Bear Digest

What Connor McGovern Signing Says for Bears' Grasp of Center Market

GM Ryan Poles absorbed plenty of criticism for his trade to acquire center Garrett Bradbury but the market is starting to show he had foresight.
Gene Chamberlain|
Ryan Poles seems to be on top of the center marketplace better than a lot of Bears fans.
Ryan Poles seems to be on top of the center marketplace better than a lot of Bears fans. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

As it turns out, Bears GM Ryan Poles was further ahead of the center market than many thought.

When Poles traded for Garrett Bradbury, outrage poured forth on social media.

Given that the Bears weren't going to pay $20 million a year for center Tyler Linderbaum, Connor McGovern became the other potential gem stone at the position for a brief period. The problem is free agency has not even begun. It starts on Monday.

This is still lying season in the NFL, and for NFL fans it's false hope season. On Saturday, McGovern signed a four-year, $52 million deal to stay in Buffalo.

Poles ahead of the market

Apparently Poles knew more than most of the whining Bears fans on social media about McGovern and the likelihood he was staying with the Bills. Could it be because he's negotiating contracts with agents for his own potential free agents, and so he actually knows things about the coming marketplace that they don't? Yah think?

Could it be the same is true with Linderbaum? Free agency still hasn't started and there are rumblings now the Ravens might keep their guy. This is how free agency works every year. Much of the crop gets signed before it ever begins, during lying season.

Even if the Ravens don't keep Linderbaum, the Bears won't be in on that after trading for Bradbury. A $20 million deal for Linderbaum and about a $6 million cap hit for Bradbury to be backup center? It doesn't make fiscal sense. There currently is no one in the NFL spending more than $19.1 million for all of the combined centers on their roster, and the Bears would spend about $26 million? It's not happening.

The Bears weren't going to pay $20 million for a center who has 12 holding penalties in four seasons and 24 total penalties anyway. The cap money now can be devoted to signing defensive help and maybe a left tackle. As the great Joe Thomas said this week on AM-670, left tackle trumps center.

It still does, and the Bears got very fortunate last year at that position and it won't happen again, so they need to have someone in place while Ozzy Trapilo recovers from knee surgery.

Bradbury the place holder

The end result of all of this is that after Poles apparently didn't want to risk $10 million a year for Tyler Biadasz, a player who finished on injured reserve after a Christmas Day knee injury. He did the next-best thing before free agency. He traded very little to acquire Bradbury and will back that up with a young alternative who can be a center of the future.

Whether Bradbury works out or not, no one can be sure, but this is a center who helped a team reach the Super Bowl and has been fairly average over the last half of his career. His greatest struggles—and he definitely had them—came earlier in his career with the Vikings while protecting Kirk Cousins.

Bradbury definitely is no Drew Dalman, and his performance on film and in Pro Football Focus grading suggest he has difficulty pass-blocking at times last season. Still, he got the job done until they ran up against Seattle in the Super Bowl. Then, no one on New England's offensive line got the job done blocking for the run or pass.

Poles comes away once again looking like he's right on top of what the market will be when it actually opens. Anyone holding out hope they'll sign Linderbaum is dreaming. There are no teams in the NFL paying $20 million right now for all of the centers on their roster combined, and if Linderbaum came to the Bears at the amount everyone projects, they'd be paying about $26 million for centers next season. That's not happening.

As for Bradbury, he is undeniably lower than the best in the marketplace but is better than the next level of Bears free agent center options like Lloyd Cushenberry or Cade Mays. They'll move ahead with Bradbury and prepare a younger center for the future just like the Patriots did last year.

Poles got burned by Dalman's decision to retire but his Plan B or C can at least keep things from falling apart. Bradbury is a place holder, and that can work as long as he also doesn't hold defensive linemen.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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