The Chicago Bears shipped off wide receiver Brandon Marshall to the New York Jets earlier this offseason. Even though the team signed Eddie Royal in free agency and is high on third-year WR Marquess Wilson, Chicago still needs to add another pass-catcher. You don't replace Marshall's production - third in receptions (773), fifth in receiving touchdowns (65), sixth in receiving yards (9,771) since entering the league - with spare parts, even with Alshon Jeffery in town.
"I would say the receiver position, we are looking at," new general manager Ryan Pace said. "We are exploring that in free agency, in the draft. There are guys, honestly, on our own roster we could see have ascending roles. We'll add talent to our entire roster. But, yeah, we are looking at receivers."
As far as free agency goes, the pickings are pretty slim at this point. The top remaining options are Dwayne Bowe, Greg Jennings, Michael Crabtree, Hakeem Nicks and Wes Welker. No one in that group is a big-impact player at this point but at least they won't have a steep learning curve and are proven commodities.
In the draft, the Bears have a bevy of attractive options. Although the team is generally expected to use the No. 7 overall pick on a defensive player, there are some tempting choices at WR. Alabama's Amari Cooper and West Virginia's Kevin White have both been mentioned as possibilities for the Oakland Raiders at No. 4. The Bears would undoubtedly be happy with either of them.
Regardless of how the team goes about it, it's clear that the bears are not done tweaking this roster.
"We're building this thing going forward," Pace said when asked how Marshall's absence may affect the locker room. "We have a lot of time, guys. Free agency's occurring as we're speaking. We have the draft going forward, as we're speaking. So we have a lot of time to continue to build the roster and build the chemistry and build the locker room. So to speak exactly on how [the Marshall trade] changes the locker room, I'm not too sure about that."
