Gabriel will be the slot guy. Atlanta had Sanu, who is almost an H-Back masquerading as a WR. Of course Sanu played in the slot.
I'm not defending Sims or Wheaton, neither of those guys ever looked like more than depth players, and were very questionable signings at the time, especially Sims because at least Wheaton had the argument he was behind good players. I would also agree that letting Jeffery go for nothing was a terrible move. That said, non of those moves should have any bearing on Meredith. No team should make a move because they think its less bad than something else.
I don't see Meredith as anything special. He had a decent year in 2016, but that's all it was. Just decent. The guy had 4 games over 75 yards, all coming in games where the Bears got off script, for whatever reasons, and threw 40+ times. He also had 5 games under 30 yards. On top of that, he is coming off a major injury, and needs to learn a new offense, with a new QB. This isn't letting an elite player like Jeffery go, this is letting a role player go for a price they didn't deem him to be worth, and I can totally see where they are coming from, though I may have tendered him at the 2nd round level. I doubt I'd have matched the Saints offer that's for sure.
Honestly, I think Meredith falls into a similar boat as Kendall Wright. I'd have liked to keep him, but don't really care that he's gone. I'm a lot more upset about dumping a Pro Bowl G in Josh Sitton(and yes, keeping Sims) than I am about any other moves.
That is your opinion, and you may be correct. I wasn't saying White is going to all of a sudden play like a top-10 overall pick. What I said was, perhaps with an offensive minded coach, he can become a contributor, and that Nagy might think he can salvage a recent top-10 overall pick, and that plus, price, and other WR additions, may have led them to view Meredith as expendable.
That said, I'm expecting a day 2 pick at WR, maybe Pace/Nagy have a prospect they really like in that area, and wanted to open a spot for them, who knows?
ETA: I hope you are feeling more positive tomorrow or whenever, you've kinda been the optimist of this thread.