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If you believe early training camp reports, the Fields to DJ connection is very real and very good early. I think when Mooney is full go, he will fit in seamlessly. Everyone else may take a while to fit together, even the run game may not pick up where it left off with 4 OL in new spots, 3 new RBs and even Herbert in a lead role now. But it makes me feel good that the Fields/DJ connection seems like it can be solid enough to hold it down until everything else falls into place.

I think 4-5 designed runs are too many even, depending on what type of runs they are. Obviously, if they are the Hurts pushed QB sneaks, that's fine. But if they are the Josh Allen, off tackle power run, then that's too much when you factor in scrambling when nobody is open or the pocket breaks down. Cam Newton is the all time QB leading rusher, in terms of carries (Vick has the most yards); and he only averaged 7.5 carries per game. Figure 3-4 scrambles at least, so that gets Fields up to 7-9 per game. Ideally, the passing game and OL is good enough, to where he can just throw from the pocket and his running is just a supplement like at Ohio St

I wouldn't consider Jalen Hurts an elite passer, but I he put up an MVP level season last year. Like was said, get the ball out, take the easy yards from guys running after the catch. Intermediate throws he was already the best in the league (10-19 yards). Deep ball is likely good enough going to healthy Mooney and Moore instead of Pettis, Velus, Harry and ESB. Just take the easy stuff, get to 65-66% completion like Hurts and he's a top QB in the league.

All absolutely true, but my lack of "make or break" is because of all those IFs. There aren't too many QBs who aren't who they are by the end of their 3rd season. But the Bears have proven time and again to be the exception at the QB position. So, I'm fully prepared for all possible outcomes, including one where we still don't know like the injury or slight improvement.

FWIW, I refuse to put make/break on Fields this year. Last year just messed me up so bad. I don't know what to think anymore. LOL. If you told me that Fields would have 2200 yards passing and the Bears finished with the worst record in the league, and Fields actually played every non-tank game, I would have assumed the Bears would already have a new QB. Somehow, Fields is going to put up the Jameis Winston season, break the Bears passing yardage and TD records and we still won't know if he's actually good or not.

Guessing he was on PUP before they got to see him in person/give him a physical. Last they knew, he couldn't practice at OTAs. Of course, neither could Sanborn or Mooney and they weren't put on PUP. My theory is that Poles monitors Bears Twit....er, X and knew the meltdown that would happen and trolled the fanbase.

So won my long-time PPR keeper league for the first time in like 10 years. It's a league where you keep 1 player each year, but you lose the pick in the round you selected the player you kept. But you cannot keep anyone drafted in the first 2 rounds. Ex: keep a player drafted in the 9th round, he counts as your 9th round pick the following year. If you keep a great player that was somehow undrafted, you lose your last pick (15th round). So being that my team was really good, I have a pretty tough decision on who to keep. Amon Ra St. Brown- 4th round Josh Jacobs- 5th round Brandon Aiyuk- 7th round Rhamondre Stevenson- 9th round Justin Fields- 11th round While those middle guys are solid value, I'm torn between St. Brown and Fields, unless someone has a convincing reason for one of those others. St. Brown has an ADP of early to mid 20s. I would lose the 37th overall pick for him (reached a bit because I knew he'd have a big year), but with my 1st two picks, that'd give me 3 top 25 players potentially. Fields has an ADP of late 6th/early 7th round, so is more of a steal, but not as good positional value. And that's about where I'd take a QB anyway.

Frank Clark wasn't of any interest to me. He's basically like an NBA 3&D guy at this point. Ease him along all season and let him loose in the playoffs. Bears aren't at that point and I'm not really sure how much he has left anyway. Dalvin Cook to Miami seems like a foregone conclusion from what I've heard. As for DE, if the Vikings are truly shopping Danielle Hunter, I hope the Bears don't let the division thing deter them from throwing their name in the hat. The Vikings have traded in the division a few times the last couple years. Traded for Hockenson at the deadline and traded on draft day to help the Lions and Packers take WRs (Williams and Watson) last year. I think the compensation would be similar to the Roquan trade (2nd and 5th). He is older than Roquan, but DE is a more premium position and Hunter needs a long term deal after this year like Smith last year. Hunter has had double digit sacks 3 of 4 years, and the year he didnt (2021) he had 6 sacks in 7 games, so he was clearly on his way then as well. Bears obviously have the money to pay him long-term. They have the multiple 1s next year, potentially an extra 3rd if Cunningham gets a GM job next year. Definitely a gamble I'd take with a 2nd, not a 1st rounder though.

I think it'll be pretty close to what he's always done when not being traded midseason....if he's healthy. 55-65 catches, 700-800 yards, 4-6 TDs. I don't see him blowing up more than that, unless Mooney has to miss a bunch of time in season and teams really gear up to stop DJ. If he shows big play ability he did as a rookie and versatility to be more than just a jump ball downfield guy, I think he gets the payday he wants, but maybe not from the Bears.

Cleveland tore everything down though to get to that point, though. And they mostly built that team through the draft. A lot of their big money spent is on guys they drafted and drafted from years of having top 10 picks. Garrett, Chubb, Bitonio, Ward, Njoku. The top guys they were paying when Baker was there are now all gone. Landry, Tretter, Hooper, Sheldon Richardson (other than Conklin who was just re-signed).

I have argued the same thing. I understand what Poles was/is doing, but he didn't have to be so extreme with the lack of talent on the team last year. My argument was he was playing it safe. Fields wasn't his draft pick, and if he tied himself to Fields by clearly trying to win right away on paper, he would go if Fields went. But honestly, this was just as risky of a move to his future as GM. If Fields didn't have those eye popping rushing numbers and the 30 point mid-season, then Poles would get just as much blame for ruining Fields behind that terrible offensive roster. Sure, maybe he would have gotten a chance to take his QB this year, but that immediately puts a ton of pressure on him as well. It just blows my mind that Fields was as good as he was last year, while the team was the worst in the league. It's really hard to get competent QB play and be the worst team in the league.

It's not a bad strategy to spend around a cheap QB. It's spending around a bad QB that is the bad idea. If you aren't 100% sure you have a Burrow, Hurts or Herbert, then it's probably not good to spend on everything else to put you up against the cap. Because then you have to find a new QB, likely from the bottom 1/3 of the draft and have to go through developing another young QB while those guys you spent on get older and closer to the overpaid parts of their contracts. It's what you saw with the 2021 Bears. They were semi trying to develop Fields, but also were paying a ton of money to guys like Mack, Robinson, Quinn, Jackson, Whitehair, Jimmy Graham (lol), etc. The result of spending around a bad, cheap QB almost always results in a ton of dead cap on older players. Jets have been here a few times. Bears are here. Washington has been. That being said, there is a difference between not spending around a bad/unproven QB than what Poles has done. HE 100% should/could have done much more by now.

Also, since it's now June and free agency may start to pick up again before mandatory mini-camps start, here are some signings I'd like to see the Bears go out and make. DE- Yannick Ngakoue- IDC if he can't play the run. That's not really all that important to me. You have a young, promising secondary, you have 2 very highly graded pass defending LBs, give me a guy that's going to put consistent pressure on QBs on true passing downs. Leonard Floyd, Jadeveon Clowney, Frank Clark, and others are also out there, but Ngakoue honestly is the best at getting after the QB, which should be of the highest priority. OT- George Fant- he's always been a solid swing OT. He's primarily a RT, but he'd be a good guy to have for Wright to learn from. If Wright isn't ready or gets injured, he'd be a nice guy to have. He's essentially Riley Reiff from last year. If Jones goes down at LT, you can move Fant there in a pinch, or go with Borom who has played there. Gives you Fant, Borom, Carter, Patrick on the bench....for now C- Chase Roulier- Roulier has dealt with injuries recently, but was a top 5 zone blocking C as recently as 2021. I personally think he's a better fit and player than Whitehair. At worse, you bring him in to compete with Patrick for a backup job. If he happens to beat Whitehair out for a starting job, even better. These OL moves lets you end the Leatherwood experiment (unless he beats out Borom) and nobody else on the depth chart feels worthwhile. But gives the OL 7 guys who are starter-ish quality, Borom/Leatherwood as guys that can potentially play 4 positions, and Carter as a developmental backup. Right now, if there's an injury on the OL, one of those last 3 guys are in the starting lineup. CB- Cameron Dantzler- just cut from Washington, still only 24 years old. Not a world beater, but you're talking about insurance for Tyrique Stevenson, who is competing with the likes of Vildor, Jaylon Jones, and Greg Stroman. Again, a bunch of guys you really don't want to HAVE to play. S- Just bring back DHC. Houston-Carson knows the system, he has the versatility. He's a good special teamer. Even if you want to get younger on special teams, the S depth chart is a UDFA and 2 of the lastest 7th round picks you can get. Jackson is already hurt, get someone in here that won't kill you if he has to start. The Bears have the money. They have several positions (pretty much all but RB, WR and LB) where if a guy gets injured, you're looking at a clearly below average player coming in (in addition to below average guys starting on the DL, and potentially on the OL). Go out and get some veteran depth. Even if you want to keep your young UDFA guys, you'd only be cutting guys like Greg Stroman, Deiter Eiselen, Adrian Colbert, and Terrell Lewis who are all basically UDFA quality guys who are 26.

I don't follow the Blackhawks enough anymore to comment on that. But in the Bears' case, I'd argue it's probably "good" that we're talking about spending floors instead of trying to finagle the cap at this point. The Bears have had cap constraints in the (very recent) past, but have never had a QB. We don't even know if we have the QB now, so finagling the cap without a QB taking a huge chunk of the cap is the way to stay in NFL purgatory. It's what Pace did when he thought he had Trubisky and tried to call all in on the last couple years of his rookie deal. But obviously, he jumped the gun and ended up with some very expensive pieces to a puzzle missing the biggest piece in the center. If we are still talking about cap floors in 2025, then that's a huge problem. A) because it likely means the Bears are looking for another QB or B) it means Poles is still not doing enough to help Fields if he is the QB.

Yep. And the spending floor goes until the 2024 league year starts. So any signing bonuses from guys re-signed already on the team, restructures giving more money upfront, free agents added, trades made, anyone cut and signed between now and March 2024 all count toward that floor.

Yeah, that Carolina line is wild to me. So is Denver favored in Chicago. But I was looking at the Carolina schedule w/ particular interest, and I like how there's shakes out for the Bears hopes of a high 1st. MNF in Week 2 followed by a short week, long road trip to a tough place to play in Seattle, which is also the first of 4 straight playoff or prospective playoff teams (Detroit). And IDC, I'll take the home game on TNF every time, I don't have the numbers, but figure that's gotta be a nice advantage for the home team. Then the long week after TNF advantage is probably mitigated by playing a likely good Cowboys team. Then they have 3 straight road games, though not against great teams, before the final stretch.

Technically, Indianapolis is closer but they don't play them this year. LOL. Didn't realize there was a new page. Chicago 509 miles to KC Indianapolis is 482 miles Dallas is actually 505 miles Denver 603 Minneapolis is actually 436 per google maps, so that's actually the closest to KC in the league.

Plus, Chicago is close enough that many fans will travel to KC without going to the game and spend money in the city, which is more than they can say about any other game on their schedule, including their division rivals. Nobody is leaving LA, Vegas or Denver for KC.

Actually, apparently the Chiefs can protect 1 home game from going overseas, and they want to protect the Bears game and have it in Chicago, because Bears fans travel well in the states. The Bears are also their closest opponent geographically that they have at home so that'll naturally help that be the Chiefs highest grossing revenue game. So rumor has it, the Lions will be sent to Germany to play the Chiefs and the Bears game will be in KC and the Bears will NOT have to go overseas at all this year.

This is exactly it. They already lose a home game by being overseas, the Bears would mean they also essentially have a road game with a likely Bears friendly Euro crowd.

Agree with all of this. I'm very "meh" on Sewell as an edge rusher. He's not very long. I know guys like Parsons aren't either, but Sewell isn't that level athlete, clearly. Yeah, I liked Kuntz as well (there's a joke here somewhere). He's definitely a guy I would have drafted if given the chance. But the Bears do have a similar-ish player in Chase Allen who spent last year on the practice squad.

Didn't really give my overall thoughts on the draft since the site went down and had a busy week. But if anyone cares. Wright- I like the pick. He was definitely the safe pick. Seems like a lot of takes are "Poles drafted athletes instead of football players", but these aren't mutually exclusive things. Wright is a really good football player, who is also a really good athlete. I didn't love the trade. Trading down 1 pick is weird and the 4th in 2024 is basically a free pick, but I think there were other trades in this draft for 2-3 picks and we saw them go for slightly more. Giants moved up 1 spot and gave up a 2023 5th and 7th. The Steelers gave up a 2023 4th to move up 3 spots. Same with the Bills who moved up 2 spots. I think most would agree a 2023 4th is more than a 2024 4th, which the Bears already had the Eagles 2023 4th, but considering the trade was in the top 10, I would have liked a little bit more, especially when you consider the Eagles 2024 4th will likely be a later pick than the Giants or Bills 2023 4th. But back to Wright, I like the player a lot. I can't complain about getting my 3rd ranked OT when the top guy was already gone. And I can't complain about getting Justin protection. The Bears revamped the offense, but really only added 3 starters. Of course, those starters were a top 3 FA OG on the market, the best WR to change teams to this offseason, and a top 10 pick at RT. I hope the process in taking Wright wasn't influenced by their support of Braxton Jones and the fact that Wright is a RT and wouldn't force them to have to make a tough decision on who plays what side. But the result is still solid. Sounds like Wright will trim down a bit, which I love. He looks like a mauler, but isnt really that in the run game. I do think outside zone fits him well, if he's in the 315-320 range and he can just move in space and just crush everything that gets in his way. Pass blocking, he low key has beautiful feet and mentally is ready for counter moves. He doesn't approach every rep the same. He knows his opponent. He knows who the speed rushers are and cheats outside, while also having the ability to adjust to an inside counter. He knows who the power guys are and knows they can't beat him to the edge. He knows who the combo players are (Will Anderson) and we saw how he did there. DTs- I forgot to include my DT rankings in the draft thread. But I wasn't very high on Dexter. His get off is terrible. I know Poles explained it as his job being to hold up blockers and read the play, but he was extremely slow off the snap. Showed no urgency to get off the ball, to get off the block, or to get in the backfield. And maybe he was coached to play that way, but you have to coach it out of him because the Bears D wants literally the opposite of all those things. LOL. But Pickens is those things. He's quick off the ball, quick off the block and quick to get in the backfield....when he wants to be. Needs to do it more consistently and finish better, but he's a developmental 3T. I would have liked him a little later in the draft, but he wasn't making it to 103 and the Bears probably felt they couldn't trade back and still get him, especially with the way DEs and CBs went off the board. Speaking of CBs, they picked two. Stevenson is an interesting player. He reminds me a bit of Jaylon Johnson coming out. Big physical man CB who can throw WRs off their routes by being aggressive. Stevenson has a little more speed to keep with the faster guys if he can't get hands on him. But like Johnson, he has very little ball production. So the Bears, who are said to be unsure about signing Johnson long-term because of lack of ball production, kind of got the same type of guy, IMO. Like Johnson, Stevenson will have an adjustment to a zone heavy scheme. We've seen Johnson lose his guy at times in zone. But where Stevenson is definitely better is ability to play inside. Johnson struggles when not on the boundary. Stevenson doesn't necessarily need to use the sidelines for help. I have watched a little Smith since the draft. Seems to be a late bloomer type. Really good athlete who needs to continue his upward trajectory. Kind of similar to Stevenson, but maybe even a better athlete. I think he's honestly the CB4 on this team for most of the season, and there will be injuries so don't be surprised if he starts multiple games. Roschon Johnson- everyone loves this pick, I had him as my RB3, but he was a good 2 rounds the top 2 guys IMO. Good value where he was picked. Bears are raving about him already. I don't think he competes for starting RB. IDK if he ever does, but like I said in his scouting report, he will do it all. Play special teams, pass block, lead block, run inside, outside, and catch passes. He's a Raymont Harris, ultraback type. Like Raymont, he's not a special player, just a really good piece to have. Tyler Scott is interesting. He's kind of a Mooney clone. Like Mooney coming out, I don't know the route running ability. I just know the dude has speed and can get deep in a hurry. He's good insurance in case you can't come to terms with Mooney, but he wasn't drafted high enough to care about the redundancies in skillset. If Mooney is around long-term and Scott is a clone, worst case you wasted a 5th round pick on a WR, which pales in comparison to the wasted 3rd round WR last year. Best case, you have 2 Mooneys for at least 4 years and you can really threaten defenses deep. Noah Sewell was the only other pick I wasn't too crazy about (Dexter the other). He's an old school 2-down LB. He plays downhill and downhill only. No sideline to sideline ability, not going to be a big factor in pass coverage. Maybe you can blitz him whenever he's on the field on a pass down, but only can do that so much without the offense seeing it coming. That being said, that pretty much described Jack Sanborn before he actually played NFL games. Sanborn got on the field and showed a lot more side-to-side and pass coverage ability than I thought he ever would, and Sewell is a better athlete with a better pedigree. So obviously, willing to give this pick a chance. But again, if he fails, its a 5th round pick. The 7th round picks are whatever. If you get anything from them, they are steals. Whether they are Charles Leno, long-term solid starters or DHC long-term special teams guys, you get more than your money's worth if they even make the team. That being said, I'm rooting for Travis Bell more than I have any other 7th round pick. By all accounts, he's an amazing person. Poles was in love with the guy and said he's one of the best people he's ever met. Worked a FT job while playing college ball. Also a good athlete. I'd imagine if push comes to shove, Bell will certainly get the benefit of the doubt and make the roster. The other guy, Williamson, I frankly have no idea about him. Though he did make an INT in practice yesterday (tipped by Sewell) that there's pretty nice video on.

I do think Roquan is better than Edmunds, but it's pretty close. I do think Smith has limited upside (size related) and Edmunds is trending upward (and has Urlacher upside in this scheme). PFF has historically not liked Roquan very much, but he and Edmunds have gone back and forth on who's graded higher each year. 2022 was the best year for both, but Edmunds scored a decent bit higher. IIRC, Edmunds coverage numbers dwarfed Roquan this year.

Some interesting parallels between last years draft and this one. Last year, Poles took 4 OL. All were obviously late in the draft as the Bears had just a few early picks. This year, Poles took 3 DL. A couple early, 1 late, based on actually having early picks this year. So, this is a good sign if you want the Bears to sign a couple of FAs later. They obviously signed Schofield and Reiff late in the offseason. The potential is there to do that at DL as well.