BearFan PHX

Im not ready to call it a pattern yet I guess. When we get to where there are more substantial issues to ask about, if she keeps doing this, then I have to agree with you that maybe someone is writing her questions or making her do this?

that sucks. I hope its sooner, but that isnt good at all.

and what do you base that it was never in play on? I dont get it. She says she has league sources that were telling her the Bears were serious about Jeanty, but the deal just never got made because they couldnt find middle ground on the price. How can you disprove that? And why would you want to?

OK, I went back and found it. Apparently when a college player comes out their junior year, the website she uses for stats calls the players last year their senior year. so there were stats for his sophomore year, and then his "senior" year and she was confused about that. Its understandable - i dont think it's a knock on her, it was just a mistake based on her not fully understanding why there was a gap from Sophomore to Senior on the stat website. In explaining this she said she wasnt sure what the gap was about, and mentioned covid as an example of these things being weird in stat books. And I remembered that, but she never said it was covid, that was just my poor memory. Anyway, here it is if anyone cares. Watch from 40 minutes in to hear the story.

but her reporting was just that it was likely, or heating up - and that could still be true even if it didnt end up happening! I still believe she was reporting facts - that we were interested - that talks happened.

she never guaranteed that both sides would make the trade - she said there was strong interest and they were talking. And i am sure that we did talk to them, but it sounds like the price was too high. But thats not a narrative. A narrative is when you conclude some total outcome, like that a player will be good or bad based on one detail. It's a story more than a fact that gets passed around again and again until people start making conclusions from it. "Bears will fail because Caleb paints his nails" is a good example of a narrative. "Bears wont take ______ because his arms are too short" is another example of a narrative. That the Bears were sniffing around Jeanty isnt a narrative, if shes hearing that from league sources. If instead she said "Bears are sniffing around Jeanty so they wont take Henderson" THAT would be a narrative.

The question to burden was about her misreading the year code. It got messed up due to covid or something, and she saw 2 years, but didnt realize he wasnt a sophomore. She owned that one, and while it was dumb, it makes sense what confused her. As for those personal type questions, often reporters are looking for quotes. They might want to write about Grady's leadership for example, and so she asks who he sits next to, maybe hoping to hear about a young player he is mentoring? When things are more visible, we will see if she gets back to the tough questions. For a while there she was the only one really asking them.

And the thing is Trapilo is less athletic when you measure him, but if you watch his tape, he is very fluid, and rarely gets caught reaching. He's pretty polished from what Ive see on him at RT. hes not stiff, and he moves laterally well.

this is right. some little thing gets reported and then it becomes all anyone talks about and then the analysis where they predict the entire career of someone based on this little tidbit. And the funny thing is the tidbit is random, there are thousands of them but only a few get reported. Its all narrative and no analysis. As for Courtney Cronin, I have always liked her and she does seem to ask the tough questions. I havent noticed her falling into that category, but then again I dont watch her on Pat the Designer, and that is a highly narrative driven show, so maybe shes fitting in I dunno. Im not saying youre wrong about CC I just havent seen it (yet?) - I hope she returns to form if shes off, because she is (was?) one of the better ones.

that all makes sense, but i also think that BJ is committed to being a heavy play action team, and leaning on the running game - and that means Caleb has to learn to be productive under center?

No worries - hopefully you saw my later apology, because it is more than one interception, and i didnt know that yet! I hate hearing bad stuff too - hopefully Johnson will get them all right. I have optimism for it, and even expectations, but like you, Ive been burned too many times, and I want to see it on the field against real opponents.

so just to revisit this I hadnt seen reports from today, so its more than one interception, my apologies. Im not ready to worry yet. I'm gonna give this a little time before I start to judge it. But you (and all of us) are right that until we see it good on the field, everything else is just talk.

exactly! I dont think media WANTS to lie, they just dont know and they have to get clicks and eyeballs. And reporters are not analysts. And so they end up repeating the same one liners over and over. "arms too short" or "paints his fingernails" or whatever.

amazing - thanks for this. The media is a whore.

because he threw an interception? Last year, with no coaching or OL he only threw 6, in a season that was the 5th best for yards in Bears history. I think that to judge Caleb good or bad right now is premature?

I agree with all of this. I think Caleb will be all in. I cant predict anything, maybe Johnson will be a flop, but from right here and right now it sure looks like this is a great staff. And Caleb seems hungry and focused to me. Even before the draft, some of the things he says sound like he is really dialed in. Statistically, he was pretty good last season. His 3,500 yards was the fifth best season for a bears QB ever. 20 TDs is pretty good, and 6 INTs is stellar. And this is as a rookie with nothing around him. Now he was also sacked like hell. He needs to grow int he system and timing and rhythm. He couldnt ask for a better OL, WR group or head coach to teach him. It sure looks like the table is set. I hope it's what it looks like. Put it this way: I never believe anything until I see it, but I am not concerned about Caleb at all.

Love to hear this from Johnson. He's going to completely change the approach week to week to exploit matchups and style differences. Some years the Patriots were Randy Moss for an 80 year TD, some years they were a grind it out possession team. And week to week the Patriot defensive front could change, youd show up expecting to play a 3-4 team and they come out in a 4 man front etc. Great.

and no one held out for a better contract LOL Everything I wanted from Vrabel I'm seeing with Bj and DA. And there is a lot that Vrabel cant do that these guys can too. Cant wait to see it on grass.

So I guess today the first string offense didnt line up correctly, Johnson told them to do it again and it still wasnt right so he sent all the starters off the field. We havent had someone like this in a long time. So great to see. I was worried Johnson wouldnt be enough of a hardass back when i wanted Mike Vrabel. Now I wouldnt trade Johnson for Vrabel for ANYTHING. So glad to see accountability. Finally.

for sure. I think we still need a top notch Edge player, but no roster is ever perfect or complete. We will probably draft that guy next year.

And not helping opponents know where to hit you during the season As much as we want more info as fans, I like that the team doesn't officially give out info they don't have to. I'm wondering if we will see Dexter and/or Turner play some DE. I wonder if Amagadje will end up depth at OG, or play there in a couple years. I wonder if Burden will play some HB, and jet sweep slot guy like Coradelle Patterson I wonder if Kyler Gordon might play some safety and the Bears have kept a pretty good lid on all those speculations, each of which I've read in various articles. Not saying any or all of them are true, but the Bears sure didnt confirm or deny any of that, so I agree they are being informationally disciplined.

something to do with his leg apparently?

Thats the page I use too - set the drop down menu on the right side to "Trade Post June 1st" to really see the costs.

I dont want to get rid of DJ Moore. He's very important to us this year. Im looking down the road a bit. By next year, if Burden and Odunze are what we think they will become, then Moore's cap hit starts to look big. Also, if you know you're going to move on from him in 2028, or even 2027, then you might want to get decent trade value for him in 2026 or 2027. Its got nothing to do with how good players are, its just when they start getting near to 30, and they have trade value, and eat up a lot of cap space, and already have replacements on the roster, the question arises naturally. I think we are so used to how the Bears have done things that we are surprised when trade value becomes possible for a player who is still good. If you look at how the Patriots managed their cap under Belichick in the Brady era, you see them trade a lot of really good 28 and 29 year old players a year before their next big contract comes. That's how we got Akiem Hicks, for example. So it's not personal with DJ Moore for me. It's just an obvious question based on the numbers - and similarly for Cole Kmet. When you do it right, it's like a college basketball team. If you have any Junior or Senior players who are balling out, you know they are gone to the NBA next year, and that gawky Freshman is going to be your next star, so you have to recruit and develop players to keep that cycle going. We have a great staff now, and if we keep trading older players and/or trading down in the draft, and do well with player evaluations, then we should always have lots of new young talent in the pipeline that you can coach up and get on the field under rookie contracts. I think that's the natural rhythm of success in the NFL? And now Poles has gotten ahead of the pitch count, and is drafting replacements for players 2 years for now. That's how you do it!

This is such great news. I personally am not a Braxton believer, but i don't want to hear the narrative that he didnt get a chance, and the more competition, the better. If Trapilo and Amagadje play really well and Jones beats them out anyway, then fantastic. Let the best man win. The more competition the better. I personally think Trapilo will win the job, but I havent really seen Amagadje in any kind of fair way, so let's see who is who under live fire.