AZ54

I think they let the season play out. RB is likely to be an early pick next year. I imagine they’d only want swift on a 1-2 year extension.

I didn’t get to watch the game live but it’s recorded and that gave me a chance to rewind and review numerous plays. I’ll do even more of that later. Sorry this is going to be a bit of a rambling post because i have a lot on my mind. My of my how far we have come. We start our 2nd string QB, 2nd string Oline, 3rd string RB, and 3rd string TE and WRs. Yet it still kinda looked like an NFL offense. That’s the high level view. Now the details Tyson Bagent - played poorly. He was often late on throws, or off target, even on simple check downs. These WRs fighting for a roster spot didn’t deserve to left hanging out for DBs to hit them that way because of bad throws over the middle. Tyson needs to protect his teammates much better than what we saw. Maurice Alexander - he’s bad. Just cut him. My top take away is that we have a plethora of 5th, and 6th WRs on the team. I’ve already seen articles praising Alexander for his performance but what I saw was a little guy who was too easily knocked off his route. As a returner he was very timid and doesn’t offer anything you can’t find among dozens of players, and he’s definitely down on first contact. We now have other options... Scotty Miller - He’s ok, plays stronger than Alexander so if it were my decision he’d be on the practice squad not Alexander. He’s not quite 53 material but in a pinch you can get production out of him. Kaden Davis - looks and runs like an NFL WR. Reminds me of what we saw last year from Jahdae Walker in the preseason. His drop was really bad but other than that he performed well and I can see him on the 53 if he can handle special teams. I suspect his work ethic to get this far will close that gap and he has a great mentor in Khalif Raymond who kinda followed a similar path to the NFL getting cut numerous times of his first 3 years. Although Bagent served him up on a platter for the DBs, that’s a catch you need to make in the NFL. Improve the hands and we’ve got someone who can provide productive snaps as a backup. I know he’s made a couple spectacular catches in practice so maybe this was one-time mistake. JP Richardson - can’t say why he’s so far down the depth chart but I trust the coaches. Still, when he gets the ball in his hands he looks like a guy who can play in the NFL. Practice squad again? Roush - NFL TE. Nothing more needs to be said, just give him time to learn. Roschon - I saw someone somewhere say Roschon is in the doghouse. No he’s not, he’s just pedestrian by NFL standards. He might be one of those good guys that sticks around the NFL for 5-7 years at the bottom of rosters but that’s all he is. Salvon Ahmed - He’s little but pretty quick. Definitely offers something different on offense from Roschon but can he cover the other little things like pass pro and special teams? Ben said the same in the post-game press conference and the coaches intend to find out. Aside from the screen play his other runs didn’t really look that good. Brittain Brown - He looked just ok. Coleman Bennett - He looked just ok. I know he got a TD but I didn’t really see any special traits in his running. At the end of the day I was hoping one of the 4 depth RBs would stand out in some way and all we got was one good screen play. Amegadjie - He’s ok but just never looked comfortable. He’s more of a grabber (i.e hands on the outside) versus being a guy with a good punch to knock a DE off his path. Wills - He’s the opposite of Kiran. His punch clearly can knock a DE back and once that’s done he controls the play. His feet are quick his mind is slow. The sack he gave up was due to being late off the snap and then late to move to get outside, as if he was thinking about his assignment. I imagine Kiran got the nod in the 2min drill before halftime for that reason but I don’t recall seeing Wills in the 2nd half. Logan Jones - NFL player. Love his strength, power, and quickness to move the second block. Whenever he earns his starting job we’ll be in good hands. Malik Muhammed - I like him. Some mental mistakes but nothing unexpected from a rookie learning two jobs. I think he’ll be good for us long term. Beanie - The INTs don’t impress me on overthrows. The passes defensed and the quick reaction to shutdown a screen did. I want to see more. Thieneman - no splash plays per se but he did what I want most out of a safety in that he was in on every stop after an intermediate gain. Meaning he keeps 10 yd play from becoming a 15 or 20 yd gain. Brisker and Byard couldn’t get the sideline as quickly and would just run guys out of bounds after the extra yards were gained. He got pulled early for obvious reasons. Hyppolite - looked much better than last year. Still not perfect nor close to the anticipation we see with a guy like TJ Edwards but he’s at least in on the plays. He left early Injured again so we'll see but he didn’t appear dinged up at all in the locker room afterwards. Jack Sanborn - welcome home with open arms Jordan VDB - he needs to learn how to stay on his feet but there were some good plays. I think he has a long way to go but on the flip side his athleticism is going to be showcased best when they start doing more scheming with twists and stunts. Lynch - This is the Walmart version of Dayo. Great value. He was applying pressure on numerous plays. Not saying he’s starting caliber but might be a good depth player. Jayden Loving - Very impressed with him. While the media is focused on the Beanie INTs they skip the real story of the Loving’s pass rush creating it. On another play he chased down a RB on the sideline 20 yards downfield and made the tackle. Hustle for sure but also his quickness, power, and speed were on display. I want to see more.

Traits to watch for https://www.nfl.com/prospects/jedrick-wills/32005749-4c62-6320-8b63-20c37d057bf8

This might be the first year where I’m excited to see our second string play. I feel Bagent is good enough as QB that I can get a sense of the backup receivers. Beyond that we have Wills, Logan Jones,Rousch, Hayden Large,and RB Ahmed. Defense of course VDB but really what do any of these LBs look like? Are the rumors of Hyppolite playing better true? I think they’ll be conservative with the DBs due to the injuries so I expect a lot of snaps with guys I never heard of.

I’m going with Braxton week 1. Like last year with Trapilo I see Wills taking over mid season. It’s no mistake that first half snaps are split between Wills and Kiran with Bagent and the second string. I too will be watching that tape. Almost two years removed from football is a lot of rust to shake off. The fact he’s gaining ground after just two weeks, which Ozzy wasn’t able to do last year, is intriguing.

I’ll feel better about Trapilo and Wills when I see Theo Benedet taking snaps inside. Trapilo is a better swing tackle prospect. Theo might become the ultimate game day sub if he can backup OG and OT plus he does a lot of special teams.

Starting a new thread just to keep track of post game analysis on the new players. This surprised me mostly because I don’t recall having a Bears QB who the coach said doesn’t need more snaps to improve before the season starts Do I need to see Caleb Williams in the preseason? No, I do not. I see him every single day in practice," Johnson said, noting that Williams will be ready for Week 1 based on what he's seen during practice this summer.

Which explains why Ben Johnson is now touting the physical traits of Wills. Remember that last year the competition was simple: Best pass blocker at LT wins.

Thankfully Ben doesn’t apologize like this. It’s just preseason but I’m confident Ben wants to win big. https://www.nfl.com/news/browns-coach-todd-monken-apologizes-for-being-emotionally-hijacked-by-offense-s-penalties-during-training-camp

People starting to line up behind Wills: Wanny, Thayer, Harbor. Lots of NFL experience. None are saying he’s playing the best. Just saying he looks and plays the most like an NFL LT. We start to find out for ourselves this weekend.

I keep seeing 4 to 6 months which best case puts him on the field in December.

To be fair, with Ben around there’s no longer any reason to feel like a punt is your best offensive play.

Getting back to basics of football. Wanny is another pundit I like As a former coach he won’t call out players too often but if it’s not good you’ll know it When he starts talking positively about guys like VDB, Wills, and, to my surprise, Hayden Large then I think there is something good going on

National media are good for the big things like FA where the agents are working the entire league. There are some small nuggets during draft time but they focus too much on first round prospects and there is too much group think.

Easy walk through today. Luther was walking around with no limp. Zavion walking around with no limp. Cam Lewis returned to practice. Kyler Gordon. Shamar Turner made the trip along with Ozzy.

It’s not dependent on severity of the injury. PUP would surprise me because he’ll have a lot of work to do getting back into playing shape.

It’s too soon to know what we’ve got but I wouldn’t start by trading the player that is in the lead of the group. For sure we’re not keeping 3 at LT with ozzy returning this season.

VDB keeps moving up and now this news is starting to make me optimistic about our Dline. We desperately needed one interior pass rusher. What we don’t know is if the rest of the Dline is so average or bad that it’s easy for him to standout. We do know we have a good Oline inside. I’m watching for news on who he’s beating on the Oline to see if I should get on the hype train. There’s been no talk here about the backup DBs we recently signed. I really like the pickup of Xavier Woods. He adds lots of experience and he’s a good football player. He is a bit limited in some aspects and a 25% missed tackle rate likely explains why he was available. Now we roll into the season with two good starters, and then Hicks and Woods as backups along with Cam Lewis. Backups are all backups for a reason but with that much game experience on the bench I think we have the best depth at Safety in a very long time. If you geek out on film as I do then here you go: The Bears also added a promising depth piece at CB in Beanie Bishop. He’s little (hence the nickname?) but quick. Definitely not fast but as a UDFA he had some productive snaps for the Steelers in 2024 after making the 53 and ended up starter. Then cut, goes to NO, gets suspended for 3 games but don’t know why and now he’s here. I said he’s not fast but I see now on his pro day he ran a 4.39 forty I just don’t see that in pads. The Wikipedia link has the full pro day stats. He’s a football player player type, I like how he fights through blocks but for a 180lb guy I have to think there are plenty of times he just gets pushed aside. Seems like a fit in the slot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beanie_Bishop "Bishop signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers as an undrafted free agent on April 27, 2024.[14]Bishop notably made the Steelers' 53 man roster out of training camp as a UDFA, even earning a starting job in the secondary after an impressive offseason. During a Week 7 game against the New York Jets on Sunday Night Football, Bishop intercepted two passes from Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, both of which would ultimately lead to touchdowns for Pittsburgh as they won 37–15.[15] During a Week 8 game against the New York Giants on Monday Night Football, Bishop secured a game ending interception against Daniel Jones, Pittsburgh won 26–18.[16] Bishop was named Defensive Rookie of the Month for October having: 16 tackles, 5 pass deflections, 3 interceptions, and 2 tackles for loss."

That’s what I’m thinking. The biggest surprise so far has been the fact that Dayo is almost exclusively taking snaps at DT. That continued even after Sweat went down.

Each day we’re getting a little bit spoiled as we hear about these good plays on offense. Seems like there are always a couple standouts each day. For some perspective a coworker is a Bills fan. He smiled and told me the fans are really happy with DJ. He’s making big plays every day. I said yes he’s good, who else you got? The smile left his face and he said “nobody”. Enjoy this ride it’s been a long time coming.

For PIX

Harbor has been complaining about the DTs and DEs all summer. Haven’t seen much optimism from him on those positions, at least until a couple days ago when he said the DTs overall were moving around much better than he anticipated. Still no single DT has really stood out as a problem for offensive linemen. When you listen to press conferences at Halas Hall, Herb Howard is the one reporter who asks more detailed questions and does not typically ask the stupid and useless “what does it mean to you” style of questions. How people get paid for that garbage is beyond me. Today two reporters asked that of Jahdae and kudos to him because on the repeat he said “like I said earlier…. “

I like Biggs. I like Herb Howard and Clay Harbor more because they’re more detailed on knowledge of what it takes to succeed on the field and how players compare to that standard. If it ain’t good they’ll say so.

Aside from the fact he had an INT today there is no reason to worry about Thieneman after 9 practices. You just have to read the tea leaves a bit and realize the coaches are moving him around. I don’t think that’s a case of not knowing where he fits. It’s because they want him as a chess piece to mask coverages. IMO you don’t do that with a guy who can’t learn.