Bears release LB Pernell McPhee, DB Quintin Demps
Cap savings / dead money ### Pre-June1st // Post-June 1st
Pernell McPhee $7.07M / $1M $7.57M / 500K
Quintin Demps $3,260,416 / $666,667 // $3,593,750 / $333,333

from SI.com's Albert Breer
The offseason’s underrated hire. We don’t talk much about position coaches here. But I’m going to give you one that I believe has a chance to be a big-time difference-maker for his first-time head coach: new Bears line coach Harry Hiestand. Matt Nagy did incredibly well to poach Hiestand, who’d been a target for a number of guys interviewing for jobs in January, from Notre Dame. And his star guard of last year, Quenton Nelson, reminded me of that last week at the combine.

I asked Nelson how, as an elite offensive line talent, he wound up playing guard and not tackle. Nelson answered, “Left tackle, we had Ronnie Stanley. Right tackle, we had Mike McGlinchey. Center, Nick Martin. Right guard, Steve Elmer, who was a very good player. And there was a hole in the left guard spot that I competed for and I ended up playing there.” Think about that. Stanley was the sixth pick in the 2016 draft, and is now Baltimore’s left tackle. Martin was the 50th pick that year, and is the Texans’ center. McGlinchey is likely to join Nelson in the first round of this year’s draft. And Elmer actually decided to forgo his final year of eligibility at Notre Dame, after starting for two years, to pursue a career in politics. Of the five, only Nelson was a Top 100 recruit coming out of high school.

That’s a staggering record of development, and doesn’t account for Zack Martin (Nick’s older brother), who left Notre Dame the year that Nelson arrived, and has grown into the NFL’s best guard. We’ve seen the importance of line coaches the last few years, of course. Jeff Stoutland’s work last year in Philly—remember the Eagles lost Jason Peters for the year—helped the Eagles win it all and earned the ex-Alabama assistant a promotion to run-game coordinator. The difference Dante Scarnecchia makes in New England is well-documented, and Tony Sparano was huge in helping the Vikings meld new piece to fix their front last fall. Likewise, it looks like the Bears got a good one.

In fact, I hit up Nagy on this on Wednesday. He and Hiestand didn’t know each other before Nagy assembled his staff, and as first impressions have gone, the new Chicago boss put it like this: “He impresses me more and more every day.”

Fucking Roquan Smith and his agents.......



that is all.

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Seems like the predicitons for the bears are all over the board.......SI picked them to finish last in the division. (of course SI predictions are pretty much a joke year in and year out. I think it was 2 times in a row where their 32 ranked team went to the superbowl, so they can be pretty much ignored) Havent seen anyone else pick them last, but quite a few 8-8s....and quite a few 10-12 wins.

The only way i see them dropping down to 8 wins is a huge rash of big injuries. Best Defense in the NFL lost Adrian Amos, replaced with HaHa, and their nickel CB, replaced by the Jets nickel CB. Slight upgrade on HaHa, and slight downgrade on the nickel. I would say the biggest loss will probably be Fangio. Replaced with Pagano, so a quality replacement, he is keeping the same scheme, but no substitute for the best. That could be offset by the fact that Mack and Roquan Smith will actually have a full training camp.

Last year it was a new offense, and pretty much the 1st time all the skill position players worked together. "They" say the biggest improvement for QBs is between the 1st and 2nd year in an offense. Trubisky was middle of the pack QB last year, showing some flashes of excellence. If he can move up to a top 12-15 QB....that should be more than enough for another playoff berth.

Problem is the division. Pack got much better with a healthy Rodgers and spent a lot of $$ on D. Vikes will be good again, but cant trust Cousins to win a big game if his life depended on it. Plus the 1st place schedule....their 2 games as a result of that are the Saints and Rams.....

I think they will be better than last year, but probably have a worse record. As long as they just have an average amount of injuries....

I'll go with 11-5