BigbadB

Outside of WR, I feel Center is the next biggest hole on the roster. Kramer gets to see if he can be a serviceable backup next year or if the Bears need to draft one and sign one this offseason. My bet is the Bears will have two new Centers on the roster next year.

This is probably the last thing I'd want to see Poles do with this offseason. There is speculation that the first pick could net 3 firsts and a couple of day 2 picks. MHJ is good, but he's not better than the next best WR and 4 other day one and day two draft picks.

Good call.

I'm dropping DirecTV as soon as our fiber optic is done installing. Might not be done before football season next year. I had YouTubeTV for awhile in California and I liked it. I think the only work around is not being able to get Marquee on YouTube, but I think I'm far enough away from Chicago to get Cubs on MLBTV. I think NBC Sports Chicago is available as well, but I'm not positive on that. Although, I'm hearing that the contract with the Blackhawks and Bulls is almost over. Not sure what happens after that.

The "let's put games in other countries and air games on streaming channels" thing makes things pretty ugly as well.

Doubt Williams would be alone. If you went Williams with the first pick, I'd imagine that the other pick would be designated for WR, whether that's Nabers, Odunze or the like. The Bears absolutely need a first round WR regardless of what they do with the other pick.

MHJ absolutely cannot be the first pick. The receiver class is way too strong to simply take the easy way out and select a receiver with the first pick, while ignoring the value the first pick brings to desperate teams. Outside of that, I think I'll be fine just letting Poles work his magic. He either: A) wants "his" QB and uses that pick on the best QB in the draft, while also trading Fields for pick(s). B) soft trades down one or two spots, picks up picks and takes MHJ. C) take a haul of picks to move down several places, then draft among the top remaining WR and one of the second tier QB's to be Justin's understudy/replacement. I'm actually down with any of those scenarios, although I'd probably still lean towards (A). Fields dropped back and surveyed the field better against Atl. He made more accurate throws. He tested the secondary numerous times. He limited his turnovers, and he put points on the board. If he played like that all year, I don't think we would even be considering a QB in this upcoming draft. And Fields having the team and fan support might make it hard to just trade him away if he has a great game against GB. And finally, Claypool ended up with less yards receiving with Miami than he had with the Bears this year. I loved the trade at the time, but boy does that one look horrible now. Hell, Claypool may just be out of football entirely next year.

So I was watching the Jets/Cleveland game Thursday. There was a play that was being reviewed and I don't remember what for now, but the strange thing that occurred during that review was they determined the play to stand as called, however, in doing the review they noticed that the defense had 12 men on the field and they called a penalty and moved them 5 yards. There was a guy who wasn't completely off the field on the snap. I was a bit shocked they did that. I don't think I've ever seen a penalty called in this manner well after the play was over, and I also don't think that should be a thing. Anyone else see that?

If he's a system QB, bring that damn system to Chicago! Cuz they need a system.

The dead cap hits for Murray and Herbert likely deter any trade considerations. You are way better off drafting your own franchise QB than trading for someone else's more often than not. The beauty of what the Bears are building right now is cheap talent at many of the skilled positions. Trading for a 40m+ QB will put them right back in the battle of managing cap space and watching the other talented guys walk because too much money is allocated to such a small percentage of the roster. Part of Mahomes' problem right now is lack of talent in comparison to his "cheap" years. Well, guess who gobbled up all that cash that gets used for the better talent? And his salary will go up another 20m next year. They can still win because he is that special of a player. But, it does make it harder for him to do so. The cap pretty much ends dynasty discussion in the NFL, unless you get that rare player who can dominate regardless of the situation he is put in. You basically have a window of time, and that window can be extended if you manage your cash flow and talent levels or finding that diamond in the rough. That's where management is probably most valuable and why you need good management and coaching. New coaches, new QB and keep doing everything else they are doing to build the foundation is the path I think they should be on. Poles picked the wrong coaches, and now I think he'll be better for it. Get some guys with stronger track records and please do not change the damn defensive scheme back to 3-4 at this time. Does it have to be Caleb or Drake? Possibly not. I wouldn't be opposed to trading for a haul, especially with a team that will be bad again next year while still getting the guy Poles draft team covets the most. If Daniels can easily build some muscle and weight to be the guy, I'd be all about MHJ and Daniels or Daniels and Nabers or Odunze or Coleman with the first two picks after a trade down. Trade Fields and extend Moore and Johnson and fix the other holes on the roster. Looking at WR Free Agents this coming offseason, I don't see a lot of promise there. Maybe some other decent names will get thrown in the mix due to cap restraints, but Tyler Boyd seems like the only one who might realistically be a target this offseason. So I think the Bears definitely need to draft a WR early this year, but they probably need a better veteran while they groom the rookie. Sorry for the ramble. Several thoughts until I check back in tomorrow.

Exactly. And a team like Minnesota can make a guy like Fields look terrible because of this. They will game plan to make Fields look terrible with blitz packages out the ying yang. I never understood what Nate Davis' missing time was all about this season, but that probably won't be happening again this offseason, so he should be more prepared. Both OT's are still learning on the job and will be another year experienced. Teven will have the whole offseason to try to get healthy. Draft or sign a C that can meld well with this unit and I think it will be good enough to go into 2024 provided you have someone else at QB. The sacks and penalties will drop significantly with a QB who can get rid of the ball faster.

I'm thinking they do keep him. They just paid the last HC to not coach the team, and I don't think that's ownerships favorite thing to do. The defense has been pretty solid and one more offseason of adds could make this a powerhouse defense once again. They probably start over on the offensive side of the ball, and I would think this draft could convince some respected OC's to want to be here now that the rebuild is closer to complete.

It didn't actually completely come out. If you watch the play in slow motion, his white glove is sort of wrapped around the ball as he goes into his roll. As you see the ball touching the ground on the other side of his roll, his white gloved hand is still got ahold of the ball, but it's hard to see it because the background behind his white glove is the white sideline. I wouldn't say it was a convincing catch and I'm not positive that they even considered the glove part of that play, as the announcers were suggesting that they deemed him down by contact before the ball came up loose. I just felt from what I was seeing, that I understood why they ruled it a catch based on his hand still being on the ball at the time, and I didn't have a pony in that race beyond hoping that Green Bay won for draft purposes.

Another less than 200 yard passing game. I'm sorry, but teams have 2nd and 3rd string QB's that can walk into the huddle after their starter goes on IR and put up 300+. Mullens shredded the Lions D. Yeah, he threw 4 INT's as well. I'm not advocating for any of them, I'm just saying that there is no reason that a Bears QB can't be putting up 300 yard games consistently unless there is something wrong with them. I'm ready for a quick release pocket passer with a strong arm and the confidence to make throws. I think Williams is that guy, and with that New England victory tonight, that reality is coming closer to being possible. Poles did his haul for picks last year. I would be shocked if he did it again. And I think the only way he does it again is if he likes one of the other QB's. Apparently, Poles was hinting that he wasn't happy with coaching in an interview he did before the game. Nothing too blatant or damaging towards relationships or anything, but I sense new coaches and a new QB.

They debated whether to put time back on the clock, but I'm sure one of the officials correctly explained that the snap actually occured before time ran out, but the spike itself did not, thus there was no time to put back on the clock.

They were barely hitting 100 each game with LaVine and now they seem to be going over 110 each game now.

If they felt Bo Nix or JJ McCarthy or Michael Penix could be a good NFL QB, I could see them trading for the haul, drafting one of those guys later and getting a bridge QB. I don't think I'd have a problem with them signing someone like Gardner Minshew or Jameis Winston taking snaps until the rookie is ready. I think those guys have a chance to do more for this offense than what Fields is offering. I'm still in the draft Caleb Williams camp, however. The draft pick you get for Fields, potentially a 2nd rounder and the pick from Carolina next year makes it where you still have plenty of extra picks to keep beefing up the roster, and all that cap space with a rookie QB allows you to spend on free agents where you can strengthen the defense, the receiver room, the OLine and depth in general. I won't hate it whichever way they go, but they've struck out on QB's for way too long and here is one sitting in your lap. This team has a chance to give the rookie QB every chance to be successful right out of the gates with a decent roster.

Seems some people could use a good night's sleep 'round here.

Yeah, that World Series Championship sure sucked for PTR.

I'm pretty amazed at how many Chicago Couch GM's on social media are so convinced that these top two QB's in the draft aren't any better than Fields before they ever get drafted. Here we are thinking we can get 3 or 4 first round picks for the top pick in the draft, yet our fans don't value the pick any better than a worse version of Justin Fields, who barely averages 200 yards passing a game, if he even does that. I'm not advocating for this, but if Kirk Cousins was QBing this team (pre-injury), I'm pretty sure he could have this team operating at a much higher level of production than Fields is doing on a weekly basis. I don't think Mooney's misconnections with Fields are all on Mooney. One deep play to Mooney was a couple seconds late to when he was wide open. Fields doesn't see those wide open guys soon enough. There is just no way I can be convinced all of this offensive struggle is on Getsy. I doubt that he's a good or great OC, and he very well could be a bigger part of the problem, but I've seen no evidence that he and Fields can combine to be a formidable NFL tandem that can win consistently.

Yep. I was hoping they could stick with Fields and beef up the rest of the roster, but I don't see Poles sticking with Fields with the lack of offensive production week after week. And each week, I'm leaning more towards get a new QB. Probably need to think about a better veteran QB to bridge the gap, also.

I am dumbfounded as to how out of sync Fields and Mooney have been all season. This is a contract year for Mooney, and he's killing his future. He was looking like a Bears #1 before the injury. There is no way he is back next year, IMO. They are definitely going to need to bring a decent free agent WR in to go along with a first round WR in the draft. Scales are likely leaning towards taking a QB with the first pick.

Man, that Aramis and Lofton trade is still one of my favorite Cub trades. Talk about an impact trade. That was my first year on this site, too.

His contract may be difficult to move. Everyone else can also see how much better the Bulls are playing without him. Zero leverage.

I think if Poles is drafting today, he's taking Williams. I also think on draft day, he may still want to draft his QB. It's a wonderful problem to have to be in this much control with the first pick.