UMFan83

FWIW, this was a fairly optimistic set of predictions: https://sports.yahoo.com/2021-22-nba-season-preview-predictions-picks-and-superlatives-171412440.html?ncid=twitter_yahoosport_dw14wrbb51g -1 person as Donovan as his coach of the year -2 people have AK as their executive of the year -6/7 people have the Bulls advancing to the playoffs (beyond the play-in round). Of that 6, two have them as a 5 seed, one has them as a 6 seed, one has them as a 7 seed and two have them as an 8 seed. -No one has them listed as their "Most Disappointing Team" -3/7 have the Bulls as their "Most Surprising Team"

media is always slow on turnarounds, even when rosters are massively overhauled. who cares? they're going to be very good and very fun. Ultimately I don't care, but I thought I would read at least 1-2 "Actually what the Bulls are doing is smart" articles, surprised its almost all been very negative. I can't wait to see it in action. IIRC though, you were pretty high on last year's team too, or was that 2 years ago? :)

Here's to hoping he gets paid Same....I recognize that Javy may not be the best fit for us long term but it's been hard to accept that we won't have Javy moments to enjoy anymore. I had more fun watching him play baseball than any player in my life except maybe 98 Sammy. He was certainly frustrating as hell at times, but he more than made up for it with highlight plays and moments. I'll always appreciate that Javy's last big moment in a Cubs uniform was that baller walkoff against Garrett.

At times, I find it hard to reconcile my own enthusiasm for this team based on all the discussion here and the play we saw in the preseason with the fact that literally every person I've seen discuss the Bulls online having a negative or at best neutral opinion of what the Bulls have built. Some based on analytics and some based on just their own judgement of the team. I can understand groupthink from national NBA writers, and the lazy analysis of "har har who is going to play defense, something something plus/minus numbers, who were the Bulls bidding against for DeRozan anyways", but you'd think there would be at least a few people that are not Bulls affiliated who put together a strong argument in favor of what the Bulls have built. Surely there are some out there that are making that case and I'm just not seeing them right? The strongest support I've seen basically boils down to 'the Bulls had to build some sort of decent team to keep Zach Lavine and they've at least built a team that can compete for a play-in spot'. The Ringer guys said things like 'this looks like a fantasy basketball team, not an actual basketball team' and 'it seems like a desperate play to show Zach they are trying to win'. No one mentions the bench and the ability to mix and match lineups with the versatility they have, or the small ball lineups that will cause problems for opponents. The same people that were praising the AK hire for his understanding of basketball and the way he helped build that Denver team are now saying his moves are short-sighted and don't reflect basketball in 2021. It's very frustrating, but I guess at this point there's nothing left to do but see it in action. Many times when you are ahead of the curve, people don't realize it until its proven it works.

:bye: :bye:

For fun, lets remove the historically inept game vs. Cleveland even though its a game that happened and counts the same as the others, and then lets see their rankings among the other 31 teams who don't get to remove their worst offensive game: Yards: 286.0 (31st) Yards/Play: 4.74 (30th) Rush Yards/Game: 146 (5th) YPA: 4.49 (10th) Passing Yards/Game: 140.4 (32nd) Passing Yards/Attempt: 5.44 (29th) Sack%/Attempt: 10.1% (32nd) 3rd Down %: 37.9 (23rd) Red Zone %: 64.3% (12th) Points/Game: 18.4 (28th)

Rodgers: Rodgers DOES own us. As do the Packers. Since 1992: Rodgers: 22-5 Favre: 22-10 Some other dude: 1-0 Packers are 45-15 against the Bears over the last 60 games, and have only played 3 QB's. By contrast, the Bears have played 35 QB's in those games Yeah we know

I think I saw Bucs -12.5 for this one. Sounds about right...Brady seems like the kind of guy that is probably still pissed about losing to the Bears last year and is motivated to destroy us as revenge.

In terms of fWAR he's been the 6th most valuable catcher since the start of 2016, behind Grandal, Realmuto, Posey, Zumino and Gary Sanchez. The first 3 are on a tier of their own, while the next 5 catchers, including Willson are bunched together in that next tier. So he's definitely been an elite caliber catcher, but age and wear and tear do concern me, and its not like he's been so great that you'd be stupid to move him.

Along those lines the best outcome for this season - Fields continues to play and gets valuable experience while the Bears lose enough games to get Nagy and Pace replaced. Because Nagy doesn't get it, there's got to be someone out there who does and would take off with Fields as his QB thereby making the NFC Central theirs. I know its currently pretty grim but, the day is near when the Bears are going to have the best QB in the division and Packers, Lions and Vikings will be in QB waste land and its going to be oh so great. Jones, that no name Packer TE, and any other Packers who look like Pro-Bowlers may not look so with Jordan Love as their QB.- I still remember, a long long time ago, watching a Cubs / Brewers game and some typical idiot Bear fan gets in a shouting match with a Brewer fan. At the time Rodgers had just been drafted and this guy goes "Rodgers? That's your QB now! Hahah!" ...I'll wait for the Jordan Love era to begin before I make any judgements about him. But I agree, one of the most maddening things about the Packers is how many mediocre players they make look really good. It's a tribute to them, but I'll admit to jealousy over that. And I do hope it comes to an end when Rodgers is gone. When Rodgers hasn't been able to play, the true mediocrity of the Packers has been revealed. So we'll see. I remember waiting years and years for Favre to finally show his age and breakdown, relishing the fact that there is no way they struck gold on a QB twice, especially someone who slipped in the draft and was sitting on the bench for the past 2 seasons. While it can be notoriously difficult to draft and develop a legit franchise QB, it is becoming more and more clear to me just how much organizations can up the odds. Favre to Rodgers, Brady to Mac Jones (I know, still pretty early but dude is head and shoulders above the other 2021 rookie QBs so far), Peyton to Luck, Reid-era Smith to Mahomes, heck even Romo to Dak. That's why I'm not convinced Love will be a bust and its why I'm concerned about Nagy developing a talent like Fields. If Fields hasn't made significant strides by the end of the season, I really really hope they fire Nagy regardless of record. If you blow this with Fields it will be a long time before I can get excited about anything related to the Bears.

lol we only needed a draw in T&T, or not have one of the top 2 finishers in the group, Mexico or Costa Rica to blow 2nd half leads and lose. I still can't get over the ridiculousness of that night. The US could have drawn or won, Mexico could have drawn or won, Costa Rica could have drawn or won to at least get to the playoff. ANY of those 6 outcomes would have at least gotten the US to the playoff. The only scenario that could have eliminated the US was a loss to the worst team in the hex combined with losses by both of the top 2 teams in the hex (yes they already clinched but whatever). I'm not saying anything new to this board, but I feel the need to rant about that every so often. Anyway, the point is yes, we should be basing our expectations on clinching before the final matchday, because anything can happen before then. Thats why playing your B team in Panama and losing is so disappointing.

I feel the same way. It's hard to tell what talks have been had behind the scenes with regards to extensions, but Willson has been pretty adamant about only signing if the Cubs are in winning mode. Maybe they believe that while they have a plan, they can't feel certain that they will be in a strong position by the end of next year, and if so trading him now will net more in return than trading him midseason or getting nothing for him. The other thing to consider is that next year will be Willson's age 30 season and has been catching for 10 years now including minors. Track record for catchers in their 30's is not great. Some of the smarts on here can correct me, but I would guess offense holds up better than defense, and the Cubs feel like they need a strong defensive catcher to maximize the value of their pitching staff. Perhaps if the DH does get implemented in the NL this offseason, this will offer the Cubs more incentive to extend him.

Psh, don't you know, Nagy's offense takes 3 4 years to get going and things will start to improve in year 4 5

That's OK, him and the Packers will get their asses kicked in the playoffs and they'll end winning just as many SB's the season as the Bears will - 0. In facing playoff teams they don't have the luxury of opposition coaching ineptness and cowardice the Bears provide, bites them in the ass every time and will again this season. I also don't know why this is a thing Bears fans bring up. I mean, they've won 2 rings since the Bears have won their last. And making fun of a team for winning the division every year and losing in the NFC championship game, while your team has won 2 playoff games in 25 years is like making fun of the handsome multi-millionaire who bangs chicks every night at his bachelor pad because he doesn't have true love when you and your wife have been married for 30 years and sleep in separate bedrooms. Hey now, they've won 3 playoff games in the last 25 years

Eddie Jackson PFF grade: 2018 - 93.2 2019 - 67.0 2020 - 59.8 2021 - 53.4 (not sure if it includes yesterday) Dead cap of 18.56m before 2022, 9.57m before 2023, 5.58m before 2024

I have no idea if the board will find this interesting. I spent some time compiling every current starting QB's numbers after 5 career starts (missing a couple who haven't had 5 starts). One caveat is - I know Fields has only had 4 starts but he played a majority of the Bengals game and 5 sounds cooler than 4, but you can take Fields' counting stats with a grain of salt if you'd like. They are still a bit low relative to almost every other QB. This does not include rushing which is obviously relevant and I'm sure there are better metrics to compare QBs but I went with the basics. Every QB situation is different, and by no means am I making any proclamations about Fields or other QBs by this comparison, I'm just a dork who likes numbers. Couple of interesting takeaways: -2021 QB class has looked dreadful compared to their older peers -Interesting to see names like Josh Allen and Matthew Stafford and Russell Wilson toward the bottom as those are comps you are hoping Fields falls into -Also interesting to see the spread between best and worst. Mahomes obviously sat out the first 15 games of his career and came out dominating, but guys like Herbert and Dak were pretty much starting right away and were sharp from day 1

Nice! Congrats for doing the bare minimum after 2 years of heavy pressure and decades of exploiting minor league players.

Sure there are some plays and schemes he’s more comfortable with and it’s not like it’s all been bad at all. But twice today he took his team out of FG range by taking a sack on 3rd down. That can’t happen, it needs to be thrown away but he waited too long and/or tried to make a rush that wasn’t there. On one of them he tried to run to the edge like he probably successfully did 100 times in college but the defense was just too fast for him. I don’t know if that’s processing or lack of situational awareness but it’s a problem he needs to fix. But at the same time I think there is a lot of adjustment for him right now and he will only figure it out by playing more

Criticizing our organization after your team beat us for the 1000th time in a row is even less appreciated. These threads are not for you guys And again his comment about the speed of the game was comparing the speed of the first preseason opponent to the bears defense he was playing against in practice. He was complimenting our defense and not saying anything cocky about how awesome he is. I’m not a Packers fan. Never said I was. I grew up in the Chicago area and live here and have been a Bears fam my entire life. I’m tired of the Bears ownership, not the team. Whoops. My apologies I thought you were a Packers fan for some reason. Take all that back except the explanation of the Fields quote. Drives me nuts how often this gets misconstrued as some boasting by Fields

That’s not what he said and what he did say was taken horribly out of context. But I guess people will just keep on misquoting that forever. Also you aren’t allowed to pile onto the post game misery I don’t jump in the threads just to pile on during losses. Don’t be mad at me. Be mad at an organization that endures mediocrity. Fields is slow to process the NFL game. It will come, but he should talk about the speed of the NFL game once he wins games using his athletic ability. Criticizing our organization after your team beat us for the 1000th time in a row is even less appreciated. These threads are not for you guys And again his comment about the speed of the game was comparing the speed of the first preseason opponent to the bears defense he was playing against in practice. He was complimenting our defense and not saying anything cocky about how awesome he is.

“I thought NFL defensive players would have been faster” says the QB brought down like 10 times this year because Fields thought he was faster than them That’s not what he said and what he did say was taken horribly out of context. But I guess people will just keep on misquoting that forever. Also you aren’t allowed to pile onto the post game misery

I still think these are things that can be fixed with playing time but it’s very frustrating to see in the meantime because it’s destroying him and the offense every game.

How many times does Field have to get sacked trying to scramble to the edge before he realizes that NFL players are faster? I’m not saying not to scramble but he needs to recalibrate his decision making

He’s been such a terrible tackler this year. Earlier he let Aaron Jones drag him for 10 extra yards because he was trying to rip the ball away from him.

Ok great drive Fields. Now we have to stop Rodgers pretty much on this drive to have a chance