Why Bears Need to Consider Trading Away Tarik Cohen
A team with only two draft picks higher than the late fourth round and none in the first round can definitely use more draft picks.
Bears general manager Ryan Pace loves moving around in the draft for specific players he's targeted, like David Montgomery last year or obviously the classic case of Mitchell Trubisky.
If the Bears want more draft picks, they'd need to trade veterans but the cupboard is relatively bare here for the Bears as well. They've locked up too many difference makers to long-term deals with signing bonuses that would come due against their cap upon trade.
Nevertheless, there are a few players with value who sit in a place on their contract where they could bring back a pick, more than one pick or other talent.
There are a few young players who've shown some promise but haven't yet become established who might be considered trade bait, like Bilal Nichols, James Daniels and Anthony Miller. But the goal of any personnel department is to locate good, young talent in the draft who contribute on their first contract, and these three are doing it. So you're not trading someone doing this even if other teams would like them.
The final year of a contract is an ideal time to trade someone so Cordarrelle Patterson would be a player of this type, but acquiring a veteran in the range of $4.5 to $5 million whose value revolves around returning kicks and taking an occasional handoff isn't a
Then there's Adam Shaheen, who would be ideal trade bait because he's in the final year of his contract. Of course, there's a minor technicality involved here: He hasn't shown he can ever play.
Here are the top three Bears trading assets, players who can contribute greatly and have favorable terms for dealing:
3. Allen Robinson
They would never do it, of course, so don't blow a gasket. They went to such extremes to acquire a free agent wide receiver who would be the go-to X receiver and Robinson last year did it with 98 receptions. He's of trade value because in the final year of his contract the only money the Bears would be hit with if they dealt him is a $2 million prorated bonus. His salary is $10.9 million this year for the team which would acquire him. Robinson is only 26 years old and a real talent, so the Bears are going to get him a new contract and keep him and he won't be traded. It's just that technically he rates as higher trade bait than others due to his current contract status. His name goes off the list once he gets an extension.
2. Tarik Cohen
He had two years as the human joystick and one last year when it looked like someone pulled the plug. Cohen is a unique play maker but is going into the last year of his contract and is due $2.14 million because he hit the performance escalator to get up above the minimum he'd been making. Being in his last year gives Cohen obvious trade value. His value is at an optimum. Making 71 receptions and 79 receptions the last two years shows how much he could help any team in the passing game. However, last year showed his yards per catch can be cut in half and his yards per carry reduced as well. The Bears can easily replace what he does in the passing game with a more conventional receiver, and finding a running back who is a pass catcher but not undersized is preferable because it makes the Bears less predictable. They can run between the tackles then and with Cohen on the field they can't.
1. Leonard Floyd
If the Bears haven't been shopping Floyd around while Pace is singing his praises, then perhaps it's time to find another GM. With $13.2 million due, and none guaranteed, Floyd could be shipped out with no cap penalty and it would provide an additional $13.2 million for the Bears to sign someone this year while also saving some more money. If they signed an effective, lower-paid free agent and drafted another pass rusher then they would still come out ahead. After Floyd had one sack for the final 15 games in 2019, the problem is other teams will look at his dwindling sack totals since he came into the league and wonder, like fans do, what's going on here? Why should they give up anything more than a fifth- or sixth-round pick to get him? He is fast, athletic and has a great wingspan. If he didn't get used in pass coverage and with an emphasis on stopping the run, then it's possible Floyd could be a premier pass rusher. But how do you project that if you're a team hoping for a trade. He isn't a premier pass rusher in Chicago and teams have to use what he does here as a basis for what they'd give in compensation.
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