It's going to be a looong season, Bears fans:
If there were any lingering doubts that the Bears are in the midst of a massive roster rebuild, those should now be entirely disintegrated. A day after falling to 0-3 with a lopsided loss in Seattle, the organization returned its focus to a distant future, making a pair of trades to secure 2016 draft picks.
Jared Allen, a Bears starter for 17 games since the start of 2014, is headed for Carolina. Jon Bostic, once a promising second-round pick and now an injured and inconsistent reserve linebacker, will be off to New England.
Both players must pass physicals, but when they do, the Bears will receive two sixth-round picks in return, sources confirmed.
Just like that, a pair of players once considered possible impact playmakers has been discarded, with the Bears receiving a minuscule return on their initial investments yet feeling satisfied they were able to get something back at all.
The decision to move Allen registers as significant but hardly stunning. At its roots, it became an amicable separation between a 33-year-old pass rusher in the home stretch of his career and an organization in the early stages of rebuilding.
In the simplest terms, Allen wasn't going to be around past this season in an uncomfortable new role at outside linebacker that's arguably the deepest position on the roster.
The Bears jumped at a chance to remedy all of that.
Winless through September, the team's realistic potential for this season has become more evident by the week. And Allen, who recorded seven tackles and an interception with no sacks in the first three games, had not evolved into a difference maker at outside linebacker, no matter how much dedication he offered.
So rather than waste valuable time and energy grooming Allen, general manager Ryan Pace chose to better equip the team for the future.
"Not very many times do you actually have the opportunity to get a draft pick with a guy this far along in a career," coach John Fox said Monday on WBBM-AM 780.
In that context, the early-season trade made sense for all parties. In addition to the late-round pick, the Bears will get more freedom to evaluate other players at outside linebacker — Willie Young and Lamarr Houston in particular.
Allen, meanwhile, gets a shot to join a contender with the unbeaten Panthers, whose 4-3 defense will allow him to get back to his roots as a hand-on-the-ground defensive end. And the Panthers get a replacement for starting end Charles Johnson, who suffered a hamstring injury Sunday, sending GM Dave Gettleman shopping.
With Allen gone, fellow linebacker Pernell McPhee said the Bears lose a locker-room leader and a player who always shared his football wisdom.
"He knew the game," McPhee said. "He studied. He prepared himself well. He took care of his body."
Bostic, meanwhile, had yet to be active for any of the first three games, sidelined by a nagging ankle problem. The third-year pro, selected by former GM Phil Emery with the No. 50 pick in 2013, also had missed significant time through the offseason with what he said were issues with his back, hip and shin.
Bostic's exit makes him the seventh of Emery's 20 draft picks who is no longer with the Bears. Now a new regime, led by Pace, must show it can be far better with its draft judgment.
In retrospect, the signing of Allen in March 2014 registers as misguided, another of Emery's high-profile misses. At the time, Allen's arrival on a four-year, $32 million deal, with $15.5 million guaranteed, generated a buzz. The Bears, coming off a record-setting offensive season in 2013, felt they were one defensive playmaker from legitimizing their status as NFC contenders.
But those grand visions ultimately turned into false hope. Allen battled pneumonia in September and recorded a career-low 51/2 sacks in his only full season in Chicago. He also saw the team as a whole come unglued during a dysfunctional 5-11 campaign.
With a major housecleaning ensuing, Allen became an inherited piece to Pace and Fox. Essentially, he was a win-now pawn for a team in no position to do so.
But because Allen's contract included $12.5 million of guaranteed money for 2015, the Bears were never in a financial position to cut him. An $11.5 million roster bonus due in March also made it next to impossible to trade Allen in the spring.
Once the Bears were on the hook for that part of the contract, their wholehearted efforts to bring the best out of Allen at a new position in a new scheme began.
Allen's lack of comfort showed in the season's first month. With that, the Bears' ability to find a willing trade partner should be seen as a plus, even with the compensation seeming minimal.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...ared-allen-trade-panthers-20150928-story.html
If there were any lingering doubts that the Bears are in the midst of a massive roster rebuild, those should now be entirely disintegrated. A day after falling to 0-3 with a lopsided loss in Seattle, the organization returned its focus to a distant future, making a pair of trades to secure 2016 draft picks.
Jared Allen, a Bears starter for 17 games since the start of 2014, is headed for Carolina. Jon Bostic, once a promising second-round pick and now an injured and inconsistent reserve linebacker, will be off to New England.
Both players must pass physicals, but when they do, the Bears will receive two sixth-round picks in return, sources confirmed.
Just like that, a pair of players once considered possible impact playmakers has been discarded, with the Bears receiving a minuscule return on their initial investments yet feeling satisfied they were able to get something back at all.
The decision to move Allen registers as significant but hardly stunning. At its roots, it became an amicable separation between a 33-year-old pass rusher in the home stretch of his career and an organization in the early stages of rebuilding.
In the simplest terms, Allen wasn't going to be around past this season in an uncomfortable new role at outside linebacker that's arguably the deepest position on the roster.
The Bears jumped at a chance to remedy all of that.
Winless through September, the team's realistic potential for this season has become more evident by the week. And Allen, who recorded seven tackles and an interception with no sacks in the first three games, had not evolved into a difference maker at outside linebacker, no matter how much dedication he offered.
So rather than waste valuable time and energy grooming Allen, general manager Ryan Pace chose to better equip the team for the future.
"Not very many times do you actually have the opportunity to get a draft pick with a guy this far along in a career," coach John Fox said Monday on WBBM-AM 780.
In that context, the early-season trade made sense for all parties. In addition to the late-round pick, the Bears will get more freedom to evaluate other players at outside linebacker — Willie Young and Lamarr Houston in particular.
Allen, meanwhile, gets a shot to join a contender with the unbeaten Panthers, whose 4-3 defense will allow him to get back to his roots as a hand-on-the-ground defensive end. And the Panthers get a replacement for starting end Charles Johnson, who suffered a hamstring injury Sunday, sending GM Dave Gettleman shopping.
With Allen gone, fellow linebacker Pernell McPhee said the Bears lose a locker-room leader and a player who always shared his football wisdom.
"He knew the game," McPhee said. "He studied. He prepared himself well. He took care of his body."
Bostic, meanwhile, had yet to be active for any of the first three games, sidelined by a nagging ankle problem. The third-year pro, selected by former GM Phil Emery with the No. 50 pick in 2013, also had missed significant time through the offseason with what he said were issues with his back, hip and shin.
Bostic's exit makes him the seventh of Emery's 20 draft picks who is no longer with the Bears. Now a new regime, led by Pace, must show it can be far better with its draft judgment.
In retrospect, the signing of Allen in March 2014 registers as misguided, another of Emery's high-profile misses. At the time, Allen's arrival on a four-year, $32 million deal, with $15.5 million guaranteed, generated a buzz. The Bears, coming off a record-setting offensive season in 2013, felt they were one defensive playmaker from legitimizing their status as NFC contenders.
But those grand visions ultimately turned into false hope. Allen battled pneumonia in September and recorded a career-low 51/2 sacks in his only full season in Chicago. He also saw the team as a whole come unglued during a dysfunctional 5-11 campaign.
With a major housecleaning ensuing, Allen became an inherited piece to Pace and Fox. Essentially, he was a win-now pawn for a team in no position to do so.
But because Allen's contract included $12.5 million of guaranteed money for 2015, the Bears were never in a financial position to cut him. An $11.5 million roster bonus due in March also made it next to impossible to trade Allen in the spring.
Once the Bears were on the hook for that part of the contract, their wholehearted efforts to bring the best out of Allen at a new position in a new scheme began.
Allen's lack of comfort showed in the season's first month. With that, the Bears' ability to find a willing trade partner should be seen as a plus, even with the compensation seeming minimal.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...ared-allen-trade-panthers-20150928-story.html
