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Caleb has the coach and weapons to be top 5. He has to make to right decisions and be quick. He forced a throw to Odunze in the EZ who was doubled when Swift was open close to the 1st down marker. Stop those hero throws and take what is given and live for another shot. I'd like to see more out of Odunze too than he has shown in the preseason. He needs to win those contested catches. Its like our top 10 picks are nice guys who hover that average level. Get to that good level or the great level. KC played great D, the zone they dropped to didnt leave many windows. I cant wait to see how BJ adjusts his game to counter Ds.

Who is taking Dak at $60M APY? He has the biggest contract based on APY by over $5M compared to the next guys which are Love, Burrow, Lawrence, and Allen. His cap hit goes to $74M next year and is $50M this year. That is a big reason why they didn't want to extend Parsons to the biggest non-QB contract in NFL history. So they really had no choice tbh. The Bears are in a great place with the cap. The two highest players on the team are Moore and Sweat, Moore has an APY of $27.5M, but that is 48th in the NFL. Sweat has a $24.5M APY, good for 58th. They don't have another player in the top 100. Their next guy is Jaylon at $19M APY, 124th in the league. Parsons deal makes him 11th in APY at $46.5M, that is equivalent to Moore+Johnson. It seems that paying any non-QB a ton of money does not equate to championships. The only guys in the top of the top-25 non-QB contracts are AJ Brown and Chris Jones. The list is pretty damning: Parsons, Watt, Chase, Garrett, Hunter, Crosby, Jefferson, Lamb, Bosa, Metcalf, Wilson, Brown, Jones, Gardner, St. Brown, Hill, Stingley, Aiyuk, Hendrickson, McLaurin, Higgins, Slater, Waddle, Hines-Allen, Burns, Wirfs, Sewell, and Trent Williams before DJ Moore. In most cases, teams don't have a choice, but once your QB is off the rookie deal and you start having to pay your top non-QBs top dollar, it makes it really hard to stay competitive.

this is right in my opinion.

Higher than I expected to be honest. Considering Goff is lower, and only Daniels is higher as a 2nd year QB. So Maye, McCarthy, Penix are all lower.

Generally speaking - I agree with this take. Giving up high end draft picks and cap space is not a good strategy - unless it is so solely put you over the top or get a qb. And even the solely to put you on the top is something I struggle with. As much as Cowboys got ripped - while I think they should have found a team where the first round picks would be better - I didn’t mind the trade. If I were them I would move Dak for some picks too and actually jump start a rebuild. In general, I think teams could benefit a bit more in NFL from trading guys at max value vs holding on too late and than leveraging cap space for those difference makers and than using it for more late round picks for good players with just a bit left (as they tend to be under valued in terms of draft capital). It is like DJ Moore - if I could get 2 2nd rounders and cap space for him I probably do it - same with Jaylon. Having that allows you to continue to bring in young, ascending talent while giving you cap space to retain your own and buy guys that fill your void.

Anyone ever listen to Steve Rosenbloom on the SCORE on Saturdays usually but on today. Im an optimist and it is the opposite of positive in the name of being realistic. I get critizms with a lot of things up in the air but there has been lots of positive moves this year and arrow is pointed up. I can only stomach him for 5 minutes and today his was talking about Bagent should start over Caleb because he performed so well in the preseason. He's a total debag.

Bearswire had a story showing what national press picked for our record this year. Adam Rank who works for ESPN or NFL.net picked 11-6 and some other guy pick 10-7 and the rest picked 7-10, 7-10, 7-10, 7-10, 8-9, 8-9 . The national guys always blow us off.

I dont remember ESPN ever viewing the Bears in a favorable light.

I definitely think he could still play LT and think it was more of a mental rep to play him at RT where he is more comfortable to boost his confidence. Usually stories are developed a week before they post them. I think it is pretty current in a time frame. BJ is very demanding and why all of this is still up in the air.

This video has a little different take on the Parsons trade. He talks about roster cost and the results of paying big contracts and how it affects teams winning SBs. Its 26 minutes long but has a very interesting take on the trade.

Caleb is obvious to having the keys to the car but from the progress I have seen with working with BJ , his floor , to me , has raised quite a bit. We base so much on his rookie year with a lousy coaching system and lack of accountability. He got in to bad habits. He's got a big arm, smart, moves well. He works hard and appears to love the game. Has all the signs of a top 5 type QB. Goff was a good QB but performed top level under BJ. He picked the Bears because of Caleb and I trust his judgement. This is just the beginning, it gets much better and have very few doubts it blows up. We are Bear fans and has a poor team trust on doing the right decisions. This year is different. As far as having a LT , of course we dont know yet but have 3 options after the mediocre Braxton is done here. A rookie, 2nd year player, and rising UDFA. It would be easier if we just drafted a top 10 LT but that is no guarantee for success either and didnt do that. Eagles won the SB last year with a 7th round pick at LT. I think we have a coaching staff now that can develop prospects but that isnt going to be instant mash potatoes. We need to let this play out. Pass rush questions? The Eagles won a SB last year with no stud pass rushers. What they had was several average ones that the DC used to be successful. 8 sacks Was the most anyone had. We have a new DC in Dennis Allen who has a reputation of being aggressive. I think the coaches will raise the level of success. Sweat had a good first year with 12.5 sacks, last year he had a bunch of nagging injuries and only had 5.5 sacks. Which one will we get this year? That will be the key to our pass rushing wows but I trust DA to use him wisely.

So here's some possibly interesting news. It's been like 2 weeks now that we've heard Trapilo is exclusively taking reps at RT. Going into the KC game. And the common wisdom was that Trapilo was now out of the running at LT. At the time I wondered if that was permanent, or something to motivate everyone as well as get him snaps at RT to be a swing tackle at least. And I said at the time that you give a guy snaps at LT too if you want to prepare him for swing tackle, so he would get at least that much action going forward? So today there is an article in the Trib of an interview by Sean Hammond with Poles. Now, I don't know when this interview occurred, so if it's been sitting in the can for 3 weeks, then there is nothing here. But that's a long time for an interview to go unpublished? So Im wondering if it happened since the KC game? The article says "As the season nears, Poles recently sat down with the Tribune to discuss the first training camp with Johnson as coach, the evolving relationship between Johnson and Williams and more." so that sounds like after camp closed to me, so after KC. In the interview Poles is asked abut the competition at LT. and Poles says: "you have Braxton, and you’re trying to evaluate a guy that’s coming back from a pretty significant injury. And then looking at last year’s tape as kind of the bar, can he get to that point and better? But he’s not quite there yet. He’s closing in on it. But then the person he’s competing with (Trapilo) is a person that’s never played in the league versus Kiran, who didn’t have his first year, coming from a smaller school (Amegadjie missed most of the 2024 offseason after an injury at Yale). And then Theo enters the conversation, who from a length standpoint may not have everything but from a foot speed and toughness (standpoint) has a lot of things that you like." So if that is current, that is VERY interesting. It says Trapilo is still right there, and needs more experience. And the description of Jones is just that he's still fighting to regain just where he was last year. All this to conclude: Maybe Trapilo is still on the radar at LT, and maybe we will see him after the bye, or earlier if Braxton is awful. Here's the whole interview: https://archive.is/41r0X#selection-2239.101-2255.138

I hope you are right. I haven't seen Caleb put it together yet, but this is his best shot. Play in the system and he can flourish.

with a good QB and no pass rush, teams can beat the bottom 1/2 of the league that way, but when you go against another good QB and its a shootout, then its a different story. But youre right, clawing into the top 5 is next year's window - probably - dont want to put a ceiling on a team Ive never seen yet! But yeah, if Caleb is a bust, then all else is moot. But I am not personally worried about that. I think he'll break 4,000 yards this season. As unsure as I am about some parts of this team, I am very bullish on the Caleb / Ben Johnson pairing and where it will lead Caleb as a QB. Cant wait to see it unveiled next week.

Just Caleb. If I've got the right QB on my team the weaknesses like edge pass rush can be minimized because we'll be scoring enough points. If QB is fixed the rest can be sorted out over the next offseason.

right. and with the line only being 1 or 1.5 this is anyones game

I believe you will. The D has played the vanilla scheme. DA doesn't do vanilla...

The Vegas line right now seems to be Vikings at home are favored 1 to 1.5 points. That means at a neutral site, we would be favored. Any time you're within 3 points, coaching could easily win or lose the game. Obviously coaching is always important, but within 1.5 points, it matters even more. I really need to see a pass rush. Please football gods.

I can't wait for when they don't rank us last in our division. That will come in nine days...💥

Obviously the BIG question is Caleb. He's not the biggest weakness, it's just he's the QB so everything rests on him. The biggest questions in terms of weakness are LT, Pass Rush and HB - and that's the same list we had before the draft too. So that doesnt inspire a lot of confidence in Poles. The coaching staff on the other hand, I have a lot of confidence in. I'm looking forward to see how we scheme on Monday night. Can we win games with these weaknesses against good teams and divisional rivals? I hope so. I mean, I know there are things you can do to help a LT for example. And they can work, but they also limit your playbook, and of course I want to see Johnson able to call his full complement of plays, so it would be better if we had a real starter there. The same with the pass rush. Can Allen get pressure with this group? I cant wait to see.

Mine is pass rush Caleb LT RB health

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/46095037/2025-nfl-season-predictions-power-rankings-super-bowl-pic

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/46095037/2025-nfl-season-predictions-power-rankings-super-bowl-pick

For me it's (in no order): starting LT (can the unit gel in time to work as a cohesive unit?) Edge/Pass Rush (will it matter if DA likes to bring extra pressure anyway?) RB depth (after Swift, who is RB2/3rd Down back?) CBs (both Jaylon's health and CB2 - Stevenson again?) Special Teams as a whole (has looked like crap all offseason, can they afford to lose a net 5 yards per drive?)