What is your main gripe with the proposed Briggs deal?

I think he would fill a need but I don't think it's the most pressing one we have. If we are going to leverage that 6th overall pick we need to get DL help with it as we have been discussing here for the last two months.

The Bears have a disgruntleed player and they basically want us to take him off their hands in exchange for the 6th overall pick. I don't see why that's a good deal for us.

Also we just drafted Rocky last year. Stay the course. Stay with the lower-key approach. Let the Bears deal with their own personell problems.

...I will be fine with what ever they decide or what ever way this works out....
I think the FO feels Rocky may not be the guy if they are looking at this deal. How they can come to that conclusion so soon, I have no idea. but there has to be something there.
Excellent overall post. Some very well-stated opinions.

I have sat here and thought should I respond or shouldn't I. the dumber side of me outweighted the reason side, so here goes :

1) I for one have been a strong supporter of the proposed deal. We get a lower 1st round pick, which the FO has said they wanted to do. I believe we could get a quality DT at the bottom of the draft.

2) We get a 26 year old probowl LB. I for one think, outside of Marcus, our LB play was horrible last year.

I have and always will be one of the fans who can't stand the way the FO runs this team. As far as overpaying for marginal talent, or unproven talent. But, when it comes to Briggs he is far from marginal. 26, one of the best as his position, a playmaker, arriving his prime, high motor, plays with a chip on his shoulder. I just feel last year we didn't have that swagger that we had to two previous years. Adding Briggs may get some of that back.

Now, bad side -

1) Rocky will be on the bench. We would have wasted 2 draft picks on him if we sign Briggs.
2) money. Briggs will get BIG money
3) chemistry. We will have to get rid of some players that are good locker room, role player type guys that contribute.

I will be fine with what ever they decide or what ever way this works out. I just feel from a football stand point he is a major upgrade. I think the FO feels Rocky may not be the guy if they are looking at this deal. How they can come to that conclusion so soon, I have no idea. but there has to be something there.

I think it's purely debatable whether Birggs is actually a major upgrade or not. First off, you can't just isolate his past performance in a vacuum. He was one player on one of the top two or three defenses in the NFL.

Secondly, he has to learn a new system here, and how many times do we have to see a guy excel in one place only to flop somewhere else. Until Briggs comes here and absolutely shows out on the field, I will not be convinced that he's any significant upgrade. I'm done with all of these paper upgrades.

I think it's purely debatable whether Birggs is actually a major upgrade or not. First off, you can't just isolate his past performance in a vacuum. He was one player on one of the top two or three defenses in the NFL.

Secondly, he has to learn a new system here, and how many times do we have to see a guy excel in one place only to flop somewhere else. Until Briggs comes here and absolutely shows out on the field, I will not be convinced that he's any significant upgrade. I'm done with all of these paper upgrades.

good point, but all the players we have on D have had to learn this system. only Arch apparently couldn't learn it.

good point, but all the players we have on D have had to learn this system. only Arch apparently couldn't learn it.


But why chance it? I mean, is he really that much better than Rocky? As far as I'm concerned, the minute he puts on burgundy and gold, he and Rocky are on equal ground. Rocky's been in the system for a year, had a solid outing toward the end of the season, and surely has his eyes on starting this year.

As I've said previously, unless Briggs is out of this world and clearly, clearly beats out Rocky, why are we making this trade? Is he really that good?

I'm starting to think that maybe Marcus Washington is having problems with his injury. there really is no other reason the skins would be looking at linebackers. Briggs is a fine play maker, but that is with a stout defensive line in front of him. if all our linebackers are healthy, we do not need him. now you guys can guess on how i voted

Anyone else curious as to where Grilliams stands on Briggs? I'd have to assume that he's completely on board but he seems like he was on board for Arch at the time..

I'd vote on all 3, but I said to trade down, we don't need Briggs, but could we use him, of course.

But I'd rather trade down.

We gave up a first and a thrid.. I don't have a problem with getting Campbell, I think he is going to be a stud.. I just think if we had done the deal on draft day rather than a week before we could have made a better deal.

understood on the draft day thing, but it was important enough on that one to make the trade when we did.

just to clarify, we didn't give up a 1st for JC, we only swapped 1st rnd picks w/Denver, their's in 05 for ours in 06.
They may thought it was a steal at the time, but because we finished 05-06 in the playoffs, they ended up picking about the same place as they would have in 05 (#25). So the net result was a 3rd rnd. to denver.

What I dislike most is that we aren't realizing our position here. We have the leverage in this deal!! The Bears have a pro-bowl player who wants no part of the team. If they don't trade him he's gonna sit out 10 games. And it doesn't seem like any other teams are interested. Hmmm, I wonder why that is? We need to be a little tougher. Why not ask for their 2nd or 3rd rounder? Aren't we giving up something like 1000 draft points in this deal (the equivalent of the 16th overall pick)? Too much.

I understand we can get Briggs and still end up with a good Dlineman at 31, but then we have no other picks till round 5. I thought we wanted to acquire more picks? The way I see it, if we pull the trigger on this deal we are getting a high maintenance, overpaid player (you KNOW we'll overpay him) who may just be the product of a system, and we're losing all ammunition to acquire more picks.

On the flip side, I'd love to hear some opinions on our current LB corps. Rocky is the only starting caliber player that will be under 30 when the season starts. Marcus is coming off multiple surgeries, Lemar, as much as I like the guy, is too small and not that good. Behind the 3 projected starters and Rocky, we have NOTHING. (Don't tell me Khary Campbell). So we do need another LB in my opinion, I just don't like this deal.