00:00are favored by three and a half points as both teams are healthy.
00:02Pre-game coverage of that 8 o'clock tip starts right here on 97.1 at 7.35.
00:07At the Carwell Health Sports Desk, I'm Brendan Shabazz.
00:10For more, go to 97.1 The Ticket or odyssey.com.
00:24Okay, so that deal, according to Over the Cap,
00:28the deal that sent D.J. Moore from Chicago to Buffalo
00:33frees up $16.5 million in cap room for the Bears.
00:37That brings the Bears' cap total.
00:40Now they've got $1.399 million, which is 23rd in the league,
00:45still more than the Lions, who are $4 million over the cap,
00:48$4.8 million over the cap as we speak.
00:52Everybody's got restructurings that they can do.
00:57Could this be a move to free up cap space to do something big?
01:01And our Armageddon, oh God, not their scenario is Max Crosby to the Bears.
01:08Would that be the off-season news that would be most depressing?
01:13Yes.
01:13Is that the Bears found a way to get it done?
01:14Yeah, Bears getting a deal with Max Crosby, sure.
01:21By all accounts, don't the Raiders want to get a player
01:25and draft capital in return?
01:27And if the Bears just traded away a wide receiver,
01:29does that kind of take away that player?
01:32It'll take away one of those players.
01:33Yeah.
01:33If I were the Bears, and I'm freeing up this kind of cap space,
01:38I'd probably rather do it through free agency
01:41than making a trade to give up the draft capital and a player.
01:46You mean you, I'm sorry, if you're trying to free a center.
01:49They just lost a center to retirement.
01:52This could also be a nightmare scenario.
01:54If the Bears get Tyler Linderbaum.
01:57Oh, I see what you're saying.
01:59Yeah, it could.
02:00I mean, but they don't have any cap space either.
02:03Like, I know.
02:03But they can free it up like every other team can free it up.
02:05They can free it up like every other team can free it up.
02:08They aren't going to get Linderbaum and Max Crosby,
02:10but they could get Linderbaum.
02:14You know, it just depends on motivated and how much cap space they can create.
02:17Here's Albert Breer's tweet from inside a minute ago.
02:20Meanwhile, the Bears have cleared a bunch of cap room this week
02:23with Drew Dahlman retiring and D.J. Moore traded.
02:25We'd mentioned earlier that they've shown some interest in Tyler Linderbaum
02:29and Max Crosby.
02:30Stay tuned.
02:32Okay.
02:32Well, which would concern you guys more?
02:37Honestly, I think it's if they got the center
02:43because I would expect year-to-year that Caleb Williams is going to get better.
02:47If he's got the best center in the league,
02:49one of the best centers in the league now,
02:52if that happens, that makes that Bears offense that much more potent
02:55and that scares me more than adding an edge rusher.
02:59Plus, to get Crosby, they have to cut into assets.
03:02They wouldn't have their pick at 20-whatever-it-is.
03:05They wouldn't have a first-round pick next year,
03:06and they'd probably be missing a player if that is the cost.
03:12So it's probably Linderbaum.
03:14Although Crosby, I mean, that would suck too.
03:17Either way, you're you.
03:18I mean, I still think the Bears, they got a lot of work to do.
03:22So do the Lions.
03:24And you know what the Bears have done?
03:26Like, the Bears actually did go out and give them congratulations.
03:29They earned it, and they won the division, and they hosted playoff games,
03:33and got it.
03:33Yep, very, very impressive, Chicago.
03:36But I am used to, like, the last five years,
03:39the Bears seem to always win the offseason.
03:42And this is the first time it really produced something.
03:46So, you know, maybe they'll win the offseason again.
03:50It hasn't always equated to wins for Chicago.
03:54In fact, they've been consistently a last-place team until this year.
03:57And I guess that matters more than what they were two, three, four years ago.
04:01But 2-4-8-5-3-9-97-97.
04:04Let's go to Keith.
04:05You're on 97.1.
04:06Hi, Keith.
04:07Hi.
04:08What's up?
04:10I'm just saying Detroit Kings, right?
04:12Not just the Lions, but Detroit Kings, they do nothing in offseason.
04:17Hold on.
04:18What did the Tigers just do?
04:20Okay, but Tigers.
04:21Yeah, okay.
04:22But they should do that last year.
04:24They ain't going to wait until this year to do it.
04:26They should have did it last year.
04:27What was the problem?
04:28You had just a good chance last year to make it to the championship than you do now.
04:33Well, Keith, I guess, you know, many of the leagues have caps, which Tigers don't.
04:39So you could make a case that they should have been more aggressive in the past.
04:42But in the leagues with salary caps, it's not as easy as just going to do something.
04:48You have to make sure it's smart and it makes sense and you can afford it.
04:50So, I'm not saying that.
04:52I agree.
04:53I totally agree.
04:54But if you, Brad Holmes, if you're supposed to be one of the smartest middle of the block,
04:59you could have been figured that out.
05:01Everybody, see, this is what Brad Holmes is going to say.
05:03This is what's going to happen.
05:05He's going to wait until the last minute and then flip the money.
05:07But the time he flips the money, all the people we really thought we could get are going to be
05:12gone.
05:13And his excuse is going to be, we didn't mean.
05:15Well, let's see.
05:16I mean, I got to tell you, let's see.
05:18He's done a great job of building the roster up.
05:21It hasn't been good enough.
05:22If he doesn't want to spend, I mean, there's a cap.
05:28That's the issue.
05:28And so you want him to spend money and they have spent money.
05:33They spent money to keep their good players.
05:36And you could say, oh, I wish they would have done something else.
05:38If they never win a Super Bowl, okay, then you're going to be right.
05:42But if they, you know, there's, they're also going to stay competitive here for quite some time
05:47because they're locking up Penny Sewell and they're going to lock up Jameer Gibbs.
05:51They've locked up Amin Ross St. Brown.
05:53These are elite players at their position.
05:57So, okay.
06:01Yesterday we had that story about Tate Ratledge, an agent out there,
06:04thinks that the Lions are just going to try and fix the center position from in-house.
06:08And he thinks they're going to put Tate Ratledge at center.
06:12Colton Pouncey put together some notes from the combine and he wrote the following.
06:18As free agency approaches, I get the sense the Lions will aim to fill their center void here.
06:23I wouldn't rule out.
06:24I wouldn't rule one out in April, especially after picking up a fourth rounder in the Montgomery trade,
06:28but you'd never want to enter a draft with a need as obvious as center.
06:32Not after our last season unfolded.
06:34Should be several intriguing options.
06:37Baltimore Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum will top everyone's list, of course,
06:40but how realistically is he for the Lions when word out of India is that Linderbaum could command $22 million
06:45annually.
06:46If the Lions don't call in for Linderbaum, Conor McGovern, Tyler Biotish, and Cade Mays could be options.
06:52And then he writes, Biotish in particular makes a lot of sense.
06:56When an insider kind of gets pointed like that, I wonder if they know something.
07:02So I'm going to keep my eye open for Tyler Biotish as a possible who was just cut by the
07:07commanders.
07:08Is he allowed to talk to teams early?
07:10Who?
07:11I thought I saw some kind of report that he was already talking with the Bears or something like that.
07:18I believe he is because of the way he was released.
07:22Which seems strange.
07:24Yeah, the Bears apparently had something scheduled with him.
07:29Let's see what it says here.
07:31I mean, any of those guys, sure.
07:34Just give me an upgrade over what we had.
07:36And somebody who's more than competent.
07:38Hopefully it's a top half of the league center.
07:41And let's go.
07:43So because he got cut and he's not an expiring contract, those things are different, right?
07:50I think that's why they can, because he was recently released and he is available now before the frenzy begins.
07:59Interesting, though.
08:00I mean, how would you feel if Tyler Biotish was the center?
08:02I feel great about it.
08:03Because he'd be an upgrade.
08:05I don't know if Tyler Biotish is a great center, but I think he'd definitely be better than what we
08:10had last year.
08:10Yeah, that's one of the things you've got to keep in mind is that how much do you need to
08:15improve that spot to get the offense back to looking the way it did?
08:19He did go on to mention that there'd be centers available as day two options in the draft if they
08:24wanted to go that direction.
08:25The first name he mentioned was Florida's Jake Slaughter.
08:29Oh, I'm sorry.
08:30What was that name?
08:31Florida's Jake Slaughter, which Kang talked about back in November, I believe, in a blitz thingy.
08:40Which would be your earliest call ever.
08:42I'm just heaving him from half court now, guys.
08:44If one goes in, again.
08:46God, you're like the Bulls mascot.
08:48I know.
08:49But more importantly, yeah, that might have been the overhead too.
08:53Backwards half court shots.
08:55He did hit three in a row, right?
08:56He did hit three in a row.
08:57With a mascot uniform.
08:59More importantly, this is in direct contrast to the Tate Ratlidge thing, which I really can't believe is the plan.
09:05I don't think Tate Ratlidge Center is the plan.
09:08I think it's a possibility.
09:10But I feel like that's something that you'd have to have lots of work and practice and workouts to understand
09:16if that's even real.
09:18I mean, and they're not going to have any of that until after the draft.
09:23So, it doesn't seem like it's productive.
09:25All right.
09:25After spending the week at the Combine, Colton Pouncey listed on The Athletic a bunch of players that he thinks
09:31fits the Lions profile and would be possibilities at 17.
09:35We'll give you who that pool of players is today at 12-16 here on Carson Anderson on 97.1.
09:41We'll give you who that pool of players.
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