UMFan83

And just 1 winning season in the 12 years since we fired Lovie after a 10-6 season. I'd say the curse of Lovie but he ended up paying us back 10 fold with the Texans win in 2022.

Jed wanted to get a deal done during winter meetings. Will be interesting to see if this now cools down for a bit

y...you think 2 full days of being consumed by a trade rumor is bad? May I submit for your viewing pleasure:

I'm almost certain he broke something last offseason but for the life of me I can't remember what it was. He was getting heat at the time but was proven correct.

I can live with that

I agree but if you’re Tucker and you just saw Soto wait out his contact and get the largest deal in baseball history how eager are you to sign an extension early rather than test the open market? Maybe having security is something enticing to him but if it’s not it makes much more sense to wait it out. If that prevents him from getting traded then he gets to stay somewhere he’s comfortable and makes the playoffs every year. I highly doubt Jed makes a Tucker trade hoping to get an extension done this offseason and is willing to take the risk of him playing 1 season in Chicago and bolting. I certainly don’t see Jed offering a contract that blows Tucker away enough to sign early. That’s just not Jed Hoyer.

I mean I definitely think he's just assuming and its not actual reporting he's heard. But honestly, it wouldnt surprise me if Jed made a trade knowing that it was fairly likely they wouldn't be able to extend him. At the end of the day, Jed is fighting for his own extension here so next year means a lot more than 2026. I'm sure they'll attempt to extend him, and potentially offer more than they're comfortable going to try to keep him, but if he gets even half of what Soto just got after a big year, I don't know if the Cubs would go that high.

lol Jesse says that in his mind they are trading for Tucker for 1 season only and would be very unlikely to extend him. Deal makes sense because he's cheap next year and gives them flexibility when he leaves.

I believe he's connected to the baseball industry but I have no idea what his credentials as a reporter are. Seems to be throwing a lot of rumors out there this week

I don't really mind getting rid of Seiya or Paredes in a deal, but both of them plus either Shaw or Smith might be too much for even me who is desperate to get an elite bat and very open to trading prospects. If it came with an agreed upon extension I'd strongly consider it but for a 1 year player, thats too rich. You're talking about trading 7 fWAR from last year's roster plus a top 25 in baseball prospect. You're gonna have to go down a tier of prospects or drop Seiya or Paredes from the trade.

https://awfulannouncing.com/local-networks/chicago-sports-network-marquee-merger-possible-comcast-dispute.html Hilarious...that super special network the Cubs launched to increase revenues which clearly made a dramatic impact on the Cubs fortunes may be merging with CHSN because both networks are having trouble getting on/staying on Comcast. So basically we may be back to where we started. Those 7 documentaries that Marquee plays over and over again were well worth it though as well as replaying every Shota start last year as "classic Cubs games"

no. but with 1 year left on his deal and the pressure to get something done, maybe he steps outside his comfort zone. or he doesn't, the cubs win 83 again and we get a new GM

Would be funny after all these rumors that Jed was afraid to pull the trigger and we end up doing nothing of significance.

I don't know how many different ways I can express shock at how much of a dumpster fire the Bears organization is. It's kind of incredible how they keep one upping themselves.

Considering the Astros are shopping him because of their unwillingness to go beyond 6 years for contracts, what makes us think that Jed would? I know he went to 7 with Dansby but hes repeatedly come out against long term contracts.

Actually they absolutely can if they wanted to. They could come out and say the evaluation for the CFP ends after the regular season. The conference championship games are soley to determine auto-bids and byes. You can play yourself into the field like Clemson did but you cant play yourself out of the field. I put absolutely no thought into this idea before posting it so there's probably 1000 reasons why its the dumbest thing ever. But it just rubs me the wrong way that a team like SMU could play themselves out of the CFP due to an extra game they are forced to play while a team like Indiana could remain in the field due to not having to play that extra game that everyone knows they probably would have lost. I know it didn't even happen, but just the discussion of that happening bothered me. I realize that we have completely polar opposite takes on this one and aren't going to convince the other though. Also I guess my other thought on this is that maybe we shouldn't put much thought into it. The point of the expanded playoff was to ensure that all championship worthy teams (both by perceived ability and by resume) could make it (just kidding, the point was more $$$). There are no 2023 FSUs out there to be screwed this year when we're talking about whether a 2 loss team that didn't beat anyone or a 3 loss team that lost to multiple bad teams is the 12th best team in the country. It was inevitable that there would be fierce debates just like there is in the 68 team basketball tournament, but I feel comfort in knowing that a) all deserving teams are in there and b) every FBS team now theoretically has an opportunity to win the championship

Quite a roller coaster for Caleb per PFF grading this year. Looks like yesterday was his 3rd worst graded game of the season, worst since Week 2.

Somehow Michigan is going to play (and probably lose to) all 3 of the other participants of last year's CFP. Already got blown out by Texas and lost a close game to Washington.

lovely

Speaking of QBs, Darnold with 347 yards and 5 TD today. Now on pace for 4,314 yards and 37 passing TDs. Of course journeyman former mega bust Sam Darnold is going to obliterate every Bears single season passing mark this year.

Man I'm so confused about where Caleb is at as a QB and what he's shown us means so far. This isn't a negative Caleb post, this isn't a positive Caleb post. I've said it repeatedly that I've seen a lot I love, things I just haven't seen from other Bears QBs, amazing performances late in games to put the Bears in a position to win etc. But we also see stuff like today where Caleb did basically nothing until the game was basically over midway through the 3rd quarter. He looked tentative, bailed out of the pocket too soon or hung around in it too long. And then with the Bears down 24-0 midway through the 3rd, he leads the Bears on 2 really nice looking professional looking TD drives with a really nice looking TD throws (especially the first one) to Rome. Overall I just don't know what we're really seeing. How much of his performances are hindered by a horrific offensive line? How much is hindered by disastrous coaching, especially now that the players got multiple coaches canned midseason? (I mean realistically they got themselves fired but it took player revolts to get the FO to do something about it). Why is he incredibly inconsistent? How much can be attributed to being a rookie? What causes him to get in a groove and completely turn around games that are looking like terrible performances? There's just so much I don't know and with 4 games left I'm not sure we'll find out this year. The good? Despite inconsistent play and a ton of coaching issues, Caleb is still on pace for ~3600 yards, 21 passing TD, 6 INTs. As mentioned before, when he gets into a groove he looks elite and has come up clutch several times in key moments. He has 5 performances this year that I'd classify as great (Carolina, Jacksonville, Green Bay, Minnesota, Detroit). The not so good? He's also had several performances that I'd consider poor or worse (Tennessee, Houston, Washington, Arizona, New England). Today I'd consider below average despite somehow having a 116.9 QB rating (His QBR was 32.5 and he had 5.8 YPA). Overall where does he sit amongst qualified QBs in stats? (there are 38 qualified QBs) Comp %: 62.6% - 33rd YPA - 6.3 - 35th TD - 16 - 13th Yards - 2,746 - 18th QBR - 46.3 - 35th (note: this is not updated with today's 32.5 QBR but there's a huge drop off between Caleb's 46.3 and the 36th best QB Minshew at 37.9, so I'm guessing he's still 35th) QB Rating - 87.8 - 27th Again, this is not meant to be a negative Caleb post or a positive one. I'm mostly expressing my confusion that I see a QB that for a decent chunk of the time legit looks better than any Bears QB I've seen in my life (I know, not saying much). But there's also a bad side that we've seen, and its getting hard for me to determine how much his environment is hindering him vs. him potentially just needing to improve/not being good enough at this stage of his career.

Weird that it looks like all the backups are in except for some reason Keenan Allen

The inmates ran the asylum and got the coach fired and this is the effort we’ve gotten post-mutiny.

So glad we got that extra offensive possession so I could see Caleb sacked for the 6th and 7th time