What’s the early free agency buzz around the Bears?

The league may have set the early negotiating period for free agency from March 14 at 11:00 a.m. to March 16 at 3:00 p.m. (CT) but agents, teams, and players have been talking on the down-low for weeks now. The collegiate All-Star games and the NFL Combine are hotbeds for rumors, whispers, and off the record meetings, so once 11:00 a.m. hits tomorrow there’ll be a slew of Tweets form NFL insiders about teams talking to players and even pending signings.

Earlier today ESPN’s Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler put out some early free agency and trade buzz they’ve been hearing from around the league, and the Chicago Bears were mentioned a few times.

According to Fowler, the Jacksonville Jaguars and New England Patriots are expected to be in the mix for wide receiver Allen Robinson, who played for the Bears on the franchise tag a season ago. He also says that some recent deals around the league could make A-Rob’s asking price about $18 million per season.

Fowler is also saying that the Bears are one of the teams that are likely to be interested in Pittsburgh’s JuJu Smith-Schuster. The former Pro Bowler only played in their first 5 games last season because of an injury — but he did come back in the playoffs — but in 2020 he caught 97 balls.

“Bears guard James Daniels is becoming a hot name of late,” Fowler writes. “I talked to multiple teams who were high on him due to age (24), positional flexibility (can play guard or center) and mobility. Guards should do pretty well in this class — many teams need a good one — and Daniels is no exception.”

Staying with the interior of the offensive line, Graziano is reporting that Buccaneers’ center Ryan Jensen, a popular topic among Bears’ fans, has “multiple teams” interested in him, but he only mentions the Jets, Bengals and Ravens. He also writes that the Bucs are trying to get him locked up before free agency starts.

Edit: Jensen is staying with the Bucs.

Now to some other reports and rumors I’ve seen come across Twitter.

The Bears have interest in Christian Kirk, but so do the Lions, and Detroit also has interest in Allen Robinson and just about every other top end receiver on the market.

A-Rob is also being mentioned as a target of the Raiders, Browns, and Jets.

It’s expected that the Bears will release linebacker Danny Trevathan and also edge player Jeremiah Attaochu.

Defensive back Marqui Christian is likely leaving the Bears and he’ll have multiple suitors.

There’s a lot of social media buzz about the Bears having interest in center Brian Allen and wide out Marquez Valdes-Scantling.

There were conflicting reports earlier in the week about James Daniels’ market being in the $10 million per year range (and off the Bears radar) and also about his market not being as hot as reported with the Bears still in the mix. (Insert shrug GIF here)

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