Chicago Bears Rumors: Matt Slauson to be Traded?

The twitterverse got together and started rumbling with a rumor that Matt Slauson might be traded by the Chicago Bears to an undisclosed partner. This isn’t your traditional rumor, this is something that has slowly come together through a series of tweets that reaches this conclusion, not just a traditional Adam Schefter report. Let’s start with the signing of Ted Larsen. Larsen has been an under-performing guard for the Arizona Cardinals the last couple seasons. When the signing was made, everyone assumed that he was added to the roster to help bolster the depth behind Slauson and Kyle Long. This is where the twitter speculation began. Let’s start with Chicago Tribune Bears’ beat reporter, Brad Biggs who sent this tweet out after the Larsen signing:

This is nothing more than speculation of a Bears beat writer openly questioning what the long-term plan is for Ryan Pace and John Fox’s vision of the offensive line. Or is it? Aaron Leming who writes for Bear Report and brings a lot of great information to Bears’ fans via his twitter account followed up Biggs’ tweet with this:

What Leming is hinting at is that a lot of times beat writers catch wind of a story but, due to relationships with those inside the organization, can’t report it as information. So if Pace or Fox or someone higher up in the Bears organization told Biggs off the record about a potential trade, Biggs isn’t going to be able to report it, but he can speculate so if the trade does happen, it shows how plugged in he is with the franchise.

At this point, all we know is that the Bears signed Larsen and Biggs thinks Pace might have something up his sleeve. Enter ESPN NFL Insider Adam Caplan:

Alright, time out. Caplan tweets that Ted Larsen is going to start? When I saw this tweet my jaw dropped open. How on Earth is Larsen going to start over Kyle Long or Slauson? Let’s take a brief minute on Long. The Bears have been clear that Long is back to guard and that’s where they want him to stay. Long is arguably the best guard in the NFL and Pace is going to lock him up long term when that time comes. He is going nowhere. That makes us look at Slauson on the other side. Slauson is still locked up for two more years with his current contract and is coming off a tremendous season. His value is much higher than his pay rate on his current contract. He’s a great value to a team. There’s less than zero chance that Larsen would start over Slauson. So a simple conclusion is that Caplan is lost. Several other Bears’ fans had a similar thought and responded to Caplan’s tweet. Caplan went on to briefly clarify:

To be fair to Caplan, his information is usually very good. So while his information seems spotty in this case, it has to be considered. Some fans thought perhaps that meant Slauson moves to center and the Bears ship out Hroniss Grasu, but despite Grasu’s up and down rookie campaign, the Bears aren’t ready to punt on the idea of Grasu as their long-term answer at center.

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Put the puzzle together and it looks like Pace is shopping Slauson. My visceral reaction is that it’s an atrocious idea. This particular upcoming draft is a very weak draft class at guard, so perhaps Pace is floating Slauson out there to see what kind of return he can get. Slauson is now north of 30, so perhaps Pace wants to get younger. It’s difficult to gauge. Especially considering that Slauson turned 30 six weeks ago, it’s not like he’s 34 and breaking down.

It will be hard pressed to swallow a trade that just nets the Bears a draft pick for Slauson. If he is part of a bigger deal that lands the Bears a big fish, say New York Jets DE Muhammad Wilkerson, now that’s something Bears fans can get behind. It will be interesting to see if any of these rumors materialize and what Pace has up his sleeve. But everyone knows the old saying, where there’s smoke there’s fire- well, there is something smoldering at Halas Hall right now, that’s for sure.

Bill Zimmerman is an editor and featured writer for FanSided‘s BearGogglesOn. Like his Facebook page or follow him onTwitter for more news and interaction.