BigbadB

Colorado sitting in first place on September 8th and only predicted at a 44.9% chance to make the playoffs is a pretty crazy stat this late in the season.

Don't remember the source I was reading, but I think I saw that the Bears wanted to extend Goldman and Amos, but doubted they could afford to do both now with what was left of the cap space.

Can they trade him and he's able to sign a multi-year deal (similar to Mack)? Just not sure if that's possible during the season, but thought about this earlier today. They can trade him, but still can't sign an extension. I guess if some serious SB contender had a big injury they might trade like a 7th rounder for a half season of elite RB play, but I wouldn't count on him holding any trade value. I read that they can't trade him unless he signs his tender.

Pittsburgh would be letting him walk for nothing if they did that. His agent has probably already explained to him that there is even less than a slight chance of that. They lose him for nothing if he comes back week 11 and finishes out the season too. Pittsburgh could technically franchise him again.

Pittsburgh would be letting him walk for nothing if they did that. His agent has probably already explained to him that there is even less than a slight chance of that.

That's kind of a stupid point. You can be mad at the NFLPA for putting you in a bad situation while also being mad at your team for treating you like garbage. I already pointed that out that he should be mad at Pittsburgh in my previous post. Be mad at everyone. But not showing up to play is making his own teammates mad at him. What's the point of missing games?

The NFL uses and abuses running backs. Teams figured out they can get 5-6 great years out of guys and throw them away. The only chance for RBs to make real money is to get their one longterm contract. Teams would rather take advantage of the ridiculous rookie pay scale, used up their RBs and pay the great ones one year at a time, then be forced into signing them to longterm deals with 2-4 years worth of "guaranteed money", which is what just about what everybody else gets (QBs get much more). If he plays all year, Pit will give him 400 touches, abuse his body, and dare somebody else to sign him next year as a FA. If he holds out until late in the season, he'll forfeit game checks, but avoid all those touches and then take offers from around the league in the offseason. And I get the anger over that. But he should be mad at the Players Association for making it easy for teams to do this. Sitting out in protest during the season jeopardizes a lot of current and future earnings, IMO.

I'm trying to understand what Bell's logic is in not showing up for camp at this point. Maybe I'm not understanding how the NFL collective bargaining agreement works, but from everything I've read and understand about it, Bell has absolutely no leverage and no dog in this fight at this point. The date has passed to work out a long term deal. His only option is to sign the offer sheet and play or simply sit out the year. I get that he's pissed at the organization for tagging him two years in a row and that they haven't given him a long term offer he would agree to. But, the time to be mad about that was before it started affecting actual games on the field. He's now getting his own teammates to turn on him. Be mad at the CBA. Be mad at Pittsburgh for tagging you a second year in a row without giving you a long term commitment. But now he's just pissing off the entire fanbase and his own teammates. Oh, and the yahoos who drafted him with their first pick in fantasy. Or am I actually missing something. What is Bell and his agents current leverage? Production on the field?

I definitely want Smith in there on third and longs. His closing speed can turn a typical scrambling Rodgers first down saunter into a 4th down instead. He might need more time studying the playbook, but his instincts should be just fine.

It will get interesting if Conner busts out for 200 or so all purpose yards on Sunday.

Mack will inspire double teams anytime he steps on the field. If Mack is in there, I want Roquan in there, too. One thing Rodgers has been good at is eluding pressure and taking off. Roquan's closing speed is going to turn Rodgers first down saunters into 4th downs.

Luckily there is football on all day, because Sunday night football is a long time to wait.

That sling arm pass of his has gotten him in a lot of trouble. Not sure how they didn't fix that throw early in his career.

Gentlemen’s bet on who scores the most fantasy points between the three in a standard league? This is actually a pretty lazy response that I made on my phone while I was out. The reason I pick Trubisky over the other two is that I think he’s going to prove to be a winner where the other two have been losers up to this point in their careers. So it was silly for me to try to frame the comparison in terms of fantasy ratings, as it would have been silly for me to frame it in terms of QBR. Cousins has a 26-30-1 record with a playoff record of 0-1. Stafford also hasn’t won a playoff game and leading into the 2017 season he had a record of 5-46 against teams over .500. I could probably find it updated for the most recent season but I can’t imagine the 9-7 playoff missing season moved the needle that much. Cousins and Stafford have had some decent enough seasons, but a lot of both of their yards have been wracked up in garbage time trying to catch up. The last two years Stafford has averaged 26.5 TD / 10 Int. Cousins has average 26 TD / 12.5 Int. That is middle of the road production, in my opinion. Especially considering how long they’ve been in the league and in their current offenses. Cousins maybe hasn’t had that much to work with but he really hasn’t elevated the team. Stafford has basically been junk, IMO. Not a dumpster fire but not elite production and not capable of regular winning in any capacity despite having consistently good offensive skill players and scheme plus an intermittently good defense. The guys I’d compare Trubisky to in terms of physical traits, style of play, and what I expect out of them in terms of ability to win a game are guys like Wentz and Goff. In terms of production, Wentz was at 33 TD and 7 Int in 11 games, which translates to 48 TD / 10 Int. Goff was at 28 TD / 7 Int. They have both had some nice success winning a high percentage of regular season games in their second seasons. I’d personally say they are both better than Cousins and Stafford by a wide margin. I see Trubisky as a bit more like Wentz both in terms of skill set, and expect him to be a top 5 type guy once he gets rolling. So that's the level of head over heels Kool aid I'm on with Trubisky when I say he'll be markedly better than the non-Rodgers QBs in the division. It's tough to do too much with his numbers from last year since he was so hamstrung by the embarrassing lack of tools both in terms of offensive coaching creativity and skill position players. But he showed an ability to protect the ball in the same way as those other two guys with his 28 TD / 4 Int ratio leading into the bowl game in his year at UNC. And look.at.these.highlights. https://twitter.com/i/moments/982075388758147072 (credit to David on the original post) Try and tell me this there’s no way this guy is way better than Kirk Cousins or Matt Stafford. You never know how it'll shake out, but all I can do is call it like I see it and I see some great QB tools there. And then when you watch those highlights remembering that Nagy made Alex Smith the best deep passer in the league. And consider what level of confidence you have in the offensive tools the Bears have put together. I could be wrong for sure, but I think we’re in for a big jump out of Trubisky. Not to Wentz style 50 TD MVP craziness but more a 35+ TD type of thing (counting running TDs) on a real nice interception ratio. Plenty of rushing yards. So still well into the top 10 in fantasy QBs, but for me his biggest difference will be in his putting games away. Since he hasn’t had much NFL footage that would support the concept that he's this great winner, I’ll just leave this here. Seems like he's got the winner thing in him somewhere if he's able to make these types of plays with the game on the line. He didn't make them last year, but again...that was some embarrassingly bad coaching and the receiver/TE position was a smoking crater. The Bears top receiver last year wasn't good enough to make the Vikings roster this year. I'm looking forward to see what Trubisky can do do with some actual weapons.

I basically copied that list right off the Sun Times. I get the 5 TE's with Brown and Shaheen banged up. If I had to guess, I'd probably guess Grasu. ETA: It's Kahlil Mack that isn't officially listed yet. So will it be Lynch or one of the kids that gets the axe?

Some surprises in thinning down to 53. They went with the youth at the tail end of the roster. QB- Trubisky, Daniel RB- Cohen, Cunningham, Howard FB- Burton WR- Bellamy, Gabriel, Miller, Robinson, White, Wims TE- Brauneker, Brown, Burton, Shaheen, Sims OL- Daniels, Grasu, Whitehair, Kush, Long, Coward, Leno, Massie, Sowell P- O'Donnell K- Parkey LS- Scales DL- Bullard, Goldman, Hicks, Nichols, Robertson-Harris OLB- Acho, Fitts, Floyd, Irving, Lynch, Mack ILB- Iyiegbuniwe, Kwiatkoski, Smith, Trevathan CB- Amukamura, Callahan, Cooper, Fuller, McManis, Toliver S- Amos, Bush, Houston-Carson, Jackson

Defensive End was where I felt they were going to need to spend some time looking for upgrades on the waiver wire. That was the one place where the depth seemed a bit weak to me. That's what made this trade make so much sense for the Bears. They had the cap space and plenty of depth on both sides of the ball mixed in with youth, which allowed the trading of draft picks. We know what we will get out of the defense. The offense is what we really don't know about, but I don't know that they could have added more to the offense than they did. I can't help but be optimistic about the offense. The running game was already good. Adding Robinson, Burton, Miller and Gabriel and possibly even a healthy Kevin White gives the offense all kinds of different talents that can be utilized in a lot of ways. I'm a true homer, as this team is going to the playoffs!

It's really only giving up 1 first rounder since Mack is a 1st rounder himself. At least that's the way I'm looking at it.

I almost feel like this is going to be a 1st rounder and a lower pick and some players.

I wonder if any players are involved in the trade? Fangio must be pooping himself right now.

This is amazing. I really wanted to see something work out. The defense is going to be ridiculous!

The current asking price for Kahlil Mack is 2 first rounders. How about Kevin White and next year's 1st rounder? :-"

Looks like it has. Nevermind

Has this game started back up?

Isn't KC's defense pretty familiar with Nagy's playbook? In a meaningless game, why risk the defense getting good reads and destroying any confidence they created in practice all week? I kind of like seeing the battles for the few openings that remain during preseason, so I'm good with the starters sitting out.