jersey cubs fan

Oops Eloy did it again

Right, but it was a handful of games against lesser competition when he'd otherwise by training with NHLers. He wasn't going to improve his NHL career by participating.

No it wasn't. Getting additional experience and playing time in a year when they've missed a significant amount of development is an unequivocally bad idea? Are you arguing that purely because of the injury risk or is there something else? Because then I'm going to ask you if no team players should ever be allowed to play in any tournaments whatsoever. Positives: - Additional playing time in a year with less development time than normal - Having that development taking place in a pressurized tournament atmosphere - Getting your player some additional high level coaching he wouldn't otherwise get - Building a positive relationship with that player if he wants to play - Building positive relationships within the sport in general in supporting the tournaments - Building positive relationships with players in general in supporting their guys Negatives: - Injury risk You can make an argument that the injury risk outweighs everything else, but it really isn't 100% clear that is the case. I generally agree with your sentiment and add that even the injury risk is more of a short-term concern, and this team didn't have any real short-term concerns coming into the season. Because nobody thought there was any chance of 2021 success. Anything good was gravy. Short of a career ender, who cares if a guy misses time this year. This isn't a pitcher wasting his limited innings on dumb international tournaments. But I'd also note that the Blackhawks did get a lot of developing time, sneaking into the playoff bubble situation and winning a series. The 2020 season was cut short, but at a time when they were essentially out of the playoff race. They came back and wound up in more "meaninful" games than they would have if covid never happened. The playing time in juniors also basically just cut into practicing with the NHL team. He wasn't going to develop any more by participating in this tournament against kids, getting a handful of games in against lesser competition. I'd take away each of those top 3 "positives" as more theoretical and not particularly likely to be real. Two weeks with a coach who isn't the coach trying to get a team to buy into his system could be construed as a negative. I do think those other positives are real though, not the least of which is helping to promote the game/team/player, which is still a thing that matters for this league.

Adbert is 26 and not likely to make the team out of spring training. Are we still wishing and hoping on this guy? We're going to have to fill a lot of innings with a group of pitchers that missed 2/3rds of a year last year, if not more. Healthy, able arms, even if marginal, are going to help a lot. In terms of getting through 2021, sure. I'm talking more about whether Adbert can provide actual quality innings. Major league mediocrity can be underrated for a pitcher, especially one that can eat innings. But if you can't make the major league roster as a 26 y/o, and have significant doubts about health, that's not happening.

Adbert is 26 and not likely to make the team out of spring training. Are we still wishing and hoping on this guy?

That is what I was saying yesterday. It could be that the focus is on the Bears fixing the QB/offense. They don't need to win more games, they need to score more points. So go all in with offense, sign and draft QBs, acquire more skill position guys, do whatever you can to score more points in 2021. If you create a real offense, then go patch up the defense next.

I love random tweets from players on the market, or reportedly on the market. It's always a good time.

Sounds like George brought down the hammer

The Bears = The Cowboys past ~25 years

Graham scores touchdowns. The goal is to score points, not necessarily win 12 games in 2021.

30 year old expensive CBs are replaceable in a salary cap world.

What will the Mitch truthers say now? There were definitely bears fans out there that were waiting for him to be a starter somewhere so he could show his struggles were nagys fault I mean, if you thought that were the case you're still going to think if he gets a shot in Buffalo to step in he will prove it then, or he'll prove it in his next stop. I doubt they are thrown by Mitch taking a backup job.

Are they really doing an Andy Dalton press conference with just Andy Dalton, and no GM or HC?

I would bet heavily against the possibility of Pace getting to hire another head coach. I don't remember who said it nevertheless, I'm not so certain its win or else for Pace, for Nagy yes. I said it. I'm not so certain they have a 1 year mandate. If they can get a guy who looks like a future QB, I could easily see them coming back next year even if they don't make the playoffs. If they are bad enough in 2021 for Nagy to get fired, Pace is out the door as well.

I would bet heavily against the possibility of Pace getting to hire another head coach.

The bears signed Akiem Hicks’s replacement

The "refused to develop him" storyline is idiotic. No reasonable person believes that one. Trubisky sucks. The draft prognosticators rate shitty QBs very high all the time.

There is going to be a drafted QB if they do not make a big trade. There will be, but he'll be bench-riding the year behind Dalton and Foles. Or Foles and Dalton. Could go either way, big drama. I imagine the guy will definitely start the year on the bench and I'm fine with that. If he stays on the bench it's probably because they're winning some games, if they lose, he's probably in there by week 9 or 10. Then we get to start the evaluation period.

There is going to be a drafted QB if they do not make a big trade.

I’ve operated under a belief for a few years that Ryan Pace is really excellent at identifying talent, especially in later rounds, but he has a serious blindspot w/ QBs. At some point that makes sense. A lot of his training prior to this position was in New Orleans where they had a Hall of Fame QB entrenched in Brees. That’s not to absolve him. A football QB is the single most important position relative to the game of any major sport. So a blindspot there is pretty massive issue. Unless I hear the Bears separate their decision-making in the draft room so that Pace isn’t the leading voice on QBs, I’m going to be pretty apprehensive going into this draft. I think he has final say, I'm pretty much certain that is the case. But there are also QB-focused coaches that have input now, which has a major impact in draft decisions, especially early. Pace didn't have/utilize those voices in the process when Mitch was selected. I've been waiting since the day he was hired for Nagy to have input in the next drafted QB. It appears that is likely to happen this year, so let's do it and see where we end up.

It's not a terrible idea to significantly reduce your cap allotment intended for a 30 year old corner. Can they at least trade him, even if it's not a lot? For the little bit of cap allocation remaining in 2021, he can at least turn into a 2023 comp pick. I doubt they can get much for him. Teams don't generally trade for expensive 30 year olds, they wait for them to be cut.

There is no "uncomfortable" cap cleanse with regime change. It only takes a year for any new management group to make changes necessary to start adding, and it's during the honeymoon phase when you want to gather draft picks anyway. NFL roster turnover at incredibly high rates. I don't get the fretting about playing cap games, unless you're the owner who needs to keep writing out checks for signing bonuses, it makes no difference to your experience as a fan. Pace either makes it work or the next guy will get to do it all over again.