BearFan PHX

OK Caleb - show us all who you are - again.

amazing.

Not surprised at all. Dime from Caleb too. But can the defense get stops? Yikes.

DJ. You gotta fight for that.

I think we may be missing Trapilo more than we realize. And also, in breaking news, we have no defense.

a couple bad things, and then sitting cold for another 20 minutes. They could well come out hot in the 2nd half. But does anyone think the defense could possibly show up at halftime?

We knew in August that we were building the offense this year, and that we would have no pass rush. And we see the result now. I wanna see Caleb and the offense get into this game, but I dont have much hope for the defense this year. We can rush 5, 5 even 7 and no one gets home. We need to revamp the defense, and no one is safe. Some will stay, but if a better alternative comes along, any of the 11 players could be demoted, traded, cut whatever.

This is feeling like a trap game. Gotta get our heads in it during halftime

Nah, Ben Johnson has a killer offense in mind. We need the players to catch up to it and execute and we will be killers. I like the high expectations. Might take minute to get there.

I think I read Burden and Z are in but Rome is ruled out today. Not sure of the source.

Trapilo is out today, it will be interesting to see how Benedet does.

Right, he cant play CB anymore. But I believe he can play safety well.

CJGJ isnt even a CB, hes a safety, and hes been forced to be a CB this year. Next year he will replace Brisker, and all will be well. I mean in terms of CJGJ, this defense also needs players bad.

100% agree. DA needs players.

Yeah I think he is keeping some stuff for the playoffs, but I also think he is playing the opponent. Against SF, when we did blitz, they picked it up easily, and allowed Purdy to burn us. Its not enough to call a blitz, we have to get home, and when your front four are easy to handle one on one, then blitzes are less effective. I do expect more chaos from DA in the playoffs too.

you could really see it in the tempo we came out in against the Packers. Wow. We are a physical team, and it's just gonna get more so when we have a D line.

So we just hung 38 on the SF D that only gave up 13 to the seahawks. And the 49ers only managed 3 points against Seattle's pass rush. And the moral of the story is that if we had a pass rush, we'd be Superbowl favorites.

I see your point. I think, based on nothing, that Poles is going to be very active on the DL. I remember last year saying we would put 4 new faces on the OL, and there was some kind of fight about it being only two, and Tevin would stay and all sorts of stuff, and Poles has shown that he isnt afriad to really move things around, so Im looking forward to what he does. Gonna be fun for sure.

thanks, I dunno if the over the cap numbers i was using included that or not. I really only put the three OL on the list because youd gain $10M trading them, not because i think we should. I just listed everyone with significant savings.

I just checked out the Bears Cap, and there are more names that come up that get you more than $10M in cap savings if you can trade them. These will be pre June 1st trades, so Im taking the lesser of the numbers. We can trade lots of people from our Defense if we replace them with good players, here's the cap space. Montez Sweat trade........... $16.9M Tremaine Edmunds trade.....$15M Jaylon Johnson trade ..........$7M Dayo Odeyingbo trade..........$11.5M Grady Jarrett trade...............$11M If you could trade all five, you'd have opened $62.4M in cap space, and you could replace the D line and more in free agency. Plus you'd end up with a bunch of draft picks to move up in the first round with. Some of them you can just cut if there is no interest, again pre June 1st numbers, so the lower ones Montez Sweat cut........... $6.9M. Tremaine Edmunds cut.....$15M <------------- same as trade Jaylon Johnson cut ..........$7M <------------- same as trade Dayo Odeyingbo cut........-$1.5M (no savings) Grady Jarrett cut..............-$2M (no savings) You can cut Edmunds and Sweat, and have $21.9M to spend on Sweats replacement And of course the trades on offense that make financial sense are: DJ Moore trade....................$16.5M Jackson, Thuney and Dalman each get about $10M in space with a trade, but you'd have to be sure about Newman or something Cole Kmet trade...................$8.4M I think from all these data points, you can say: Edmunds is gone one way or another Jaylon Johnson, DJ Moore are also probably on the trading block we would be thrilled to find a trade partner for, but probably wont be able to: Montez Sweat, Grady Jarrett, Dayo Odeyingbo You can start to see the different opportunities there are for Poles, and how he could move assets around to build up the defense. https://overthecap.com/salary-cap/chicago-bears

Yeah, I think if hes ready to go, Odunze should get some snaps this week. In the past, we have put recovering players on a limited snap count, and that makes sense here too. Football is in large part about momentum, so resting your starters isnt always the advantage it seems to be. My only point here is that there is a middle ground. You can play a guy some, but not all of the snaps. And if we get up more than 2 scores in the 4th qtr, then sure, Bagent can come in.

I agree entirely.

I think Poles and Johnson want this too - they are aiming at sustainable roster turnover. Eventually that will mostly come from the draft. But with Caleb on his rookie deal, now is the time to make a run, and acquiring a free agent pass rusher is a good idea. In fact, its a necessity. We've seen what it takes to win without a pass rush - last minute heroics that have been exciting to watch, but we need to be able to pressure opposing QBs. This offense is gonna cook with or without DJ Moore, but the defense is awful without a pass rush.

if we get a stud 3T, then maybe they will be the sack leader. But i cant imagine them not doing something in free agency first. And that doesnt mean they wont draft the very same position, but we arent gonna take a championship ready offense and make them wait for rookies to develop pass rush moves for 3 years. i think theyll make some moves.

The Bears 2026 sack leader is not currently on this roster.