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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.

Brian Baldinger made a good point I seen on an interview. Theo is bad at pass blocking but he stays on his feel and has fight in him. I think he will improve as the season goes forward. Has looked good run blocking. I seen one play where he took a block off the field on and on the ground. reminds me on that one block in (Blindside) movie.

absolutely. And Theo needs to protect Caleb better. He was running around a lot this week, and it was Benedet's fault a lot of the time. Now this is different than Braxton, because no one can say that Benedet has reached his ceiling. He's young, and probably a little over his head right now. I have some patience, but I need to see him improving, or it's gonna be a need in the draft again.

Yes and we finally have a coach and a QB who can take advantage of it. For countless years the worst defenses had their best game against the Bears.

Biggs had something a week ago breaking down the red zone issues - it was very good and highlighted how much penalties and the bad snaps really contributed to being too big of holes.

I agree. We are against the cap, which you can wiggle it but it gets tighter every time you do. Keep your picks and if we get them right we extend the longevity of success.

He really has been playing well and making a ton of splash plays. He’s a great fit in Dennis Allen’s defense.

The trend has been solid too - let’s see them continue stacking and trending positive - and see more growth from offense and Caleb and cleaner execution. They do that and I think we will also see them start to show up against better defenses (may not be good enough given injured to D - but still would be even more progress!).

The oline with exception of Theo’s pass blocking has been very good of late. Theos run blocking has been excellent - his pass blocking is beyond bad of late. Wright has been downright elite - despite playing with one arm. Kudos to him, Poles and the coaching staff on this. And I rip Poles everywhere but outside of LT, it is starting to gel quite nicely on the line - a huge step up compared to last year.

I seen that.

The Jets did exceptional. No clue why Colts did what they did - but they clearly believe in Daniel Jones. Cowboys got a great player - no idea why they did it now.

I was so glad to see they basically did nothing. Was very against any big moves - but this is low key and basically gets you a former 1st rounder for what will likely be moving down 15-20 spots from middle of 6th round to early in 7th.