Critics Find Little to Like About Bears' Free Agency
The Bears came up with a Super Bowl MVP quarterback and a pass rusher with much better finishing ability than Leonard Floyd had.
It failed to satisfy the critics.
Even the trade for Khalil Mack is drawing the Bears criticism. A huge percentage of NFL teams would like to be getting that type of criticism.
The overall consensus among the usual Bears critics is general manager Ryan Pace needs to get his resume in order.
Bleacher Report's Brent Sobleski probably wrote the most scathing critique of Bears free agency when he blasted Pace because he, "...relied far too heavily on players with significant question marks, while better or comparable alternatives are/were available."
Sobleski took a popular social media theme and torched Pace for trading to get Nick Foles instead of going after Cam Newton, and for signing Jimmy Graham when Eric Ebron was available and received less money to sign in Pittsburgh.
Newton was cut by Carolina and has yet to be signed by another team.
Sobleski called pass rusher Robert Quinn a decent enough pass rusher but suggested he's too close to being past his prime at age 30 and said the Bears would have been better off signing Shaq Lawson, a Buffalo free agent. Lawson is a pass rusher who was chosen 10 picks after Leonard Floyd and has two less career sacks than Floyd.
Sporting News writer Vinnie Iyer called the Bears one of the losers of free agency and his first criticism was letting substitute linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski leave while signing starter and defensive leader Danny Trevathan.
Iyer also took Pace to task for the Jimmy Graham signing but went a step beyond what Bleacher Report said and called Robert Quinn a "misfit pass rusher" for the Bears scheme. Quinn has played only a season as a standup linebacker on the edge and was normally a 4-3 defensive end.
Finally, he said all the Bears quarterback solution did was "help the Jaguars." Iyer suggested the Bears have sent a message to Trubisky they weren't sold on him by letting it leak when they were interested in just about any mid-level quarterback.
Pro Football Focus, which has found almost nothing to like about the Bears since they won the division title in 2018, actually commended their trade for Foles.
At the same time, they managed to take one more shot at their favorite target, who they've blamed for every Bears disaster short of the double-doink field goal.
PFF said: "...he’s by no means a top-10 quarterback, but Foles still presents a far better option over Mitchell Trubisky."
PFF has expanded its horizons of late to the fringe, by blasting the Bears for trading for Mack even though they had rated him near the top of all pass rushers consistently the last few years. They also wrote the Bears should tank it this year to get Trevor Lawrence in next year's draft.
Finally, NFL.com didn't grade the Bears on free agency but did indicate their displeasure with the Bears' moves by dropping them from 17th to 22nd in their league power rankings.
They didn't lavish Foles with praise, but said, "Put it this way: There's a very good chance Foles ends up starting more games next year than the former first-round pick hypothetically ahead of him on the depth chart."
They gave the bears a "below average" grade level for free agency but first weighed in on the Graham move. They said it, "makes you wonder if GM Ryan Pace will ever figure out the tight end position."
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
