Bears salary gap guru close signing with new NFL team Due To…

Former Bears salary gap guru signs on with new NFL team originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

Former Bears salary cap point person Joey Laine has a new job. The Seahawks announced on Wednesday that they hired Laine to work as their new vice president of football administration.

Laine followed former Bears GM Ryan Pace from New Orleans to Chicago back in 2015 and spent seven seasons working as the team’s director of football administration. In that role he both acted as the team’s lead contract negotiator for players and salary cap manager.

Last season, Laine worked as a salary cap analyst for the Packers.

The Bears hired Matt Feinstein to replace Laine as their director of football administration in February 2022.

Dallas mayor Eric Johnson seems determined to bring the Chiefs home.

The franchise started as the AFL’s Dallas Texans, before surrendering the city to the NFL’s Cowboys and moving to Kansas City in 1963.

On the heels of the landslide decision by Jackson County, Missouri voters to reject the extension of a sales tax to help pay for the renovation of Arrowhead Stadium, Johnson is openly courting the Chiefs back to Dallas.

Via Lukas Weese of TheAthletic.com, Johnson called it a “serious opportunity” for the Chiefs to solve their stadium situation.

“The connections are so deep, the history is so rich,” Johnson said. “We actually could put together the deals that would make sense for them to get them here.”

Johnson declined to say whether he has spoken to Chiefs owner Clark Hunt about a possible relocation to Dallas.

“I’m not really at liberty to say other than I have a good open line of communication with Clark Hunt,” Johnson said. “And that line of communication remains.”

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones surely wouldn’t want another team in the area, especially if it wouldn’t be playing in his stadium. Johnson seems to be optimistic that Dallas will eventually be deemed big enough for two teams.

“When the NFL looks at the next round of expansion, they will not find an American city where there is not an NFL franchise currently that will be a more lucrative or faster-growing market to put a team,” Johnson said.

Johnson made a separate case for sharing the market, one that will cater to Jones’s ego.

“You never say never because he’s a businessman and he’s in the business of making money,” Johnson said. “There is a strong argument to make that the Cowboys’ franchise value is not tied to the city it plays in or is connected with. It’s an international phenomenon at this point.”

He’s right. The Dallas Cowboys will continue to draw massive crowds and TV audiences regardless of whether Dallas has two or 20 teams.

If/when the NFL grows and/or reshuffles, it’s fair to evaluate current markets for the potential addition of a team. Chicago and Dallas would seem to be the most likely candidates.

The Chiefs’ lease runs through 2030. Which gives Kansas City and surrounding areas plenty of time to come up with a way to keep the Chiefs local. If that can’t happen, it’s fair to wonder where the Chiefs could otherwise go. Dallas should at least be on the radar screen of possibilities until the Chiefs have a clear answer to their sudden stadium uncertainty.

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Jayden Daniels Visit Plans Intensify Rumors About Bears’ QB Pick..

The Chicago Bears are still a few weeks away from officially turning in their No. 1 overall draft pick and selecting a new franchise quarterback, but their choice is becoming clearer after the latest update about Jayden Daniels’ visit schedule.

According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Daniels — the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner out of LSU — has official Top 30 visits on the books with “two of the top three teams” in the 2024 NFL draft, beginning with his visit to the New England Patriots on April 8.

Rapoport also previously noted that Daniels has scheduled visits with the Washington Commanders (No. 2), New York Giants (No. 6), Denver Broncos (No. 12) and Las Vegas Raiders (No. 13). The implication, of course, is that Daniels will not be meeting with the Bears, who appear to have locked in on USC’s Caleb Williams at No. 1 overall.

The Bears hold the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 draft and are certain to draft a new quarterback after trading away 2023 starter Justin Fields to Pittsburgh in mid-March. Over the past month, though, their approach to scouting the quarterback class has shed light on which target — Williams — has captured their attention over the others.

While Bears general manager Ryan Poles attended the pro days of both Daniels and Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy, he did not fly to North Carolina to see Drake Maye throw. He has also not invited any of the three quarterbacks to Halas Hall for an official visit, at least based on the information insiders have provided through the first week of April.

Unless something changes, Chicago’s intentions at No. 1 overall seem clear.

‘Very Clear’ Caleb Williams Wants to Play for Bears

The Bears hosted Williams for his Top 30 visit last Wednesday, April 3, treating him to dinner the night before and using his visit to introduce him to some of their veteran players and coaches who did not fly out to Los Angeles to attend his March 20 pro day. Rapoport described the vibe of the visit as more of a “meet-and-greet” with the team.

Afterward, Rapoport confirmed that Williams has no plans to visit with any additional teams during the pre-draft process and that he “would, in fact, like to be in Chicago.”

“I think it is very clear that Caleb Williams would, in fact, like to be in Chicago despite a whole bunch of commentary and speculation otherwise,” Rapoport told NFL Network on April 4. “It does seem the Bears are honing in on Caleb Williams.

“Obviously, [there is] nothing firm, no announcement, nothing official, but that seems to be the direction they are heading now. And it seems that Caleb Williams would also like that, so [he is taking] one Top 30 visit, then he is done.”

Can Jayden Daniels or Other QBs Still Win Over Bears?

As of April 7, the media consensus is that Williams will land with the Bears at No. 1 overall, but could something still change Chicago’s mind in the next few weeks?

Extremely likely, but not impossible.

There are essentially two long-shot reasons why the Bears might take another path. The first would be Williams saying he does not want to play in Chicago, similar to what Eli Manning did to force himself from the then-San Diego Chargers to the New York Giants during the 2004 NFL draft. So-called experts, such as Robert Griffin III, have urged Williams to take this path, but there is nothing tangible to suggest he wants to do that.