AZ54

That settles one question: Earl Watford just got released. https://www.windycitygridiron.com/2018/8/26/17784438/chicago-bears-release-offensive-lineman-earl-watford-2018-nfl-preseason

I agree we'll keep 6 WRs with Wims doing enough to force the decision to keep him around. At Oline I think we keep 9 so we can protect Coward. With Cowards inexperience, and inability to switch to LT, I think we'll end up keeping Sowell to backup LT. The flier here would be cutting Massie to go with Coward as a starter but I don't see that happening. This team has gone too a lot of effort to boost the offense this offseason and we should keep the depth needed to ensure we can rely on it all year long.

He is very good adjusting to the ball once it's in the air.

Daniels underthrew the ball to Kevin White by 10 yards. That was not the only pass that lacked velocity. On the flipside, go back to the Denver game and see the pass Trubisky made to Miller who was double covered. He put that ball in a 2ft window while on the run to his left, which is very difficult to do. Miller made a great catch too. Also against Denver Trubisky was reading the blitzes without issue, and they brought a ton of pressure from all angles while mixing up who was dropping into coverage. Trubisky consistently made the right reads into the coverage gap. Is Trubisky perfect? No, but I'll stick with the upside of the youngster versus the 10 year veteran who is already playing at his limit. We could argue about who is playing better in this offense but for me its already Trusbisky. Even if they were equal or nearly equal don't you think Trubisky deserves to be on the field given that Daniels has been in this offense for 5 years and Trubisky for 5 months?

Personally I"m disappointed I didn't get to see our first team offense play today but I'm glad the Packers didn't get to see them either. I see zero QB controversy here. Trubisky can throw the ball better than Daniels, he also makes more difficult throws while on the run. Having Daniels as our backup QB looks pretty good right now. The biggest difference from last year is that our scheme seems to give the QB options no matter who was on the field. Wims showed good speed and quickness today, more than I thought he had. We all knew he had the hands but he was reported to be struggling to learn the offense. If you didn't see someone say it outright, it was obvious in the last few weeks because Marlon Brown has been ahead of him until now. When we start putting down the last few roster spots we haven't really had difficult decisions for a long time. I think we have to find a way to keep both Coward and Wims around. Against KCs 1st string defense Coward was mostly invisible, in a positive way, until he gave up that sack to Kpassa. Considering his limited experience at OT his future looks bright. I can't see any way some other team wouldn't take him off waivers or our practice squad if he made it that far.

There are enough rumors out there that this possibility is not completely dead. I'm not saying it's likely, but for some reason it does appear the Raiders aren't as enamored with Mack as most people think they should be. Gruden won his Superbowl with a dominant interior DT leading the pass rush but, on the flip side, his new DC says that Mack is a cornerstone type player you want to build around. I still think this is all negotiating smoke on the part of the Raiders but it's clear Gruden wants "his players" on the roster and perhaps something about Mack or his contract demands has rubbed him the wrong way. When looking at the numbers Oakland has just $5mil in cap space right now but that includes Macks 2018 salary of $13.6 mil. Next year they have $47mil in cap space so it's hard to see why they can't, or wouldn't want to fit in Mack's new contract.

...and Trestman would have given him a month off. Nagy finds a middle ground and says he's "hour to hour".

Nothing unusual here. Extended contract holdout and soft tissue injury. It's not serious but it seriously complicates his chances of being a starter in week 1 and I doubt he'll play this weekend. I think we'll see Kwiatkoski as the starter against GB, perhaps with Roquan subbed in for 3rd and long situations. https://www.chicagobears.com/news/smith-exits-practice-for-precautionary-reasons

I'm with you here, go for a comp pick.

First and foremost I saw something I hadn't seen all last year and that was an NFL offense in a Bears uniform. Everyone seems to be focused on the mistakes, and there were too many, but still against the Broncos defense our offense belonged on the field. I especially liked how much pressure the Broncos brought on many plays. They mixed up all sorts of pressure packages and coverages and this was excellent for our offense to learn against. For the majority of the plays Trubisky looked like he was in command of things and comfortable in where he should go with the ball. Nothing showed that more than the play where they blitzed heavy off the right side and the Oline picked it up and Trubisky calmly and quickly hit Burton on an in cut 15 yards down field. There was an easy underneath option for Trubisky, maybe it was Cohen, but he knew he had something better if he just waited another second. I didn't expect we'd see that maturity in a new offense with so many new players in just the 3rd preseason game. Much work remains to be done but IMO this was a big step forward for the unit as a whole and gives them some solid ground to build off of. See the first play in these highlights: https://www.chicagobears.com/video/highlights-bears-vs-broncos Oline. Kyle Long and Whitehair still have to get blocking assignments down. Long does not look like the player he was two years ago but he's progressing. Again, the looks Denver provided on blitzes will help them when they review the film. Daniels looked ok this game. I tried to focus on him and Coward in the 2nd half. I don't see much negative in Daniel's play and maybe some things he can improve upon. Likewise with Coward who held up well against the backups and can mirror pass rushers far better than Massie. I'm not sure how well he can anchor against starting level players but his arrow is still pointing upward and he plays with a bit of a bad attitude which I like. His potential might put him on the 53, but his inexperience might keep him off it. WRs: Miller is the real deal. Nobody is really talking about Kevin White but for the first time this year I saw him return as a football player. He was aggressive coming back for the deep pass that led to a PI call. You don't go up for the ball like that if you are worried about getting hurt. On several short routes he ran with confidence into traffic. RBs: Tarik Cohen is a bit lost in this offense still. They've put a lot on his plate and he still has a lot to learn. DTs: Between RRH, Bullard, and Nichols I see three backup players. Each had their moments of good and moments of bad so expect a rotation of players here until someone settles into a starting role. Goldman was moving well with his lighter frame and was disruptive up the middle on several plays. We need to sign him long term. OLBs: I think Acho is much better than people give him credit for. He's not a star, so don't get your knickers in a twist, but he's become a good OLB for us. I think I saw the play where Floyd was injured. It didn't look like much but you never know. Between Kylie Fitts, Irving, and now Edebali there's not much to write about. Edebali's sack was when he got to the edge quickly but beyond that there isn't much to his game and he doesn't have much length to hold off blockers. Irving too looks like a 1-trick pony needing to win with speed or nada, but I see more versatility in his game than Edebali's. Fitt's did hold up well on several run plays but his pass rush was not very creative, just straight into the OT and were easily handled. Fitts is the most fluid of the 3 when dropping into coverage. If I'm choosing two of the three it remains Irving and Fitts. DBs: Didn't miss Cooper at all, and that's not to say Doran Grant looked good. Grant played so conservative giving up lots of ground but at least his fundamentals on tackling were more sound than Cooper. In the 2nd half It was easy to see the potential of Joseph and Tolliver. Joseph lacks deep speed but was more physical than I expected him to be, and showed some good quickness when driving on out cuts. Tolliver looks like he has starter potential but was giving up too many plays. Tolliver had one outstanding tackle in run defense stopping the RB cold and putting him on the ground. I'm done with Crevon LeBlanc. Stupid plays like catching a punt at the 5yd line and athletically he just doesn't match up well as a DB. If we're keeping 5 CBs Amukamara, Fuller, Callahan, and ?, ?. Watch who plays in the 2nd half next week, and who doesn't. LBs: I know Roquan is penciled in by many to be our starter but Kwiatkoski is playing well and is much better in coverage than last year. Iggy moves well too in coverage. Trevathan hinted that 3 ILBs could see the field in some packages and I can see that. I saw one defensive play where we had just two down linemen so I'd say we'll see all 3 at times.

We'll know a lot more tonight. At this point we're almost a month into the camp/preseason so I hope a lot of the basics are getting habitual for Coward. More importantly he's had two games' experience and film study to learn from and now two days of practice against some good Dline players in Denver. He should be much more confident in his ability which will slow things down on the field.

I finally got to watch the game, at least the first half and focused on Coward. He definitely moves much better than Massie and his power was evident on more than one run block. He still looks tentative in his kick step and maybe his hand use so he's clearly thinking his way through things. With experience that should smooth out but for now he's just a better athlete than Massie so he can recover quicker from mis-steps.

I haven't yet seen the Bengals game but Rashad Coward is getting a lot of positive reviews for his play at RT. Many are saying he's doing well enough, given his very limited experience, that he could be the replacement for Massie at RT next year. I haven't seen the Bengals game yet although there is a replay at 7am. Anyone here take notice of Coward and how he played this past weekend? It sounds as if he had a ton of snaps. If true it would appear the coaches are definitely giving him a chance to learn the position and perhaps stick on the final roster. He's someone to keep an eye on as we get reports back from practices in Denver and then the game.

No, and that's why Pace agreed to that stuff early on in the process.

I see nothing in there about off the field or non-football related guarantees. Roquan has the protections he sought against football related suspensions but that was reportedly agreed to weeks ago. I don't see where the bar moved much, if at all, over the last three weeks.

We'll never know but the fact is shortly after Jalen Ramsey and Dante Fowler were suspended for non-football stuff the Roquan Smith deal was complete. Unless you count Fowler fighting his defensive teammate over and over again as a football act. I was going to post something yesterday that, if anything, that incident should just make Pace further dig in his heels. Then I logged in and saw the rumor that Roquan had agreed to terms. I'm sure there are multiple facets to this as there always are in negotiations. For one, with just 3 weeks left in the preseason it is now or never if Roquan wants to be a starter. I'll just say that I don't believe Fowler and Ramsey helped Roquan in his contract dispute over non-football behavior not affecting his salary guarantee. When you look toward next year's negotiations all GMs are going to keep that in mind as well when CAA comes calling. Based on history we know a few more NFL players will surely provide more fodder during the season and next offseason.

It's unusual for Jeffrey to be injured before the season starts.

Cunningham is injured but I don't know how serious it is. We still have a lot of practices to get through, not to menton preseason games. I think the ways we are going to use Cohen is being kept under wraps as well so he'll be very limited. Add in that Smoke Mizzell didn't look good in the first two games so why not bring in Davis who already knows the offense?

It's his versatility that makes him an intriguing addition to the offense. From RB, to FB, to h-back or U-TE there's nothing great but a lot of good. If he can handle the special teams roles well then there's a lot of value in having someone so like that at the bottom of the roster.

CAA had 5 of the top 10 or 12 draft picks. Isn't that collusion on their part since almost all of them held out or where among the last to sign? Pace and the Bears should just hold firm.

It seems every year the 3rd string QB looks good. They have the biggest throwing lanes and the most open WRs. FWIW last year the 3rd string QB at this time was Trubisky. Besides him we've had favorable reviews come through this board on QBs like Fales, Barkley, and others against preseason fodder and our hopes were set that they could be viable #2's. It never happens. In this case Bray has a very weak arm.

I haven't seen the game and since NFL Network won't show a replay until Wed I won't even waste my time. From reading the comments and articles with a lot of "here we go again" it seems surprising to me. Nagy has a very long camp and preseason in which to evaluate players. On offense he has been rotating almost all players through with the one's. Or at least Trubisky is throwing to everybody. As we headed toward this last game that started to shift and Trubisky was throwing more to 1's and 2's. Nonetheless we're a whopping 3 weeks into this team learning a new offense and many expected they'd come out and play well. Why? They've barely put together two good practices on offense in camp. There is a lot to this offense with read options (not RPO's) on WR routes based on coverages. It's going to take some time for Trubisky and Co. to get on the same page. Add in that he's been working with "everyone" which must be about 20 different receivers when you consider all the RBs, WRs, and TE's in camp. Over the next couple weeks the first string offense will start taking shape, including the Oline starters, and they can work on fine tuning the details. In the meantime Nagy has been able to evaluate many of the depth players against his starters. For a coach who insists he's looking for a diamond in the rough he using the extra time in camp this year wisely IMO. I don't think we need to go further than Rashad Coward and all the positive comments on him to see the benefits of this. I'm not as critical, or worried, about Kevin White's performance as others are. After 3 straight years being seriously injured he has to get over the mental hurdle of surviving a real tackle football game without being injured. Until he puts that behind him, if he can, we won't see him making those highlight reel plays that he had in college. Anyone who has played as a receiver knows that to truly focus on the ball in the air you need to trust your body to take on the physical hits that are coming. Plus, despite the lack of catches he did find his way open against a good starting NFL CB. I expect he came out of this game with some newfound confidence and we'll see what he does with it. Even then this process will take the entire preseason and part of regular season but I think each week we'll get more and more glimpses that the confidence is returning. I really want to see Daniels play but from all I've read, and highlights I've seen, I strongly suspect that he ends up our starting Center in week 1. Of course I have zero issues that the coaches are making him earn that. Whitehair IMO has never looked fully comfortable there and sliding him back to LG would be good for us and him. If Daniels can earn the starting C spot then we've got Whitehair and Kush as backup OCs. That's not bad at all and I still think as we get closer to the regular season we can start considering trading Grasu. It might be a bit early to make a trade but after next week's game if the right offer comes along? Trading him early I wouldn't bite on a conditional 7th Rd pick.

I have no problem trading Roquan Smith for Mack.

It is more pertinent everyday he holds out. I don't know what the hold up is about but at this point I don't even care anymore. If he wanted to be here he'd have been here, even if it meant negotiating face to face with the Bears. If I were in Pace's shoes I'd be silent with my best and final offer already on the table. However, soon that can start turning into saving money and you just look at your losses and write them off and learn from them. In the meantime I''m good with no-Kwiat and Trevathan. I like Iggy too and I think he can turn into a pretty good backup ILB for us now, and a starter down the road, so I look forward to seeing him play in the preseason.