Thursday, March 27, 2014

Bears replace Peppers; sign Jared Allen to 4-year deal

According to ESPN and many other sources, the Bears, just a little over a week since they lost Julius Peppers to the Packers, signed their replacement DE yesterday, inking former Viking Jared Allen to a 4-year, $32 million deal. Earlier this offseason, Allen threatened the world with retirement if he didn't get the big contract he wanted, so yea, it appears his weird strategy worked. 

Anyway, while this news definitely is big I still don't it'll matter that much. I mean, if Jay Cutler struggles this season like he usually does it won't matter who's standing on the other side of the ball, so why is the media treating this like it somehow guarantees something?

1 comment:

Brandon said...

The Bears needed a pass rusher badly but Allen's 2013 decline is at least as troubling as Peppers's. He's the fourth DE they've signed this offseason (Houston, Young, Idonije). Former 1st round DE McClellin (who was awful in 2013) has apparently been moved to LB, so then they would need to replace their top 3 DEs from last year. I don't know why they wouldn't target Allen before signing Young, but maybe it just means Allen's lowered his price tag. Still, he didn't come cheap. While overall this has made their defensive line better in 2014, they still have question marks on the line (little pass rush, shaky depth at tackle) and it cost them $35 million (Ratliff re-signing too) in guaranteed money for a modest improvement.