Have a seat, Neifi

Yea, I kinda already am getting the sense this is coming. Eleven total pass attempts in a game everyone (reasonable/rational) knew and expected us to lose and in which we were down double digits more or less the whole game is…something. Don’t get me wrong, I *so* want Fields to be the guy. But man, it’s getting harder and harder to envision a scenario where that ends up happening.

So how much are we subscribing to the theory that Fields’ pre-garbage time NINE (9) passing attempts tells us what the coaching staff thinks of him. I mean, I get that we were gashing them on the ground but we were also down double digits essentially the entire game and meanwhile you’ve got Cooper Rush slinging it 30 times.

Various Bears bloggers/journalists/reporters/etc. on Twitter suggested that Roquan reportedly is looking to be the highest-paid ILB in the league and for a contract at or above $20 million per year. I love Roquan and all, but a team in full tear-down/rebuild cannot spend 10% of its cap on an ILB. It just...can't. Heavily investing on the defensive side of the ball while the QB and O-line was bottom 5 is exactly the same mistake the last regime made. With all that said, I think a deal eventually gets done.

Not a failure if we extend Willson. Which..it doesn't seem like the organization has any serious good-faith interest in doing.

Ben Brown to the Cubs, per Twitter. Do we like this? ETA: 105 Ks in 73 innings at A+ so far this year.

I'm totally fine with keeping Willson and Happ if it means we're going to, oh I don't know, sign Willson to an extension, invest in the payroll and try to actually compete before waiting to see whether all our top prospects hit (which they won't). I just...don't think that's what we're looking at.

I laughed.

Yea, agree. The NBA is so much more watchable now than it was in the 90s or 00s. Must faster pace, way more possessions, much higher scoring, etc. Just as one example, our beloved 95-96 Bulls led the league in scoring at 105.2 points per game. That would've ranked 28th out of 30 teams last year. In other words, 27 teams averaged more points per game than that last year, including 17 teams that averaged 110 or more.

I get it's not exactly sexy but I'm not sure what else they should be doing. The Bulls had a million injuries last year and still had the best record in the east at the all star break (not parade worthy of course but still something). I think AKME is doing fine all things considered; the bigger villain to me is the dorfs and their miserly ways. This is a bit rosy, IMHO. Zach Lowe and Chris Herring had a pretty in-depth discussion specifically about the Bulls on yesterday's "The Lowe Post" podcast. Two points that jumped out to me from the podcast: (1) while the team (of course) had its share of injuries, Vuc, LaVine, and DeRozan each played a pretty substantial number of regular season games--73, 67, and 76 respectively--and (2) with those 3 on the floor, the Bulls were MINUS 7 per 100 possessions. Like, Lonzo, Caruso, etc. are good and all, but the Bulls' so-called "Big 3" just isn't good enough to realistically expect this team to get out of the first round in an increasingly-loaded East. Coupled with Lonzo's alarming lack of progress on his injury, I'm just not sure I'm seeing a 50ish-win team anytime soon. One final point: the Vuc trade was, quite frankly, a comical overpay. Totally get that I'm not saying anything new or profound here, but if the Bulls were to call up Orlando and offer Vuc in exchange for Wendell Carter Jr., Franz Wagner, and a top-4 protected pick, Orlando would laugh the Bulls off the phone. (In the interest of full disclosure, I'm pilfering a joke that John Hollinger and Nate Duncan recently made on their podcast.) Not trying to be a total downer here, and I think I'd still say that AK and company are a huge upgrade over our prior front-office regime, but I'm increasingly pessimistic about the roster construction and our near- to middle-term prospects as far as playoff success.

Yea. Rumors are the extension offer was somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 / $70 million.

Seeing reports on Twitter that it was a lowball offer (or at least perceived that way) and that negotiations didn’t get very far.

I laughed.

This is the kind of stuff I just can't get over. [tweet] [/tweet]

Not sure why I'm posting this but I can't help myself: [tweet] [/tweet]

Really not that surprising given the Lions' current QB situation. The Bears (as bad/meh as they are) really have no business losing this game.

FiveThirtyEight's playoff odds for the Bears down to 19%.

Regarding Mitch, I'll parrot what Robert Mays opined on one of the (many) Ringer podcasts; while I don't think Mitch is the "Answer" at QB or even particularly good as a starting NFL quarterback, I'm glad he apparently won't be out for a substantial length of time. Assuming Mitch comes back in 2-4 weeks and then continues to play at roughly the same meh/below meh level he's played the first four weeks of this season, you'd have to think it makes it more likely that this off-season the front office spends resources trying to find another QB, either as a new starter or at least someone who can nominally "challenge" Mitch as starting QB. If Mitch were out a substantial length of time, I'd fear the front office would use his absence as an excuse for giving him another season as the unequivocal/undisputed starting QB, which I frankly just don't think he's shown to be good enough to be. It's so frustrating to (once again) have a Super Bowl-caliber defense and a legitimate 10+ win team but with no legitimate, even top-half-type quarterback. Random, mid-tier NFL quarterbacks like Andy Dalton or Gardner Minshew would represent massive upgrades over Mitch, particularly given how much Nagy has dumbed down and scaled back the offense to hide his continuing weaknesses and inconsistencies.

Strongly agree with the portion in bold. A common thread from the various articles, podcasts, and other NFL "content" I've consumed is that pretty much every QB in the NFL *can* make "all the throws" or whatever. In other words, it's not a question of whether they can or can't do it at all; it's just a question of *how often*. Brady, Rodgers, Brees, etc. make those 2nd and 3rd down throws to the sidelines, down the seams, etc. every []ing time. Mitch will do it...sometimes? And many (too many) other times he'll lock on to one WR and throw a near-INT or take off and run before the route develops at all. It's not a question of talent; it's a question of repetition and consistency. Sadly it just doesn't look like he'll ever get there.

this is the hardest thing for me to reconcile, that in a team sport one player, one position can absolutely make or break a team Pretty much exactly how I feel. The word I keep coming back to for last night's game is demoralizing. It's just demoralizing to have a team that is so strong and so deep in so many areas but which is held back by (for better or worse) the only position that ultimately really *really* matters at the end of the day in the NFL: quarterback. The Bears have a done a lot right in the draft and via trade (less so in free agency) the last 3 years or so, but I'm now resigned to the fact that the miss at QB may just be too big to overcome.

Sounds like something intentionally leaked from the Phillies to try and drive the price down (or at least, stop it from spiraling upward).

In a similar vein, I've been assuming that something around 10 years / $330 million is the sweet spot for the absolute minimum Boras would accept. With a deal in that vicinity, Boras can say he topped the $325 million total from Giancarlo Stanton's deal and, separately, trumpet the $30 million delta he scored (as compared to the Nats' reported $300 million offer last fall) as a worthwhile justification for dragging the entire sport through a winter-long parade of rumors, twitter posts, lost productivity, and general fan agitation. That said, I have no doubt Boras is trying to push the Phillies to $350 million.

SITTING ON A CORNFLAKE

I know I shouldn't be doing this, but... [tweet] [/tweet]

Seems about right. He was really bad in the 1st half--I think I remember at least 2 should-have-been interceptions hit Eagles CBs in the chest--but pretty effing great in the 4th quarter and on that last drive.

Yea I mean this is the kind of stat that makes this loss so crushing. If you would've told me Sunday morning that Mitch would throw for 300 yards and 0 INTs, and that the Bears would pick off Foles twice and outgain the Eagles in total yards, I would've been pretty confident in a Bears win. The Bears' injuries were really critical (unfortunately); far more than I think the non-Bears national media is acknowledging. The Eagles picked on McManis all afternoon, I heard Deon Bush's name way too many times for my liking, and not having Trey Burton really seemed to push the Bears' passing offense entirely to the sidelines. Like, I love how tall Shaheen is and how dangerous he can be in the redzone and all that, but...man, that just felt like a huge downgrade yesterday.