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That is what they have done. Reality is DJ is under contract and Rome, Burden, and Loveland are here a while…even Kmet too. Now they can obviously trade any of them or make a cap play, but do this right and don’t hold onto guys too long and play smart with draft assets and find guys and keep on rolling. You won’t always hit but be smart, let drafts come to you, find the value when you are picking later, trade down and get some future capital again, and when you need to sell on a guy a year early trusting you can reload.

I guess the competitive answer to that is to go with hard to defend, and draft and develop your own receivers so you don't need free agents. Easier said than done of course. But that's probably what Ben Johnson would think about it.

Bears have always been a "Winter Team". A history of great running backs and defenses. It makes sense. At one point someone (was it Muhsin Muhammad?) said "Chicago is the place where receivers go to die" and barring a couple exceptions, like the Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffries era, it's been mostly true. That's on WRs and QBs alike. So now we finally have a modern coach, who understands the pass game, thankfully combined with that throw back hard ass leader of men we've always needed, but been McCaskey-afraid of for so many years. As a result we're aiming at 50 points a game territory here, like the Lions are/were, and at the same time the passing records here really are low hanging fruit - having been that winter team for so long. The combination of those two things tells me that in short time Caleb will break all the records; 4,000 proper, and 4250 (17 game adjusted) both as well as a whole mess of other team bests pretty quickly. If the progress Caleb has shown continues, he's gonna be an elite franchise QB by the middle of next year. Does anyone here have a nephew who can play on the D line?

Bingo. Good if not great OL and everything changed. Now the Bears are suddenly an offensively oriented team with weapons all over the place. A team to be feared. Getting kudos on a national stage. Ranked highly. Caleb is being called a budding superstar. Etc. OL is why the draft class looks good.

A good oline is critical to being a good team. Fact that Caleb went from 68 sacks to 23 (with one game left) really is the most shocking stat of the season. Huge kudos from the line to coaches to front office and of course Caleb. But it is like night and day in terms of his development.

I noticed this too. It carries positives and negatives. Positive: hard to defend Negative: superstar WRs are not likely to come here due to the lack of targets

I don’t think so. I think it all correlates to what I’ve been saying for years about the OL. Fix the OL and suddenly other players can perform. With last year’s OL, people would be saying Williams might be a bust, Swift is wasted money, Burden can’t get open, and Monangai can’t find a hole.

That's how I saw it too - the Browns game was the first one of this new level. And not just that crazy throw to Moore, but his footwork, how he was decisive, his timing, and his body language - you could see it slow down for him, and his accuracy has been a lot better from then on too. I couldnt agree with you more.

Browns game is where it looked like he took another jump and it’s continued past two weeks. Hopefully we see that same trend and crazy part is I think he still has quite a bit of upside left which is what is most exciting. And he seems to really be putting in the extra work with Ben and his teammates. Almost feels like that lows of year 1 made him want everything even more and kind of pushed him to push himself like never before and combining that with a coach like BJ….match made!!!

Beg to differ. Brees threw for 5,000 yards in five seperate seasons. All before the NFL went to 17 games in 2021. And point taken about “never being done” …for Chicago. It is a record to be noted considering it’s for one of the founding teams of the NFL.

Sh*t don’t you start now. I’ll be happy when this stuff repeats itself (and better) next year - and beyond. I have no reason at this point to believe it won’t.

I think it safe to say unless he suddenly goes odd the rails and starts air mailing throws he’ll keep that ratio down. He’s pretty consistent with that much.

I think Caleb's Career TD to INTO ratio is actually number 2 all time. With Rodgers, Brady and Mahomes all on that list. But to qualify you need to have thrown at least 1500 passes and Caleb only has just over 1,000 right now. But his TD/INT ratio would be 2nd all time only behind Aaron Rodgers.

The way both them coaches are risk takers and competitive, no way either relax in this game.

There is zero chance Dan Campbell goes down without a fight. Tough year but I can see him telling his team let’s close it out against the division leader and let them know we’ll be back.

Oh Skip, please just follow the growth and ,most importantly, the eye test...

And that has never helped any other QB. Regardless, never been done means never been done.

Actually, not too bad. So far this season he’s at 25 TDs to 6 INTs (45/12 overall), which is encouraging—especially in crunch time when you need results. It lowers the likelihood of costly mistakes under pressure. I remember thinking that last night as the game was winding down: at least we don’t have to worry as much about him throwing an interception. Of course part of that is also that he's been sending more balls into the sidelines which also figures into his passing efficiency (not just the drops).

Wait until Caleb hits his stride, 200 yards more for each player.

Billings has fallen off but not due to effort. I seen him several times 30 yards down field chasing players.

I agree with your ranking but I don't think a offense on the rise will want to get rid of any weapons. I think DJ and Kmet are here one more year. Look at injuries with the Wrs and even TE, we needed all of them. Poles will restructure money and figure something out with a pass rusher. Imagine the same situation this year without DJ when Burden and Rome out. It would disable us.

The other high picks were put into first back roles. Easley could have his 1000 rushing but adds great value as a 2 headed monster. Probably the best value pick in this draft. In a redraft I think he would be a 2nd round pick IMO.

He has been solid with his first and second round picks it seems like the third rounders is his boogyman. He also has hit on late rounds. Not all rookies develop at the same timeline. Several other picks could turn into starters.

Burden is ready to take the reins. With Rome on the verge to be a dominant 1 and now Burden rising, DJ sees the writing and might be happier moving. He is the top candidate to be moved this offseason. Edmunds either restructures or gets cut. They have to get some dogs on the dline. Billings looks like a care bear running in circles.

Good point