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Eh. Same talent on the OL as last year. Two probowlers in 2018 and a promising young player. Every single player on the OL played much worse this year. Also, Helfrich and Hiestand were "in charge" of the run game. They did nothing to improve an already mediocre run game. Don't understand complaining about this. You rather they bring everyone back and act like everything was fine? Bring them back? Nah. But these feel like "we need to fire somebody but not the people we need to" firings I mean they were logical firings. These were the guys in charge of getting the run game together. They did not, in 2 years. They got away with it in 2018 because the team won 12 games. Obviously, the QB needs to go, which probably means the guy who drafted him ultimately needs to go. But as bad as this season was, Nagy still won 20 games in 2 years, and the Bears still finished better than 18 of the 32 teams. There's really not anybody that "needs" to be fired right now in a larger scale position. All bets are off in 2020 though.

Eh. Same talent on the OL as last year. Two probowlers in 2018 and a promising young player. Every single player on the OL played much worse this year. Also, Helfrich and Hiestand were "in charge" of the run game. They did nothing to improve an already mediocre run game. Don't understand complaining about this. You rather they bring everyone back and act like everything was fine?

This UK/VT game has been wonderful. Kentucky wins in on a go ahead TD and extra point. Pass completed by UK's leading receiver and rusher, who's also their best QB.....because why not?

I feel like it's said every year, but who in their right mind wants to go there? McCarthy for instance, sounds like he has interest from Carolina. That's an easy choice 10 times out of 10. Even if you don't have a competing offer though, I'd be tempted to just wait another year on the market unless I was a Vic Fangio type who was clearly running out of time. McDaniels is the name I've seen float around. Unless he's just set on waiting out Bellicheck, maybe that's a good option for him, as hell probably struggle to get looks going forward around the league. The Browns are one of the top 5 talented teams in the league. Baker looked like a decent QB as a rookie, jury's out now but obviously still could be a good one. Their RB lost the rushing title in the 4th quarter of the late afternoon games on sunday. They have a pair of top 20 WRs, a talented TE, a potential perennial DPOY in Garrett, solid corners. I actually don't like that they fired Dorsey. I think Dorsey has built the team well. Like I said, i think the coaching hire was worth the risk for the continuity with Mayfield. But I think this is a very good coaching spot for someone who has coached before. They've hired a bunch of people that they hoped could lead a team and get the most out of their young talent. Now all the talent is in place, they need someone that everyone in the lockeroom knows can win games. McCarthy is that guy, IMO. Works out too as he can get some GM duties with Dorsey out. But I don't think McDaniels qualifies because his time in Denver and his shenanigans with Indianapolis put that "knows can win games" part in serious question.

Ragone must be really good friends with Pace or Mitch, because he survived Fox's firing and now the OC's. Furrey (WR coach) is pretty well regarded. Got no issues with him staying.

I actually feel bad for Kitchens. I even said last offseason they HAD to hire him as HC. He did so well with Baker at QB, I don't think they could've afforded to lose him by hiring someone else at HC. But he was clearly in over his head. I think he's a decent OC though and his work with a young QB will get him another job in sorry order. Cleveland really needs an experienced coach. Too late for Rivera, but I feel they have to go get Mike McCarthy. Need a guy they know can coach and won't be home in 2 or fewer years like the last 27 coaches they've had Sent from my moto e5 supra using Tapatalk

Alex Smith walks no better than Ryan Shazier. He's not playing next year. Even if he was.....MEH AF. Sent from my moto e5 supra using Tapatalk

No. The teams have been set since the Giants/Redskins game a couple weeks ago. The Bears would have gone from playing Tampa to Atlanta, but they already play the entire NFC South. Interesting the Bears may only have 1 cold weather away game, and depending when the game at Green Bay is scheduled, that may not even be a factor.

I don't think the OC has to call plays to have an impact. He just has to have some input, especially in the run game design. He also needs to have the ability to notice tendencies, as I feel Nagy's worst aspect of his playcalling is the inability to set plays up based on previous play calls, defensive tendencies, etc. A guy that has "been there before" could really have a lot of value, even if not calling plays...though i believe Nagy would give up playcalling if the right OC comes along. Pat Schurmur is the most interesting possibility to me. If he doesn't survive with the Giants (and this is his 2nd stint of back-to-back sub 6-win seasons as a HC), then he has experience and ties to Nagy. As for up and comers, Mike Kafka, Chiefs QB coach comes to mind. Other than that, not too familiar with names. Maybe Freddie Kitchens if he doesn't survive in Cleveland.

It does sound like the Bears are going to get rid of Helfrich and bring a new offensive coordinator. Rumors have it that the new OC will NOT be Brad Childress, who's in a consulting role of something now. I was going thru the Bears OC history and my God is it ugly. Since 1993, they've had 11 different coordinators on 12 different hires (Ron Turner with 2 stints at OC). Only 2 have had lateral or forward moves in the NFL AFTER leaving Chicago (Gase who we all knew would be here for only 1 year, and Loggains who was hired twice as OC by Gase and would not have been hired by any other coach)...again unless you count Turner 2.0 Three were college coaches with 0 NFL experience (Turner 1.0, Crowton, Helfrich). Two were offensive line coaches by trade (Tice, Kromer) Three times they hired "the next guy up" after a mediocre OC (Tice, Loggains, Shoop) Twice they've hired offensive head coaches, both times with an OC who wasn't a QB coach or play caller (Kromer, Helfrich) Only 2 had called plays at the NFL level before being Bears OC (Martz, Gase), unless you count Turner 2.0. Martz had been out of the NFL for 3 years before his hire. Gase came with John Fox because he had to play out a season before getting a HC offer. Never have they hired a guy with any other options.

Yup the window was always narrowly planned around 2018-20 unless Mitch propelled into stardom. Ride it out. Thirded Fourthded. I mentioned Case Keenum earlier, and I'm going to do it again. He should be cheap, will willingly take a backup role while the team gives Mitch one last try to be something. And if he has to play, he's a guy that has caught fire before. He had almost a full season of strong play with the Vikings. He started off the season really well this year (ironically, until the Bears got a hold of him in Week 3). And he's been good the 3 times he's come on in relief. HE's been lightning in the bottle before. Maybe he can do it again and Foles his way into a deep playoff run. My (realistic) dream scenario would be Trubisky, Keenum and a draft pick in the QB room. Best case, Jordan Love falls to the 2nd and the Bears run to the podium to take him. Worst case, use that 4th round comp pick on a guy like Gordon from Washington St. or Nate Stanley from Iowa, and you have a longterm backup for 2020+ with hopes of becoming a starter or trade fodder like Minshew or a Nick Mullens or something.

Trubisky- due 9M if here or not, might as well be here. Carr- would have to be cut (there is cap savings to be had by Oakland). But probably not getting a paycut from 20Mil making this year. Tannehill- probably played himself into the 20-22M/year range. Likely staying in Tennessee anyway Newton- If he's cut and/or they are willing to trade him, it's probably because his body is shot. Would cost 20+Mil/year for damaged goods Rivers- interesting, would require 25Mil + most likely. Not sure what it means if he's allowed to reach the market. Probably not happening w/ age & price tag Mariota- as stated, appeal is tied to Helfrich. Helfrich appeal is tied to a tree. Maybe you get him for 5-8M for 1 year, and hope to catch lightning in a bottle Foles- could be interesting depending on how the Jags view him. I assume they are going to give him another shot to earn his contract next year and write this year off as him getting hurt Week 1. But if Minshew mania gets the best of them, could they actually try to get out of his deal? By this I mean, do they maybe tie a pick to someone taking him off their hands? We've seen this with the Texans and Brock Osweiler. They gave up a 2nd and other picks and got back a 4th and 10Mil cap space. Foles isn't Osweiler bad, so maybe something like Foles for Floyd and a swap of 3rd/4th picks or something like that with the Bears getting the higher pick. But I also am not a Foles fan and wouldn't be a big fan of this move either way.

Half decent chance the Raiders make the playoffs. Steelers get the Ravens. Ravens are resting starters, but the Steelers are starting a terrible QB. Titans get the Texans, who probably don't have anything to play for, but I haven't heard if they are resting anyone. If not, they have a good shot for the win at home. The -5 line to the Titans means someone thinks they are resting starters. Raiders need both those teams to lose and they need to beat the lowly Broncos. For the sake of my nephew and the Bears 2nd round draft pick, Go TITANS!

Nagy isn't all wrong for Trubisky. Quarterbacking is.

The Packers, but they won their one.

Yeah, I like Case Keenum for this team. He'll only take a 1-year deal at this point in his career. He'd not be enough competition for to really beat out Trubisky, but he's enough to scare him. And he's caught lightning in the bottle before (110+ QB ratings in Weeks 1 & 2, and all 3 times in relief this year, and in Minnesota) so he can get this team to the playoffs with smoke and mirrors. But the problem is if Pace and Nagy fear for their jobs, waiting for 2021 isn't a viable option. And this has much more chance to end in disaster than otherwise.

Carr is conservative to a fault though. He's Alex Smith. Guys that will take all the plays given to them, but won't make anything happen out of the required. Definition of serviceable. I think they probably score more than 3 in Week 1 with Carr and beat maybe the Chargers and perhaps the Rams, but they weren't beating KC last night, GB last week, NO, Oakland, and I question whether he could have made some of the plays Mitch did vs. Detroit and Dallas.

I've been struggling with this too and I think it's clear they share the blame in some proportion. But I still think Mitch is the main problem. To be blunt, I think he's a dummy and I think Nagy is really struggling to design an offense around a guy who doesn't know where to go with the ball, can't read a defense, makes the wrong decisions on the read option, etc. When the stars align and you have a wide open WR streaking into the endzone, Mitch airmails it. You see a lot of single option plays where it's just designed to go to one guy with no other options. He's not calling those plays for no reason - he's calling them because he knows Mitch can't read the defense and throw it to the right guy when he has multiple options. Other teams know this and I think it just compounds the issue. The narrative that Nagy is just stubborn and would rather watch his offense repeatedly humiliate itself on national TV rather than call plays that suit Mitch's strengths seems lazy to me - I don't buy it. I put the blame 60-70% on Mitch for the offensive struggles this year. Out of qualified QB's, Mitch is 28th out of 32 in QB rating. He's 32nd out of 32 in yards per attempt. Despite being last among all QB's in yards per attempt, he's still only 20th in the league in completion percentage. He's 29th out of 32 in QBR. And this is with 4 games with a rating over 115! Think about how bad he's been in all the other games to end up where he is. He's not just below average, I think you could make a decent argument that he's the worst starting QB in the NFL. Where I do think Nagy horsefeathers up was not recognizing this going into the season. I think he deluded himself to thinking Mitch is going to take some big leap and he rolled out a gameplan week one that Mitch had 0% chance of being able to execute. Think about that game. Nagy comes in with a game plan calling for Mitch to throw it 50 times. The Packers defensive game plan was literally "Let Mitch play QB." They understood what Nagy didn't. With all that being said, I have no idea where they go from here. They were all in on Mitch and doubled down with the Mack trade. You have to hope for some miracle Tannehill-esque reclamation project. The future looks pretty grim for this team. While this all may be true.... Leno was a probowler in 2018, been below average this year Whitehair was a probowler in 2018, has been worse Daniels has failed to develop and has regressed RG is a mess. Though not going to blame anyone here. Massie was probably similar, if not slightly worse than 2018 when he was healthy. Miller still has mental errors, but may be slightly better. Burton/Shaheen were not healthy, but were not good when they played. Cohen was a probowler in 2018, but has the 2nd lowest YPC in NFL history with 60 catches (believe the broadcast said last night). Howard was traded because he wasn't a fit. Montgomery has basically been the exact same player, but running behind a lesser OL. If all but Robinson and maybe Miller are worse than they were last year, then can you just write off Trubisky as being bad? There's a common denominator. I don't think you can blame Mitch for the OL being this bad. Don't think you can blame him for Cohen either. But you can blame some of Mitch's struggles on the OL.

Brad Biggs seems to think that last night ruined any progress Mitch appeared to be making the last month or so, and that the team needs to go in a different direction at QB this offseason. I just don't know how realistic it is to expect them to eat 9M for Trubisky and then replace him with a undisputed better QB. Those guys cost twice as much and the simple fact that they are available makes the "undisputed" part not fit the criteria.

I mean, this is the same QB and playcaller that won 12 games last year. I know the defense gave them more short fields and scored points, but the offense last year did a decent job getting into the endzone, despite not a lot of yards. So, I guess there's hope there. There aren't many examples of a QB just "getting it" after 3 years. But ironically enough, the one shining example is Drew Brees. But he was really good his 3rd year (step back in 4th) and really took off obviously with a new team/coach. The numbers are pretty similar overall too. Brees (1st 3 years)- 21-21 record, 787-1282, 61.4 comp %, 8551 yards, 55 TD, 38 INTs, 202.5 yards per game, 6.67 yards per attempt. Trubs (1st 3 years)- 22-18 record, 785-1243, 63.1 ccomp %, 8347 yards, 48 TD, 29 INTs, 207.5 yards per game, 6.72 yards per attempt.

Bears fans have been having the "chicken v. egg" argument in regards to who's been worse, Nagy or Trubisky. I've been on team "Trubisky has been the biggest issue", but I'm not even sure anymore. Sure Nagy has schemed things open that Trubisky has flat out missed. But I don't think you can blame Trubisky on every lineman taking a step backwards, the TE position being a disaster, and Cohen becoming a liability instead of a pro-bowl caliber offensive weapon. Unfortunately for all parties, gotta do this for 1 more game and all of next year. A repeat performance and you have a whole organization full of unemployed players, coaches and executives.

10 times in 15 games they've failed to score an offensive TD in the first half.

This game going about as expected. Sent from my moto e5 supra using Tapatalk

Another good win for IU's tournament chances with a W over Notre Dame. Still one more non conference game vs Arkansas next weekend, but unless they do something stupid in conference play, they'll be back in the NCAAs after a short hiatus. Ironically, Bracketology has them as the 7-seed vs. Arkansas. Still unsure how good this team actually is since they got blown out in their only true road game so far.

They already have big money at the last level tied to Fuller and will soon have big money tied to Jackson. Can't afford 3 10Mil dollar DBs in the near future The front 7 already has pretty big deals to Mack, Smith, Goldman, and Hicks for 2020 too, right? Maybe you guys should throw that money at Conklin the OT instead Funny thing about that......the Bears also have 18.6Mil tied into the starting OTs, and that number goes up if they cut either of the two. Smith doesn't have a big deal though, rookie deal.