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I enjoyed watching and listening to this film study https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b0pyXwLlPgw

All last year, and even into this year, all we heard about is Caleb Williams taking too many sacks. So how is this possible: Williams sack rate last year was 10.79% and his career sack rate is now down to 9.10% Drake Maye has been sacked 34 times this year, which matches the same number he had last year. His sack rate this season is 11.76% which is 1% higher than Williams' last year, but no one is talking about that. Additionally, Maye's career sack rate is 10.29%, which is over 1% higher than Caleb's and only 0.5% less than Caleb's "terrible" sack rate from last year.

If the Bears get both Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon back for the final month (5 games), would that change your outlook on any of these games? It should make all of them more competitive. 14 - DEC 7th @ Green Bay Packers - coming off FRI game while GB is coming off THU game. Both teams with at least 2 extra days rest, but in GB. Will be tough. 15 - DEC 14th vs Cleveland Browns - WIN (Only scoring 16.1 ppg) - Final 4 games, CLE will be in Aruba planning mode by then. The Bears have to win this one. 16 - DEC 20th vs Green Bay Packers - short week, Saturday game, while GB comes from DEN - This feels like a win. 17 - DEC 28th @ San Francisco 49ers - This one seems like it will decide the playoff hopes due to the Wild Card. 18 - JAN 4th vs Detroit Lions - This game becomes massive if somehow the Bears are in the division title hunt heading into this game, but they would have to had beat MIN and GB twice to even have a shot at it before this game.

It's about a 40 slot drop from the Bears projected 6th to the Eagles projected 7th. That equates to an early 7th round pick. Now I know Monangai worked out, but the odds that a 6th or 7th rounder even make the 53-man are low. Kyle Monangai, Luke Newman, Travis Bell, Kendall Williamson, Zachary Thomas, Trestan Ebner, Doug Kramer, Ja'Tyre Carter, Elijah Hicks, Trenton Gill. Of the 8 6th and 7th rounders Poles has selected before this season, Hicks is the only one on the 53-man roster. That is a 12.5% hit rate. So using a 7th rounder value on a former 1st rounder is not that bad.

Caleb now has 5 4QC in 25 starts. So 20% of his starts have included a 4th Quarter Comeback. He has also led 4 Game-Winning Drives in 10 of the wins. Probably would have a couple more of each if not for being Flus'd. Maye has never led a 4th Quarter Comeback and has one Game Winning Drive. Nix has had 7 of each, which is kinda crazy. If he only played in the 2nd and 4th quarters, he would be the greatest QB of all-time. 32 TD - 9 INT in the 2nd and 4th quarters, 14 TD - 9 INT in the 1st and 3rd quarters. Daniels had 4 of each last year, 0 this year. Penix has never led a 4th Q comeback or had a Game-Winning Drive. McCarthy has one of each, both against the Bears in Week 1.

Poles track record on free agents is up and a lot of down as far as value. Billings-Edwards-Byard were good values. Plenty of bad signings. I will say the way he does contracts that most dont have a long term affect on the Cap We wont know what Joe T-S will be until he plays for us. For better or for worst the Cap is structured to have the most money available when Caleb's contract comes up. The proper time to grade everything is at the end of this year. If we end up being a winning team then the way he structured it worked out. If not another bad mark on Poles track record.

I think they will draft another LT, it comes down to the progress of Theo and what they project Ozzy as a future prospect. The key to that comment is what round. I think they could look at edge or even CB to be more important. It depends on how the season plays out.

He didnt play in Cleveland bc Myles Garrett amd the next two DEs are players they drafted. He has a great RAS score, great attitude, young, and maybe just needs the right team and opportunity. JTS plays 1 and 2, Booker in for 3rd downs.

I dont see Theo becoming a above average LT. He is a tyrannosaurus....monster (6-7) with short arms (32-1/8). This does not mean I dislike him. He has the feat, but will get beat more than win because of the arm length. Ozzy has 33" arms, a little better. I think they need to consider drafting one only if they check all the boxes. I dont mind dipping into well until they get it right.

I agree (or not at his current price per AZ's post above, hes got a point), and there's some chance they look at CJGJ as a safety too - because I think his skills set makes a good fit there.

I think he stays but on a lesser deal than he hopes to get. Other teams will also shy away from his concussion history so I don't expect him to have a big market. I wouldn't even be surprised to see 1 yr deal.

Brown had a little Forte in him, a little bit of a taller back with long strides. Swift and Johnson both being limited are upgrades from last week. Monangai is probably in a little bit of a rest protocol after taking so many reps in game. Hopefully they will all be full by Friday.

Technically, halftime of this Sunday's game will be the exact halfway point of the season, but with the bye already past, we are sort of at that point now in terms of calendar days. At 5-3, what are some of your bests and worsts for this team so far? For me, the best "best" is Ben Johnson. He is really exceeding expectations in almost every possible way. He is a maniac. He is the anti-Flus and something this team has lacked since Lovie or even Ditka. On offense, I really like the balance of the offense (run vs pass, with no one player being targeted too much). 3 players have 30+ receptions, 6 with 20+ targets, which includes 4x 100-yd receiving games from Odunze, Burden, and Loveland. 8 different players have a receiving TD (including Williams). The O-Line, especially Wright, who is playing at an All-Pro level, have been playing at a high level. Thuney, Dalman, and even Jackson are really coming around. They have facilitated 3x 100-yd Rushing games from Swift and Monangai. Of late, I have also been impressed with Monangai and Loveland. Hopefully they can keep up the production. The worst on offense is probably the LT position and Cole Kmet's production. Kmet is 7th on the team in receptions, only 1 more than Monangai. Oz is probably 3rd for me as I was expecting more out of him with how he looked in the offseason and the number of targets he has received so far (2nd most on the team). On defense, Byard and Edmunds have been the best players on a unit that is struggling. Byard is playing at an All-Pro level. The worst have been McCloud, Brisker, and Billings. I expected more out of Brisker and Billings (they were supposedly the missing pieces last year), and I didn't expect McCloud to be the worst cover CB in the NFL when targeted. They really miss Jaylon, and Stevenson did not seem like the same player prior to missing the BAL game. Special Teams as a whole though, is probably my worst "worst". Holy crap they are bad. They are terrible in kick coverage, blocking for FGs, kicking FGs, and outside of 2-3 punts all year, Taylor has again shown he was a waste of a 4th round pick. The league average per punt is 47.9, Taylor is at 48.5. The ironic thing for him is he is the same exact punter from last year in terms of distance. The league average last year was 47.6, he was at 47.7. Santos has missed 3 kicks with a long of 52. That is embarrassing. Moody was cut for missing 2 kicks in a game SF won lol, then he makes 8 of 9 for the Bears. I would rather have Moody than Santos the rest of the way. Honorable mention for worst is Richard Hightower. I still do not understand how this guy is employed. He is a big reason why the ST unit is so bad. Hopefully they can improve to just be average the rest of the way. Just don't lose games for the team.

Speaking on that. See that three of our RBs are on the injury report for today listed as “Limited” (Swift, Monangai and Johnson). Not as a big of a deal on a Wednesday as say a Friday report but still worth noting. Maybe Brown’s turn to shine? 🤷🏻‍♂️

Brisker won't be back. He is nowhere near as strong in the box as he was before the concussion (which makes sense), but he seems even worse in coverage this year. In his final year of his rookie deal, I think they let him walk.

How good is the Bears running game? Swift, Monangai, Johnson, and Brown are all in the top 30 for Success Rate, and all but Roschon are in the top 30 in Explosive Play%.

No team has a more productive formation in the NFL than the Bears 2x2. They have produced 49.01 EPA from that formation. In comparison, the Giants best is 1x3 with a total EPA of 24.59. A lot of cool data here: https://sumersports.com/teams/offensive/

On Offense, EPA/Play in the RZ, the Bears are 21st, while the Giants are 32nd by a country mile. On Defense, the Bears are 17th in the RZ for EPA/P, while the Giants are 28th. Out of 11-personnel, the Bears are +0.16 EPA/P Passing and -0.09 Rushing. Out of 12-personnel, the Bears are -0.25 EPA/P Passing (which is shocking) and +0.05 Rushing. The Giants interestingly enough are almost he opposite, they have more success passing out of 12-personnel, and more rushing success out of 11-personnel. They were having a lot of success with 21-personnel before Skattebo got hurt. That formation seems to be significantly reduced now.

The more I look at the upcoming games, the more I think the Steelers and 49ers games are winnable. Both of those defenses allow over 5.5 yards per play. On offense, the Steelers have 620 Completed Air Yards on the season (dead last), which equates to 3.7 yards per completion and they are 19th in Rushing Yards Per Carry. SF is basically completely dependent on McCaffrey in both the run and pass game.

He joins Williams and Blackwell with weekly honors.

Pretty cool honors for the rook. Could've also went to Monangai or even Williams. If Loveland keeps up a solid pace, he could at least make the Warren v Loveland debate a little more even. He now has the PotW Honors, a 100-Yd game, and a 2-TD game to his credit. Warren has yet to break 80 yards receiving, which I was somewhat shocked about. It seemed like he was getting a lot of attention from the media, just to compare to Loveland, which I did as well.

I watched all 3 of his highlights. He’s a poor man’s version of Dayo and Dayo certainly made us poorer.

I read the pick they get back is actually the Eagles 7th round pick, not the Browns own 7th rounder, so it could end up being the last pick of the draft. Doesn't seem like good value to me, if that is the case.