The Curious Case Of Cameron Meredith

 

Suppose for a moment that there are two potential wide receivers that could potentially start for a football team.

Both wide receivers are coming off of horrible leg injuries. Both also have multiple years left in them though.

For all intents and purposes, both of these wide receivers have a natural ability that would lend itself to your team. They both have the potential to be one of the best wide receivers for your young, developing quarterback to throw to.

Logically, you make the only decision any rational person in your position would make.

You sign one of the wide receivers to a $40 million contract. The other receiver you let sign with another team for $10 million.

If you went through that whole scenario and have yet to see the potential issues with the logic used, then congratulations, you might be the general manager of the Chicago Bears.

For the rest of us though, I think it’s fairly clear that Ryan Pace’s decision to let Cameron Meredith leave is a minor disaster.

Meredith, in spite of having a knee injury which was admittedly worse than the newly signed Allen Robinson’s, was still a young receiver who had quite a bit of potential.

In fact, it was enough potential for Sean Payton to decide that his star quarterback could make good use of a player like Meredith.

Why did Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace not feel the same when it came down to their Drew Brees in the making?

I think these are questions which, while worth asking, probably won’t be met with many answers. Right now, the general consensus appears to be that their was some health concerns about Meredith’s knee which greatly affected his value in the Bears management eyes.

I’ll grant that it’s entirely possible though that Meredith isn’t on an optimal recovery track. It’s possible Meredith might not look like he did prior to his injury.

Even if this were all to be true, it still doesn’t answer why the Bears let him go.

Right now, the Bears appear to be on track to resign Kevin White. Someone who has floundered with injury problems for multiple years now.

Why then is White allowed to stay and Meredith given the boot?

It could have to do with the new offensive scheme of Matt Nagy’s. Maybe Nagy feels like the perpetually injuries White could provide something Meredith could not in his new scheme.

While this explanation sounds troublesome at best, given the history of the Bears favorite draft bust, so it may prove more useful to look at it as a freeing up of roster space and funds for a shiny new wideout from the draft.

The problem is, as it would turn out, there’s a distinct lack of quality wideouts for the Bears to use their first pick on.

At the moment, Calvin Ridley is about the only player warranting such considerations. Their appears to be no consensus surrounding Ridley’s first round potential though, making him a seemingly questionable choice to employ as a developing quarterbacks primary or secondary target.

Even if the Bears were to draft a wideout later in the draft, as many seem to expect, it still doesn’t mesh with the ideology management seems to have going into the scene.

The belief appears to have been that anything and everything should be done to ensure the success of Mitch Trubisky. Everything except ensuring a quality receiving corp apparently.

A second or third round wide receiver doesn’t seem like the kind of player we want to be talking about when we discuss the person who the Bears need Trubisky to be able trust as soon as possible.

This leaves us back at our current dilemma. Why did Ryan Pace, Matt Nagy, and the rest of Chicago Bears management decide to let Cameron Meredith go for just $10 million?

Unfortunately, as a candy commercial narrator would say, the world may never know.