Thrilho

Just heard my favorite Pat and Ron moment of maybe the last few years. Pat: Maybe Rizzo will get a hit here and keep the line moving. Score 1, 2 maybe 12 Ron: 12! That's...heh...pretty aggressive Pat: *short burst of maniacal greedy, cocksure, boastful laughter* It's nice to see Pat get some reward after having to make up horsefeathers to distract from sad blow outs.

Ian Happ playing center and leading off suits me all day long

Ok, yeah the number 3 in preseason does seem meaningless since he played like #2 in the games. I don't know how frequently the #1 offense played against #1 defense in training camp so I can't say if his placement with 3rd stringers in camp helped him get reps against first team D without having to give him reps with the 1st team O. If it did then it makes sense to me. But going forward, whether he's #2 or not, I hope that they give him scout team reps when he's not playing with the 1s on offense. (he is #2 - just not sure if you missed it since it's on the last page or not) but yeah, that's what i'm saying... that is until glennon throws a pick 6 on sunday and the hero comes in. Yeah I saw it. Should've said "even though he's #2" etc. Mostly I thought that article was good and wanted to throw out the Romo comp with respect to scout team. I give it a few games (yes bet the house on the over on that 1.5) but if Glennon wants to throw 4 picks against the falcons and get the show on the road I'm not complainin.

Ok, yeah the number 3 in preseason does seem meaningless since he played like #2 in the games. I don't know how frequently the #1 offense played against #1 defense in training camp so I can't say if his placement with 3rd stringers in camp helped him get reps against first team D without having to give him reps with the 1st team O. If it did then it makes sense to me. But going forward, whether he's #2 or not, I hope that they give him scout team reps when he's not playing with the 1s on offense.

Yeah I'd wonder if the #3 has been partially to get him reps on the scout team, against the first team defense. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/ct-mitch-trubisky-plan-real-talk-spt-0906-20170905-story.html Makes sense to me. Get him daily reps against what should be a very good defense, give him time to learn the playbook without the bright lights on him if he screws some stuff up. Give him basically a second QB coach who can work with him while the actual coaches spend more time prepping for actual games. Then give him the reigns as soon as the head game has caught up. I think the #3 designation in the preseason has been nothing but a formality and giving him a contrived goal to attain. The only depth chart that really mattered was this week 1 one. I was more thinking about going forward. I wonder if they'll have him running scout team 1. so he gets to play against a real defense who is running plays they'll really run that week 2. so he can develop timing with a set of guys. He's not going to get that with 20-30% or whatever of the 1st team reps that he'll get.

Yeah I'd wonder if the #3 has been partially to get him reps on the scout team, against the first team defense. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/ct-mitch-trubisky-plan-real-talk-spt-0906-20170905-story.html Makes sense to me. Get him daily reps against what should be a very good defense, give him time to learn the playbook without the bright lights on him if he screws some stuff up. Give him basically a second QB coach who can work with him while the actual coaches spend more time prepping for actual games. Then give him the reigns as soon as the head game has caught up.

now i'm curious as to what the worst season has been by a guy with a very high OBP in a significant amount of plate appearances. i bet jose offerman is up there somewhere. i wish i could tag TT in this post since there's just about no chance he comes in here on his own http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2017&month=0&season1=2000&ind=1&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=54689&players=0&sort=22,a Wow...today in Time Makes Fools of Us All, we see Ken Griffey horsefeathering Jr occupy 2 of the top 3 spots on this list of the most useless good offensive seasons of all time. Maybe Roger Dorn had a point with his fear of diving.

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But don't blitz our guy

Figured I'd put this one in a different post so people can call me dumb for each one individually, but this schedule doesn't look that bad to me. I'm going to say 8-8. So forgetting about the team itself, let's look at this super hard schedule everyone is talking about. There are 7 games against teams over .500, 3 against 8-8 teams, and 6 games against teams under .500. No team won 12 games and only two won 11. The first 4 games are pretty hard, but you could definitely take the Tampa game without a Herculean QB effort. The rest would probably take a pretty good game, but they could beat the 11 win Steelers with a solid effort at home. After that first 4 games though the next 4 leading into the bye week are against teams with a combined 29-35 record in 2016. Then in the back half you've got Browns, 9ers, Eagles, Bengals and a bunch of division. Doesn't look that scary to me. Yeah, the Bears were only 3-13, but they were playing with bad QBs all last year and had tons of injuries. Lots of spots got tightened up in the offseason. Looking at safety and d-line (Howard, Bullard, healthy Goldman, 2nd year Floyd). Elite running game, good line, deep TE group, solid enough corners. I think Gentry steps up to make the receiver group good enough. But also QB. Either Glennon is going to take the bull by the horns and win at least one of the first 4 and play very well in the others or Trubisky is going to be playing. And I'm not going to say Mitch is going to go all Dak on the league, but I wouldn't put it out of the range of him carrying the team into a playoff race with pretty good play. So anyway, hot takes...get your hot takes here...

Good article on the progress of the rookie QBs. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000837283/article/rookie-qb-grades-mitchell-trubisky-up-deshone-kizer-uneven I think these summaries work for how I see the careers of each of these guys. It's Trubisky and a bunch of a severely flawed guys. Maybe Maholmes is able to correct his footwork and learn to work through progressions more. But even that seems like some pretty big projects. Watson is not very accurate on mid to deep balls and was a one read type guy who currently has a tendency to take off too quick. I don't think his arm talent is in the anywhere close to Trubisky or even Maholmes. Kizer is a guy with a rocket that's pretty inaccurate that he uses at all levels of the field with little touch. And he hasn't shown nearly the decision making of Trubisky at the college level. Then there's Mitch. Basically has shown every athletic thing you'd want and has worked through his progressions well and had one ball with a decent chance of getting intercepted. We'll see what happens tonight, but I'd guess it's going to be pretty good.

you better turn out better than we got the whole 9 did with justin wilson on this I should probably have some awareness that I'm just on tilt after the Cubs graduated or traded all the interesting prospects. But I keep thinking what if someone told me that the Bears had drafted a 6'2 WR with 1300 yards and 14 TDs and a 4.46 in the second round? And that they've only got one receiver over 6 foot that's maybe worth a damn so the door is wide open. And that he's besties with the new QB and just caught a 50 yard bomb to save said QBs day? All that is true except the second round part but PFF loves him, and I kind of trust them more than the standard GM. So I'm mostly trying to spread some good cheer after the Bears lost their #1 receiver, but also I don't see any reason Gentry can't be a top receiver in the league at some point.

One revision to the Gentry stuff I posted a couple pages back. Nfldraftscout.com had his pro day 40 time as 4.58, but the article below and some other sources have it at 4.46, along with a 38 inch vertical. If that 4.46 is legit that is real fast for a 6'2 WR with jump ball skills. http://www.denverpost.com/2017/05/07/tanner-gentry-nfl/

At the risk of being annoying with this, I thought I'd post it one more time since the other times were 3 months ago and in the middle of the Bears game. But if anyone is interested, here is some good video on Gentry. He's #4 and basically every time he shows up it's a 40 yard TD catch. I re-watched it today and it was fun. Particularly after seeing insta post that brought back memories of the Cutty/Olsen connection. You figure Shaheen would be the logical choice to play the role of nouveau G-Reg, but maybe Gentry gets the head start due to NFL readiness and the bare WR cupboard. Plus Shaheen is kind of an ogre, so Gentry might make the better wingman. I get the sense that Money Mitch might not exactly be KB on the bar scene.

Tanner Gentry stock! Get your Tanner Gentry stock here! Makes a great stocking stuffer for your overzealous, overconfident Bears fan! https://www.instagram.com/p/BYV9QEJn44c/ For real though, once Mitch gets that job this guy is gonna get some targets. Book. It.

Cool, yeah I could totally be wrong. So won't keep arguing after you've conceded the other side is a possibility but one other thing I wanted to note about the WTF response. All these espn guys (or local guys guys like Biggs who said it was down to safety or Thomas) want us to think they've got the scoop. They spend months before the draft on mocks, arguing that they've got sources, they know who the best guys are etc. Every one of them got pantsed, so in the immediate aftermath their defense mechanisms are going to kick in. I look at something like Polian giving Pace an A++ after the draft or Ron Wolf (who traded for Favre) saying he liked the move or the scouts that were quoted saying MT will be the best QB in the last like 6 years or something. I'm sure there were leagu sources who thought it was dumb but I haven't seen a lot of actual GMs quote as saying that. Plus there's the obvious appeal of wanting to think that this young, first-time GM was just pulling off his first big move and it's indicative of what's to come (and that very well could be the case). Oh yes, I'm biased all kinds of ways on this

Cool, yeah I could totally be wrong. So won't keep arguing after you've conceded the other side is a possibility but one other thing I wanted to note about the WTF response. All these espn guys (or local guys guys like Biggs who said it was down to safety or Thomas) want us to think they've got the scoop. They spend months before the draft on mocks, arguing that they've got sources, they know who the best guys are etc. Every one of them got pantsed, so in the immediate aftermath their defense mechanisms are going to kick in. I look at something like Polian giving Pace an A++ after the draft or Ron Wolf (who traded for Favre) saying he liked the move or the scouts that were quoted saying MT will be the best QB in the last like 6 years or something. I'm sure there were leagu sources who thought it was dumb but I haven't seen a lot of actual GMs quote as saying that.

Possibly. Has there been any talk the Browns attempted to do so? Also: it's the Browns. And wasn't there a ton of talk that you had a bunch of people throughout the league wondering what the hell the Bears were doing? Again, Trubisky could very well end up being a great pick; it's just kinda goofy it's being spun as this move that required all kinds of brilliant strategy and trading up. You're right; nobody is going to know for sure, but the idea that Pace was just competing with himself seems to at least have as much weight as this idea he skillfully swooped in and was pulling the wool over everyone's eyes playing the long game and snatched away a pick the Bears weren't going to have if they hadn't traded up. Like, he doesn't have to be Super GM for this pick to work out. I didn't read a ton post draft but in the couple days before the draft the Trubisky to Browns rumors were all over the place. I don't know who's actually got sources but here are some links a google search turned up. Browns trying to trade up for QB - UPI - 4/27 https://www.upi.com/Sports_News/NFL/2017/04/27/Browns-trying-to-trade-up-for-QB-Trubisky/4241493330865/ Browns sound poised to trade up for QB (and they should) - 4/20 http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2017/04/browns_are_poised_to_trade_up.html Browns reportedly spoke to 3 teams about trading up bleacherreport.com/articles/2705719-browns-reportedly-spoke-to-3-teams-about-trading-up-from-12th-pick-in-nfl-draft Trubisky a serious possibility for Browns at 1 http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2017/04/mitch_trubisky_still_a_serious.html Chiefs-Browns reportedly coveted Mitch Trubisky (post draft) bleacherreport.com/articles/2707219-chiefs-browns-reportedly-coveted-mitchell-trubisky-ryan-pace-explains-trade Browns reportedly serious about taking Trubisky over Garrett bleacherreport.com/articles/2707219-chiefs-browns-reportedly-coveted-mitchell-trubisky-ryan-pace-explains-trade I'm not necessarily concerned with portraying Pace as the Theo of the NFL, but when the alternative view holds that he was dumb and it was a bad move my counterpoint is: nu-uh. I wanted Trubisky and I was reading all those articles that the Browns wanted him and had the fire power to get to 2. I figured leading into the draft that there was a good chance they'd have to trade up to get him. So just on my end it made sense from the beginning. Then you've got what WF22 just said, that Pace knew all the offers to move up to 3. So just in my little world, this was a coup and seems like something Pace planned out quite a bit. And in the end I think it'll look something like if Theo bamboozled his way into KB over Appel rather than having it fall in his lap. I'm adding more 4D chess moves to it by assuming Glennon was part of the plan, just because it makes sense that in order to trick people you can't be sitting there with a bare QB cupboard or a washed up Cutty that has missed significant time just about every year. Just wouldn't make sense to take a safety over QB in that situation. Or it could be that Pace didn't need to do it and I still think he's a genius who got KB over a bunch of Appels.

Uh, alright then. I don't know how my post was meatball-y or trolling. Again, the general consensus outside of Bears fans seems to be the Bears didn't need to trade up. That doesn't somehow negate things if Trubisky pans out; good for them if he does. But it just seems silly that people are trying to force this narrative that Pace was working some kind of multi-dimensional chess strategy while everyone else was playing checkers; the guy was likely only competing against himself. It can just turn out to be a good pick that he made some goofy, unnecessary moves to pull off; it's not like any success Trubsiky has is tainted by that. The general consensus among sports fans and espn talking heads doesn't matter. The GM of Browns or the Jags or whoever else may have been trying to trade up isn't going to day "hey look I was trying to trade up but all I ended up with was this Kizer guy." I thought the general consensus among intelligent people is that the general consensus among ESPN NFL talking heads and fans is BS. "Stephen A Smith and Colin Cowherd told me that Trubisky was going to be there and they must know what they're talking about." Here's what I personally believe. 90ish% of people thought it was a dumb decision to trade up. Sweet. Bears fans booed the pick. Chicago radio hosts said there's no way the Bears would pick Trubisky and dudes like Mike Mulligan thought Kizer would flat be better than Mitch as of the week of the draft. All these people will be wrong when Mitch is awesome and look super dumb/uninformed, if history cares to remember what people believed at the time. Also I think they're wrong that the Bears could've had him at 3. That will likely never be proven. But as has been noted, the Browns took a QB with their next pick and had more than enough fire power to jump to the #2 if the Bears hadn't acted. As for the Cutler stuff, the situation right now is that Trubisky can likely start by game 3 or 4 then you've got a somewhat sad Glennon sitting there as a decent backup. Cutler would've have been a way different story than Glennon. He had been with the team for years, had developed relationships in the locker room, is not the type to want to sit behind a rookie, and is a vocal dude. Also his presence may not be the best smoke screen, if that part matters. So I can see not wanting him around if the Bears thought MT was a guy who could start right away.

Glennon is truly one of the most bafflingly short-sighted signings in Bears history Uh, no? And I hate him but this is just a really strange statement. Nothing baffling or short sighted about it. I agree. I said this a couple pages back, but I think his signing really helped throw the NFL off the Trubisky trail. The narrative before the draft was that the Bears are going defense because they had their QB. You had a reporter in the Chargers draft room quoting John Lynch as thinking they were trading up for defense. The Bears got their QB of the future, which is as future oriented as you can get, when any number of teams could have traded up ahead of them if they hadn't been thrown off the scent or the Browns could have just taken their guy. So to me, and I know this is still not the widely held belief, the signing of Glennon was a master stroke of long term strategy. One thing I found out this week that supports this view is that the trip Pace and the coaching staff took to NC occurred before they signed Glennon. So I'd think by that time they already had their ideal plan in place. And even if they weren't able to get their guy, Glennon seems like he's a better hedge than anything they had in FA. Unless one would consider sticking with Cutty to be the best long term option. Again, just my opinion, but I'm not going to miss a chance to shill.

Here's that Trubisky TD https://www.clippituser.tv/c/glemen

Yeah, 4.58 is fast enough if you can make deep catches like that. Yeah that was good body control to flip over after the catch to make sure the ball didn't touch the ground.

Looks fast enough

I was actually just jumping in to say Trubisky seems to never stop moving his feet. That last screen he just shuffled back like a yard or two with a guy in his face to create space for that Langford dump off.

4.58, nothing special but enough to be a jump ball guy. Here's some stuff I wrote about him a couple months ago. Trubisky has seemed to like him as a target so far, so hopefully he gets featured in the second half.