The Bears are taking their status as one of Russell Wilson‘s acceptable destinations seriously. They plan to prioritize making a run at the Seahawks quarterback, Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune notes.
Wilson’s agent listed the Bears, Cowboys, Raiders and Saints as the teams for whom he would agree to waive his no-trade clause. The Seahawks passer has made it clear he is not happy with the present state of affairs in Seattle. For the first time, envisioning the nine-year veteran quarterbacking another team does not seem foolish.
As of now, the Seahawks do not want to trade Wilson, Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times notes. It would tag Seattle with a record $39MM in dead money to make such a trade, assuming a deal commenced before June 1. Wilson has not officially requested a trade, but the way this developing saga has played out, that news would not be especially surprising. Of course, it would take a monster offer to pry Wilson from the team that drafted him.
Chicago still has Nick Foles under contract, and the journeyman QB may still loom as a fallback option for a Bears team that has featured a need at quarterback for much of the past 30 years. The Bears were involved in the Carson Wentz and Matthew Stafford sweepstakes, being tied more closely to the former. But no offer emerged, and Wentz is now a Colt. Chicago has not been closely connected to Deshaun Watson, though it would seem the team would love to be involved in those sweepstakes.
Wilson would carry far more trade value than either Stafford or Wentz, and with the Bears not having a viable QB1 to include in a trade and holding the No. 20 overall pick, presenting an offer the Seahawks would entertain will be difficult. Other options for the Bears include signing a stopgap-type QB to fill free agent Mitchell Trubisky‘s spot or drafting one in the first round, Biggs adds. Though, it is possible the team would need to trade up to land one of the top five QBs in this year’s draft pool.
Shoot send foles and some picks and get this over with already.
You act like Foles has ANY value….
Or the picks. What for? So they can draft the next Malik McDowell, Rashad Penny, or LJ Collier? The Seahawks are not taking a $40 million dead cap hit for RW to play somewhere else. It is not happening. He will just be miserable on one of the best rosters in the NFL in Seattle next year.
Best rosters?
Top to bottom Seattle is average at best, Russ makes them good. Good WRs but Horrible o-line, backup RBs, aging defense and 24 TEs. Your 3rd in your own division, SF and Rams have better rosters
That’s why Hawks were third in the division last year? Because those two better rosters produced two better records. Sorry friend. Your subjective roster breakdown does not account for the objective reality that Seattle won the division.
And immediately lost in the playoffs because of all the mentioned problems, homers will cry when Wilson gets traded haha I doubt the bears get him but no aging quarterback wants to play behind a bottom 3 oline
The ironic thing is that Wilson would be trading the Seahawks’ awful offensive line with two good receivers and shaky playcalling for the Bears’ awful offensive line with one good receiver and shaky playcalling. At least he’ll get to play with Germain Ifedi and Jimmy Graham again.
In a perfectly run franchise, this trade never happens-on Seattle’s end. $39 million is just crippling in dead money charges. If Wilson does not agree to restructure for a trade, and Seattle does end up trading him anyway and incurring that cap charge, it would end up proving that Carroll is accountable to no one because the only way it happens is if Carroll gets tired of Wilson and wants him out no matter the cost. Wilson may be right, but that cap charge makes the chances of this trade nearly zero.
Russ says he likes the bears oline though…. I’d say Mooney is a decent WR. Not sure if they resign Ifedi…
The Bears traded four picks to move up in the draft so they could choose Mitch Trubisky. With those four picks they could have easily drafted QB Patrick Mahomes, MVP; RB Alvin Kamara, ProBowler (PB); TE George Kittle, PB; and LB Fred Warner, PB.
Was that a good decision?
Hindsight always 20/20
Hindsight is 20/20.
Foresight wins championships.
I prefer the latter.
Bears fans ALWAYS say this crap. It’s about time people start holding team front offices accountable in this town. Otherwise, this shoddy decision making goes on for three more decades. The Bears SHOULD have drafted Mahomes (best arm in draft), or Watson (most athletic). Every expert said as much, but as usual the Bears went with the most mediocre option possible. Speaks volumes about that organization and their football knowledge.
@ChiSoxCity: Agreed, PLUS Pace let the 49ers deek him by making him trade for the 2nd overall pick. The problem the Bears had specifically now is what do you do? Blow everything up and start over again with another new GM and coach? The problem with ownership is they think they are the smartest people in the room (They are not) and they always try to ‘think outside of the box’ with their decisions, and worse yet, hire others that believe that too..
Foles has value just not to much
As a Bears fan I know this will not happen. Especially with that massive cap hit Seattle would take.
Matt Nagy name dropped Alex Smith in a press conference 2 days ago. Theyll sign him and draft a mid round bum. It’s the Chicago way. #FireRyanPace
I would normally agree with you also being a Bears fan, but at this point especially with their jobs on the line (Pace and Nagy), if Smith is the best they come up with they may as well leave now, because it’s over. They have to go all-in here and get a QB. If Alex Smith or Nick Foles is the starting QB I’m going to puke. It’s the Bears, it’ll probably be Smith….FML
drat16,,,I agree with you. Pace and Nagy should have been fired and if not….not allowed to trade future draft picks to cripple the future of this team for the next manager and coach. Pace and Nagy already showed us what they have….empty pockets and lost. Pick up Alex Smith and draft a future QB if you can. Pace does not have a good record for picking round 1 picks. But it should cost too much to trade up to number 10 or 12 pick to draft one of the top 5. Of course, a new QB won’t save the job of Pace and Nagy but it would be for the good of the team. Otherwise…draft a top WR and see if Smith or Foles can have a good enough season to save their jobs. Pace wasted the cap on high priced players. He is now paying the price for that.
This is 100% the Bears way: get an old veteran or retread. Ironically, it’s also the WFT’s way, too. Occasionally, they’ll draft a QB with a high pick (Trubisky, RGIII, Cade McNown, Heath Schuler), they will fail (for whatever reason), then they jump right back in with the retreads. It’s crazy that in such a pass-happy league, neither of these teams ever seem to have a dynamic QB.
rct…if they had a dynamite QB, they would know what to do with him. Either there aren’t enough good targets (WR, RB and TE) or the line doesn’t protect the guy…or they get a coach that can’t call plays.
Understand your sentiment here with one exception. Bears did trade two 1st round picks for a highly talented quarterback just entering his prime with Cutler not all that long ago. Cutler was the real deal, but the Bears unfortunately never put a respectable offensive line around the guy. I think he would have continued to be a pro bowler with any semblance of an offensive line.
WFT… what have they done beside trade for a 37 year old rapidly fading McNabb? He had a good career, but by that point he was throwing worm burners. Teams don’t trade franchise quarterbacks to division opponents for second rounders unless they’re completely cooked.
McNabb – 33 at the time, not 37, by which age he was already retired – was just coming off of a Pro Bowl season in which he had thrown 22 TD’s (5.0%) to 10 INT’s and 8.0 yards per pass attempt, posted the third highest passer rating of his career (92.9) and had a 10-4 record as a starter.
The fact that Sid Luckman, who retired in 1950 and died aged 81 in 1998, is still CLEARLY the best quarterback in the history of the Chicago Bears, is really quite astounding. Washington has had a Hall of Fame QB and several other very good to excellent ones since Sammy Baugh, the Colts had Jones and Manning after Unitas, but the best the Bears have had since Luckman is probably Jim McMahon. Even the Lions haven’t been so forlorn at the position since they traded Bobby Layne away.
Are we sure that Luckman didn’t pull a Bobby Layne on the Bears and curse them on his way out the door, not that they’d never win a championship after him, but that they’d never have a better QB than him?
So true. Bears can screw up a 1 car funeral
While I don’t think they’ll get him. This is literally the only way Pace and Nagy save their jobs.
There is no guaranted that they save their jobs. Bears will not be able to complement with good targets…like in WR. They don’t have the cap space to even hold on to their top WR. They need some magic and that is hard to come by for any team.
If Seattle waits until after June 1, what is the cap hit?
Good question.. But I don’t think the Bears can wait that long.
Sure they can.
Nope. They won’t wait til after the draft.
26 million I believe, think it has to do with 13 million in signing bonus.
Now why would Seattle want to wait till they have to pay big bucks. Surely not to help the bears.
No it’s the other way around. After June 1 it’s cheaper for the Seahawks
Its still 39 million..13 million in 2021 and 26 in 2022. But not a good option since the hawks would get no draft picks for 2021.
Keep in mind that they could trade Wilson to the Bears now, but designate the transaction as a post-June 1st move. It helps their accounting for this year, but doesn’t effect the player or the transaction itself at all.
It’s kind of like what the Bears did with Trey Burton. They cut him on April 17, 2020 but designated him a post-June 1st cut, and that didn’t stop the Colts from signing him on April 22, 2020. The Bears wouldn’t have to wait for Wilson, if they can scrape up the draft and/or player capital to trade for him.
Yes they could do the handshake deal but does not help hawks at all with salary cap issues this year since cant use the savings and of course draft would be over so no picks. Not seeing it worth it. ..now next year much better situation.
They’d have to find another partner in that trade. One with a QB. But why in the world would Seattle want to start over again at QB when they have a great one already?? Unless they’re in love with some players the Bears have that they could include with the large number of picks they’d have to give up, I just don’t see this happening. Oh, and if Pace the Ace had drafted Watson or Mahomes in 17′, this never comes up.
Wilson is making a lot demands while taking up 1/3 of the cap space. Teams just don’t win the Super Bowl with one player (even a great Qb), taking up that much of the cap. However, if I’m the Bears I give up almost anything to get him. He instantly became the best Qb in franchise history and gives the current regime at least a chance to keep their job.
Anybody got a crystal ball to verify that he will become the best QB in history? If not, then stop dreaming. I don’t want Pace and Nagy to keep their jobs. They have already shown what they have….and it aint much.
Jay Cutler is currently the best QB in bears history, so Russ really wouldn’t have to work hard to be better than him.
Sid Luckman is still the best QB in Bears history, not Cutler. Hall of Fame, 5x first-team All-Pro, 3x Pro Bowl, 4x NFL Champion, 1x MVP, Hall of Fame All-40’s Team. Jay Cutler’s got one Pro Bowl appearance.
Now, if Russell Wilson did become the Bears’ new QB, stuck around for a while and continued playing at his current Pro Bowl+ level, yes, I do believe he would be the best Bears QB ever.
Seriously. You’d argue that he wouldn’t immediately be the best QB they’ve ever had? He’s 32, so if you resign him you’d have the best Qb they’ve ever had for a few years. I’ll take that crystal ball.
Wilson is taking up 17.6% of the cap, not one third.
Tom Brady earns less than Jacoby Brisset. That’s how you build a SB roster.
Unless Brissett is earning $25 million, I’m gonna need an explanation on that.
Right, because too be honest I never knew he gotten a raise like that. Damn lol.
Things would be a lot easier if they just took Mahomes or Watson.
Thanks Captain Hindsight. Not sure what we’d do without you.
No problem!
Except they would suck because Nagy/Pace. The Bears would have Watson converted to a tight end and MaHomes would be a safety
cubsnomore. I agree with you. They will just destroy what is in front of them.
How is the Bears o-line any better? They’re just coming out from under all the picks they gave up for Trubisky and Mack. They are not a Wilson away from being Super Bowl contenders.
I was thinking the same thing. Chicago’s Oliver is not any better.
Offensive Line*
Sorry
I admit that I am not a Bears fan and don’t pay that much attention to them, but from looking at the individual PFF grades of their starting O linemen, it looks like they’re only one new starter away from having a decent OL. Find another good interior O lineman to go with Leno, Whitehair, Daniels and Massie, and it seems to me that they should be good to go.
Unless Wilson adds to his list he isn’t going anywhere. Miami could offer Tua, Howard and both of 2021 1st rd picks – super longshot…Carolina ( I would have thought they would be on his list instead of chicago since he played ball there)
Tua… Lol
someone has to qb.
Anybody know why the Bears were on his list? The other teams I get. He might know something about Nagy that Bears fans missed but only thing I could think of was that it was just random he needed a fourth team.
mdog…yes…i know why the bears were on his list. Because for one, he would be an instant starter and would get no flack from Nagy and Pace. Second, he knows that Pace would give up anything and everything to get him if he could.
NOT THIS
QB starved franchise. He would instantly become their greatest Quarterback of all time. I’m guessing it’s a legacy thing.
^^ this
NOT THIS EITHER
He would instantly be the big dog in a much bigger market. The endorsement money and perks would be larger.
NOR IS IT THIS!
Great. Input from a know-it-all Yankee homer.
Because many analysts believe the Bears were a good QB away from being a serious contender last year, and might be again this year. They’re only one year removed from having a top five defense, have David Montgomery on a rookie deal for two more years, and are one more good starter away from having a good enough offensive line. And if by some miracle they can retain Allen Robinson, Wilson probably agrees that he puts them into contention.
No Way will R. Wilson come to the Bears, why would he leave 2 Top level WR to come to Chicago’s garbage. The Bears need to resign A. Robinson if they think they have a chance at anyone.
Lol. Bears still suck true
Could you imagine Seattle Trading for Watson and having D.K.
Hawks publicly announced in the middle of the season that they wanted to be a run first team. Russ had a bad stretch of turnovers, but had been a legit MVP candidate and they took the ball away from him instead of letting him get it back.
The Bears DO NOT have enough assets to trade for Russell Wilson. If they did complete a trade …. there would be nothing left for Wilson to play with.
Keep dreaming Chicago. You’ve got nothing Seattle would want in a trade. You’re just good enough to have a bunch of mid-round picks and your roster hasn’t got anybody on it better than what Seattle already has.
MileHighFan. I agree with you. Bears have nothing. All of us would like to see manager and coach get fired but that did not happen so we will have to bear it (no pun intended) for another year or two before we start all over again. By the way, how do you like our defensive coordinator running your team?
The Bears do have several players that are better than their counterparts in Seattle, but I still don’t see any pathway to a deal,
They’ve got their 1st through 3rd rounders this year and in each of the next three drafts. Foles, two 1sts and two 2nds sounds like the start of a deal. Hell, throw in another 2nd or even another 1st for Damien Lewis, and the Bears complete their starting O line and get one of the top five QB’s in the league.
Leaves Seattle with one hell of an OL rebuild, of course, but then they’re used to that.
Any QB that cares about his “legacy” should want to play with DK for the next 5 years. This kid is Megatron 2.0 for real. Wilson needs to stop crying and quit holding the ball so long if he doesn’t want to get sacked so much. His contract makes it impossible to trade him and hard to pay big contracts for offensive linemen. Everybody wants Brady jewelry, but nobody wants to take a Brady contract. He never is in top 5 for QB salary. He leaves some meat on the bone to pay for some protection.
His contract makes it hard for Seattle to trade him, but a lot less hard if they designate it as a post-June 1st transaction. It certainly doesn’t make it all that hard for his new team, what with $19 mil, $24 mil and $27 mil cap hits the next three years, especially if he agrees to restructure the deal for immediate cap relief, while increasing the cap hits in 2022 and 2023.
Wilson is a first class Simp. No thanks.
Easier to trade for Jimmy G or Derek Carr. I think Trubisky is back. Too expensive to trade Wilson for the Hawks.
The Raiders aren’t trading Carr to Chicago. I hope they don’t trade him period, but I’m a bit concerned they’ll do something stupid for Watson. Anyway, a Chicago deal makes no sense for LV because the Bears don’t have a legit QB to offer in return.
LV could decide to roll with Mariota if they trade Carr. He’s still under contract for this year.
Mariotta would be a significant downgrade from Carr. He’s not a starting caliber NFL QB if you have playoff aspirations. Picks don’t help LV because they don’t know how to draft. Nope, I hate this idea as a LV fan.
Acquiring Seattle’s star player would make a lot of sense for the Chicago Bears.
As much sense as it made for the Cincinnati Reds way back when.
Good luck.
Ken was the man until he rounded third in spring training that year
No doubt.
The younger version of Griffey who played in Seattle was great.
And then it was over. Random- just bought a throwback griffey jr jersey lol
All Chicago level pro sports team tease there fans but it stop working in 2016 the gig is up
3 Cups and the once a century Cubs win. Chicago has done fine.
Not even Boston gets to win every year.
Love Russ, but if he thinks Seattle’s management has issues, Chicago ain’t much better. Nagy’s play calling is pretty suspect, and Pace has a poor reputation for his evaluation of talent…
It’s my belief that Pace/Nagy were already told this is the last year. Tank the team so that the incoming gm can be enticed with better draft picks.
All this qb trade talk is to make it look like they tried. Foles and some lame pickup like Alex Smith will be next years QBs. The Bears will finish last in the division.
I sure hope so. If pace is allowed to trade future draft picks then i don’t think they have been told yet. They must be last on this telling list and haven’t been reading the writing on the wall. Maybe they can’t read 🙂
They’re not “tanking”. They were given a now or never ultimatum to win or else. There have been a number of articles in the Trib saying that.
This is a really dumb take. They aren’t #1 pick bad. No tanking
Really doesn’t matter how gopd your QB is if he doesn’t have time to throw the ball, which we saw with Mahomes in the Super Bowl. Bears need to shore up the o-line too, and they need to do both, not one or the other
Why would Wilson want to go to the Bears ? He is complaining about not being protected enough in Seattle so he is going to go to a place where he won’t be protected ? Hmmmm!
Even if Wilson were to join the Bears, have a great season and save Pace and Nagy from being fired, the organization will still need a long term solution at QB. Investing heavily in an aging placeholder just delays the inevitable.
Agreed. Unless you think Wilson can play until 43 like Brady.
If Wilson plays to age 43 he will have taken 966 sacks if his current sack average holds.
5-6 years is probably his timeline. That is a long term QB solution.
Why trade three first round picks for someone who will making $45MM in 2022?
$40 million is his cap hit in 2022 if he stays in Seattle, per OTC. If he is traded, his $13 million prorated signing bonus stays with the Seahawks, and his cap hit for his new team would be only $27 million, which would probably be in the top 10, but not by much.
The Bears, as better explained in the Chicago Tribune article, will have a very difficult time fitting Wilson into the cap. They are surely trying to create space by restructuring some deals but with all the holes Chicago needs to fill this doesn’t seem very likely.
Except they’ll have to include a high end player or two, not just draft picks. A lot of rumors in Chicago about Kahlil Mack. If that happened, they’d be able to make it work.
The one common denominator with the Bears for my entire life has been the name…McCaskey (Ted Phillips gets an honorable mention). Pace and Nagy surely need to go but it won’t make any difference because their successors will be appointed by the same people who have proven time and again that they have no idea what they are doing.
So sure, set the franchise back another decade or two by giving the Seahawks anything they want to pry away a quarterback who probably has, at most, 3-4 years left of elite play. It’s not like it will matter either way.
When your QB takes up 17.6 of your cap space what does he expect. Seattle does not have a great offense line but how many teams do? If I’m Seattle and I’m offered the moon I trade him. Seattle is one of the best run franchises in the NFL. As great as Wilson is he can’t win a SB by himself. Give me an average QB and money to spend elsewhere and I believe Seattle will still be in the mix of things for years to come.
The Bears don’t have the moon to offer though.
Nagy: “We don’t have the moon to offer”.
Pace: “Don’t worry…I’m going to offer Uranus instead”.
Wilson and the Seahawks need to rework his contract, so that they can pay some decent O linemen!
There is no way Chicago has what it takes to trade for Wilson.
That’s a marriage that’s heading for a divorce. Even if they shore up the O-line, Russ wants to throw the ball and Carroll wants to run it. Someone is going to lose in that dynamic, and I can’t see either side happily giving in on that power struggle.
This trade isn’t happening.
It’s off season click bait. The Bears are in on every QB in the league. I’m just waiting for those other stories to emerge.
Once all of the NFL QB stories are used up. The story will be The Bears are in on Caleb Williams… the #1 H.S. QB recruit in the country.
SMH
Bears should their #1’s for the next 4 years. It’s not like Pace knows what he’s doing with them!!