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Edge is the glamourous DL position, but I think DT is a bigger need. Edge at least has Sweat, Booker, Dayo, Hardy (ERFA) and Turner was moved out there before injury. Obviously, most of those guys suck, but at least there are bodies there. At DT, you have Jarrett and Dexter only under contract. Jarrett is a shadow of his former self (was much better last 6 weeks though) and Dexter is what he is at this point and a FA after 2026. That being said, if you can get a multiplier at Edge, then that is the priority to me. If you can get a true star then that makes everyone better on the DL, and you do have guys like Dayo and Turner who can play interior to help there. But you aren't getting THAT guy at 25 most likely (TBF though, Falcons traded this year's 1 to get 10.5 sacks from their pick at 24 this past draft). But you likely get the best DT on your roster at that same spot. Maxx isn't worth 2 1sts IMO. Parsons got 2 1s and a player, Maxx is older, not quite as good, and already has a big contract that you have to figure out how to fit in your cap space. That lessens his value.

Indiana, Our Indiana Indiana, we're all for you We will fight for the Cream and Crimson For the glory of old IU Never daunted, we cannot falter In the battle, we're tried and true Indiana, O Indiana Indiana we're all for you We did it! We made history!

And the Ravens game could have come down to the last play had the Bears not blown the goaline situation near the end.

OK this is an insane stat. Lol. Chicago, Carolina, Atlanta, Dallas, Green Bay, Seattle, New Orleans, Patriots, Arizona, Tampa, SF, Cincinnati, Detroit, Minnesota, Philly. Every NFC team except NY Giants and Washington

I think this WILL be high-scoring game as weather doesn't help bad defenses. And these are 2 that are not playing very well right now. The Rams finished top 10 in scoring D. But they have doubled their points allowed per game from 13.5 for the first 11 games, to 28.3 in the last 7, including playoffs. They have given up at least 27 in every game since November 30 that they didn't face Jacoby Brissett and the Cardinals. And Brissett passed for over 500 yards in those 2 games. The Bears defense has actually held 3 of their last 5 opponents to 16 or fewer points, including the powerhouse Lions offense and the Packers, both in Chicago (and Cleveland, which doesn't count). But they gave up 380+ yards against both teams. Conversely, the Rams offense has scored 30+ in 9 of their last 12 games. The 3x they didn't they scored 24, 28, and the lowest being 21 against the best defense in football. Even in terrible weather, I don't see this defense slowing down Stafford enough to keep this as a low scoring game. Puka is an awful matchup for this defense. He missed the game last year, but he's the type of WR they've always had a ton of trouble with. Agile, slot WR, that's a good route runner. And then there's Davante Adams, noted Bear killer of lore, and they have a 3-headed monster at TE, which have always given the Bears trouble. Not super worried about the TEs and Adams, but they will be huge factors when the field gets shorter in the red zone. The Rams have a solid run game w/ 2 RBs. They are best at outside zone. I wonder if the Bears may play a lot of dime defense with a healthy CJGJ and Kyler, who are good tacklers vs the run, and injured LBs. Gets them faster on D, though Jackson is speedier than Edwards. The Rams do the same and play the most dime in the league and dare teams to run on them. Part of the reason they do that, is they want to dare teams to run. The reason they want teams to run is because they have a bottom 5 secondary in the league when it comes to pass coverage. They are susceptible against good TEs and have struggled on the outside as well, allowing huge games to Michael Wilson, Jameson Williams, and Jalen Coker in recent weeks. They've even had some stinkers in the run game vs Atlanta and Seattle. So weather be damned, this has all the makings of "last offense with the ball wins" game. And while every week the media says "you don't want to fall down big to this team", I think both teams are teams that can put up points in a hurry. The Rams have both blown 17 point leads and come back from 16 down in the last 5 weeks. The Bears have clearly done both this year as well. Both teams won on late TDs last week, so this one likely goes down the wire. I feel pretty good about this game. NOW this is house money. I know this whole season was, but the expectations change as you win games. The Rams were seen as the best team in football for most of this season before the late defensive collapse. And they are a collapse against Seattle away from this game potentially being in LA where I'd pick the Rams. Rams are favored, but this is almost a true toss up for me. Does the Bears luck run out?

I never thought this thread would exist

6th in yards per completion. 9th in Intended Air yards per completion, but ahead of him are Mariota and McCarthy who combined have 100 less attempts, and Lamar who has barely over 1/2 the attempts. Also, guys like Hurts and Maye are ahead, but throw more true "deep" balls. Caleb isn't throwing a bunch of 40-yard beyond the line of scrimmage balls. He's just consistently attacking that 20-25 yard range.

Caleb was charted with 7 big time throws on Saturday. I think I read that was the most charted in the last 5 years? And man, this was an Arm Talent 101 performance. After the scripted drive to start the game, there were maybe 2-3 legit checkdown throws, another 3-5 maybe that were underneath throws, but everything else was in the 15-25 yard window, if not deeper (not including "& goal" situations with short fields). So just estimating, I'm guessing a solid 30+ throws that were legit pushing the ball down the field on in the end zone. So completion percentage be damned when you are taking all these big shots. It's like complaining about Steph Curry's shooting percentage being under 50% when he's shooting 45% from 3 (stole this comparison). Don't let anyone tell you Caleb isn't a good QB. He will be a great QB once he takes what's given to him about 15% more. Hell, even if he doesn't, just limiting the mental mistakes, drops, bad routes from his teammates will take him to greatness levels statistically. Guys, this is real and it's spectacular!

The last Caleb throw has either won or lost 11 games this season.

Puka gonna go for 350 next week.

Nahshon? I'm letting him walk too. I think he'll get more than I'd be willing to pay him. Plus, he's been cooked pretty regularly when not getting turnovers. Probably going to have to add a CB at some point though. With no Nahshon, you'd have a CB room of Stevenson, Johnson, Gordon, Terell Smith and Zah Frazier who have combined to play 26 out of 90 games (5 of them, 18 games possible games each).

Lot of low key situations that helped the Bears late. The Packers missed FG drive late, Doubs going out of bounds after burning Gordon. He could have slid and used a bunch more time. They also went from 1st and 10 at the Bears 21 to 4th and 15 at the Bears 26 before the missed FG and only used 9 seconds of time before the missed FG because they threw 2 incompletions. A single run play would have caused the Bears to either use their last timeout or put much more pressure on them from a time constraint. Granted, the Packers ended up needing the time themselves, but maybe they don't if they use the time much better on the missed FG drive.

Reeves-Maybin got the 3rd LB reps yesterday. 8 snaps

Well yeah, I didn't say anything about cutting him. My point is, people are saying get rid of him because Burden, Loveland and Rome are the primary targets. People are saying get rid of him because he didn't prevent the INT last week. It has to make more sense than that to get rid of DJ, it has to make dollars. You either trade him for a player at another position of greater need or you trade him and get cap relief to use on a position of greater need. Also, he CAN be traded before June 1 and it would save the Bears 16.5M in cap space with 12M dead cap.

His price won't be reasonable. It'll come down to him OR Byard. Byard takes the ball away and will be cheaper, but that's because he's older. Brisker is younger, faster, but will be more expensive and doesn't take the ball away or take away any 1 thing from offenses like Byard does on the deep middle.

Some thoughts. 1. Caleb Williams is really good. There are several factors in his comp % (3 drops last night, multiple bad/wrong routes run). But he has thrown for 4400 yards this season and obviously has the hero ball plays down. If Caleb can get up to 64% completions, he's one of the best QBs in the league. He's going to be one of the best players in the league. 2. Colston Loveland man. I'm gushing over this dude. Last 3 games, 24 catches, 322 yards, 2 TDs, 2pt conversion. 8 catches, 107 per game. 136 catch, 1,825, 11 TD full season pace. Oh, and he's the best blocking TE on this team (See Swift TD run). He's 21 years old. Sky's the limit for him. 3. Really sucks on Ozzy. My hope is his age really helps him recover better than most. If he can't come back next season, you have Theo and Amegadjie, so you hope one of them can be passable until Ozzy comes back. I'd still give it a year to see how things go with his recovery and potentially with his replacement(s) before going all in on a LT early in the 2027 draft. Doesn't mean ignore OT, as the Bears need to take linemen every year. 4. If this is the last season for guys like DJ and Brisker, I'm going to miss them. Brisker was the most energetic and looked like the most athletic player on defense. DJ had the drop, but another game winner. Just because the Bears have other players, doesn't mean DJ isn't valuable or good. Don't just get rid of either for the sake of getting rid of them. It's all about better use of the money these 2 make or will demand on the open market (Brisker). If you have to replace either, replace them with speed. Get faster, more athletic on both sides. 5. Ben Johnson. Had a couple issues with some playcalls (couple of misdirections that came off as "too cute", 4th down pass when they needed a 1/2 yard). But make no mistake, every 4th down decision to go for it (which was all of them) was the correct call. Horrible execution from the Bears. Packers spammed the A gap with LB pressure between Dalman and Jackson and they had no clue how to handle it. But Ben correctly "read the room" all night, his team wasn't always on the same page executing.

Not that I don't want IU to win, but the same would be true if Oregon wins the natty.

I was going to say "I can't believe you guys don't remember the 2020 playoff game", but it's pretty forgettable. LOL Bears were the 1st 7th seed. It was the first Nickelodeon game. Trubisky won player of the game or some horsefeathers. LOL. One of the storylines was Javon Wims, who was kicked out of the regular season matchup w/ NO for randomly punching CJ Gardner-Johnson in the helmet (always a smart move). Then Wims provides the lowlight for this game by dropping a perfect thrown, perfectly designed flea flicker where Mitch lined up at WR and they ran a reverse to him with Wims running down the middle of the field wide open. Also, Jimmy Graham scored a TD on the last play of the game (to make it 21-9), dropped the ball and ran in the lockeroom, all in 1 motion. One of the most unintentionally funny things I've seen on a football field.

I think Jaylon Johnson would have to be Rizzo. He's the longest tenured Bear (along w/ Kmet) and was the best player on this team the last time he was healthy. Kmet can be Starlin Castro.

I (and others) have been equating this season to the 2015 Cubs. Young offense, loaded with talent and looks to be on the way up. New coach, lot of 1st and 2nd year players who are thriving under the new coach. Better than expected in Year 1 of the new regime. I just don't know if this is the Pirates game (because that was the wildcard round) or if this is the Cardinals series (biggest rival). Hoping the results are the same, but I never felt "cursed" against the Cardinals in these type of situations, so that's where head vs heart comes into play.

Got burned picking the Bears to beat the Lions, pretty big. Didn't think the LIons would be very motivated. Turns out the Bears were not

All I remember is the Javon Wims drop and the Jimmy Graham walkoff TD catch where he literally walked off the field after scoring all in 1 motion.

I shouldn't be confident because this is an experienced team vs a playoff tested team, this is a rookie coach vs a veteran coach, and this is Bears/Packers and we have been on the wrong side of this matchup for like 15+ years. The Bears kinda limped to the finish line with 2 consecutive losses, but both were on the last play of the game losses. And if the Bears are limping, the Packers are damn near crippled with 4 straight losses. The Packers made the right move though by sitting starters this week, and I fully believe the Bears did so by playing theirs. The Packers have played this game several times (wildcard game on the road). And they had several players they needed to get healthy for the playoffs. On the other side, the Bears are a team that needed the reps. Ben tried to get the offense back to the basics by simplifying the game plan, but it didn't really work. But the coach and QB's demeanor since that game has been of pure frustration. For all the stuff made of the Bears starting off slow, they are actually 6th in the league in 1st quarter points. And they got passed for top 5 on Sunday. The Packers are a much different team from what they were in the 1st matchup, their OL is in shambles. They will get Zach Tom back, but the Pack has been sacked 11x since Week 15 and only has 3 sacks themselves without Parsons. They also do not take the ball away (Caleb's game losing INT is their only takeaway the last 6). The Bears did get a couple sacks against them last time, and the big one that killed Love doesn't even count because of the penalty. The Bears defense is not good by any means, and I don't expect 0-5 in the red zone, but the hope is they are motivated enough and Kyler coming back is enough to limit the redzone trips. On offense, the Packers have actually done a good job stopping the Bears explosive runs. They only have 2 in the 2 matchups (not including a backward pass to DJ counting as a run) and all 3 of those plays came in the last matchup. The Packers haven't exactly stopped the Bears run game, but the Bears do need to find a way to keep them off balance by mixing the run and pass. My hope is they really lean into Darnell Wright being the best run blocker on their OL and just spam the outside right side of line. The Bears add a weapon with Rome, who the Packers haven't seen yet. They only got 1 game of Burden, and the Bears were productive throwing to TEs with Loveland/Kmet combining for 11 catches, 115 yards and a TD, so could be an embarrassment of riches for Caleb in the pass game. When Ben was hired, he said he loved beating Matt LaFleur 2x a year. He can't live up to that expectation he put out there unless he wins this one. On the field, these 2 teams have played pretty evenly matched (1 point difference and 6 total yard difference in 2 games). But on paper, I'd like to think the Bears are the better, more talented, healthier team. My heart says the Bears should win this game by 2 scores (whether 9 points or 18), but my head says this is another game that will take multiple years off my life. No prediction.

He still knows Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes. The hope is a portion of that was him and a big part of Chicago was Mitch's fault..... I guess.

Yeah, they basically need the defensive version of last year's draft. LOL. I do have hope that they can because that's basically what the Rams did in the 2024 draft. Also, defense is a young man's game. Try to stay fast and keep up with offenses enough to slow them down. Keep Ben, Caleb, and a strong OL...maybe a weapon or 2 depending on if Loveland, Burden and/or Rome prove irreplaceable over the next few years. Bring in a new rookie deal RB every couple years. Then replace defenders through the draft and keep getting faster and younger on that side. If any defender proves to be elite (think Chris Jones in KC) then you keep him, but otherwise keep a revolving door on that side. That being said, keep Byard, but all other D FAs or non-performers can go on a yearly basis.