Official Bears Signings About to Begin

The free agent signings and trade of Khalil Mack become official, with more agreements no doubt coming as the new league year begins at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

If things continue as they have so far for the Bears, it will be met by snores from many fans.

On Tuesday they agreed to terms with no one and the only reported action on their free agent front was losing right guard James Daniels to Pittsburgh on a reported contract of $26.5 million for three years. The contract was one easily topped or matched by the Bears, indicating a lack of interest.

The entire free agent process seems one of complete disinterest but that's really not likely to the case.

GM Ryan Poles has a madness to his method, and it goes hand in hand with his announced plan to use the second and third phases of free agency.

For Poles, two days apparently do not constitute the entire first phase, even if it is to others. He's biding his time, watching for prices to come down.

Better Reception

The wide receiver market hasn't picked up much after it stalled on Monday following Jacksonville's ridiculous contracts for Christian Kirk and Zay Jones. However, it did restart even if slowly, and the terms seemed less ridiculous.

The demands being made could be a little more realistic now.

Russell Gage's three-year, $30 million contract with Tampa Bay, Kalif Raymond's two-year re-up with Detroit for $9.5 million total and D.J. Chark's $10 million deal for one year with the Lions were the only notable wide receiver deals signed.

Like with Daniels, the Bears really must not have been interested in Chark because $10 million was well below what pre-free agency projections produced by Spotrac.com and Pro Football Focus.

There are receivers still available for the Bears like JuJu Smith-Schuster, Odell Beckham Jr. if they want to risk his ACL tear, Antonio Brown if they want to risk him walking off the field, Miami's often-injured Will Fuller, the Jets' Jamison Crowder and Kansas City's duo of Byron Pringle and Demarcus Robinson.

Speaking of Robinson's, the Bears' version still sits there available, although numerous teams are reported to have been interested. Colts linebacker Darious Leonard even tried recruiting him to Indianapolis via social media.

Are the bears gonna do anything
— Ben (@34BDL34) March 16, 2022

Would the Bears be interested again? It seems unlikely after the way they lost interest in Daniels. Once Poles makes a decision, he's on to the next task or waiting some more.

There also is a clump of veteran receivers who might be one-year contract guys like T.Y. Hilton, Sammy Watkins and Jarvis Landry, who was recently released by Cleveland.

This was #Steelers FA WR JuJu Smith-Schuster on his stream today:

“Chi Town, Justin Fields. Sheesh”#Bears pic.twitter.com/XWead2iZHL
— Chicago Sports Report (@ChicagoB1G) March 15, 2022

Blocking It Up

Speaking of releases by Cleveland, maybe the best option among veteran centers is J.C. Tretter. He was also cut by the Browns and is familiar with Luke Getsy from his first three seasons in Green Bay as a backup. Getsy wasn't running the offense or working with him then but they did know each other.

The best center in the market looks to be Baltimore's Bradley Bozeman, who is still young but could be too pricey and actually was a guard earlier until moving to center for one year.

If the Bears look at the offensive line, pure guard standouts are rather thin in supply. Andrew Norwell of Jacksonville, Pittsburgh's Trai Turner and Cincinnati's Quinton Spain might be the best remaining starters.

But there are tackles, including one of the draft's best free agents.

New Orleans tackle Terron Armstead is much better than anyone else in the field of tackles and it would be difficult to believe the Bears haven't made inquiries, along with numerous other teams.

#JustinFields opens up about his thoughts on the #Bears Khalil Mack trade.

Is Poles doing a good job🤔 pic.twitter.com/qftpFRiOrv
— NFC North News (@NFCNorthNewss) March 15, 2022

It's possible Armstead is waiting to see if the Saints will trade for quarterback Deshean Watson, or perhaps he's waiting to make sure they're not bringing in Watson so that they might have the money to offer him a new contract.

It seems the Bears fans are not the only ones doing the waiting these days.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven