BearFan PHX

This game may define where we are as a team culture, but without Odunze and Burden, we can make a gut check call, but we cant demonstrate how dominant our offense is, theyd have to go off too to do that. But can we win? Hell yes. I expect a lot of running, play action to TEs, and hopefully we can get Moore involved, but i bet theyll double him. I sure hope 12 and 14 are ready to go.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1873277293297823

ha love it without any evidence, just in my gut, I'll bet they will be more aggressive about this than we think. I have no idea what that will be though, but it wouldnt shock me to have two new starters on the DL, and even more new faces in the rotation.

for sure known to our scouts and Bienemy the NFL, but not to me! I only looked at film of like the top 8 or so HBs and that was it. I dont watch college ball. After we drafted him, my Dad, who does watch Big Ten Football told me "oh yeah that guy is a beast" so he knew, but I didnt lol

I personally was hoping for Cam Skatebo. He has definitely show that hes great, but I can't complain about Monangai at all - a real hidden gem. I didnt even know his name until we took him. So score one for the front office on that one. Was it Poles? Bienemy? Some scout who banged the table to tell us he was great enough that we were willing to wait for him?

Also, while it was originally designed to happen after June 1st, i THINK (and I could be wrong) that you can only use the June 1st designation a limited number of times, and you can use it before June 1st too, just designate it as such?

I agree. we need at least two new dogs on the D line. It's incredible the rest of the team has carried us here without a pass rush. Watching Jordan Love sit comfortably in a clean pocket for 5 seconds at a time was brutal. And when we try to create pressure blitzing, we get burned. The simple answer is we need a real pass rush from the front four. Add that to this team, and you can see where we are headed.

I think we will do both. We dont have those DE dogs on the roster right now.

not to mention half our losses were in the first 2 weeks of a new head coach and Caleb's development just beginning. It doesnt portend who we are now. I think the main thing is that we dont have a pass rush. That will probably limit how far we go this year, but we have a heck of a team otherwise, and will for several years with these core guys. I expect we will get a pass rush this offseason, and then watch out. But I wont say the Bears cant go all the way this year. They do find ways to win, even with this incomplete roster.

And all of this without a pass rush. Next year we will spend our assets on the D line, and then i imagine this team will be a true contender. And that's not to say that they cant cobble something together this year. Im not putting a ceiling on how far these guys can go, but we will be underdogs in an NFC Championship game for example. But next year, with a pass rush, we will be favorites in a lot of games. Caleb is growing weekly into a beast. The future is bright.

I may be reading the stat wrong, but I think its over ANY consecutive 1,000 passes. For Caleb, it's his first. But if im reading it right, it's even more impressive. And last year you had people saying Caleb should trhow more interceptions - probably the same ones who thought he never should have thrown the TD to Moore this week.

yes, and they only scored 3 points.

I think it's important for the Bears to get off to a good start, because in weather like this, if a team goes down 14 points, its human nature for them to think more about staying warm than winning the game when it seems out of reach. I'd love to put the Browns down 14 early, and let them quit.

yeah now that ive seen some coaches angle, Trapilo really grew - and he is doing an excellent job in reading the defense and making switches and double when he should.

No one is saying these stats are good enough, including Caleb and BJ. The question is, is he learning and growing, is he making reads and getting the ball out in rhythm. And i think more and more he is. That's why if I KNEW Caleb would get no better than this, Id be unhappy with it, but given where i think he is headed, I still wouldn't take any other QB over him from the last 4 years of drafting. Maybe more than 4 years. Caleb's trajectory is headed to elite territory, and I am here for it.

I believe Caleb will be great for us. Not perfect, since no one ever is, but great, top 3 in the league. I think that's where this trajectory is headed. People can disagree, but then when it happens, remember who wanted to keep him and who was thinking of dumping him. The rest is up to time to tell. I could argue why I think this is true, what my evidence is, but it's a waste of time. We will see.

I think Caleb didnt see the defender who picked it off because he wasnt on Kmet, he peeled off of another player, so he wasnt in Calebs vision when he tossed it so softly to Kmet. Is that on Caleb? Sure, fine. But it's understandable, and Im not hating on him for it at all. I also think Kmet, who COULD see the defender peeling off in front of him should have run a more lateral route to mirror Caleb's rollout. For me, if you want to criticize Caleb, the first half had more opportunities.

I think our strength and conditioning coaches will be replaced this year, along with Hightower. All are holdovers from the Eberflus era.

This is what I think happened too. I dont think the defender that intercepted the ball was assigned to Kmet, but he read the broken coverage and made a play. The league is full of great players who make plays, so to expect Caleb to always be better isnt realistic. I think instead, it's fair to say Caleb wasnt good enough in the first half and that contributed to the loss. That's a fairer criticism than the final pass.

another difference is who was on the OL for those seasons. The Eagles made that pretty clear in the Superbowl this past year.

Kmet should have run laterally, instead of getting more depth. Its a fine point, and it was the difference in this game. If thats how close we played the Packers in their house, that isnt anything to be ashamed of. Add a pass rush to this team, and we are contenders. Jordan Love isnt as good as he looked, he was just safe in a clean pocket all day.

exactly. We were within one play of tying and possibly winning this game. We lost, and that's OK, but we took a step this week, and Im glad to see it. Next year, the defensive line should get a lot more attention. If we had a pass rush, we would have won yesterday. What we are doing without one is incredible, but we need one. And to be fair, we knew all of this before the season started. We said: Johnson needs to change the culture Caleb needs to grow 10 wins would be a great goal, possibly sniff the playoffs We dont have a pass rush, so that is going to be a problem

and i am guessing this is why Trapilo didnt start at LT out of the gate. He wasn't findng the right guy to block enough. Now, with half a season of coaching under his belt, hopefully he has enough to win the job and keep it, and keep growing too. Benedet is a really good swing tackle - he is borderline starter material himself.

Yeah, it's the middle of his growing season, so it's all good that people see him different ways. You can look at stats, and for some of them he seems great, and others he seems terrible. Or you can watch the film and try to see what he does. For example, if Caleb throws an incomplete pass in week 2 he might have made three mistakes on the play, and now he might throw an incomplete pass and only make 1 mistake. I think that's what Johnson is saying when he says Caleb is improving, even as his completion percentage or other stats might decrease. But, no matter how we read his progress right now, he is either going to get to the next level, in which case everything will all add up to us agreeing he is doing well, or he will fall short and we will all see that too. Personally, I see the continued growth and I predict he's going to be great. But of course until it happens, it's just a guess that he will continue to grow. But there is certainly no evidence right now that he wont. For me, I'd still take Caleb over any of the other QBs he got drafted with straight up even now.

A couple points: Caleb, by the eye test, is not performing that well, or at least that consistently, and yet his numbers are right there with Nix etc. Imagine how his numbers will look when he's more polished. Also, Johnson doesnt have a lot of outlet routes. Caleb isnt asked to dink and dunk - this is an aggressive offense that Caleb is learning. We see a lot more 15 and 20 yard routes across the middle, than swing passes to an outlet RB for example. I think this is why Caleb's numbers are already so good (other than completion percentage) even as he is still learning and growing. I can see where we are going, and it's gonna be like the Lions were last year. Add a pass rush to this, and we are going to be tough next year! And you know what? We're tough right now too!