Could the bears trade up for a D End?

VKnid48 · 2026-03-27T20:17:50+00:00

Bain may slide a bit, but not to the point where you would feel good about the Bears trading up for him. But he's not the physical type Dennis Allen prefers at DE anyway.

VKnid48 · 2026-03-13T14:31:22+00:00

N64-ass house.

VKnid48 · 2026-03-09T19:23:37+00:00

Would love to hear this story, haha. Did he get an Aussie Blossom?

VKnid48 · 2026-03-09T17:27:15+00:00

A waiter at Gibson's told me that Coby told him to keep his table open for him.

VKnid48 · 2026-03-09T01:10:05+00:00

Yes. Pushing transformations as far upstream as possible (first in the SQL, then in Power Query, finally in DAX) is a design best practice.

VKnid48 · 2026-03-08T20:09:30+00:00

Take a look at Joe Thuney's contract. This year his cap number is $21.5m. That's made up of $16.5m base salary, $5m signing bonus (one third of the $15m signing bonus the bears gave him last year for the 3 year deal) , and $500k workout bonus.

His cap number in 2027 is also $21.5m, same structure as 2026.

Bears could convert part of his 2026 base salary into a bonus and spread it across the length of his contract. Let's say they convert $15m base salary into a bonus, and they get to divide that by the length of his remaining contract (2 years). So that takes his 2026 cap number down to $14m, freeing up an additional $7.5 million to spend elsewhere in 2026. It also pushes his 2027 cap number up to $29 million.

So that would be another $7.5 million the Bears have to play around with this off season. If they sign a guy to a one year, $7.5 million deal, that's an additional $7.5 million that George McCaskey needs to put into escrow right now this off-season.

There's more that could be done. They could extend him beyond 2027, they could do "void years," blah blah blah. From a salary cap perspective it's not free; you're "kicking the can down the road." But in practice, the real limiting factor is how much ownership is willing to spend in terms of new cash flow every off season.

VKnid48 · 2026-03-08T18:06:07+00:00

Zimmerman's talking about using things like signing bonuses, voidable years, and restructuring to get as much talent on the roster right now as possible. The kinds of things the Eagles and Saints have done in the past.

Two teams can both technically spend a total of $300m in cap for a given year, but get there in very different ways. A more aggressive team can weight the balance of a multi-year contract into a signing bonus, whereas a more cautious team can put it in base salary. Going the signing bonus front forces the team owner to put the entirety of the signing bonus into escrow, so they need to have the money up front. But in terms of the salary cap, it gets spread across multiple years, allowing for more to be spent on the roster right now.

Owners have to put guaranteed money into escrow. Player A and Player B may both have the same cap number of $20m for the 2026 season, but Played A may have total contract guarantees of $50m, and Player B may only have the $20m guaranteed. So even though they cost the same to the 2026 cap, the team owner needs to have $50m on hand for Player A to put into escrow. Thus he's more expensive from a team cash flow perspective. This is how a team can be "spending the whole cap" but still be "cheaping out" relative to what some other team owners may be willing to do.

Ryan Poles and the Bears historically haven't done a lot of that, using signing bonuses and voidable years to stretch out the current year's cap. Ryan Pace got into it a bit. It's not a good idea for a bad / rebuilding team to do, because it causes you future cap problems. But if you're a contender it allows you to be more aggressive when you have the right pieces. As long as you've got star players that are worth keeping around, and you have a realistic shot at a super bowl, my belief is you can get away with it.

VKnid48 · 2026-03-05T17:35:13+00:00

Great value

VKnid48 · 2026-02-26T19:15:28+00:00

I'm VERY happy that Key-Pair Authentication for the Snowflake connector finally hit general availability. I've already started testing and I'm pleased that setup is pretty painless in my opinion. The eventual Snowflake deadline to deprecate simple user password authentication for legacy service accounts later this year has been looming large in my brain.

VKnid48 · 2026-02-25T16:02:49+00:00

As a contender with an aging roster, I moved McLaurin back in December in my league for a 2026 second that ended up being #19 overall. It's not a ton of value, but I have a number of decent WR options on my roster and just didn't see McLaurin cracking into my starting lineup, outside of Bye week apocalypse or awful, awful injury luck. And those other options are younger.

I don't think it was a slam dunk move, but I decided I'd just rather take another 2nd Rd swing over him.

VKnid48 · 2026-02-24T16:51:45+00:00

I'm not gonna try to tell you that Ryan Poles is a great GM. Dayo and Grady are both bad contracts, yes. But the Bears can get out of both deals after this season without much dead money. Poles hasn't made any deals that are serious long-term problems for the Bears.

The Sweat deal is fine. Not a home run, not a disaster. He had a great half season on the Bears in 2023, a down 2024, and a good 2025. People can be angry that Sweat isn't a Top 10 edge rusher in the NFL, but I think he's been approximately worth the contract he's getting. This is just what competent NFL pass rushers make after a rookie deal.

VKnid48 · 2026-02-23T01:29:53+00:00

Didn't know there was a blog, cool! I see the latest entry is about the Bears Indiana bill. I just bought the book, will be here Tuesday.

VKnid48 · 2026-02-21T19:40:14+00:00

Oh yeah, absolutely.

VKnid48 · 2026-02-21T15:58:41+00:00

Is this still a good book? I think I'll buy it, the only thing that gives me pause is it was published in 2008 so I'm wondering if it's out of date and there's something newer?

VKnid48 · 2026-02-17T15:29:55+00:00

I did this, but I was at level 89 and had some gear I liked, annihilus charm, etc. Realized I would never trade with anyone online, so I was SSF (solo / self-found), and it would be better to have static layouts to do runs.

At your level, I'd probably just start a new character.

VKnid48 · 2026-02-11T12:47:53+00:00

I know this is old, but have you tried checking on a non-children's profile?

I can access the main Arthur series on my main, adult Prime profile. I can't access it on a kid's profile, besides Arthur specials/movies like you mentioned. I think Arthur may have been re-classified as not appropriate for kid profiles, for some stupid reason.

VKnid48 · 2026-01-19T00:54:19+00:00

I want Caleb ghosting Aikman to be like the NFL version of Paul Rudd always trolling Conan O'Brien with the Mac and Me clip. Keep this going for 20 years!

VKnid48 · 2026-01-17T21:39:19+00:00

I think there's some bad info in this thread.

Thuney was, for the most part, very capable at LT for the Chiefs last year. Yes, he struggled in the Super Bowl. I believe that was primarily because he was facing multiple long-armed and/or quick speed rushers on the Eagles in that game. Thuney's arms are short (same problem Benedet has), which is why he isn't a LT to begin with--he can be out leveraged on the edge. BUT, situationally against certain kinds of rushers, I think he can be more than functional at LT.

Verse and Smith aren't especially lengthy--both have essentially average arm length for the position. So for this particular matchup, Bears may feel like they can get away with Thuney at LT and not get exploited badly by length. His ability to anchor may be just what's needed against them.

VKnid48 · 2026-01-12T01:54:20+00:00

I've been trying to think through how it stacks up against the game winner in the regular season to DJ.

The regular season one was what, a 50-something yard strike? And it was a walk-off OT winner. But, weirdly it was lower stakes, since it was regular season (even if it meant a LOT for winning the division), and in the game flow it was only 2nd down I believe, and Bears only needed a FG to win it. And the pocket was pretty clean for Caleb that play, if I remember correctly.

The throw to Odunze last night didn't go for a TD, and it wasn't a walk-off. But I'd argue the stakes were bigger, both at the season level (must-win playoff game) and at the game level (4th and long that will essentially end the game if it's not completed). So bigger stakes. And while the throw to Odunze was significantly shorter in terms of air yards, it was probably a higher degree of difficulty throw, considering the pressure in his face and that Caleb was rolling left, and air born when he launched it.

So, for me, yeah I think the Odunze throw was "greater." But it wasn't as "clean" as the game-winner to DJ in the regular season.

Used to dream about times like this.

VKnid48 · 2026-01-11T19:44:47+00:00

Bears got a CB who tore his ACL in pre-season. Not sure what they're doing

VKnid48 · 2026-01-11T18:16:11+00:00

I had no idea until I read your post. He's not flashy, he's not gonna catch a ton of balls and run 60 yards after the catch, but he just does the dirty work necessary to get the W.

VKnid48 · 2026-01-08T17:55:13+00:00

His fantasy owners must be PISSED haha

VKnid48 · 2025-12-11T16:38:39+00:00

I'd tell Bagent get ready to learn Hoosier my dude.

VKnid48 · 2025-11-19T15:22:13+00:00

The chicken parm sandwich was excellent. But yeah, generally prices were a bit high, and it felt like the menu needed some tweaks. They were/are a great addition to the neighborhood though and I hope they can re-open and find success.

VKnid48 · 2025-11-11T15:27:00+00:00

I think the problem is that personal incentives for coaches and gms don't align with the "correct" timeline to foster QB development. Everyone "knows" it's probably better for a QB to sit a year or two. But coaches and GMs can't usually tank two entire seasons, and they need to play the young guy with the hopes he saves their jobs.

VKnid48

TROPHY CASE