Chicago Bears Officially Release Alex Brown

Based on what? Izzy was also not playing LDE last year, either, so that is mostly irrelevant.

This kinda works against your argument that Brown was better than Izzy, than, doesn’t it?

Again, based on what? Do you really want to add their stat lines multipled by snap counts over the last three years and compare them to Brown’s? Izzy’s never had over 3.5 sacks in a year. MA had 17 in his first 2 seasons, 4.5 since then.

based on profootballfocus.com’s rating system. As far as stats, well……..over the past 2 years……..

AB 1675 snaps 12 Sacks 22 Hurries 45 pressures

Izzy 814 snaps 6 sacks 10 hurries 25 Pressures

MA 1012 snaps 4.5 Sacks 9 Hurries 29 Pressures

Here’s what that means…….

Sacks AB: 1 per every 140 snaps. Izzy 1/136 snaps MA 1/225

Hurries AB: 1/76 Izzy: 1/81 MA: 1/112

Pressures AB 1/37 Izzy 1/32 MA 1/35

Now, totaling sacks, hurries and pressures, to get a QB harassment ratio AB 1/21 Izzy 1/20 MA 1/24

So Izzy harasses the QB (and sacks the QB) more often per snap. Now, he has a large sample to work with, so it’s not like taking 20 snaps and comparing them to 1700.

Again, based on what? Do you really want to add their stat lines multipled by snap counts over the last three years and compare them to Brown’s? Izzy’s never had over 3.5 sacks in a year. MA had 17 in his first 2 seasons, 4.5 since then.

Obviously, yes, as I just did that over the past 2 years.

Idonije is going to hit 30 this season. He has not shown that he is better than Brown. I agree that 10.5m over 2 is not an ideal K—I’m just not sure that it was a compelling enough reason to cut him.

As I showed in the stats above, Izzy is not a step down from Brown. “Well, you didn’t cover his run stopping abilities!”

OK Brown averages one stop every 25 snaps. Izzy? 1 in every 28. All the while, the Izzy is getting Penalties at about half the rate (1/407 for Izzy v. Brown’s 1/239) and izzy hasn’t had a missed tackle in at least 3 years. Brown has 5 missed tackles in the same span, second only to Ogunleye’s 9 for D-Linemen

Meanwhile Izzy is due $2.4M this year. Combine that with MA’s #1.8M and you get 2 DE’s that come in at $800K less than Brown without a drop-off in play. I’d say that’s a pretty good reason to let him go. Especially considering that he sought out a new deal when he wasn’t worth the one he had.

I’m not saying a trade necessarily would have happened either, just that the argument "no one traded for him, therefore AB sucks" is a dumb and illogical one—why would anyone trade for him when it was clear he would be released if a trade didn’t happen.

I can think of a couple of reasons. First, dealing in a trade takes theagent down a notch (Joel Segal is Brown’s, and he’s comparable to Rosenhaus, but not quite as slimy). Second, more teams will get involved in trying to gain services of a FA than will get involved in a trade. This leaves less competition for services. While Big Money teams like Dallas and Washington might like the odds of the FA route. Teams like Seattle and Carolina, who both have need of DEs and not as much operating budget will find the trade scenario more palatable, though that money issue comes back into play for those teams, as Brown’s contract didn’t fit his ability. There were definitely reasons to take either route (waiting for him to be released or trying to trade for him.)

Really hope you realize that this is an even stronger argument against signing Peppers as well. Might want to rethink this if you support that move. But either way, you don’t cut a veteran who has not, repeat, not underperformed if you don’t have a replacement or draft picks you are planning on spending on the position. I don’t think the Bears are drafting an end—unless there’s a guy they really believe in who they’re targeting for a later round.

OK, your comparing overpaying a mediocre aging DE who’s per snap stat line is similar to Izzy and MA, who you obviously thinnk are a mistake to start, to a difference maker who has double AB’s sack count over the eight years they’ve been in the league? Really? Cause if you are, you just lost a lot of credibility, man. You honestly equate the two?

I laid out the stats before for AB, Izzy and MA. But this aught to be fun……

Sacks/Snap: AB 1/140 JP 1/73
and QB Harassment Ratio: AB 1/21 JP 1/14

I mean, your comparing keeping Brown to getting Peppers? Ridiculous. Seriously. Your statement would assume that Peppers was overpaid. But then, that would assume that he wasn’t among the best in the league at his position, which he is. You are comparing apples to oranges, here.

You may be right. I hope not. The championship window argument is, in my opinion, based in reality—it’s common for teams to go through contending versus rebuilding phases. Sometimes they are able to have sustained success based on a great confluence of trading and mid-round drafting, like the Patriots this past decade. The Bears have not consistently been able to score favorable deals like Welker or draft exceedingly well. Normally, though, when you have a core of vets with long term deals, those are the guys you either win with, or you have to ditch/deal to rebuild through the draft for a couple years. I don’t think the Bears are in the latter phase yet. And I don’t see how this move improved the Bears, other than the $$ bottom line.

First, every team is capable of maintaining their team instead of rebuilding it. But of course, that leaves out the inevitability of human error (or arrogance, take your pick). Chicago, of course, has had it’s problems with this. you have consistent teams like the Pats, Eagles, Cowboys, Giants, Colts, Steelers etc, and you have your inconsistent teams like Chicago, Detroit, StL, Arizona, Seattle. One group maintains, the other rebuilds. One of the big differences is in how the teams go about dealing with mediocre and aging players. Another is through draft. I disagree on the whole FA thing, though it does have some to do with all teams, it seems that teams that rely on FA to heavily seldom succeed. How many big splashes have the Pats made in FA over the past decade? Or the Colts? The Welker deal wasn’t considered a huge deal when it happened, if you remember. The Championship window is only reality for some teams because of poor management. Chicago has classicly been one of those places, but this kind of move is a step in the right direction. The Bears championship hopes never hinged on Alex Brown. If our window has closed, it has a lot more to do with Ted Phillips, Jerry Angelo and Lovie Smith, and the teams inability to prioritize positions and develop talent, especially in the secondary (see Danieal Manning, Kevin Payne, Corey Graham, Brandon McGowen, Chris Harris, Trumaine McBride) the Offensive line (see Orlando Pace, Terrance Metcalf, Mike Gandy, Marc Colombo, Josh Beekman, etc….) and the WR position (which I happen to think they are actually finally moving in the right direction by truly developing these young players instead of jumping on every mid-level FA WR that floats by, as they have in the past.)

As far as seeing what this improves, I see it in several ways. Whether the Bears blow it or not is another story, but the idea is sound. Brown has been mediocre for 8 years. Izzy has been just as good over the past couple of seasons, and eventually you have to either take the chance on the other player to try and improve over average, or admit that you are settling for mediocrity. This was a great time for it, considering the salary situation and Browns demand for a contract extension.

The other thing I see is money freed up to sign players and (hopefully) a FA guard or FS. The Bears have made it pretty public that they are looking for both. Hopefully they follow through. If they are at the end of their operating budget, this release might allow them to sign Hamlin or Atogwe or trade for Sims (fingers crossed for Atogwe or Sims). Will it happen? Who knows. But I would say the chances were significantly lesser before that $5M was freed up.

And damn, I can be long winded! Sorry about that……

turning into a fine discussion, BTW…..

I never said that AB sucks, and never implied that he did just because he wasn’t traded for. That straw man won’t work with me. I have repeatedly stated that AB was a decent DE who I happen to like. I just understand that he was average in every way but pay.

…. whom refuse to view it as such . So really enough with this already . If you want a discussion I’m all for it , but all you seem to want to do is argue with others .

And the point of the whole " Horse " issue was to point out how illogical you were being and how literal you decided to make everything . It was to point out that you can differentiate between literally speaking and figurative speaking . So to some point my attempt at a hyperbole was effective seeing how it was an attempt to exaggeragte the situation knowing fully that it does not happen every day .