AZ54

Technically I think it was involved but we could have just moved to bring the new TE to the practice squad if we wanted him there.

Abdullah is now on our practice squad.

Andrew Luck just retired because he's tired of being injured. Does anyone here seriously think he wants to line up behind our Oline after what we saw last week?

From what I can gather on film. everyone was taking a turn. Line getting beat and confused sometimes. RBs /TEs same . QB not taking the “ layup” when it’s there. Blitz pickup plan was confusing . This is one of the rare times you can actually say EVERYONE needs to get better. https://twitter.com/olin_kreutz/status/1171580252671348739?s=21

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1171885239649624064 Never heard of J.P. Holtz but the TE position was so bad last week that it makes sense to try something. I hate to lose Abdullah because he seemed to play well and earned his spot over Bullard. Hopefully he's back on the practice squad tomorrow. Holtz..he's big and slow but can catch so he is not a backup for Burton. There is no way we're keeping 3 TEs of this type. It's possible this is just a one week tryout and the Bears took advantage of the fact he had just been on the active roster. I think that makes him easier to cut versus when you sign someone directly off a practice squad but I could be wrong. OTOH either Sowell or Shaheen is injured and can't play this week, or one of them is about to get released once Holtz is up to speed a bit on the offense.

Or maybe Davis, who is just standing there watching the LB come free up the gut, could just step in front of him. Why is it Trubisky's responsibility to tell ARob to cut off his route when there is a blitz? ARob has to read that after the snap too.

I'd never look past their D especially given the edge protection issues we had last week with Leno and Massie. Massie was better than Leno. We better be able to run up the middle on their D or find a way to seal the edge with better blocking from both Sowell and Shaheen or we'll go nowhere again.

The notion that the hot read or the outlet was always open is also false. In some cases the hot read might have been a 3rd down completion but without a chance for a first down what is the point of doing that? I'd try to force the ball into a spot to see if we can get the first down. See the 3rd and 1 play where Shaheen and Robinson were the two options after a fake handoff. Green Bay played it perfectly and if Trubisky tried to throw to Shaheen it might have been picked off although more likely just incomplete. He tried to come back to the inside receiver but that was a no go. Once again with pressure in his face he ended up diving a yard short of the first down marker. I agree sometimes the underneath options were wide open and Trubisky was still too focused downfield and came off that read too late. We ended up with no gain, a sack, or a short gain that was half of what we could have had if he were quicker to decide. Lots of room for improvement for him to just take what the D is giving up.

https://twitter.com/rapsheet/status/1171790541488578560?s=21 The backup has been around for a few seasons so it's not like he's a rookie.

Much of this depends on which plays you choose to highlight. YOu can easily make a highlight film showing all of Trubisky's bad plays and think that's it. You can make a video just as long showing all the Oline issues that is equally convincing. Or you can make a video of all our running plays that is really short.

Try this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1084&v=c_e4nkDaj-4

Trubisky would benefit a lot from being more like Alex Smith and hitting the checkdowns quicker when it's the right read. At times he's too locked in on the TD-to-checkdown philosophy and when the offense had stalled he drifted back into his old habit of trying too hard to make the big play. That said, I've read a few analyses of the game and he was not as bad and is made out to be. He wasn't great either but his teammates and HC too often didn't help him. There are some odd things being said like the Packers' DB who said they wanted Trubisky to throw. That's BS and it doesn't fit the reality of the fact they stayed in a dime defense all game, which is what you do when you want to stop the pass. That means they felt Nagy couldn't or wouldn't run the ball on them. We expected to see more of the new RBs and they were right. Overall the entire offense played poorly except for ARob.

It's week one and we don't know anything about how the NFL landscape will play out except for a few elite teams and a few really bad teams like Miami and TB. We lost our first game last year and still ended up with 12 wins. Absolutely nobody expected that after week 1. This time after week 1 it seems clear our D is already better than last year. I don't think our offense will stay worse than last year. At a minimum we'll see offense similar to what we had last year and likely it will get even better than that. If teams stay with the Packers Dime approach on D we'll be tearing them up in the running game soon enough.

That play could have been a TD if Cohen catches it right.

I blame Nagy for the inept offense. I watched Baldy's Breakdowns courtesy of a poster on Reddit. Mitch wasn't really as bad as I thought but he certainly could have been better. The Oline on the other hand was as bad as I thought. The play calling was atrocious with a complete disregard for running the ball. Why did we use our first draft pick on a RB if we don't want to run? It's that simple. Despite all that there is room for optimism if a few minor corrections are made at each level. Mitch has to get out of constant TD-to-checkdown mode and make quicker decisions. Sometimes you just take what was given as soon as it's given. Nagy has to run the ball so Mitch has some better throwing windows. The Oline needs to run block up the middle far better especially when the numbers are in their favor. Nagy’s creativity The tactics (Packers) Bears had trouble on the o-line Preston Smith is dangerous Bears missed some golden opportunities Praising the Packers db’s and their dime defense Packer’s will be dangerous on 1st downs in the new offense Leonard Floyd was a BOSS,, his growth could really help the defense

That was crap. Nagy outsmarted himself in the preseason and his offense just wasn't ready for this at all. One more thing is clear: If he does not have a good U TE on the field his offense doesn't function. That goes back to when he was with KC in the playoffs and he lost Kelce in the 2nd half, Burton out against the Eagles and here again tonight. After he was hired and he was on the flight to Chicago with Pace he told him how important that position was to his offense. He wasn't joking. If he's a good coach he'll find a way around this problem. On a positive note we have a really good defense even if there were a few calls in secondary that looked like players didn't know their responsibilities. That'll get fixed within a few games. Roquan Smith is elite. The energy he played with and hit with were really fun to watch. I don't know if we'll have RRH next season but if not we're going to wish we did. Floyd with a bull rush sack and he was in/around several other pressures too. Cody Whitehair didn't play well at the end and really killed the last drive all by himself. Charles Leno killed one earlier in the 4th quarter all by himself. Whitehair is about to be a new father which reportedly will happen any day. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he had family on his mind. Really the Oline as a whole looked out of sync too often. Did Javon Wims have more snaps than Miller? I never saw Miller until the last few minutes of the game. Trubisky looked lost most of the game. We see this every year in the first week or two of the season where teams play really poorly. Good teams fix it. No need to panic yet but of course we will.

He helped us win 12 games last year and has missed just a single game for which he needed surgery. He was 10th in receptions among TEs and 4th in TDs last year and fans want to get rid of him. http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorystats?tabSeq=1&season=2018&seasonType=REG&d-447263-n=1&experience=&d-447263-o=2&d-447263-p=1&conference=null&statisticPositionCategory=TIGHT_END&d-447263-s=RECEIVING_TOUCHDOWNS

Bray apparently was a week or two shy of hitting the PS limit so he remained eligible.

Me too. Perhaps MIzzell was a quick study on the playbook which may have made him good for scout team work but he simply lacks the physical skills needed to compete in the NFL. Depending on what you think of Bray there are 4 to 7 players there that have potential to develop into depth players for us. That's about all you can ask for on the PS. Jesper has the hands, can he run and block at TE weight? https://www.nfldraftdiamonds.com/2018/11/jesper-horsted/

Neither did anything for me. Vaughters only looks good when he's not blocked. in the future when he's stronger Duck might hang on with a team that runs a lot of cover 2 or zone but I don't think that's us under Pagano. He has neither the speed nor size to matchup with NFL WRs. In terms of quickness he's not close to what Duke Shelley can do on the field.

I'm just gonna throw this out there but I'd love to see Vedvik signed to our practice squad. I'm not so sure it would help Piniero with his confidence but it would help me with my confidence. Others I'd like to see added: 2) Horsted 3) Bunting 4) Fitts...see if he can finally work his way into shape. At some point you'd think the embarrassment of being pushed all over the field by TEs week after week would motivate a guy. OTOH it might not be hard to find a better PS candidate at OLB than Fitts. 5) Nall...keep the clydesdale in the stable just in case. 6) Michael Joseph...he's improved a lot over last year but still has a ways to go to be NFL ready. 7) John Franklin III...he too has improved a lot over last year unfortunately he has an even longer way to go to be NFL ready. 8) Bars....of course 9) Denmark...athletic stud who did nothing this preseason. If it's a choice between him and Franklin III, keep Denmark. Franklin looks a bit soft in his game and if nothing else we know Denmark will hit somebody. 10) Anyone not named Mizzell

I think the Daniels/Whitehair position swap will pay solid dividends this year too. Kyle Long has had an entire offseason to workout and is looking more like his pre-injury days. You didn't list Wims who looks like a legit depth this year. WR depth is solid especially when you consider Cohen spends a lot of time as a slot WR. I'd say Wims replaces Kevin White while Patterson was brought in to be the one to split time with Cohen. IMO giving Cohen less reps means he'll be running more deep routes at least I hope so because he's tough to stay with in his cuts.

Two players I don't get are Whyte who did almost nothing as a RB all preseason and Lucas who did nothing as a blocker. I'm a fan of Nall and felt he could provide a little as a h-back type but we never really saw him do much blocking in the preseason so I get cutting him and likely moving him to the PS. We've already got Patterson as KR and part-time RB so what is Whyte going to do? As an interior OG Bars outplayed Lucas but at OT it might be a simple case of short-term depth needed while Coward heals from his elbow injury. Lucas' experience might make him the better short-term option. Then there is the decision to keep 6 ILBs. Either we love them as special teams players or there is a trade being cooked up swapping one ILB for an OLB. Congratulations are on order for Nick Williams and Abdullah Anderson who have both worked their way into being solid depth players for us.

It's all about the blocking (or lack thereof) for these two. We should have one or both on the PS and give them another year to work on their strength and technique.