*Chicago's Trade Deadline Failure

[Jonny2x]

It was sad to see the trade deadline come and go in Chicago without any moves made by our front office. It was easy to see the team isn’t as strong as it was the previous season, when we secured the number one seed and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. There was some turnover in the front office mid-season and it may have caused Chicago the opportunity to look for some good trade fits.
The Butcher defense lost a couple of key names this past off season to free agency. It was expected the defense would slip a bit but the offense could make up for it by growing stronger together, one year later. Surprisingly this was not the case at all. The defense came together and was even more lockdown than last season, only losing the points allowed title in week 13 mostly due to very poor offensive play leaving the defense in bad positions the entire second half.
The offense on the other hand just didn’t seem to be as in sync as it was last season despite improvement by Rose Jenkins at the quarterback position and an improvement in efficiency by last year’s running back of the year, Sam Torenson. Kazimir Oles was his regular dynamic self, averaging nearly 20 yards a catch again and electrifying the crowds with his runbacks! There was, however, a very noticeable difference in the second receiver position as Ricky Adams had near the same amount of catches but almost 300 yards less receiving.
I believe this is where the front office should have been targeting a trade. A perfect fit would have been to make a run at the ageless wonder Vladimir Fyodorovich from the New Orleans Second Line. I believe he could have been had at a decent price since New Orleans was making a push for the #1 overall pick in the draft anyway and is looking to do a quick, on-the-fly rebuild which I am sure Fyodorovich does not factor into.
Fyodorovich and Oles working in tandem could have really pushed our offense up a notch and provided for a much stronger finish to the season. The offensive struggles were obvious as 4 of our 5 losses we scored 17 points or less.
If the Second line would have had too high of an asking price then I think an excellent trade option would have been Dan Wright. He is stuck in the shadow of Cameron Olsen as far as receiving goes and might have been available at the right price. His value would have surely come in his leadership and especially his run blocking prowess. Upgrading from the aging Declan Harp to Dan Wright in the run game would have pushed the number one rushing attack in the league to even greater heights. If the Butchers had a tight end who could set the edge the way Dan Wright does play in and play out I believe Torenson would be seen with many more 30-50 yard runs. He has the speed to get there, it just hasn’t been blocked very well this season.
A minor third option at the trade deadline would have been a bit harder to make work due to the cohesiveness of offensive lines but M. Eat should have lost his starting job at some point this season. He was an average run blocker at best. He gave up a team leading 5 sacks and egregious 30 hurries! He also led the team in penalties by a large margin. The fact that he was even starting showed just how thin the Butcher offensive line was overall.
We are still hopeful to make a long playoff run, unlike last season but it would have been great to do so with just one more bullet in the chamber!