AZ54

I think the struggling Buffalo Bills would love to unload the $6mil/yr contract of McCoy especially if they can get anything in return. This year is all about having Josh Allen get his feet wet. Next year, unloading the contract of a 31yr old RB could help in many ways.

So Howard's not a good fit for our offense yet the Eagles largely run the same offense? They are desperate so I get their point of view (they need someone) but for our side? The Eagles at this point really are in danger of not making the playoffs despite having a weak division. In the offseason we could pursue other players to replace Howard. Now we will get nobody in exchange and that's a huge problem IMO. 800 yards is still a lot of production in the running game. On our practice squad we have Mizzell who really was bad in the preseason. I don't even understand why we kept him around. Then there is Nall, who I like. He had several explosive plays in the preseason but he also lacks some of the tight space quickness that Howard possesses. I'd put Nall as an equal or perhaps even ahead of Howard in the receiving department as I think he's better as a route runner/receiver further downfield. But if we're ok with Nall taking on the big-back role instead of Howard then why wouldn't the Eagles just sign Nall off our practice squad?

I think this is complete BS speculation by Clayton. The Bears are building something good on offense and Howard is a big part of that. At this point we have legit playoff aspirations and will need Howard to get some tough yards. https://bearswire.usatoday.com/2018/10/09/philadelphia-eagles-chicago-bears-jordan-howard-trade-jay-ajayi-injury/ Former ESPN insider John Clayton told Sports Radio 94 WIP in Philadelphia that the Eagles could be eyeing Howard as a trade target.

Didn't think we'd see this in writing. https://www.thephinsider.com/2018/10/8/17951476/miami-dolphins-cincinnati-bengals-loss-ryan-tannehill-adam-gase-struggling-offense-kicked-in-nuts "Frank Gore was doing well on the ground and in the second half, the Dolphins completely abandoned the run. This is something we have grown accustomed to with Adam Gase and hope that it will change in the coming weeks. His inability to game-plan within a game is alarming and is why many believe it is time for him to hand play-calling duties over to offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains." and from the comment section below that article signs of desperation from the fans... "Given what we have seen the last two weeks from him, do you thin Fales could be much worse?"

That's one possibility but Daniels fillled in there for a few plays. I think between Kush or Daniels we'd be ok for a game or two especially versus a guy who hasn't been with the team at all.

According to Nagy, we're in a "good spot at LG" with Kush and Daniels but we just signed a guy who played for two years in KC but has otherwise bounced around the league. Roster moves: The Bears on Monday officially placed outside linebacker Sam Acho on injured reserve and signed offensive lineman Bryan Witzmann.

Time to move in for the kill.

Maybe but it may depend on how many national broadcast games the Patriots already have. Plus they already have the Patriots vs. Chiefs this coming Sun night so I doubt they'd want to run the Patriots games twice in a row. They might prefer to keep the Rams and their explosive offense on the schedule. This game as scheduled is a CBS broadcast and they certainly want to keep it on their schedule.

I enjoyed this moment too when Clinton-Dix went full Conte.. http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-cant-miss-plays/0ap3000000970649/Can-t-Miss-Play-Golladay-sends-Clinton-Dix-to-turf-on-insane-catch

Not a good day overall for the young QBs. I only watched some of the 3rd and all of the 4th quarter. Watson finished with what looks good on paper 33/44 for 375yds but watching the easy throws he missed at times was frustrating. They need to stop having him run the ball because they're going to end his second season early. He was tough as nails coming back out to finish the game in overtime when it was obvious he was struggling physically. https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/10/07/sunday-night-wrap-up-deshaun-watson-survives-to-beat-cowboys/ "Everything seems designed to put Watson in space and let him create, but that also tends to put him in harm’s way. There might be short-term benefits, but the Texans don’t appear to be a contender now, and more care with Watson’s future is probably in order."

I watched the game and couldn't stop laughing. Crosby managed to hit both the left and right upright in that game.

Credit to Andrew Link over at WCG for the excellent film breakdown. Pretty much everyone credited Trubisky's 6 TD performance to the Buccaneers poor defense, to the point Jared Goff was named NFL Offensive Player of the Week. On a week where Trubisky threw 5 TDs in the first half alone that's telling about how biased people are. People say that Goff did it against he Vikings but four games into the season that defense is ranked 20th in yds/game and 27th in yards per play, 30th in NetYards/pass play. Yes, Tampa is worse but statistically there was not some huge chasm between the defenses Goff and Trubisky faced. Watch the film breakdown and it's clear Trubisky was far better than he's been given credit for. He did the things you want from your starter like keying off of or moving the safety, moving through his progressions to find the right reads. Plus he made some dime throws all over the field routinely hitting guys in stride at all levels of the field. Worth noting is that on several plays he was patient and pushed the ball downfield instead of quickly dropping off to the short reads that were also open. You'll see that Tampa defenders were expecting him to take the underneath option on a few plays when he pump faked, or him looking that way drew 2 or more defenders. Trubisky read their mistake and quickly took what they gave him further down the field. He's making throws as soon as WRs are making their breaks, or the defenders step out of position. Overall I think there was a lot of growth in his understanding of the offense and reading the defense. https://www.windycitygridiron.com/2018/10/6/17946274/2018-chicago-bears-mitch-please-episode-2-mitch-slapped-mitchell-trubisky

If Daniels plays well at LG I don't think they'll make the change at OC next year. If Daniels at C were the long term plan I think he'd have been focused more on C in practices this year. I'm talking about after training camp closed, with the intent of moving Whitehair over when Daniels was ready. There were enough issues with snaps early on to make that a realistic scenario but they kept him working at LG. They may simply prefer his length and mobility at LG. I like his potential but I"m far from ready to see Coward take over for Massie. He's still new to the position and, as he said, his technique is a work in progress. He's still thinking too much on those things and I'd rather not have him on the field when we're facing blitzes on the road.

He absolutely deserves this award but they are missing the boat with the talent that Mack has around him on our defense. What happened against Tampa was not just Mack. We know that but I think that will become more obvious to the media later in the year. The bellwether for this D will be when we play the Patriots in a couple weeks. Ruin Brady's day and the entire NFL will take notice.

Idiots like Field Yates have no clue what they are watching. Last year it was JimmyG then after receiving $74mil in guaranteed money he completed a mere 59% of his passes this season before having the injury. Wentz last year completed just 60% of his passes but had a ridiculous TD:INT ratio of 33 to 7. Sometimes it happens where everything clicks for an offense. Heck even Mark Trestman had a few good games with his offense and Jay Cutler. FWIW I think Mahomes is better than Prescott and that will prove out over their careers. I think Garropolo will be a good starter too for years to come but he has some limitations in the deep passing game. This "best player" in the NFL is just BS this early in his career when he has such good talent all around him on offense. Last year early in the season Alex Smith was in the MVP discussion running the same offense. I don't really like QBR but through the first 7 games Smith had a QB rating of 120. Right now Mahomes is on track for 126. It's easy to go fast when you are driving a Ferrari. That doesn't mean you are the best driver.

Even without Daniels assuming his starting role yet, this is already a very solid draft class including Tolliver. Tolliver just went up against two of the most dangerous weapons in the NFL in Evans and Jackson and absolutely held his ground. I have to believe those WRs were salivating at the chance to go against a UDFA rookie in week 4 so that performance was really outstanding. He's not getting a lot of recognition because of the focus on our pass rush but there were plenty of plays where Fitzpatrick or Winston had time to throw. I love the splash plays by Nichols but it's how well he's holding up in the running game even when an Olineman gets his hands on him that has me thinking he'll be a starting caliber DT soon. With a healthy defensive front he's already kicked one veteran to the inactive list, and then taken away snaps from Bullard and RRH. That goes beyond getting an opportunity and making the most of it, his play is forcing coaches to play him more. We already know we have legit starters in Smith and Miller. We're not talking starters because the roster depth is so poor the rookies get on the field, these guys are legit NFL starters on any team. Daniels has shown the potential to be starter and played well enough against a good Tampa front for us to be confident that will happen very soon. Nichols and Tolliver already look like they have starting potential down the road. How often does a draft produce 5 players who have played that well by week 4? The question is can this become a great draft class?

I may be the only one who felt Mahomes was exposed against Denver because that was the first game where he was the "player" I saw in college. I realize he's great on the adhoc plays but I also saw a QB who got very uncomfortable in the pocket after 2-3 sec. Denver, surprisingly kept rushing up around the top of the pocket, leaving him easy escape paths. I expected them to realize he wasn't so good correct it in the 2nd half but they never did. That 62% completion rate was, IIRC, at 53% until the 4th quarter. There were a few WTF passes in there too. When I watched the Steelers game it was obvious their defense played very poorly. Now I can say it was similar to the Buccaneers D against us. People don't want to say it but the Steelers pass defense is pretty bad and was in that game with multiple blown coverages. FWIW they are ranked 29th in the league, with TB now at 32nd. Mahomes ate 'em up just like Trubisky did to the Bucs. So the 6 TD games count for both. Mahomes has better talent at his disposal than Trubisky does and, more importantly, an entire offense that is ahead of him in learning it. In KC most of his offensive players are in year 2 or beyond in the scheme. Everyone on the Bears is on game 4. IMO Mahomes is far from the sole reason they have one of the league's best offenses. That's a statement in relevance to how I believe QBs like Brees, Rodgers, and Brady simply make the talent around them better. I think other teams will catch onto what happened in Denver and work to keep Mahomes from extending plays outside the pocket. I may be wrong but I'll wait for the multiple INT games in his future where all that effort trying to save the play just doesn't work out. I saw it many times in college. To be fair, in between those bad moments he'd have the 500yd 4 TD game. For now Trubisky has taken the longer road to building success. There are lessons beyond the playing field that come with that. When it all comes so easy out of the gate I'm not sure Mahomes, who has a propensity for taking risks, has learned those same lessons. If they lose a couple players on offense how will he adjust? Watkins went out of the game against Denver and it was like someone turned off a light switch. Andy Reid is a smart coach and I"m quite sure he knows all this and is prepared for it. None of this means I think I know which of the 2017 top QBs will be the best. I'm not that arrogant and I simply don't know. I'm just saying wait until teams see what he's doing and can start to scheme against it. That part of the season begins now. In the meantime, enjoy the ride. Mahomes can be a lot of fun to watch.

Every time I see him play, and every time I read more about him the more impressed I get. Mack has only been with the Bears a month. That's barely enough time to know most players by their first name. Yet here he is taking the time in practice to give pointers to a young Rashaad Coward on what he needs to do to stop his pass rush. I don't care what Gruden does with our first round picks we won this trade hands down. https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bears/trial-fire-how-khalil-mack-helping-bears-right-tackle-rashaad-coward-learn-new-position “Once you go against guys like that, anybody else is like — I don’t want to say a cakewalk, but they’re not going to come as fast or as strong or as quick,” Coward said. It’s not just that Coward gets to practice against Mack, though. Mack actively will give Coward coaching points, telling him what he did on a certain move and how, next time, the greenhorn offensive lineman could counter it.

Torn pectoral muscle. https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/bears-sam-acho-out-for-season/ Who gets the call? Irving or Fitts? I think it will be Irving. Fitts needs a lot of work on his pass rushing moves.

I completely missed that James Daniels was on the field for about half the offensive snaps. Brad Biggs has a nice summary of it. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/ct-spt-bears-10-thoughts-brad-biggs-buccaneers-20181001-story.html That might be the first time I've ever seen an Oline rotate guards throughout a game. It will be interesting to see where we go from here after the bye week. This draft class looks better each week: Roquan starter, Daniels (soon to be starter?), Miller (starter), Iggy (backup/special teams), Nichols (already in Dline rotation), Fitts (inactive), Wims (will he take Kevin White's snaps soon?)

Wims better learn to always run his routes at full speed. That first one against Tampa he looked a bit lazy and shocked the ball came his way.

I read this article and then looked at some stats to see where we fall. It's the end of the first quarter of the season so at this point things are leveling off and we can draw some conclusions from the numbers. https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bears/bears-prove-they-have-nfls-best-defense-win-over-tampa-bay Bears defensive rankings (others are from highest to lowest i.e. #1, #2): yards/gm 4th behind Jax, Baltimore, Washington pts/gm 4th behind Jax, Washington, Baltimore INTs 2nd with 8 behind Miami with 9. Jax has 1, Bal 4, Wash 3 FF 1st with 8. Jax has 2, Wash 1, Bal 2 Sacks 1st with 18 Jax and Bal are tied 12th with 10, Wash is 27th with 7 I think there's a good argument to make that we have the best D in the league right now. We've done that with Floyd playing with a cast, Hicks ejected, Amukamara injured, and Roquan not really playing in week one.

Glad you mentioned him. I intended to included him on the list of good additions but forgot about him. Parkey was looking a little shaky during the preseason but has been steady in the regular season. Each week it seems the snapper/holder/kicker group improves their timing on kicks and he's scored on 90% of them.

Wow. Let's start at the top with Trubisky. He had time to throw and took full advantage of it dropping passes into the right location play after play. Numbers aside, he's still got room to grow but the most important aspect for me was seeing him confident in the pocket with his reads. Regardless of pass rush or not he looked like he knew where he should go with the ball on each play. With that confidence he finally showed he can "throw guys open" like on that beautiful tear-drop pass to Robinson in the endzone. Oline: They did a great job in pass protection today. Run blocking wasn't so good but it was good enough to keep the threat of runs realistic. WRs: Nobody missed Anthony Miller. Can't remember the last time we lost a starter for a game and it wasn't noticeable, especially at WR. RBs: Howard was himself today but Nagy schemed this game for Cohen and it worked to perfection. Defense was outstanding again. CBs: Game ball goes to the rookie Tolliver. I know he gave up a couple passes here and there but overall he looked like a future starter at CB. For a UDFA out there this early in the season he's progressing quickly. On the play where Winston scrambled around for 6-8 sec, Tolliver was right with his man all over the field, literally sideline to sideline and back again. Overall the coverage plan against one of the leagues best passing teams was excellent. If we can keep Callahan around for 3 years we're in a good spot with our DBs. The decision could be deciding between keeping Callahan or Amos. If so, I'll take the slot CB. LBs: I thought Trevathan and Smith played well. I was hoping to see more from Floyd but he did make a few very good plays. He'll have a game soon where he'll show up in a big way on the stat sheet. Nothing needs to be said about the league MVP. Dline: Akiem Hicks lost his mind that's not good and he had to leave the field. Bilal Nichols picked up the torch and again played well. RRH and Bullard stepped too with big plays in Hicks absence. If Pace can keep RRH around for 2-3 years after this season we're in very good shape on the Dline for a long time. Coaching: Nagy owned the Buccaneers. He had the perfect game plan on offense and called the right plays again and again. Fangio had the D ready to go. Together they made one of the darlings of the early NFL season look like a dumpster fire. Both teams are going into the bye week but the arrows are pointed in opposite directions. Ryan Pace: The depth on this roster really stood out today at CB and Dline. Big FA acquisitions Robinson, Gabriel, and Burton showed why they were brought here. The courage to bring Khalil Mack here and give him that contract...that looks like a bargain right now.

I think this is the most likely scenario.