Colin Cowherd Must Have Missed Offseason
Colin Cowherd often has a unique and informed perspective on the NFL and sometimes even on the Bears.
During a ridiculous diatribe on his show Wednesday about how the Bears should trade Roquan Smith, Cowherd stepped out of the brilliant light of the knowledgeable and into the darkness of the uninformed and out-of-town-stupid.
Cowherd bases his argument for a trade on the idea that the Bears are still mired in the 1980s and so they're holding onto Smith because they think football is all about defense and linebackers and not offense. They need to step into the future, he says.
Believe me, there is no one at Halas Hall who actually decides anything about the football team that is basing decisions on how things were done in the 1980s.
Maybe some of their meatball fans have been mired in the 1980s but the Bears haven't been wading around in that mud since at least the start of the Mark Trestman era.
The Bears are in some other mud. They just couldn't get the right coach or right GM or the right quarterback.
Trestman knew about offense but his defense was one of the league's worst. They took a step back under John Fox because he forgot to tell people he had retired when he signed his contract. Matt Nagy wasn't about defense and linebackers—he said he was about offense but was just about himself.
The Bears drafted a quarterback in the first round last year who they like, so apparently they did and do see the need to have better passing. They don't have receivers better than Darnell Mooney because those available wanted and got more cash elsewhere than the Bears had available under the salary cap to give. The Bears needed to fill too many positions in two completely different schemes to address all those needs in free agency or the draft.
They have money for next year and draft picks. So Cowherd needs to simply hold onto his horses. It's coming.
His rant sounds like he didn't even realize they have a different GM and different coach.
His comments sound like someone who must not have been following free agency, the salary cap and the draft.
Suggestion: Catch up at profootballreference.com.
The Bears have Smith and need him because he's an ideal weak side linebacker for a defensive system that requires one. If they trade Smith, they're going to have Matthew Adams as their starting weak side linebacker.
They could have Jerry Rice become Benjamin Button and suddenly turn 22 years old again, sign a contract with Chicago, and they'd still lose games this year 35-30 because they don't have a weak side linebacker better than Adams in a scheme that demands a good player at the position.
It's all about passing, quarterbacks and receivers, says Cowherd?\
Last year there was a drop of 1.8 points per game per team from 24.8 to 23 points. It was the second biggest decline in points since the merger, the biggest being from 1976 to 77 at 2.0 points.
Apparently offenses aren't the only thing NFL teams think about, or maybe the receivers and quarterbacks all took the year off?
It's still the great team game and you need players at all positions on offense and defense. The Bears need a weakside linebacker as talented as Smith for a foundation piece.
So the entire premise that they should trash their spending on a linebacker to get a receiver is absurd at a root level.
Also, how does he think they're getting a brilliant top-level receiver back in exchange for Smith if they trade him? If passing is where it's at, as he said, why would a team trade a receiver of that caliber for a linebacker?
Beyond all that, trades of this type are not happening in late August. Trades of players for players occur in March and April or even June, if at all. Trades now involve draft picks.
The Bears already have draft picks. They will already have sufficient money to find receiver talent in free agency if they want next year, too.
At this point, they're not going to get draft picks equal to Smith's abilities if they make a deal.
Pro Football Focus' Brad Spielberger is usually very accurate with his assessments on trade value and he has Smith valued at a 2023 second-round pick and 2024 fifth-round selection.
The Bears have a second in 2023 already. They have a 2024 fifth-rounder too. They don't need this. They do need a linebacker of Smith's talents.
One amusing aspect of Cowherd's rant was how there is a report Dallas is interested in trading for him. This wasn't a report. It was a rumor started by someone who just suggested Dallas was a team that could benefit from a deal. It's the same with all the other teams that have been mentioned as interested. Rumors created to get clicks and not fact at all.
Unless some team was just giving away top established receiver talent for the fun of it, the Bears shouldn't even be listening to trade discussion. They'll have the money next season to find a viable X-receiver to complement Mooney and help Fields.
They could probably get better receivers on waivers after final roster cuts this year than some of those they have on their roster now if this is such a pressing problem for this season. After this season, as stated, there is the draft and free agency and tons of available cash for receivers.
So then, why would they want to trade away their best defensive player for another draft pick?
Paying Smith is not breaking them in the future because of all the cap space they have, and it will help keep their defense intact. They just have to work out the deal and right now and it would really help if Smith had a real agent and not some guy he dug up out of an alley who was saying, "pssst, hey buddy, let me help you out."
All Cowherd did with his rant was find an easy target in a team that is in the middle of rebuilding and trash them with a bunch of age-old irrelevant arguments.
Caving in now to Smith's goofy trade demand or the trade whims of the shadowy Saint Omni doesn't benefit the Bears.
It might benefit someone who has air time to fill and likes to do it with lame, irrelevant arguments but not the Bears.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
