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Watching the Bears last year showed me we had more talent than a 5 win team suggests. Coaching doomed a winning season. If you think Caleb is the real deal, you have to be optimistic on our chances.

lol - lets see what the Jets do after this year with him. The idea that fields is GOOD at QB is like teeth that haven't come in yet because the baby teeth are still in LOL

I have had all my joints get implants. I am now relplacing the left hip I had done in 2009. You dont die from a new hip but it always goes back to ( am I as healthy as I think I am) Its getting knocked out , where surgeries usually go wrong. I look at myself like I do the future of the Bears, all is going to go well. Thanks for anyone wishing me luck.

Fields got paid to be a starting QB for the Jets, thinking he is still a failure is a little long in the tooth. No one is saying he is a top 10 QB in the league but if used right, he can win football games.

We brought in leaders to help the chemistry. Jarrett, Thuney and Dalman all bring leadership to the lines. We now have players that will make everyone accountable on the DL and OL. We got a A+ coaching staff that wont let anyone slack off. Great situation for this team to excell.

fair enough thats what makes horse races. I agree with what you said about why they asked him to slide, I think thats what i was saying too. personally, I think Fields is a monster in the open field, and Hester like - but we dont have to agree on that. I do wonder if a team will use him for kick returns in the future if he isnt starting at QB. EDIT - I do admit Hester is quite a bit faster. That's obvious. But in terms of vision and elusiveness I see them as similar.

That's actually false. They asked him to slide sooner to avoid those, late, bell ringers the DB's were laying on him. In actuality he didn't break the huge runs like the season before. After that, I abjectly disagree with any open field running comparison to Hester. Not even close.

I agree with you about Minnesota, but the reason Fields' rushing yards were down was that the coaches were telling him to slide rather than try to get around defenders. You all know how I feel about Fields as a QB, but he is about as good an open field runner as Hester was. And like Hester, he didnt actually play a real position on offense or defense. You cant pay a starting QB starters money, or even rely on him as a starter and let him run free, so Fields is left without a place on the roster where he can showcase his skills. Great athlete, not really a football player.

I agree that Minny won't be successful as last year. Their defensive scheme took a lot of teams by surprise last year. When you a blitz happy DC, they usually end up getting countered the following year. Kinda like when Justin Fields had record rushing and the following season he didn't.

I just listened to a crossover Podcast (Bears/Vikings), and it is always interesting to hear the other side cope. So this MIN guy basically said McCarthy is not a rookie QB because this is his 2nd training camp. So by definition, sure, but he was not talking about that. So he said the Darnold floor and Burrow ceiling for McCarthy is fair (from the recent article). LMAO, what? He also said MIN has a top-5 OLine because they signed Will Fries (played 268 snaps last year) and Ryan Kelly. Yet when the Bears trade for Thuney, Jackson, and sign Dalman, the Bears will be lucky to have a top 20 unit? I need whatever he is smoking. For me, I can't see MIN having another 14-win season. Not because they are worse, but because that is hard to do when you change QBs. Hell if they win 12, KOC should be CotY. DET has a lot of question marks losing both Coordinators and the health of Hutchinson at game speed is unknown. 10-12 feels like their range without know how good Goff will be without Johnson. GB is just GB, they definitely feel static and just added a rookie WR to meh WR corps, which doesn't move the needle for me because you are still dealing with Jordan Love.

and it also goes the opposite way, MIN won 14 games last year, but were probably more like a 10-win team. So if they only win 9 or 10 games, it will feel like a huge disappointment. I also think coaching/scheme changes are the biggest factors outside of a new QB on how much a team can change in one offseason. All the other positions have impact but it feels like those are orders of magnitude lower than QB and coaches. Like it is hard to name a good team with bad coaches. Most good teams have at least serviceable QBs, but on those good teams, there are bad CBs, LBs, WRs, RBs, TEs, OGs, etc.

oh yeah, on paper we are looking good! no dobut. on paper Trapilo is a giant stud wh moves people in the run game, and swallows up speed rushers with width. he's got 33" arms, but he has a wide stance and moves laterally really well. One thing that poles said about his film, which I've also found watching him since we drafted him, is that his film is boring. And it really is. Every snap looks the same. It looks easy and theres no real choas to it. He looks less like he's fighting defenders and more like he's couples ice skating. He just moves and absorbs them calmly. If he can make it still look like that in the NFL, hes gonna be a monster. I expect it wont be so easy though, so I'm interested to see how he stacks up.

When your second best OL becomes your fifth best, that's a damn good thing in the NFL. Every team would love to have that problem. (On paper)

fair on Von, I just mentioned it because Dayo is working with him. I think Braxton got unmasked last year,a nd the league has a bull rush book on him now. especially coming back from an ankle. I think we need Trapilo or Amagadje to be clearly superior to Braxton, and then we will be in good shape!

Likewise - hope the surgery goes smoothly

If Braxton Jones is the floor, the OL is in good shape. No to Von Miller for me.

I am still concerned about LT, but Trapilo is a physical specimen, he seems to be more ready for LT than his college experience would indicate, hes very steady, i wanna see him against NFL rushers. I think he has the potential to be a real stud, but I need to see it. Maybe on grass, Amagadje will show us hes the man instead? My bet is in Trapilo, but it's all talk right now. I worry about pass rush too. Im feeling pretty good about how the DT rotation looks right now, but i worry about the production from the DEs. One of the things Ive learned here was that DA likes bigger DEs, so maybe he doesnt expect the same % of pressure to come from the DEs as we do in most schemes. I also see Dayo is going to Von Miller's pass rush camp. Miller is still available as a free agent too for limited snaps at critical moments...

Same. I think the most important jump needs to be with the pass rush, because I'm 100% convinced the OL is going to be a strength.

if I had to bet, Id say the same. I am very optimistic about this season, and this team going forward. But logically, I'm just waiting to see it on grass under live fire, and then ill start talking about whats working and what needs help. I'm really looking forward to that.

This team has good team character. Even with Flus, they played hard until he list the team. Your mention of chemistry is key. My belief is that it will develop quickly, due to the new staff being quite the opposite. I expect extreme effort in camp. Some guys might get hurt feelings, but wouldn't that be a breath of fresh air.

yes 8-11 wins is the reasonable expectation, and no one can say they wont win more, or collapse. i dont expect them to collapse, but a lot of teams that looked good on paper didnt actually perform on the field. Like Redskin and Raiders teams of the 80s and 90s or a lot of Yankee trams over the years. That doesnt mean there is any reason to predict failure either. Just that we dont know the chemistry of this team yet at all. Lots of reasons for optimism tho! And who can say who this team will be in December if it all comes together too.

Yeah, I dont know what we will be exactly, but last years win total makes a poor predictor or even starting point, i agree. First of all, we should have had 8 wins if Eberflus hadnt given them away. secondly the roster is very different and so is the coaching staff. So I agree that there is no reason to be anchored to last years number in any way. But this is a NEW team, and we have to gel and see what we are. Gotta do it on the grass So I totally agree with you. we are 0-0 with no reason to think anything concrete yet for better or worse!

With the Bears finishing 5-12 last year makes it feel like a herculean effort to even get to a winning record at 9-8. However, turn arounds with much more wins are almost commonplace nowadays. Last year alone, 3 of the top 9 teams in the NFL all had a win differential of +6 from the previous season: WAS 4-13 > 12-5 (+8) MIN 7-10 > 14-3 (+7) LAC 5-12 > 11-6 (+6) I feel like there is less correlation from year to year than ever before. In the season prior to winning 12 games, WAS lost their last 8 games, MIN finished 1-6 with their only win a 3-0 barnburner against LVR. LAC finished 1-8 and their only win was a 6-0 win against NE. So as much as this feels like the Bears are building on a 5-win season. They really are starting over with all teams 0-0. Ben Johnson has led an offense that has been top 5 in scoring and top 4 in yards in all of the last 3 seasons. While Dennis Allen, as a DC, has coached a top 11 scoring unit in his last 3 seasons as a DC. There were 7 teams to have a top 11 offense AND top 11 defense in 2024, they all made the playoffs, the worst team (DEN) had 10 wins, and their average win total for the group was 12.4.

11-6 is fair. I think there is a big variance because there are still a lot of unknowns with how the combination of things will work. We know Ben Johnson is a great play caller, and we can see how that impacts other teams with comparable play callers (Reid, McVay, Shanahan, LaFleur, etc). A good coach who is a great play caller almost gives every team a floor of 7 to 8 wins just by default. I think the Bears basement is 7 to 8 wins. That is if nothing goes right. RB and Edge are issues, LT never gets resolved, and Caleb doesn't take the next step. I think the median is 9-11 wins, the more things go right, the more wins.