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I found this article on Heavy. A good read. Ben Johnson Trick Play: The Fridge Would Have Understood I'm not a big fan of the site; too much speculation on trades, but they do, on occasion, have an interesting article on a hot topic about the Bears.

Yes, and if Caleb would get his head in front of Thuney and hand off behind, that would be legal. It's hard to disguise that way, thus the rule. It would take a little more time and would require some slight of hand.

I’m almost certain we'll see this again down the road. And probably just like described. Wouldn’t be the least bit surprised it was Thuney. Imagine if he’d score and how cool for him that would be? Four SB wins but never a TD score until then? Pretty awesome salute to him if they could pull it off. I noticed a few times in the game they were doing that thing where they swap sides on the oline. One time I caught it live was Benedet and Wright and think it was on a significant gain on offense.

So he couldn't declare because he is a Guard, and only the ends can declare, at least thats how I interpreted the rule. If he declared, and was at RT, he could've received the handoff that way. Not declaring, and at OG, he could only receive the ball lateral or behind. Which brings up an interesting wrinkle, they could pull a OG behind the QB and the QB could hand it to him legally.

i think the salary cap implications would be for next year, and we should have over $100 Million in space. Caleb will get some, but we will redo the defense too?

First off: The Patriots did go to the Superbowl last year so they are not a bad team. The Patriots blitzed Caleb on 60% of the pass plays and he put up 300+ yds and 30pts against it. We don’t hit the quick short slants because our Oline is good and was picking up the blitz giving guys like Burden time to get 15 yards downfield and exploit the wide open gaps in coverage. If Caleb can pull it off, I’ll take the chunk plays against a blitz over the 5 yd slants all day. We were doing that all game long. We don’t have Monangai and Swift is fighting through some injuries so the passing game had to carry the day unlike how we handled the Eagles with running game sprinkled in with some passes by Keenum. Roschon is just pedestrian. Enter Caleb. IMO the difference between our offense and the Patriots, and between the QBs as well, couldn’t be more clear and I really like what I saw from the Bears and Caleb. Early on Maye couldn’t figure out our coverage and pressure packages. Then they shifted to a lateral offense with simple WR screens and other simple short-game stuff. Later they started running all WRs deep to take the coverage shell with them and dumping off to an outlet (TE or RB) who was initially held in blocking. It worked well because we have no elite pass rush threats on the Dline. It was also incredibly easy to read stuff for Maye. But we did adapt to that on defense and late in the game you saw one of our defenders peel off with the TE or RB. That also confused or bothered Maye a bit because he started becoming more erratic with his passes. Meanwhile through out the entire game Caleb was just slinging it all over the field against their pressure and coverages. He also had WRs with several big drops in the game : Raymond, Loveland 2x, Rome that would have moved his comp% from 66% to 78%. Casual stats reviewers will look at the overall numbers and say Maye and Caleb played about the same. But they didn’t. Maye picked up about 100 yards passing in garbage time against prevent defense. At least 50 was on the play before the half the rest came late when we were making sure they got no TDs over the top which worked because we forced them into burning clock and taking a FG, giving us the onside kick. Whereas Caleb never had the opportunity to throw against that. Years ago I used to look at Trubisky’s or Fields’ stats after games like that where we were trying to come from behind late and the other team was giving us easy underneath stuff. They’d end up with 250-300yds but it was just lipstick on a pig. Think about what type of offense you will need to succeed in the playoffs. Our defense is good, not bad, but it’s not great. Smart coaches will find a way to get some plays in. I can’t see where the strategy for what Maye did against us being successful against a really good playoff defense. I can definitely see where the stuff Caleb was doing translates very well. It’s also why heads around the league and media are turning in our direction. We’re 5-2 and we got there with 3 different QBs. Our defense is playing well enough to keep most teams around 20-25pts. That won’t be enough against Caleb and Ben. p.s. The D needs a couple players to be more consistent. I don’t think we’ll be able to find a DT and CB, or rather fit both in. I don’t see a CB out there who can make a difference. Then again we should have Bryant back later in the year which will no doubt help a lot versus what Cam Lewis offers. I really like the idea of adding Deforest Buckner. We’d immediately have a good front. Jarrett is playing well this year. Sweat is still a strong DE. Booker and Turner appear to be capable of giving good snaps in rotation and FWIW Dayo will return later in the year. From the AI: "If the Chicago Bears were to trade for DeForest Buckner immediately, they would take on approximately $8.67 million in salary cap hit for the remainder of the 2026 season. "

We're not desperate. The price will be the price...

I dont think the Bears invest much, maybe 4th or 5th if they do. One, the salary cap doesn't have much to spend. Two, Ben Johnson loves having draft picks. Last year he told Ryan no, when asked to trade for Jermaine Johnson DE NYJ.

it might be a little early, but if you get a guy now, you have a longer stretch of time to get him ready before Seattle. But if the Bears call with urgency, the price goes up, so...

A reminder that Sweat will be returning for the Seattle game. I hope that to be a positive and noticeable improvement. Shortly after that game the NFL trade deadline will be looming. Is there a chance Chicago makes a splash before of after they play the Seahawks?

Admittedly I haven’t watched a lot of Minny ball outside of their game against Chicago. But I feel they are paper tigers and destined for a big fall soon. There was no question Chicago should have beat them when they played each other and would’ve had Caleb not gone down.

BJ confirms Kmet is done for the year and “effectively put on IR. https://bearswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/bears/2026/10/23/bears-ben-johnson-talks-cole-kmet-season-ending-injury/92399910007/

No need to declare as a receiver if he's not catching a pass. That's why it was illegal to handoff forward instead of backward. I think "the Fumbleruski" put an end to that.

Yeah I was looking at that. I couldn't quite make it out in the couple quick replays I watched but it appeared he did line up as the third lineman out there, as if he was intending to be an eligible receiver, but maybe he forgot to declare? Or does he have to declare regardless of it being a forward handoff or a forward pass? Maybe Johnson didn't know the intricacies of the rule and assumed that if he wasn't getting a pass he didn't need to declare? 🤷‍♂️

Yep, his season % went up to 55.3%, absolutely bonkers. Penix is the only one close at 46.7%, Hurts at 40.0%, then Watson at 37.8%. Newton was at 44.8%, so now only Penix is within 10% in the NGS Era.

Yeah sucks for the longest-tenured Bear. At first I thought it was the helmet to the kneecap, but watching the replay, it was the step before that did it, non-contact, ACL and probably more. Season-ending IR and probably not back until August.

It's wild. I've watched it over and over. The injury happened when he started going low. It was very slight. Knees can be tricky that way.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1CBt2Za7rv/

I think they said on the radio his knee buckled before the defenders went low to tackle him. Hope for the best. Maybe they elevate Hayden Large, rookie UDFA from Iowa.

When he grabbed his knee I said he was done for the year. Likely ACL. Just looked like that type of injury to me. Hope I’m wrong.

Good: Williams- looked like a young Aaron Rodgers these last two games Gordon- elite football instincts, continues to look exceptional rushing the passer Burden- starting to look like a #1 receiver, no idea why he got 0 targets in the second half, though 4th quarter redemption for Santos & Odunze- as frustrating as Odunze can be, he does seem to make critical catches in big moments Bad: Jaylon Johnson- totally unplayable, have to find a replacement before deadline Defensive execution- atrocious end of half tackling, followed by a near repeat of the Packers game in the 2nd half, allowing 1st downs on nearly every pass completion. Quick notes: Absolutely huge win going in to the SEA game. 2 of their next 3 are against TB and NE, meaning there's no excuse not to be—at least—7-3 or better heading into the Thanksgiving game. SEA has to play KC this week, and their offense doesn't look very good right now. It'll be tough, but the Bears could absolutely beat them next week with the way the quarterback is playing. Ryan Poles MUST make trades as soon as he possibly can to fix this defense before it loses them a game. The Bears were up 27-14, but it should have been 27-7 before the Patriots touched the ball again in the 2nd half had it not been for that horrendously executed end of half sequence by the defense, which completely ruined the momentum the offense had been building with that touchdown by Burden. Those are plays that will get them beat at some point if Poles waits too long to make something happen. This offense is too good, and this QB is too good to not be in all-in mode right now.

If Thuney declares as eligible, then it can be done forward. What this sort of implies is handoffs forward should be considered passes, because that is sort of the rule they are enforcing. An eligible receiver can receive a forward pass, but a lineman can only receive it laterally or behind.

From what I learned listening to the officials, they can hand off to a lineman but it can’t be a forward handoff. Has to be back. I think to Mongos point, if you’re gonna call trick plays at his level, Johnson should be sure he knows the rules. He looked dumbfounded when they called the penalty. I did too but I’m sitting at home on my couch.

No, I love some trickery. But, not on 2nd and 3 inside the ten. (Especially, when you don't know the rules of the penalized play). There's a reason why our TD rate inside the ten is the lowest in the NFL. Ben being cute. He's cost us four TD's so far.

Bears have 11 days between games. SEA, their next opponent, plays on Sunday Night Football, so the Bears will have a full +3 days of rest advantage. Typically, it is closer to 2.5 when teams playing at noon on Sunday. So the Bears get the longest possible rest advantage outside of a real bye week that you can get. Thru the first 7 weeks, the Bears are 5-2, and have weathered the storm of injuries. They are 13th in Passing Offense, 2nd in Rushing Offense, and 5th in Total Offense. On defense, they are 20th against the Pass, surprisingly 6th against the run, and 11th overall. They are also 8th in Scoring Offense and Scoring Defense. Right now there are 4 teams in the top 10 for Scoring Offense and Defense: SF, JAX, KC, and CHI. Pretty good company, a combined record of 19-4. The good news is only one of those teams is on their remaining schedule: JAX in Week 13 (in CHI). After the SEA game, the Bears get TB, their real bye, then NO. At a minimum, that should be 7-3 with a shot at 8-2. In that same window, MIN has @DET, BUF, @GB, and @SF. At best, that is probably 8-2, but could easily be 6-4 with 3 tough road games and BUF at home. So either way the Bears could be headed to DET for Thanksgiving in 1st place in the North. The crazy part is the NFC North champ will almost assuredly play one of the other NFC North teams in the Wild Card round. The sweet spot seems to be the 5th or 6th seed as those teams will play the NFC East Division winner (currently NYG at 3-2-1) or the NFC South winner (currently CAR at 3-2). The #2 Seed is more than likely going to be the NFC North winner who would play the #7 seed which is currently DET, and projected to be GB again.