raw

Yeah, I think this has been a pretty good offseason. I'm thinking A- given the trade for the #1 pick. But combined with the F- from last offseason, this just gives Poles a solid C overall. I'd still like OL depth and safety depth.

Yannick!

Defense dominated the offense all last year in camp, supposedly. I didn't hear that til this week, but it explains a lot.

According to Justin Fields, this is really the first day the defense "got" the offense. He said yesterday was OK, pretty even, and that the offense got them the first few days. I don't think this is a big deal. As Fields also explained, they are gameplanning for the defense. The defense has seen most of the plays the offense has to offer. They are getting familiar with certain looks. I'm sure this happens most camps that don't have Mahomes. Doesn't mean the offense is doomed. Doesn't mean the defense is going to be any good. Real concern is both OGs missed most of practice with injuries.

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.