raw

If it looks easy, it's not in the NFL. He thought that was pitch and catch, long delivery and didn't put enough juice on the ball.

Mitch surprisingly never threw a pick 6

14 weeks in and the Bears finally figured out how to use their speed out wide.

Trace is more than believable in a president role. He's damn near ideal with his experience and connections.

Yes, absolutely.

Yeah, wouldn't expect him to say anything else. Also, FWIW, LaCanfora's article kinda sounds like he spoke to the Bears as they honored former trainer or something who died recently. Didn't make it sound like he spoke to them specifically about a position in the organization....which again, is expected to keep a rumor as vague as can be. Sounded more like connecting dots. Rumors Bears are thinking about modernizing football operations with a football guy (Rick Smith was mentioned a couple days ago) Trace Armstrong would be a good Pres. of Football Ops based on his experience as a player, NFLPA Pres, agent, football guy Trace Armstrong recently in Chicago and played for the Bears He spoke with ownership (not hard to speak to people at the same event) He's agent for Ryan Day He played with Raiders head of player personnel LaCanfora so like I said, grain of salt for sure. But it's definitely something that you can see happening when you connect some dots. Though, I don't see the Day thing happening. Armstrong also represents Josh McDaniels and several other coaches.

Grain of salt, considering the source, but LaCanfora is reporting the Bears have some interest in Trace Armstrong as the head of football operations. On the surface, this makes a TON of sense. Armstrong is a former 15-year NFL vet. In 8 of those years, he was the president of the NFLPA. And most notably, has since become an agent to many NFL coaches and TV sports personalities. He represents Ryan Day, Mike McCarthy, Peter Gammons, and even coincidentally, Matt Nagy. LaCanfora speculates that Armstrong could potentially bring Raiders Director of Player Personnel, and former Bears teammate, Dwayne Joseph with him to the Bears FO (maybe as GM?). Also speculates Ryan Day as the next head coach. The sports agent to front office thing has been done in baseball with Dave Stewart and Jeff Moorad, but never in the NFL.

Oakland, Chicago for sure. Minnesota, Jacksonville seem more likely than not to have openings Fangio I'd put at 40/60 he's out, but a collapse down the stretch and their desire for a splash on offense could get him fired I think Judge is safe in NYG The wildcards are Seattle (do they fire a SB winning coach?), New Orleans (Payton want a change of scenery?), and Tampa (Arians retirement?),

I don't think you hope they are, but they most certainly are rushing him back just to be able to field a team.

I guess he did a podcast with Marshall recently and they addresseed some of those things though and I guess are more normal now. Basically Marshall felt he would have done better with the now younger generation of players. And that Bears team, especially its leaders were older, so even in about 7 years there's a pretty big generational gap between that Bears team and maybe a young team in 2018, perhaps with a young QB in need of molding too. In true hot take form, I haven't actually gotten around to pod yet, but it sounded interesting though; https://www.law.miami.edu/about/leadership-gameplan-podcast Fwiw, it was a decent listen. A little less specific about the Bears centric issues and they weave in and out of Brandon's personal business and leadership. Maybe the most interesting part is Marc says he felt in hindsight he wish he made the hard decision to cut bait with some of the old guard who were never gonna buy in to a different leadership way from Lovie. (he also admits he doesn't think Lovie should have even been fired, maybe a lesson for coaches who may walk into a tough situation like that). He spent a lot of time with guys like Martellus and others and getting their buy in and they did, but it was too much culture shock to many others, particularly the D. Looking at the defensive roster from 12 to 13: Idonije was gone. Urlacher was gone. Peppers was around in 2013, but he never came across as a malcontent. Tillman was there, by all accounts he's a wonderful person, don't see him making a big stink. That leaves Lance Briggs and Tim Jennings. I can definitely see Briggs, in particular, not buying in and it was kind of his team in 2013. Plus, I know from things Urlacher has said in the past, it wasn't a great situation once Cutler got there. I think the vets on defense saw the writing on the wall that the long goal was to make this an offensive driven team and Lovie wasn't long for the HC position (he actually lasted longer than they thought he would) and that meant their status on the team would be in jeopardy. Throw in Urlacher was allowed to walk after 2012 and they probably felt justified in their prophecy. It probably didn't help that Trestman was such a slug of a personality, but guys like Briggs and Urlacher would have only bought in if you brought in a Hall of Fame level communicator/sellsman at that point, and even then it would have been only when they felt like it. In hindsight, if they were going to field 2 of the worst defenses in franchise history, they would have been better off cutting/trading all those guys with Lovie.

LOL, is that really what he looked like? I only remember him with a hat on and looking like he was freezing on the sidelines

Even the Indy stuff is kinda being explained as, he agreed to the job, they hired assistant coaches that he wanted, but then he backed out because he wasn't being given say in personnel that he was perhaps originally promised. But the Cutler stuff is interesting. It's hard to say he was right because he then went to Kyle Orton and Tim Tebow. It's hard to say he was completely wrong because we've seen "good" QBs not be good enough to do any real damage and win championships. It's the great QBs that win, and Cutler definitely wasn't at that level. Maybe he could have been in the right organization, but clearly McDaniels didn't think he could have been great with him in Denver. Cutler was nearing that point where you were going to have to pay him like a great QB, but we've seen guys like Cousins and Big Ben after 28 kinda hold teams back because of their salaries and not being great enough to legitimately compete for titles.

Wait, who is Pollard? He was wrong about Cutler 12 years ago. He was a 33-year old hot shot coach that thought he could do no wrong after jumping to prominence really early in his career. Now, he presumably has been being groomed by Belichick the last 10 years more than he was probably was as a 30-year old. Coaches tend to do a lot better when given a 2nd chance. Belichick himself wasn't great in Cleveland. Plus, I think this time McDaniels would be able to bring in his own GM, like Shanahan in SF. So he wouldn't be making major personnel decisions by himself.

I know we discussed some coaching options here before, but I kinda like piecing together all the different rumors. Nagy is for sure out. The jury is still out on Pace. I wonder if his status could be affected by the coaching search. The Leslie Frazier interest reported yesterday, I'm just going to assume is BS. There's simply no way they are going to hire a defensive coach who was one of the worst coaches in the league when he last coached 10 years ago, and will be 63 1/2 by the time next season starts. I will definitely quit Bears football if that's the case. But the Josh McDaniels stuff is interesting to me. I think there's a real chance there could be mutual interest there. The Bears interviewed him when they hired Nagy and I think I read that he was a very strong candidate who they considered. I wonder if part of the issue was McDaniels wanting more say in personnel than the Bears/Pace were willing to give him. Rumor is that's why he spurned the Colts after originally accepting the job that same year, because Ballard wouldn't give up power. McDaniels reportedly did a ton of work on Fields this past draft season and by all accounts, really liked what he saw. The Bears are also in a position now to allow him to potentially bring a guy along with him from the Pats to be his GM. So, I wonder if that's potentially the back-and-forth going on about Pace. I tend to believe the rumor that Bears want experience in their next coach. From Ditka on, the only HC with previous experience was John Fox and he wasn't a true long-term answer being that he was hired at 60. My theory is that Plan A is to try to use Pace to lure Sean Payton to Chicago. With that being a clear longshot, I think McDaniels makes sense as a Plan B. There's still the potential there of Pace moving up to a president role, but he's also not been great enough to where they simply couldn't just fire him if McDaniels prefers his own guy. McDaniels was a clear disaster in Denver as a 33-year old. His leadership has been questioned since the Colts debacle. But I definitely am willing to give this option a shot and would be mildly excited about the hire.

Zion's weight has been a big discussion here for awhile now. The Pels organization under Griffin has lost a lot of credibility with how they've handled the whole Zion saga since he was drafted, which is reinforcing the idea that the foot is not really what's keeping him out now. With how Twitter world is piling on him lately, the chances that Zion is in New Orleans next year has basically gone from small to nil. He's in year three, which means he's at the point where others are getting rookie extensions on big contracts. Who the hell would give him a big deal right now? To be fair, he doesn't look that big in recent pictures I've seen. He looks similar to last year. I mean, he's not a pound under 295, but I don't think he's 330

1998 Frustrating thing is this team should be undefeated. 27 turnovers at the cuse and this game they just stood around during the second half and watched XJ take to many stupid drives to the basket. Thankfully they have a PG coming in next year. At least the defense is better then it was under Miller. God, they haven't won in Wisconsin since I was in college. SMH

IU blew a horsefeathering 22 point lead in Wisconsin. Haven't won in Madison since 1962, if my calculations are correct.

It's everyone's favorite annual tradition!!! Bears travel to Green Bay in primetime. 9 of the last 10 years, the Bears have played in GB in front of a national audience on either Thursday, Sunday or Monday night football. The 1 time they didn't play primetime in Lambeau was the NFL 100th anniversary opener in 2018 where they played in Soldier Field. The Bears have only won 2 of these primetime games. And most of them have been decided in blowout fashion, with a few heartbreakers just for S's & G's. Guessing the NFL kept this in primetime because of the whole trainwreck philosophy. The Bears are boring on the field, but are a LOT to talk about off it. I'm sure there will be a ton of speculation of what's going to happen to Nagy and maybe even Pace. And this very well could be Nagy's last stand with more whispers around that THIS could be his last game if things get ugly. The Bears were actually not terrible last time they faced GB. The game featured things like bad taunting calls, blown neutral zone calls leading to an INT, dropped TDs. If Fields plays, I think the Bears could actually hang around, especially if he's not gun shy about using his legs. The OL has been better, the Packers have never been great at stopping the run, and running QBs historically give them problems. But this game should end like the rest of them, with the Bears on the losing end.

Coincedence? Or Co-by?

you definitely don't want 7, that's a play-in seed No, not the seed, obviously you want the top seed if you can get it and the highest seed possible if you can't. It's more the team you'd want to match up against. Which of the Bucks, Nets, 76ers, Heat, Hawks and Celtics would the Bulls fare best against? (unless they get the 1 seed and play one of Wizards/Knicks/Cavs/Pacers/Hornets/Raptors). That is probably the order I don't want to play in the 1st. Maybe 76ers ahead of the Nets (Embiid kills the Bulls). But give me the Celtics or Hawks all day.

I don't think I really want a guy like Favors. I think he slows the offense down. I want a guy that can run the floor, finish, and hit a shot if left open. Basically, I want Derrick Jones Jr. but 3-4" taller.

Playoffs/play-ins without Knicks and Lakers would be rough. I think both will be in the top 10 seeds, but really tough to see them in the top 9 unless they get right in a hurry.

Heat, Nets, Bucks is a horsefeathering gauntlet. Hoping the Hawks lose that tiebreaker or Bulls end up with the 2 seed.

I think I read he was in on the PAT protection.

Iowa is sitting right there. Also Wyoming and Air Force come to mind. I think Iowa and Wyoming are the whitest states, but I never think of Iowa as being a predominately white football program. And like UM said, I don't think about Wyoming at all.