Welcome into the Under Center podcast and emergency Cameron Meredith podcast, if you will.

I'm Slavko Bekiewicz, alongside Paul Aspen.

Two producers here at NBC Sports Chicago, we're joined by our Bears insider, J.J. Stankovits, to break down why we think the bears didn't match the two-year offer that

the Saints gave to receiver Cameron Meredith and where the bears go from here so jay let's just

start with the initial question what does this mean for the bears why didn't they match it

according to adam schaefter there was some concern about the ACL and MCL injury Meredith kind of unsure if he'd be ready for training camp in the start of the season.

How much of that really factored into the Bears decision to not match the Saints offer?

Yeah, I have to think that was the reason and pretty much, you know, the biggest one is that if they weren't confident that Meredith's knee has fully healed and that it's going to be okay, then, yeah, you don't want to guarantee a guy $5.4 million over two years.

The interesting thing here is now, I mean, the bears now have a needle-wide receiver that they didn't necessarily have before, at least on paper, if you were penciling Meredith in into the depth chart.

So you have to find a way now to fill that, whether it's signing one of the last remaining guys, like you guys, like you said, like a, you know,

a Dantra Linden or like, like, Philip Dorset or someone like that. And then you still probably

have to draft someone regardless of what you do at the end of free agency, you know,

and this kind of last stretch of free agency here, I think it probably means a second round pick for a wide receiver who's in play,

and maybe that then bumps the need for guard a little bit lower down.

Maybe they just move forward with Eric Cush and Earl Watford,

opposite Kyle Long at guard, or, you know, Heronus Garcewitz Center,

White-Hare-and-Long as as regards, you know, one of those combinations.

Or maybe it means that they don't draft the young cornerback to kind of groom behind

Prince Mukumara and Kyle Fuller.

So a lot of different things in play here.

The draft has the biggest implication because they're going to have to take a wide

receiver if they weren't already, and they might have to take a wide receiver if they weren't already.

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