All Activity

It could be, as AZ said the starters got more reps in the joint practice too. So the water hose was inserted. I feel the Bears have been notorious for not playing starters in preseason and it has always showed. Im not giving BJ any benefit until I see this team look the part. On paper, he is the mad scientist that has history of creating monsters. Lets start to see if that creativity followed him here

I’ll just take Ben Johnson at his word that he wants his starters to get the maximum number of reps they can get in camp and preseason. By letting them skip the game they were able to pick up an additional 50 practice reps. It’s not the same as a game but he also doesn’t have dumb down the script like he would have for a game. The joint practices allow him to do that and he gets to see what they can do well. After this week things start getting locked in and he said as they prep for Wk 1 the offense will get trimmed down with shorter play calls and a clearer game plan. He’s keeping his cards close to the vest stating that they still don’t know what type of running game they’ll be using. He’s keeping the Vikings guessing.

I wonder if because they are "feeding the offense with a firehose" if the coaches thought it would look too disjointed last week and the press would start to build too much pressure? I do expect that with this roster and staff that we will get there, but I guess training camp is gonna bleed into the regular season. And we will need to have some patience. I want him to be an A too, but I guess it could take time. Id like to see 17 to 20 points coming out of the gate here in general, on our way to 30 when we are in flow. But that could be the second half of the season.

New systems needs time and sitting most starters last week took that time away. I dont know where BJs thoughts are decisions came from but he's putting that to rest this weekend. Caleb needs to show he can run this offense at its most basic form. If he struggles, the weight will only get heavier and if he plays the position well, the hype will build. He was a B to C imo last year. I want him to get to A.

for sure - we havent seen or heard much about the interior, I wanna see what all that $ looks like on the field! And the LT battle continues to be an enigma, with sudden love for Theo Benedet, and Trapilo taking snaps at RT. Who knows what any of that means? Is it serious? Is it motivational? I have no idea how to read this.

idiot

I think they have a snap count in mind, I heard someone mentioned 20-24 snaps, so we will see. A full half is probably the max.

We are danger close to the start of the season and still in need of 1x new GM. If we don't get one, the only option is to reduce the number of teams. That would slightly alter the payouts and playoff structure. Once we have that locked in, we can set a date/time for the draft a few days prior to the kickoff game.

I to hope they play at least a half for starters. We need to start seeing what training camp has accomplished on both D and O. BJ is taking a lot of crap for not players starters, and I to wish they would have played but I trust him as he executes what his plans are. Its all about playing better in Sept now winning some preseason games.

My hope is that the starters play a full half. We'll see if Caleb is getting the ball out with accuracy. I want to see if the interior defensive guys are penetrating and, of course, the LT battle continues...

Poles was on the SCORE today and didnt define the LT position but said Theo earned the chance to compete at LT. I think with this move and Ozzy taking snaps at RT, is just trying to motivate Braxton and Ozzy. Whoever wins out needs to get with the first team and get some continuity with the starters. Thuney will help with the LT position and they come scheme chip help if the LT spot is a problem. We have one of the starting LTs in the SB last year(Thuney) and the other starter was a 7th round pick by Philly in 2018. A former Rugby player that the Eagles developed into a LT. So as much as LT is important, the best in the league did not get their team to the SB. I think we now have a good OL coach and that we will see improvement at the LT spot. Poles has assembled a lot of talent on this team but unfortunately he waited until this year to take it seriously. I think they will settle on a LT (dont care who) and it will work out. I think depth was a big problem last year and it looks a lot better going forward. PFF has us rated as the 4th best OL, I hope they are right for a change.

If you can get past his ego and (Im the smartest guy in the room attitude), Phil does make some good points. BJ was always planning to play the starters in the second game. I had to turn it off when they say BJ corrected his mistakes by playing the starters this week.

I havent seen the tape on Theo from yesterday but respect your opinion. The fact they tried him there tells the story. They are still looking for more consistency from the LT,

I think Benedet plays better inside and right. He looked lost at left tackle. I also forget between Bates and Kramer, but one or both of them were terrible.

Reports are that starters will play, which is nice to see. Bagent and Co started with back to back 3 and outs against Miami, so I hope Caleb can lead a scoring drive and show real progress on Sunday night.

Back to football. Clearly the Bears are not happy with the play of our first game. They are trying different players at LT. Theo Benedet took some snaps at LT yesterday. Kiran is healthy now so I expect him to take some snaps there. They are going to play the best player they have to choose from. I think this game will go a long way to who starts the first game of the season. Every rep counts, hopefully someone stands out. I think if no one does, Braxton will be put there .( a 3 yr starter) I dont care who it is as long as he plays well.

I was going to stay out of this and let someone else butt egos with you but since you brought my name up several times, you opened the door. You clearly always have to be right, how many times in our arguments did you throw in my face how right you were with Justin, Flus, so many to mention. I dont know how many times you stated how good you were at watching tape and how stupid I was for having a different opinion. You complain that Mongo got personal with the phycological stuff when you do it all the time with your personal insults. You are right it ok to have different opinions, but just like this argument you expose yourself . You make statements like (If im wrong, so be it) and (Im being super patient and respectful.) (And to the psychological stuff, I think it's enough of that -) You have to always try to control all arguments. I didnt play OL in college or am great at watching tape but have opinions based on what I notice. Every time I posted a former player , a former coach, or a football pundit, you always down played their difference of opinion, by saying ( how great you are at watching tape). Its ok to have difference of opinions but If you dont like it, you have to turn it into a 500 word essay on why you're right. It would be easier to just say I disagree and keep it civil on here.

Yup I heard that too! I hope whoever wins this job isnt going to be an ongoing problem for Caleb. Hopefully they all get stronger and make it a hard decision rather than a win by default. absolutely!

I understand your experience, and knowledge. I respect it. I am sure there are many things about OL play that i dont know and you do, and there are probably many other things of whatever subjects as well. I am still going to have my opinions about every part of this team. If im wrong, so be it. But you cant say that if you and I disagree about an OL issue that I am insulting you. I dont mean any insult to you at all, but I am still going to have my opinions. And maybe we will disagree. If you want to keep asserting the "Argument of authority" (meaning youre an expert and Im not so I must be wrong) I do think you told me I was going to like the Jones footage, and I didnt, and neither did Roushar, so we can all be right or wrong about anything. If we disagree about those two reps where I think he got walked back a little too far, and you think it was still in his legitimate area of absorbing energy, then cool. Its a close call either way. I didnt think it was egregious. I called a similar one on Trapilo too, and you might feel that was a legit rep. I was trying to be consistent and fair at least. Im being super patient and respectful. I dont want a beef with you. But I didnt like what I saw of Jones in that game. And to the psychological stuff, I think it's enough of that - I dont need to be right. I have never defended an idea that I thought was wrong because I had previously supported it. That's just not how I am. If I change my mind, then I change it and go with the new idea. And just to be clear, this was my opinion about one game. I said i didnt see any practice, and I heard Roushar's positive evaluation of the scrimmage vs Miami, and next week will be a whole bunch of new info too. Im not calling the competition for any of them. My actual analysis conclusion was that none of them won the job from that game. But I was leaning to Trapilo. Certainly not sold.

Ditto! Raise the bar!

He also said Jones played excellent on Friday - his technique was great etc and than he was not that same player on Sunday - again - pushing buttons to drive a higher standard. Love it!

I get the analogy, but... There's a difference between Skip Bayless and Tyson Bagent. It may be a terrible analogy because I'm nowhere near a pro, but college is not far off. Some opinions are educated and some not. I quickly digress when I see the difference.

hopefully the defense, the running game and Ben Johnsons play calling gives us an edge to get some wins, but I definitely think Caleb is not going to operate this offense at the same level he will in December. but yeah, 0-4, 1-3 even 2-2 isnt great, but i think we will have to have some patience as long as we see growth. This offense is a 28 or 30 points a game type of offense, but I dont expect that early. 13 or 17 might be the output early.

I think we should expect offensive growing pains. We could actually start 0-4 given the difficult schedule - in general we have a real tough schedule. Winning that Viking game is going to be pretty key cause schedule gets real tough real fast. But reality is - I want to see progress every quarter and a lot of flashes of awesomeness during 2nd half of the season and plenty of glimpses towards it in first half.

absolutely on all of this. and i do think he was hiding the offense from public scrutiny last week. I get it. Hes feeding them "with a firehose" and they are int he struggling phase, thats cool. And we will see them this weekend, so cool. Im starting to think that training camp for this offense is gonna stretch into the regular season. We will probably need some patience.