2021 Bears season

[WrigleyField 22]

Most teams still seem to want to put a vet up those first few games. Even from last years class, I think Burrow was the only day 1 starter. But teams will make it very easy for their starting vets to be Wally Pipp'd.

 

Oh Dalton had a hang nail before week 5. Guess it's Fields' job now.

 

Yeah I just worry about the fact that Nagy was on the Chiefs when they sat Mahomes his rookie year (besides Week 17). He's already alluded to this in press conferences.

 

 

I dont think anyone thought Mahomes was nearly as polished as Fields is, however. I think the pressure will be to move Fields into the starter role asap

Didn't a lot of the things that Mahomes supposedly had to work on basically end up being totally moot because he was just so good?

 

So basically;

1. Adjusting from Air Raid to a Pro offense (he hadn't ever ran a huddle!)

- Probably didn't need a whole season for that

2. Things like mechanics to which he basically responded with a "lol no I'm going to throw from 20 different arm slots, from my back foot, and sometimes even facing the opposite end zone because I can"

Edited May 3, 2021 by WrigleyField 22

[minnesotacubsfan]

 

Yeah I just worry about the fact that Nagy was on the Chiefs when they sat Mahomes his rookie year (besides Week 17). He's already alluded to this in press conferences.

 

 

I dont think anyone thought Mahomes was nearly as polished as Fields is, however. I think the pressure will be to move Fields into the starter role asap

Didn't a lot of the things that Mahomes supposedly had to work on basically end up being totally moot because he was just so good?

 

So basically;

1. Adjusting from Air Raid to a Pro offense (he hadn't ever ran a huddle!)

- Probably didn't need a while season for that

2. Things like mechanics to which he basically responded with a "lol no I'm going to throw from 20 different arm slots, from my back foot, and sometimes even facing the opposite end zone because I can"

 

well, yes, and Smith was playing very well

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I'm torn between my dislike of Pace and my dislike of Leno truthers

[WrigleyField 22]

I'm torn between my dislike of Pace and my dislike of Leno truthers

No such thing as a Leno truther. Just contrarians who probably complained about Leno all through the past 2 years until the day he was cut.

 

Decent portion of the fan base also just seems terrified at "ruining" Jenkins, but most of what I've read has me pretty bullish on his ability to play LT just fine. I admittedly am a bit of a "The Blind Side is Overblown" truther myself though, so YMMV.

[UMFan83]

I'm torn between my dislike of Pace and my dislike of Leno truthers

No such thing as a Leno truther. Just contrarians who probably complained about Leno all through the past 2 years until the day he was cut.

 

Decent portion of the fan base also just seems terrified at "ruining" Jenkins, but most of what I've read has me pretty bullish on his ability to play LT just fine. I admittedly am a bit of a "The Blind Side is Overblown" truther myself though, so YMMV.

 

Plus this Juan Castillo is supposed to be highly regarded for developing O-Line prospects, so time to put it to test. There's no denying the Bears line improved over the course of last season so I have high hopes for what he can do with the new guys.

[WrigleyField 22]

A reminder of how well Alex Smith did to ensure Mahomes didn't see the field until Week 17.

 

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/S/SmitAl03/gamelog/2017/

 

I don't think Dalton is going to Glennon it up. But Fields is more ready that Trubisky was, and Dalton also isn't going to play at a Pro Bowl level, nor is he in year 5 of Nagy's system. Dalton's head start in the system is like 2 months. Really the more I think on it, Week 1 wouldn't surprise me, but NFL coaches are a notoriously conservative bunch.

[minnesotacubsfan]

I cant imagine being a coach and hanging on to Andy Dalton when I have Justin Fields standing there

[Tryptamine]

With the turnover on the OL, I'd want to see them prove that the QB wont get killed before I put the hope of my franchise out there. Especially since most write ups said Fields holds the ball for longer than most.

[jumbo]

With the turnover on the OL, I'd want to see them prove that the QB wont get killed before I put the hope of my franchise out there. Especially since most write ups said Fields holds the ball for longer than most.

 

Smart move to consider the OL talent/execution and opportunity to gel before getting FIelds a bunch of shots from free runners.

 

Also, Fields reportedly held the ball so long because OSU's offense was built around deep shots that required more time for receivers to get downfield. I think Nagy will have a lot of short-medium passes, and FIelds will have the ability to roll out/move the pocket and create more time for those routes. I do get concerned about the hits he might take running a lot, but hopefully he will have the instincts to slide and get out of bounds and avoid most of those hits.

[David]

[David]

 

[raw]

Not to look too far ahead, because I'm super excited about this season whether the team is a contender or not, but I was putting Ryan Pace in perspective the other day and it's pretty interesting. Despite trading 2 firsts for Khalil Mack; Trubisky, White and Shaheen being early pick busts; and all the trades up for Fields, Jenkins, Miller, and Trubisky.....Pace has actually built a team that has the makings of a strong homegrown contender.

 

If you assume no-brainer cuts next offseason of Foles, Trevathan and Quinn; and re-signings of guys like Daniels and Nichols, the Bears will have 27 of 31 players under contract for 2022 who were either drafted or signed as UDFAs by the Bears. Just Mack, Blackson, Edwards, and Attaochu would be under contract from outside organizations. Throw in their 2nd, 3rd and 5th round picks next year (don't have 1st and 4th, not counting on 6th or 7th rounders) and the Bears have a solid base of 30 of 34 roster spots tied to homegrown players. If Anthony Miller turns things around & re-signs (and hasn't burnt all his bridges) and the Bears continue to sign guys like Bush, DHC and O'Donnell to 1-year deals, that number goes up to 34 of 38. League average is 60% homegrown roster (33 of 55 players).

 

Additionally, the Bears would potentially have impact players at each position.

 

QB- Fields, RB- Montgomery/Cohen, WR- Mooney, TE- Kmet, OT- Jenkins- IOL- Whitehair/Daniels, DL- Goldman/Nichols, OLB- Mack, ILB- Smith, CB- Johnson, S- Jackson

 

If the Bears can get 1 or 2 breakouts from any of the Day 3 picks or UDFAs the last couple years (especially between Graham, Vildor, or Shelley at CB), the depth will be in pretty good shape. Throw in the cap room to add 2 or 3 big time FAs (depending on if they can re-sign Robinson) and this already "not terrible" team could become a contender in a hurry. Granted, this hinges on Fields and Jenkins living up to their potential, but the Bears certainly feel like they're in a much better place than they were this time 2017.

[UMFan83]

 

 

Can’t believe I’m enjoying watching Michigan get completely lit up.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Tarik Cohen's twin brother found dead after apparently fleeing from the cops and climbing some equipment which electrocuted him. As a father of twins, I take great delight in seeing the symbiosis between my children and I cannot imagine how they would get on without the other if a tragedy were to occur. Painful just to think about.

[raw]

Tarik Cohen's twin brother found dead after apparently fleeing from the cops and climbing some equipment which electrocuted him. As a father of twins, I take great delight in seeing the symbiosis between my children and I cannot imagine how they would get on without the other if a tragedy were to occur. Painful just to think about.

 

Is the "fleeing from the cops" thing confirmed? It feels like if he was fleeing from the cops, he wouldn't have been missing for 3 days. Wouldn't the cops have found him?

[We Got The Whole 9]

Tarik Cohen's twin brother found dead after apparently fleeing from the cops and climbing some equipment which electrocuted him. As a father of twins, I take great delight in seeing the symbiosis between my children and I cannot imagine how they would get on without the other if a tragedy were to occur. Painful just to think about.

 

Is the "fleeing from the cops" thing confirmed? It feels like if he was fleeing from the cops, he wouldn't have been missing for 3 days. Wouldn't the cops have found him?

Well I guess I should have said "allegedly". I was just going off of this initial tweet

[jersey cubs fan]

[UMFan83]

 

So....national TV game, on the road, against the best pass rush in the league? Sounds like a great place to debut the statue of Andy Dalton over the rookie QB everyone wants to see.

[raw]

I will never understand thinking that you don't want to start a rookie against a tough defense, or on the road, or in primetime, or whatever factor that has to do with anything other than his ability to play. The Bears have a tough schedule this year (on paper) and if they're waiting for the perfect opportunity to throw him on the field, what happens if they don't play Detroit (or similar team) until Week 13?

 

Everyone is excited about Fields because he does have big time talent, but he also has big time experience. He's the anti Trubisky who started 1 season, went to a mediocre bowl game and lost on that semi-big stage. If the Bears had drafted Trey Lance, I'd understand the hesitation to have him play right away (though it still doesn't make sense to me that a player learns so much from watching someone else play), but this is Justin Fields. This is why you picked him.

 

It's the same thing with Teven Jenkins. Bears fans bitched and moaned about Leno for like the last 3 years, yet when they finally cut him everybody is panicking about Jenkins playing LT and not his more familiar position of RT, despite the fact that it's the same damn position. I understand not wanting the rookie to struggle and not wanting your franchise QB put in danger by a bad LT, but if Jenkins is a bad LT....he was going to be a bad RT too. Maybe that's not as bad because that's not the blindside, but also if your QB is taking big devastating blindside hits, his pocket awareness isn't what it needs to be in the first place. If rookies are bad, hiding them is just going to delay what's going to happen anyway.

[jersey cubs fan]

I completely disagree with your assessment. You can ruin rookies by throwing them into the fire. It's easy to say that if he sucks from the start he was going to suck regardless, because the baseline is still that player sucking.

 

Especially this year when there is limited offseason work available AND when they are throwing out rookies on the offensive line which is still a work in progress, you do not want to throw your rookie QB to the wolves in week 1. You have to have 100% confidence that Jenkins can handle his job before you can throw Fields into his. And you cannot have that confidence until Jenkins is on the field.

 

I do not understand lamenting the loss of Leno so you can start Jenkins right away. I'm fine with that move. But Jenkins and Fields on day one with no real running game to fall back on and extremely limited weapons is a recipe for disaster.

[WrigleyField 22]

I will never understand thinking that you don't want to start a rookie against a tough defense, or on the road, or in primetime, or whatever factor that has to do with anything other than his ability to play. The Bears have a tough schedule this year (on paper) and if they're waiting for the perfect opportunity to throw him on the field, what happens if they don't play Detroit (or similar team) until Week 13?

 

Everyone is excited about Fields because he does have big time talent, but he also has big time experience. He's the anti Trubisky who started 1 season, went to a mediocre bowl game and lost on that semi-big stage. If the Bears had drafted Trey Lance, I'd understand the hesitation to have him play right away (though it still doesn't make sense to me that a player learns so much from watching someone else play), but this is Justin Fields. This is why you picked him.

 

It's the same thing with Teven Jenkins. Bears fans bitched and moaned about Leno for like the last 3 years, yet when they finally cut him everybody is panicking about Jenkins playing LT and not his more familiar position of RT, despite the fact that it's the same damn position. I understand not wanting the rookie to struggle and not wanting your franchise QB put in danger by a bad LT, but if Jenkins is a bad LT....he was going to be a bad RT too. Maybe that's not as bad because that's not the blindside, but also if your QB is taking big devastating blindside hits, his pocket awareness isn't what it needs to be in the first place. If rookies are bad, hiding them is just going to delay what's going to happen anyway.

100% to all of this. NFL coaches and fans are needlessly conservative. And they end up making things up. I saw someone claim that ideally you don't start someone at LT because it's the "hardest" position in the line. And when I looked up the 10 highest paid LTs, 8 of the 10 were year 1 starters at LT and the other 2, year 2 starters at LT. (there's probably some survivorship/selection bias there, but still)

 

For QBs, unless there is some mechanical overhaul you think needs to happen, which obviously comes with its own risks, the guy should be out there as soon as he can handle the full playbook at the latest. And based on what we've heard with Fields that shouldnt be an issue (besides Dalton only has like a 1.5 month headstart in the O).

[jersey cubs fan]

100% to all of this. NFL coaches and fans are needlessly conservative. And they end up making things up. I saw someone claim that ideally you don't start someone at LT because it's the "hardest" position in the line. And when I looked up the 10 highest paid LTs, 8 of the 10 were year 1 starters at LT and the other 2, year 2 starters at LT. (there's probably some survivorship/selection bias there, but still)

 

Probably? Hah.

[jersey cubs fan]

Anyway, Bears Rams has always felt like a good matchup because the Bears can more or less shut down a Goff led offense and stay in the game. But Stafford is going to light them up, right? They have to be getting a touchdown in that one, maybe more.

[raw]

I completely disagree with your assessment. You can ruin rookies by throwing them into the fire. It's easy to say that if he sucks from the start he was going to suck regardless, because the baseline is still that player sucking.

 

Especially this year when there is limited offseason work available AND when they are throwing out rookies on the offensive line which is still a work in progress, you do not want to throw your rookie QB to the wolves in week 1. You have to have 100% confidence that Jenkins can handle his job before you can throw Fields into his. And you cannot have that confidence until Jenkins is on the field.

 

I do not understand lamenting the loss of Leno so you can start Jenkins right away. I'm fine with that move. But Jenkins and Fields on day one with no real running game to fall back on and extremely limited weapons is a recipe for disaster.

 

The point was more of you can't look at the schedule and say, "oh we can't start Fields because Aaron Donald is on the other team, and it's on the road and in primetime, it may be too much for the rookie". The 2nd paragraph was more of a general statement about people wanting a rookie to sit simply because he's a rookie. Fans and coaches, including our very own Nagy who keeps talking about how Mahomes sitting helped him, think this way and there's really no semblance of proof that sitting for the sake of sitting actually does anything positive or negative. Like Mitch didn't suck because he was thrown in Week 5 instead of sitting all season as originally planned.

 

I would mostly disagree that you can ruin rookies, but I do believe there have been extreme cases (David Carr the most glaring one) where rookies have been ruined by what they are surrounded by (coaches, teammates, bad OL, bad WRs). I don't think the Bears are that much of a disaster that they will ruin Fields by throwing him in week 1 vs. week 14. Obviously, you wait until he's completely ready as a QB but I think it's a dangerous proposition to wait until Jenkins is ready. There's a chance Jenkins can never handle his job. He could be just a bad player. You can't keep Fields off the field because your rookie tackle can't play. That's like sitting Cutler until Chris Williams proved he could handle his job. Obviously, it's the line as a whole, but Cutler's line was pretty bad pretty much the whole time he was here. Granted, he wasn't an inexperienced rookie but I think the point remains. Waiting on the OL to solidify is similar to waiting for a home game against an easy opponent. Those have nothing to do with the QBs ability to run the offense correctly (successfully is a different story).

[WrigleyField 22]

I completely disagree with your assessment. You can ruin rookies by throwing them into the fire. It's easy to say that if he sucks from the start he was going to suck regardless, because the baseline is still that player sucking.

 

Especially this year when there is limited offseason work available AND when they are throwing out rookies on the offensive line which is still a work in progress, you do not want to throw your rookie QB to the wolves in week 1. You have to have 100% confidence that Jenkins can handle his job before you can throw Fields into his. And you cannot have that confidence until Jenkins is on the field.

 

I do not understand lamenting the loss of Leno so you can start Jenkins right away. I'm fine with that move. But Jenkins and Fields on day one with no real running game to fall back on and extremely limited weapons is a recipe for disaster.

 

The point was more of you can't look at the schedule and say, "oh we can't start Fields because Aaron Donald is on the other team, and it's on the road and in primetime, it may be too much for the rookie". The 2nd paragraph was more of a general statement about people wanting a rookie to sit simply because he's a rookie. Fans and coaches, including our very own Nagy who keeps talking about how Mahomes sitting helped him, think this way and there's really no semblance of proof that sitting for the sake of sitting actually does anything positive or negative. Like Mitch didn't suck because he was thrown in Week 5 instead of sitting all season as originally planned.

 

I would mostly disagree that you can ruin rookies, but I do believe there have been extreme cases (David Carr the most glaring one) where rookies have been ruined by what they are surrounded by (coaches, teammates, bad OL, bad WRs). I don't think the Bears are that much of a disaster that they will ruin Fields by throwing him in week 1 vs. week 14. Obviously, you wait until he's completely ready as a QB but I think it's a dangerous proposition to wait until Jenkins is ready. There's a chance Jenkins can never handle his job. He could be just a bad player. You can't keep Fields off the field because your rookie tackle can't play. That's like sitting Cutler until Chris Williams proved he could handle his job. Obviously, it's the line as a whole, but Cutler's line was pretty bad pretty much the whole time he was here. Granted, he wasn't an inexperienced rookie but I think the point remains. Waiting on the OL to solidify is similar to waiting for a home game against an easy opponent. Those have nothing to do with the QBs ability to run the offense correctly (successfully is a different story).

 

Definitely. This isn't an expansion franchise line that is going to be in front of the QB, even if it turns out Jenkins sucks.