dawhizz

Seems like not a great look for Poles that the Bills got a 5th round pick from the Bears for their back-up C and then straight up released their starting C . .

Williams' play style looks a lot more like prime Russell Wilson to me than Patrick Mahomes.

Daniels looks just like Fields to me - not sure if would make much sense for the Bears dump Fields for Daniels unless you were convinced his process was either better than Fields coming out or likely to be better than him in the near future.

Here's my Bears QB brain dump: Long story short, I do not envy the decision Ryan Poles has to make. I like Fields the person and like a lot of the things he does on the field, but I can't shake the fact that through pretty much the first half of each of the last two seasons, I thought he was awful. He does appear to be improving, but he's still not making easy decisions and throws that I need to see to make me think he's THE GUY. I definitely see the value in potentially trading the #1 pick and the haul you could get, but the big problem there is the QB class seem VERY shaky next year. So if Fields doesn't make major improvement next year, all that draft capital won't matter because there will be no one worth trading up for. No one's trading a franchise QB no matter how many draft picks you have and you can't just sign one. Sure, someone could break out next year in college football, but it's hard to envision, even with a break out season, that guy being seen as on the Caleb/Drake level. Which is all the more complicated for me because . . . I'm not sure I love the QBs in this draft either. I love the flashes from Caleb and his arm talent is unreal, but, as someone who can admit I wanted no part of Patrick Mahomes when he was coming out, I see the same concerns I had with Mahomes as far as mechanics, holding the ball too long, trying to do too much, etc. Just because Mahomes worked out, doesn't mean that every talented QB with those same concerns is going to be Mahomes. And for Maye I like him OK, and I want to like him more, I just don't feel like I see him drive the ball the way I see, say, Justin Herbert do (since they are often compared). I guess where I end up landing as far as what I THINK I would do is this: (1) Move on from Fields, (2) if you have one QB clearly over another between Williams and Maye, draft that guy, (3) if you think they will both be great NFL QBs, and your grades are very close between the two, and if Washington will really give you (as has been speculated) #2, their second round pick this year, and their first next year for #1, you trade down a spot and take Maye.

The sense I get is that Evan Brown was not very good for the Seahawks last year. Four Seattle Seahawks who should not return in 2024 (12thmanrising.com) We don't need another Lucas Patrick 2.0. In what's a unusually good C FA crop, I'm hoping there are better options. My FA wish list would be something like: -Lloyd Cushenberry, C -Curtis Samuel, WR -One of the young safeties (Kamren Curl, Xavier McKinney) -Za'Darius Smith, DE

I will add to this that this is essentially exactly what the Chiefs did when Poles was there and they drafted Mahomes - had Alex Smith coming off a successful season but drafted a QB top ten.

I’m starting to think keeping Fields AND drafting a QB #1 isn’t the craziest option. You get one more year if Fields on a cheap(ish) contract. You get a year to develop/evaluate a stud QB who will still have tremendous value a year from now if Fields balls out.

https://x.com/byryanwood/status/1744187277549453491?s=46&t=cLrE-3h2uw3rACxhQZYEvg

Yes, I mean coaches and QB. There’s some good bones on this team but I don’t see the coaching or QB needed to be any more than minimally competitive.

If Poles really wants the Bears to be great, and have a chance to win a Super Bowl sometime in the near future, you have to clean house.

1. I appreciate that his players seem to like him and going through a lot of weird stuff this year, but also can't deny that Flus' decisions has lost games this year. Maybe he's getting better. But I can't forget that the Bears lost three games where they had a lead in the fourth quarter and he's a defensive guy. I'm not sold. 2. I think Getsy has the most riding on the Packers game. He's had some of his own head-scratching decisions from a play calling standpoint. He needs to prove he believes in the offense, and Fields, to make his case to stay. 3. The question Poles needs to answer is: Is it more important to me to be competitive or to win a Super Bowl? I think Fields gives you the best chance to be competitive in the short term and going forward. I think Williams/Maye, if you get the pick right and believe in the player from a skill and a mental standpoint, gives you best chance to eventually win a Super Bowl.

I know this is considered a particularly strong QB draft, but looking at the last ten years if top 3 picks at Qb does not fill me with confidence: Bortles, Winston, Mariota, Goff, Wentz, Mayfield, Darnold, Murray, Burrow, Lawrence, Wilson, Lance, Young, Stroud Whose career do you want over Fields? Burrow and Stroud? Maybe Lawrence? That’s not inspiring.

You probably want to make sure you get at least one future 1st and probably two in any trade down, just in case Fields falters next year and you need ammunition to get a QB. I doubt this is very realistic, but here’s what I did in one of the mock draft simulator sites with a bunch of trades: Marvin Harrison Jr. WR Ohio State 17. Laiatu Latu EDGE UCLA 20. Kamren Kinchens S Miami (FL) 39. Sedrick Van Pran OC Georgia 66. Leonard Taylor DT Miami (FL) 76. Michael Penix Jr. QB Washington 101. Ben Sinnott TE Kansas State 107. T.J. Tampa CB Iowa State 138. Sataoa Laumea OT Utah 147. MarShawn Lloyd RB USC 152. Christian Mahogany OG Boston College 2025 ARI 1st 2025 TB 1st

I have to say, on top of all the other terrible things about his season, the one thing we all wanted was an answer to the question “Is Fields the guy?” and I think it’s pretty clear whatever your individual answer to that question is, we don’t have a definitive answer. And that’s on the coaches IMO. I fascinated to see what the Bears end up doing at QB at the end of the year and am convinced whatever they do will end up being wrong.

Bad teams should not be buyers at the trade deadline. Didn’t we just do this with Claypool? It would be hard for this to end up being a worse trade, but just sign a good DE during the off season (like we should have done last season), keep the pick, and stay bad this year.

https://bearswire.usatoday.com/lists/chicago-bears-otas-day-2-takeaways-justin-fields-dj-moore-tremaine-edmunds-jaylon-johnson/

Looks like picks 6-10 have all signed, but none of the top ten. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2023-nfl-draft-first-round-picks-contract-tracker-bears-latest-team-to-sign-top-rookie-full-list-of-signings/

Very cool behind the scenes stuff on the draft here. I know there’s also a video up on NFL+ interviewing Pokes about the draft process, but I don’t have NFL+ - maybe someone who dies can summarize?

Outstanding.

Currently of the players in red or blue above it would be Bell and Williamson (who I’m pretty confident I can retain on the PS at this point) and Leatherwood (who has had his shot and doesn’t seem to be a league average guy).

I know Bell is apparently a great guy and all, and I saw where Corey Wooten speculated he might be more ready to play right away than Dexter or Pickens (which is . . . a take) and I’m certainly willing to see how he performs in preseason, but I have a real hard time believing the Bears are in serious jeopardy of losing Bell from their practice squad considering he’s a 6’1” DT who never had outstanding production, never even made first team in the Big South, and was a 7th round pick that was pegged as a UDFA by pretty much every draft expert I’m aware of.

Need to add Terell Smith, who I think makes the team over Jaylon Jones. Bump Bell to the PS for an Edge and probably Williamson too for a better 3rd safety.

Sounds like he was called by a handful of teams but the Bears expressed the most interest and started calling him during Round 6. https://www.insidenova.com/sports/the-chicago-bears-showed-the-most-interest-in-forest-park-graduate-thyrick-pitts-jr/article_043ede30-e9ad-11ed-89b8-63d26d1e8207.html

https://www.chicagobears.com/news/poles-offers-behind-the-scenes-look-at-draft-2023

There are two interesting aspects to a lot of our draft picks that I'm just starting to pick up on. Not sure how intentional they were. One is relative inexperience at their position, which (theoretically) means room for growth with good coaching. Dexter didn't start playing football until halfway through high school. Roschon Johnson came to Texas as a QB and became a RB based on injuries (you can see his inexperience watching him play - he seems to do a lot of dancing behind the line like you would expect from an option QB and I think he'll be much more effective when he better learns to hit the hole and go). Tyler Scott was a high school running back. All those guys were pretty effective in their own right but it feels like there is room for improvement beyond maybe even comparably rated players. The other is players who were maybe not put in a situation last year that showcased their abilities. Zacch Pickens seems like he was asked to do more gap-control last year but seems better suited to a scheme where he is attacking upfield, which might account for his low sack totals. Noah Sewell had 114 tackles and was considered a top LB a year ago, then the defense switched to a new, more complex system and his tackles and production plummeted. You could even argue that had Darnell Wright stayed at LT, he would have been a more attractive draftee - all indications are he performed well last year at LT and only switched because of the skill set of the new guys coming into Tennessee. If he had stayed at LT and performed at or near what he did at RT (not a sure thing but within the realm of possibility) he would have had more consecutive starts at LT than either Broderick Jones or Paris Johnson.