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You're like the 2nd or 3rd person to say this. What are they doing/not doing that you want to see? I feel like ya'll are expecting perfect prospects, which don't exist. Or at least expecting some sign from above that this prospect can't miss or something.

Bagent is exactly what you want. He's Gardner Minshew. He's a guy you want in a pinch that is the cliche "plays within himself" QB that gets rid of the ball. I love that he's got a completely different game than Fields, but he isn't a complete talentless hack like Peterman or Chase Daniel. I think it makes it harder for teams to adjust on the fly like this with 6 days of preparation. But with the extra tape on him, I'd imagine it'll be much tougher for him this weekend. If it's not....then Rocky may be onto something.

Eberflus said today, no change. So, he's doubtful and probably not going to play. I'm sure he'll try to suit up toward the end of the week. Grip is coming back, but the concern is the zip on his passes with that thumb.

I feel like everyone has chalked this up as a loss on paper since the schedule came out. But I just simply can't assume anything with the Chargers ever. They SHOULD win this game, but they should have won a playoff game where they had a 30 point lead at halftime or whatever. The Chargers are NOT that good. The Bears are clearly worse, though. I feel like a 2nd Bagent start will be not as successful. In theory, him getting rid of the ball quickly should help against a good pass rush. But I feel like if Fields plays, he can take advantage of a really bad pass defense.....assuming he pulls the trigger, when he's not running for his life. And that pass D is bad down the field. 8.8 yards per attempt, 9.01 air yards per attempt, 12.8 per completion and a 105.6 QB rating against. All but that rating against are the worst in the league. The Chargers have been a Broncos level pass defense this year. To be fair though, they have played 1/2 their games vs KC, Miami and Minnesota w/ a healthy Jefferson.

I actually like McCarthy a lot. He's probably above Shedeur as my QB3 right now, and potentially is a top 10 pick. I fully expect Michigan in the national title game, so McCarthy will get a lot more exposure. I do worry about his frame. He's very slender, but it does look like he's added mass to his arms since last season. He kinda has a Derek Carr build (with a Zach Wilson face, this is a negative). I think he's probably your best bet to get the best of both worlds type of guy, between what we saw from Bagent yesterday and what we've seen from Fields in his better games. Can be a game-manager type when the gameplan calls for it. But I feel like he can push the ball downfield pretty well as well.

Apparently games against non-top 25 defenses. I mean, everyone struggles against top 25 defenses, that's why they are top 25 defenses.

Yes he does

IDK if this was in response to me, but I didn't say holding onto the ball was a bad thing. Nor did I say they weren't calling to his strengths. I literally said the opposite and that it's hard to continue to do that when a team forces the action by making him get the ball out faster than he wants. But yeah, I agree he's brutal with hot reads. And I said on Twitter this week when people were complaining about the playbook changing after Bagent got in to include more screens and RPOs, that Fields somehow isn't good at executing the RPO, despite running plenty of it in college. Basically it comes down to, round peg in a square hole. I mean, I think Fields has shown enough that I think he can get by in this league. He had 600+ and 6 TDs in a span of 4 days. He put together a 1000 yard rushing season. But if he's not going to be good enough with hot reads, RPOs, and the quick game in general, you better get him the best OL money and draft picks can by. The Bears didn't do that for him. Fields didn't make the adjustments to combat this. I don't blame the team for him not making adjustments. He knows he's taking a beating, but has essentially refused to do anything to protect himself. And it's his own damn stupidity/inability.

This is a good discussion and it sucks that I'm late to it, but not to cop out, but I think it's both. Some QBs are successful by nature and some are by nurture. And I think a lot of it depends on which positive traits (and how much in the positive) the QB has. And I guess that also means how well the strength of the offensive coaching fits to the QB. Like we praise Andy Reid and Kyle Shanahan, but Reid couldn't get over the hump with McNabb or Alex Smith. He made them better, but not good enough. Shanahan couldn't do anything with the most moldable, 20-year old, QB in the world at the time, but is a SB favorite with the equivalent of D1 Tyson Bagent, who was picked 1 slot ahead of the UDFAs. But a lot is finding a way to get the most out of what a QB naturally does well, while minimizing the need for the QB to be put in positions to have to do things he doesn't do well too often. Also, I think you should NOT spend much time trying to correct what a QB doesn't do well to fit in your scheme. With Fields in particular, you have an OC who wants to throw quick to playmakers potentially in small windows, while you have a QB that wants things to open up down the field. I think Getsy did a good job of calling to Fields' strengths the previous 2 weeks, but it's pretty hard to do when the other team is sending more guys than you can block in front of him. And obviously, Fields' weaknesses mean he can't make the adjustments necessary to combat that, which seems to be his fatal flaw that takes him off of this team. But you also can't consistently run an offense to your QBs strength that likes to hold onto the ball if you have below average OL talent and WRs who can't separate. Then you throw on injuries on top of that and it's been a disaster for 2 years between getting the most out of Fields and the most out of the offense. And that part is not on him. Poles scouted him in college. There was every indication there he liked to hold onto the ball and they put him in a terrible situation to succeed almost intentionally. And if you think Fields likes to hold onto the ball too long, Caleb Williams has the record for time to throw since it's been calculated. He does seem to have enough of that Mahomes ability to adapt and get the ball out quickly when he needs to or the situation dictates it, but you never know until you put him in that situation. And if you put him behind remedial centers, a bottom 10 LT and you have injury prone players at both guard spots, you're going to find out in a hurry if he can overcome his negative traits well enough.

Davante Adams is unhappy about not getting the ball. So expect him to be force fed a bit. But he's also struggled vs Jaylon Johnson in the past, so this is a good chance for the Bears to either frustrate the Raiders best player some more or force a backup QB into some turnovers trying to make him happy. I actually don't think the gameplan will be as bad as you guys think. I expect some early down throws to try to keep the defense from pinning their ears back on potential 3rd and longs. Getsy can call the quick game he so dearly loves but his starting QB doesn't. Get the ball to DJ and Kmet early and often. Stay out of 3rd and long with Crosby on what could be backup OTs on both sides (Wright DNP today), and yes a lot of draw plays on 3rd and long. Script a good opening drive, play with a lead. Maybe score off a turnover on a short field. First team to 17 probably wins this game.

I don't think this is looking at things the right way. Sure, 2025 could be in the 20s. But it's still a second 1st round pick. Regardless of where those fall, they are valuable and potentially, blue chippers. But I also assume you are getting another 1st rounder this year as well. Like if they pick at 1, and trade 2, they probably are still getting a top 10 pick. So, still getting 2 bluechippers in this draft (how blue is up for debate), and especially if the Bears don't necessarily want Harrison Jr or give Braxton another shot at LT, trading down and getting a DE or DT at a less reaching spot may be the best scenario, when you throw in what is likely to be several other picks as well. That's still potentially 4 blue chippers (#1 pick, traded down pick in 24, Bears own pick in 25, additional 25 pick) added in 2 years.

Oh, there's plenty that are intrigued more by having the 1-2 picks than the team actually winning games.

It does. But DJ Moore being a legit stud WR means you have to weigh the opportunity cost of taking a WR2 (or 1B) over DE, OL, DT, even a CB if Johnson walks/traded.

Texans don't own 2 picks. Arizona owns Texans' 1st (Will Anderson), Texans own Cleveland's (Watson) and Cleveland's only

Yeah, the thing about this season being such a disaster, I don't really think you can bring back Fields and give him a 3rd offense in 4 years. It's either Fields is 100% sure the guy (and you probably have to suck it up with the current staff), or you have to move on from him along with the coaches. Whether they pick 1 or not, they are going to pick very high in this draft, and probably twice. Hopefully, this will be the highest they pick for the foreseeable future so you gotta take a QB. Whether it's Williams, Maye or you have to trade down a few picks and take a McCarthy, you can't pass up on the top QB prospects with what could very well be 3 different top 5 picks.

1. Who's criteria? 2. There was an article this week calling him a better prospect than any in the last 20 years, with a toss-up vs Luck (I believe). Not necessarily agreeing with that, but he's clearly up there to some people

So, I gotta disagree with the sentiment that Williams AND Lawrence are NOT generational prospects. Lawrence meets all the criteria, IMO. The #1 HS recruit. College starter as a true freshman and wins a national title with college playoff appearances in every year in college. He was thought of as an eventual #1 draft pick while in HS and lived up to it. I'm not sure where Williams was in HS recruiting rankings, but also started at a major Power 5 program as a freshman (I don't believe he started day 1 as OU had Spencer Rattler), but Heisman as a sophomore and before last night was a leading candidate to win it twice. Granted, that's not that big of a deal as far as NFL prospects go as Tebow nearly won Heisman twice. But I think Williams is closer to Lawrence than Fields was as a prospect and Fields had a lot of H2H success over Lawrence throughout the years.

No IR for Herbert yet, which is a good sign that he's not going to go on it. I wonder if Gordon may need some sort of ramp up. IDK what he's been doing on the side, but maybe he's not in game shape, despite the injury being a hand. Stroman has played pretty well too, so I wonder if that factors into if they bring Kyler up this week. That being said, I'd at least have him splitting time with Stroman this week if you think he is healthy enough to play, but not ready enough to go a full game. EQ St. Brown is a low key big loss if he can't go. It does help with my desire to have Velus and Scott ramped up during the mini-bye. I wonder what they do with Kramer. With Whitehair moving back to C full-time now that Jenkins is back, they have a lot of centers on the roster w/ Cody, Patrick, Kramer and Feeney. Add in Carter and Davis, and you have 7 OL who can only play on the interior (assuming Jenkins doesn't go back to OT). Either Patrick goes to IR or you activate Kramer just to put him on the practice squad.

Mooney had 4 targets. The endzone one was dropped (also DPI not called). After seeing DJ catch non-perfect passes, I believe Mooney just isn't making plays. Granted, he may not be capable, which separates him from the DJ Moore's of the world. I hope they use(d) these 10 days to get Tyler Scott and/or Velus up to speed. Even if they have to go back to WR screens to get Velus the ball and just draw up a couple deep shots for Scott, they need one of those guys to step up as the 4th option mainly because they potentially have a future on this roster, unlike St. Brown (and probably Mooney as well).

@UMFan83 start the new game thread. You're the only person to post a winning game thread in a year. You must start this one. And we got big news, Justin Jefferson going on IR and officially OUT for the Bears game

Nah, Foreman is very much like Herbert. He doesn't mess around in the backfield like Monty. He gets the ball and finds the hole quickly with the burst to get through it fast. Like Herbert, Foreman is a good bet to get one of the higher yards per carry over expected and put up a solid percentage of explosive runs because he is so decisive with the ball.

Foreman's skillset is kind of redundant. Most think due to his size, he's redundant to Johnson, but he's actually a very similar runner to Herbert. I think he will get the most carries between he and Johnson until Herbert is back. I also wonder if Herbert goes to IR or not. 4 games would put him back for the TNF game vs. Carolina. IDK that they'd want to bring him back on a short week with barely any practice in that scenario. So, if they don't, that'd put him back Week 11 which would keep Herbert out 44 days. If they don't IR him, I'd think there's a good chance he'd be good to go Week 9 which is just 24 days from the injury. So, you're potentially looking at a 20 day difference if you IR him or not.

No concern. That's his game. It was his game at Ohio St. It's the game of guys like Watson (when he was good), Russell Wilson (when he was good) and Geno Smith (since he's been good). Typically the guys with big arms, but not the actual cannon arm. Guys like Allen and Mahomes use the whole field because they can throw bullets in tight windows. Then there are the guys who don't have the big arm to throw outside the numbers consistently, so they manipulate the middle of the field more (Brady, Brees types).

It's 2025 picks

I mean yeah, but that's not the goal. The goal is to have the best QB. If they feel Caleb Williams is the better QB, then it doesn't matter that they can get more for him. Then you throw in you have to pick up a 23M option on Fields this offseason and potentially 50M/year long-term, while you get Williams cheaper for 4 years.