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If he reaches his ceiling, he's going to be very good.

This is movie length , I only watched 30 minutes. Im going to stick this here and right when training camp starts watch it to get excited again.

Exactly. The offense can start off on all cylinders. They will get Jones, and Roush up to speed quick and Thomas who seems capable of learning might take longer to see WR reps but will be in STs early and often. Once he gets his routes and duties down, I think he has the talent to be the #3. The defense might take a little longer with newer pieces, but all season last year they were having to plug pieces in due to injuries. If they stay healthy, we should see a pretty big jump on improvement. Being an offensive minded led team, we have to get used to our leader adding the parts he wants. As long as the GM has some say to go defense, we should have some long term success.

Last year when camp started the offense was a mess. Of course it was all new and lots of stuff to learn blah blah... Players now know what is expected of them come day 1. I think we'll have an idea what we've got in the first week of camp. Burden was injured in OTAs and missed some practices and had some catching up to do when he finally started getting reps. Loveland also missed all OTAs and had a lot of catching up to do once he started getting reps in camp. Now we're just trying to bring rookies up to speed and in more limited roles.

Watching this 30 play game film makes me very optimistic for what we can get out of VDB. I don't know how good Syracuse's Oline was but I'd also say it simply does not matter because they are still big strong dudes. If Van Den Berg can handle a double team and literally not even move his feet because those two cannot move him off his spot that's a win. Triple team him? Ok he'll just stand here and won't be moved. Granted NFL Olineman are going to be stronger but IMO it raises the floor considerably for what we can get out of him. Last year Billings was getting moved all over on double teams. At a minimum if that's all we ask him to do we should be better. Then there are some pass rushes showing his ability to bend around an OG to get to the QB like an edge rusher does against OTs. That's not common. We're not exactly sitting on great depth at DT but I'm more confident now that VDB will show he belongs in the rotation early in the season. His burst and power to get through gaps should make him good at beating wide zone concepts.

Its not gonna take until game 5 for the offense to figure it out. Ben knows teams are preparing for them, so he adds more ingredients to cook with. Welcome to food networks Beat Bobby Flay...Benny Johnson.

right, and we have Kalif Raymond and Zavion Thomas for those roles. Squirrel might go to the practice squad, I agree, but that's all he is at least until he develops over multiple years. But in no world does he run anything like a 4.28, or even a 4.5

I don't see him making much more than a practice squad player to be honest. He has decent 10 yd split and lateral quickness, but he doesnt have a route tree and being smaller is a injury liability. If we need a returner to get by, maybe he gets elevated.

squirrel white ran over a 4.6 at his pro day. there is some rumor out there that he ran a 4.28 in 2024, but with the pro scouts watching, and looking him over for the draft, it was a 4.6+

Turner has better tape as a DE than he does as a DT. His versatility was one of the positives on is resume. That's why I have always questioned, with the abundance of bodies inside, why they didn't try him on the edge?

The Bears brass wanted more speed. Here's our offensive assets Zavion Thomas 4.28 Squirrel White reported 4.28-4.34 Kalif Raymond 4.34 Rome Odunze 4.45 Luther Burden 4.41 Jahdae Walker 4.43 Omari Kelly 4.48 Colston Loveland 4.69 Cole Kmet 4.70 Sam Roush 4.70 DeAndre Swift 4.48 Kyle Monangai 4.60 Caleb Williams 4.57

Just read where Chase Claypool is in the Packers camp as an invite. I hope they sign him. I was looking at tape on Shemar Turner and while in college he was a DE and they had him put on 15 lbs and move to DT because of injuries. I thought I heard he lost 10 lbs but never double checked that.

We are not going to be a top 5 defense again because since BJ got here, we are now an offensive team. As you saw this draft we are adding offensive assets . Last year was an example of DAs defense that led the league in TOs. I think if we were healthy, we very well could have did slightly better. TOs are said to be a lot of luck but when Lovey was here TOs were a priority. Same with DA, and with adding speed and having a better pass rush due to speed uptick and being healthier. A natural progression of players getting better figures in also. Now health will come into play again but as AZ mentioned, we are better depth to offset the potential injuries we may have.

We never saw our starting defense last year. Some of the depth players we rotated through were just bad. IIRC we had one game with our top 5 LBs out. This year the depth in our secondary is much better. Both starters at safety are better. Backup CBs are better. Totally agree on Edmund’s. He was only a cover 2 coverage fit in the deep middle and fit nothing else. Edward’s will still be a bit of a liability in coverage. I’m not sure which version of Bush we’ll get but he at least likes hitting. Again depth here has improved. DE I think can be ok once we get the two back from injury. I never liked what I saw from Dayo and he’d be 4th in my rotation. DT might be better. It’s hard to express how bad Billings was last year. Gallimore and Street are both lighter faster DTs. If all we want is penetration and they do that we’ll see some disruptive plays against the run. None of our DTs are good at anchoring especially against double teams. So it has to be get in your gap stay in your gap. That includes the LB. I’m less worried about pass rush because I think our coverage options are so varied we can easily blitz from anywhere and still have a talented guy who can cover the gap. Still we need one more piece. DT or DE (offset injury recovery risk). Can a rookie or two fill the gap? I think we’ll be watching the waiver wire as camp closes. Or do something at the trade deadline mid season.

Agree with everything. I think the back seven give 12-14 sacks.

I agree, we added 3 DTs in FA and drafted one that all fit the scheme. Billings wasnt a fit for this style, he was good for us for a couple years but time to move on. Dexter will be gone next year and possibly Jarrett. Since Dayo isnt going anywhere this year and they actually like his fit and said he was starting to improve before the injury, he might stick around like Sweat since his last year drops a little to 13.5. Booker will be the guy along with Sweat to get that 3rd down pressure we need. The back 7 will be much improved not only with Gordan and Johnson back healthy, but Bryant and Thieneman. Next years draft has more DEs and I don't see them missing out on one. Get an Edge and 3T and then the rest of the draft is reloading more skill.

Its so interesting how the Max Crosby thing affected all of this. Baltimore lets Linderbaum go, and then we get ahead of them for his replacement (to them) twice. In free agency and then again in the draft. Course we didnt get a DE, so the whole thing is kind of interesting. The more film I watch on Jones the more I love him. Hes a beast. Jones and Roush are going to improve our run game a lot once they are both in.

Looking back at last years defense, I saw some really good pieces and progress. The opposite was also observed. As it was pre-described, the offense came on, slowly, as predicted. The defense didn't get that same grace. DA is known to run a scheme that is trait specific, while BJ's scheme is talent specific. In that grace, we made two intentional signings in Dayo and Grady. They being one half of the starting DL, rarely played together due to injury. Whether training did that is irrelevant, due to case hardening. Case Harding is a manufacturing term used for toughening, due to job specific repetition. We got that last year from 80% of our defense struggling through unity last year. I fully don't expect that this year. With that, we should come out of TC with the defensive roster we wanted last year. Heading toward the, above mentioned, opposite. I've gotta start with my most hated Bear from last year, Tremaine Edmunds. He gone! Watch our LB crew make more tackles in the hole this year. I don't care about how tall or fast he was, because he didn't play like it. We plugged in players through all three levels and they have is splash plays and equally ugly plays. This year we kept those that for and added speed at all three levels. With those additions, we will have the most talented secondary in the league. The DL will improve through knowing the system, case hardening and the ascension of players like Turner and Booker. Booker set a pace for double digit sacks returning from injury. Expect that to happen this year. Sweat will give us 8-10, with Dexter and Turner giving 6-8 apiece. Throw in successful blitzes and we'll get another 10. Realistically, we'll be middle of the pack defensively and that will be enough with the offense being more solid as it grows. That's another storyline that make the defense better. Playing from ahead is far different than playing from behind. That's the expectation...

I agree, we need to draft OL, DL, and CB every year to replenish the positions so you dont have to pay big contracts .

I keep looking at pass rush info and seeing if other paid pass rushers are below expectations. Sweat is paid the 16th highest contract. 7 players paid more had less sacks. Crosby and Sweat both had 10. The problem with paying high contracts, most dont live up to the money. Having several 6-7 sack players like Seattle is probably the best way to build this defense. Out of the top 15 free agents only Cam Jordan/10.5--, Von Miller/9-- and Clowney /8.5 were even close to 10. 6.1 mil, 6 mil, 3.5 il respectfully. Go out and get Cam Jordan, the best run and pass rush DE available.

My belief is you need to draft oline about every year between rounds 2-4, or LT round 1. You need a pipeline of hawgs so your not buying 3 pieces to be competent. On the D line, same, they play 4 at a time but heavily rotate. The Bears haven't bought into that philosophy it seems. Better make it up next draft. Even having Sweat, Booker, and Turner fo a few years at end. I assume Dayo gets cut next year unless he becomes an 8-10 sack man. DT, needs to add a couple with Dexter a FA and Jarrett likely a cut.

I think they have a good idea what teams might take at certain positions. It's about when they take them. They probably could have gotten him at 60 but if they traded back to 66 , not sure they would have gotten him. If he's Tyler linderbaum, a few spots isn't going to matter if they wanted him that bad.

I saw where the Baltimore GM was asked why they didn't draft a center and he said they had someone they liked, but they were drafted in the second. That means they probably liked Jones and Slaughter. Now, Baltimore could have drafted either but got Zion Young instead at 45. Their next pick was at 80 I think, but maybe if the Bears don't take Jones Baltimore jumps up before the Bears can get him in the second - the Bears need and interest in centers was not exactly a secret. Then again, maybe if Jones emerges as a starter sooner rather than later, Baltimore becomes someone you could flip Bradberry to if they have issues there going into the season.