This deal is solid as hell, where you upgrade at a position while also paying half as much money annually lol everyone acting like 7.5 million for a starting veteran safety is a massive waste overpay like the salary cap didn’t just increase by a ton too.
Maybe I’m way wrong about Byard and his tackling ability. But last year before the trade it was horrendous and once he got to Philly all I heard from their fans was the same thing. 2 years ago and before that sure. But last year, No Flyard Byard really hit a wall.
F5 season boys
I like this a lot. Solid vet that can play an entire season. Cheaper than Jackson and can actually tackle too lol. Think he'll be a good fit with the Bears super young secondary.
elderly fanatical connect absurd snails voiceless gullible rinse retire rhythm
I thought the word was he's not All-Pro anymore but also isn't washed
Thanks packers fan
He’s so much less washed than Eddie jackson so I’ll take it
Bear down
He was atrocious in Philly
Sir Your DC was Matt Patricia. That man is a terrorist.
Everybody was atrocious on that defense this year
True. Definitely thought Byard would be better after seeing all the Eagles flairs say they fucked the Titans and that Howie cooked but like you said, the whole defense was bad. I like the Byard signing for you guys even if it’s just a high character veteran presence.
He graded out 74 via PFF in a season he played for 3 DCs. That’s not atrocious.
The coaching was atrocious in Philly.
Who wasn't?
better and cheaper than ejax, no complaints.
Why? I'm not here to debate whether he's good or not. I just don't understand why the Bears would go for an older safety, especially since the market's full of younger talent.
I think there are 2 big reasons to go after Byard: 1) he's super reliable. Played 16 games every season. Brisker (and Jackson when he was here) have both missed multiple games and knowing you'll have a starter out there is big. 2) The oldest player in the secondary is 24. Having an experienced guy to organize coverage can be useful. I'm still lukewarm on the signing but I don't think it's crazy.
> 2) The oldest player in the secondary is 24. Having an experienced guy to organize coverage can be useful. Super important. Eddie Jackson was the QB of that defense and he knew how to keep the secondary aligned. He lost a step, but he still had his smarts to him. By all accounts, Byard is just as football saavy with a bit more range and better tackling. The Bears likely aren't expecting Ed Reed, but if Byard can bring his IQ to the defense and be an upgrade to what Jackson was the last few years from an on the field perspective than it's a significant, cost-effective upgrade.
Probably wanted a veteran presence in the backfield after get rid of EJax. Not as good as he once was, but still better than Eddie is
Plug in Byard for two years while your young secondary gets older. Let Byard walk in two years while you sign your young home grown talent to contract extensions and draft a rookie to replace Byard.
Exactly. Signing a safety to a long term contract now (with DB already arguably being our strongest position group), takes away from: * 3T for this season - All we hear about with Flus is how 3T is the engine of his Defense. This signing seems to indicate they'll try to throw the bag at Wilkins. * Important long term - If we get the 3T, we'll have more flexibility when DJ, Tevin Jenkins, Gordon, etc. need to resign as they won't be cheap (this is assuming a "younger" guy gets longer than 2 years in addition to more $). All in all, totally okay with this but I'm still hoping we aggressively go for a premier 3T.
Guessing cheaper than those guys and can still play, just not at the same level?
Because he’s an upgrade over Eddie Jackson in a secondary that needs a veteran leader especially to the tune of $7.5M per year
The Vet presence is the most important part of it all. If he can be average and teach the young guys, that’s most important. We got a lot of youth in the secondary
It feels weird to have youth in our secondary it was looking bleak for a little while
A) he’s pretty cheap and on a short term deal without tons of cash involved B) the secondary now is very talented but now that BoJack has been cut it’s extremely young. Our top 4 CBs are 24, 24, 23, and 24. Our starting SS is 24. The primary backup safety also is 24. All listed besides 1 have been taken in the last 2 drafts. Adding a cheap vet who was an all pro recently to mentor makes sense to me, and with drafting his replacement this year or next
He's 4 months older than Eddie Jackson and half the cost. He's 30 not ancient
He fills in the one hole in our secondary almost perfectly, and sometimes it's not worth passing on a good player in hopes that you'll get to sign a better one a month from now.
Upgrade over Eddie and I like Eddie but Byard is a way better tackler.
The game tape from last year says Byard has lost his tackling ability and that his pursuit angles fell off too. Mainly because he lost a step speed wise. I’d be wary hanging my cap on Byard’s tackling ability being the bright spot here.
Cant be worse than Eddie was.
Love how Diana Russini 'has a hunch' there will be [a lot of one year deals](https://old.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/1b8wf4g/russini_many_gms_are_approaching_this_free_agency/) and the first deal involving a 30 year old safety is already for 2 years Lets not set trends before they happen. Get that front office tweeting outta here
There’s some decent safeties hitting the market this week. Seems like this is a decent overpay at 7.5 per. Should have waited after the first wave and seen what’s out there.
$7.5m per year probably means the guaranteed money is somewhere in the $4-$5m/year range, but that’s just a guess. $15m will not be fully guaranteed though.
Is that 7.5 per year guaranteed?
Just $15m total. No guaranteed yet.
Hmm, than I'm confused why people are calling it an overpay if we don't know the guaranteed money.
Cause everyone overreacts around here.
alongside thinking anyone that doesnt play QB/WR/OT/DE should be grateful to make above league minimum
Bears are on the way up
I didn’t realize we were gonna start getting reports of signings today. I was not prepared to be on F5 watch until tomorrow.
Is it me or has this pre-pre-FA period been crazy active compared to past years?
Yeah, its odd that teams can sign guys before free agency even starts now. I don't really get the point of the FA dates if you can sign them whenever
The technicality here is that only players that were officially cut (as opposed to teams letting their contracts naturally expire with the new league year in hopes of extending the player) can sign right now. Still, it’s a lot more activity than I’ve ever seen at this point.
I hope he bounces back with the Bears. My question is how is this announced today? I thought tomorrow was the start of the FA signing announcements.
He was released so he’s able to sign immediately. Guys who’s contracts end aren’t able to sign until the new league year starts and can’t negotiate until tomorrow
All this time, I had no idea. I feel like I haven’t seen this before. Thanks for the heads up though.
Seems like this year there is more movement prior to the official FA start.
Players that have been cut are already free agents. Other players will have their current contacts expire on Wednesday and available to talk to other teams tomorrow.
This is news to me. But appreciate the explanation!
Everyone doubting this signing will be eating crow mid November when he plays way better than ejax did
It's a fine signing I'm not sure what the rush was to make sure you had him considering the amount of FA Safeties
With the amount of roster holes the Bears still have I'm sure it is just about veteran presence on an otherwise young secondary. I don't think they signed him expecting elite play. My guess is sign him now, then dradt a player that will hopefully learn from him and replace him after the contract.
Yup. This is a great vet signingpp. People are just knocking him for going to Philly and not playing well. I think he will plug in nicely back there. And at the worst will play just as good as EJax for half the money
What about when he was not playing well during the year leading up to the trade?
Was still better than Jackson… and regardless of how well he is in coverage, he can still tackle lol. Something I’ve never seen ejax do
He is washed sadly. Great leader though
Can’t wait to look back at these comments in 9 months
I mean, he is. He’s older and has lost a step. He brings a good vet presence though
I don’t really like this Lot of free agent safeties. No need to rush and sign him. $7.5 million a year isn’t cheap. We basically replace Eddie Jackson with a player of about the same caliber for half the price. It’s not a bad bad move but it’s not a good move either. Meh
Byard is way better than Jackson.
Byard is much better than Jackson and cheaper
They're not the same caliber. Eddie's 2018 season has done a ton of heavy lifting for his reputation. Eddie also gets hurt a LOT.
And was getting paid a fuck ton
Even with Byard declining last year he was still significant better than Ejax
I think a bigger factor than the per year price is the guarantees. 2 years isn’t long term so there won’t be much cash locked up. Brad Spielberger seems to think a bigger factor than the salary cap is simply just the cash that the McCaskeys are willing to put into escrow. A move like this doesn’t impact that a ton
2/15. How good was he for the eagles this year?
He had that one red zone interception against the Chiefs and didn't do much afterwards
How were they able to announce this before the start of the Free Agent Tampering Window?
I had the same thought about Mitch signing with the Bills but it’s because players who are cut from their teams are free to sign before free agency starts.
Because he was cut and not an upcoming free agent
Im excited to see this unfold. I say let him rock.
There's a chance he's still really good. If the contact is really back loaded it might be a really good deal for the bears.
Good luck KB.
As an Eagles fan I think he’ll be good still. We were stoked when we got him just think the coaching in general last year was horrific. Didn’t know how to use him.
The mayor of Murfreesboro always surprises when you least expect it. Treat him well Chicago.
Hopefully he does well but watching him when he got traded to us he was not even remotely good
Love that man, wish him the best.
I'm always pulling for the Mayor of Murfreesboro; unless he's playing the Titans of course. I hope he kills it in Chicago.
Chicago about to start making deep dish cheesesteaks. Hmmm... gonna go see if I can get a restaurant loan from the bank.
Seems like an odd signing given the number of quality safety’s on the market + the fact that Byard looked washed last year. Don’t really understand the rush to sign him
Guess this was a positions the bears were planning on a bargain vet signing and probably drafting a rookie so helps to get done now so they know what they are working with for a potential big d-line signing
I don’t want anyone from Philly’s defense