Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times revealed last week that the Chicago Bears are planning to make a run at free agent tight end Austin Hooper. The 26-year old is fresh off a career year in Atlanta where he had 786 yards and six touchdowns. Expectations are he’ll get a sizable contract when free agency begins on March 18th. Projections have it going north of $10 million per year. Is he worth that to the Bears?
No, he is not.
Look the need for tight end help is glaring for this team. That’s obvious. Adam Shaheen was a disaster in 2019. Trey Burton couldn’t stay healthy. Nobody else was able to step up after those two exited the picture. Given how vital tight ends are in the Matt Nagy offense, it makes sense Hooper would be high on the priority list of targets.
Yet the reality is he is a B-grade player who is about to get A-grade money. Hooper will be paid more than Travis Kelce and Zach Ertz. Is he better than them? Not even close. The Bears do need help, but they also need to be smart about how they find it. They already overpaid to get Burton. Doing the same with Hooper won’t solve anything.
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Bears can do just as good as Austin Hooper for cheaper
Right now the Bears have $26 million in salary cap space. Handing more than a third of that (38.4%) to a good-not-great player is not smart business. Especially given the other needs they have to address. Particularly quarterback. They would be much better served to sift through the second-tier market for options who might be overlooked. One name they should have eyes on is Tyler Eifert.
The former 1st round pick of the Cincinnati Bengals was a rising star in 2015, catching 13 touchdown passes. Then his career got sidetracked by a string of brutal injuries that saw him miss a total of 37 games across four seasons. Most felt his NFL career was over. Eifert disagreed. He battled back to full health and started every game in 2019, catching 43 passes for 436 yards and three touchdowns for an undermanned Bengals offense.
He’s 30-years old and a free agent as well. He’ll be much cheaper than Hooper or even Eric Ebron. The Bears could bring him in without breaking the bank and still have plenty of room to make moves elsewhere.
Yes, there is a risk involved here with the health concerns, but that is a short-term issue. If it happens, he’s gone in 2021. Handing $40-50 million to Hooper could end up setting them back years if they go through with it.
