jason

I traded and traded again. If the Bears are going with Williams, then I don't want to hear any of this BS about WRs not getting open. Both Mitchell and McConkey are basically unguardable half the game. Both of them excel at route running, and their highlights are full of them just randomly being wide open somehow. Add in SVP, who I think is the best overall Center in the draft, and ZZ who would have gone much earlier if not for injury, and that's a lot of help for the offense and rookie QB. Defensive starters are just gravy.

Honestly, that's why I was such a fan of Martz and Crowton. They were offensive minds. Some say they were crazy, but they at least tried to step outside the box and shock the defense. Remember that Martz was short-lived under Lovie because the Tackles where Omi-Fail and Jamarcus Webb (LOL), and instead of getting receivers they thought they'd take Devin Hester and turn him into one. As for Crowton, who could forget the Cade McNown draft (hated it), which turned into the Matthews-Miller-McNown law firm of mediocrity. If either of them had the support of the organization or the HC, maybe they would have succeeded.

LOL. This is easy. Everyone under JJ can be cut without losing a second of sleep.

I’m this order: C - Connor Williams WR2 - Calvin Ridley LT - Tyron Smith

Preach the gospel, brother. Preach it. I’m so sick of this base cover-2 concept as a bend-but-don’t-break starting point because eventually it gets shredded by good QBs with decent TTT, or decent QBs with good TTT. I know there are numerous times over the years I’ve remarked while watching that the Bears D was making some journeyman QB into a HOFer. Who remembers when TO got like 46 receptions for a gazillion yards in one game and Jeff Garcia looked like Tom Brady on Ritalin?

Honestly, I’d be 100% OK with that. Make an immediate run for the SB.

❤️❤️❤️

I’m glad others have made that impossible from a cap perspective, because I would hate it for two reasons. 1. It would put Herbert in a less than envious position with multiple glaring holes on offense, same as Fields. 2. It would neuter trade potential for Fields.

Those reports are BS. His arm is very strong. I personally witnessed him throw a 60ish yd bomb in HS - from about the 10 to past opposite 40 - as I ran as fast as I could to keep up with the eventual 90yd TD.

That’s basically what I see when watching the Williams highlights. Everyone raves on the results but ignores the fact that he has time to tie his shoes every other play. Easy to look great under those conditions, which has basically been my stance for the past 30yrs as a Bears fan. Give a QB more time and any of them that make the NFL are good enough to put up good to great stats.

Trade the house. Stockpile picks. Build the OL. Add a WR. And then draft Nix. He’s got an above average ability in every passing category. Great arm and pocket presence, excellent at reading the defense, has a pedigree, pretty mobile, short delivery, and great footwork.

Precisely. I’m a math guy and rolling the dice on one pick just doesn’t make sense unless you know 100% he’s legit. Which, of course, you don’t know. That kind of philosophy is how people go broke in real life. The Bears should approach the draft with a large cap mutual fund philosophy. Lots of good, fairly safe (i.e. dominant player from large, football heavy school with good measurables) is better than putting all your money on a roulette wheel.

THANK YOU! I remember thinking that when I watched the game, but I already let that slip in memory. I can't tell you how many friends of mine have called or texted to tell me they hope the Bears screw up, pick Williams, restart the cycle, and stay the perpetually bad Chicago Bears team. That's exactly how it feels. Starting over and over and over again. We may as well have kept Lovie Smith and accepted 9-7 every year.

I guess I'll be the one who says I watched it and wouldn't take him #1 for the Bears. 1. Arm Strength - Great. He will make some throws others can't. But he won't have the time to load up and throw the varying routes. Shown in this video. 2. Pocket Presence - I watched the highlights, and in one play he had a full ten seconds from snap to throw. Hilarious. Justin Fields has likely NEVER had ten seconds in a single play with the Bears. He'll need pocket presence if he comes to the Bears. 3. Playing in Rhythm - Wow, this one sounds just like Fields coming out of college. Everything is different with timing and plays when under pressure and the window collapses. Watch the highlight, and just about all the "doesn't play on time"-plays are when pressured. Imagine that. The guy even says Williams passes up the throw/play he should make, hunting for the bigger play while going through progressions. The Bears would be better off trading down, stock-piling picks, and building a team like the Cowboys did with the Herschel Walker trade.

Pretty much my exact POV. I don't see how we have at worst the second most mobile QB in the NFL and barely ever have him out of the pocket. Barely ever have misdirection. It's like Getsy played Madden with Peyton Manning, saw things work, and thought it naturally translated to Fields. Mind-boggling.

His bullshit reasoning is why McMahon didn’t play longer as a Bear, and why Charles Martin should have faced severe penalty.

You make some solid points, but it's not that simple IMO. Fields lacks confidence, which impacts the slant, etc. You mentioned rollouts, which is odd because that doesn't appear to even be in the playbook. Maybe if it were run a few times then the Bears could actually take advantage of misdirection. There is virtually no misdirection or surprise on the 2023 Chicago Bears' offense. Look at Stroud yesterday. TD #1 - Fake toss right, WR screen left for TD #2 - Fake handoff, naked boot to throwing arm side, dump off and the receiver gets 60yds YAC. TD #3 - Gee, whattaya know? Another fake handoff, naked boot to throwing arm side, bomb to a wide open WR who had a ton of time to run a slow-developing double move. Everyone's blowing Stroud like he didn't make three easy throws. Put Fields in just some of those situations and maybe he looks a bit different.

He looked like a bad backup with potential to be a competent NFL journeyman. I also liked his confidence. And, yeah, he surprised everyone by not being 100% terrible. But when people start saying he should start over Fields because of stat A or stat B, it gets a little ridiculous.

At best, John Doe got help from his wingmen to get two fat Girl’s’ phone numbers. The Bears sucked during his 5-game stretch, only won two games, one of which was a squeaker versus the lowly Panthers, and Bagent averaged less than 200yds per game. I love the story like anyone else, but let’s not get it confused with revisionist history. Bagent sucked. But he did a few things differently than Fields, one of which is getting rid of the ball quickly. That was clearly by design to make up for Bagent’s glaring weaknesses. (Gee, imagine if they game-planned specifically for the things Fields does well.) Comparing the two with any stat is laughable at best given how much the team had to change just so Bagent could look professional.

John Doe says "Hi" to 100 women and only 3.4% reject him. Jim Doe say "Hi baby, you wanna go out?" to 100 women and 10.6% reject him. Takes no nuts or courage to do the first thing. Doing the second thing is going for the win instead. I'd rather have the latter. The former is a recipe for John Shoop dink and dunk, teams that hover around .500, and zero excitement.

This thread is one of the primary reasons why I’ve limited my games to just one or two a year for the last several years.

That’s just a bonus. If you can find studs later than the second round then it’s the cherry on top.

Noting the PFF source is worth triple highlighting. Their stats are steaming dumpster juice as we all have discussed numerous times. I didn't even want to quote reply and leave their data in there. My eye test says the OL isn't very good and the Bears only have one quality WR on the roster. Having said that, I honestly think the stats are deceiving for Fields. It seems like every other play one of the linemen take their turn sucking and letting a guy fly right through. So, that probably makes the Fields stats amplified towards the negative because he's never comfortable. And when they're not rotating being horrible, the pocket collapses faster that that submersible that went to visit the Titanic. (too soon?) Do I think Fields is Peyton Manning? But I think he's a top-10 QB if the Bears ever sorted out out how to protect him, game plan to take advantage of his strengths, and have NFL-caliber talent to catch the ball.

And that's kind of the point. Nobody has the clear crystal ball. Even Bill Polian said the draft is at best 50/50. That's why I'm a huge advocate of trading down just about every year. Before I say this, I know it's not technically how the math works out, but... If the success rate of a first round pick is 35%, and a second round pick is 20%, I'd rather go with two of the second round guys. The second round guys are less likely to turn into HoF players as some other number crunching has shown in the past, but a team full of 2nd round players is more likely a complete team compared to a team that has players littered from 1st through UDFA.

I argue he did not fail with Stroud. No way he could have selected another QB last year.