AZ54

The only thing I've seen is how happy Ben Johnson was when they drafted Colston Loveland. When he met Loveland at Halas Hall he said "I turned on your tape yesterday and little did they (the scouts and coaches in the room) know it was just a little insight into where we were headed." That didn't look or sound at all like a consolation prize. Contrast that with some of the later round picks all the way to Monangai where he's just making matter of fact welcome to the team statements. Link is marked to start on the quote:

Not sure where to put this so it lands in this thread. With reports of Caleb struggling in OTAs there's been a lot of useless chatter that he's not playing well. I don't care for much of that from just the first 3 practices where everyone is learning new plays and timing. However, Several reporters saw Caleb throw a nice pass to DJ Moore down the sideline, what was described as easily his best pass of the day. Ben Johnson just said "you can't do that". Nobody really knows what the "that" is but IMO it does show that Ben cares more about the execution within the play versus just getting a good result. Caleb needs a lot more of that coaching to break him of his hero habits.

Soldier field?

There is the part about learning the cadence with the starting QB. Learning the blocking calls with the starting center. Learning how to partner with Thuney on combo blocks. those are just subtleties that breed familiarity and allow a player to be more focused on his opponent versus thinking too much about his assignment. I don’t think the battle is over by any means. I think it was the Oline coach who said they wanted to find a way to get Kirans confidence back. This is likely the first step in that process and they’ll see how he responds. Reporters also said Kirian was late off the snap several times on day one. Just something to watch for as the off-season moves on.

If Caleb is what we've been told he is he wouldn't be out there pushing books and making excuses for his poor play because of his coaches. I watched several players in yesterday's press conference get asked pointed questions about the previous coaching and each of them declined. Tremaine Edmunds simply said he didn't want to talk about who was here last year but he's happy to about who is here this year and what we're doing now. Waldron was horrible at his job. It seemed each week we had at least one play where 3 receivers were at the same area of the field. The play calling didn't fit the game situations too often. Seeing how discombobulated the team was run on game days it's not a surprise that Flus nor Waldron had someone assigned to "setup" film for Caleb. That's the kind of stuff Quality control coaches do or some other entry level coach. But Caleb has a lot of connections he could have found help if he wanted it. If his father was so concerned to make sure his son was going to succeed why didn't he hire some help for Caleb? Can't make a call to Lincoln Riley for a reference? No call to the former OC, who is now in Washington helping Jayden Daniels, asking for a referral? We know Caleb has Tom Brady's phone number. I'm actually 100% confident Caleb knows how to watch film and knows how to read defenses because I saw it often last year, both pre-snap and post-snap. Was he making the right decisions all the time? Absolutely not because he'd bypass the easy gain and look for the big play quite often. Or he relied on Keenan ... a lot. What I want from him is leadership. If I were his teammate I'd be wondering if he'll be talking about me in his book next year. I want him out in front of this. I want to know if he's just a fair weather guy who mopes about and makes excuses and blames other if things don't go his way or can he handle the storm, and the media heat, and lead this team out of a rut when things go wrong.

Caleb has millions of dollars and has for many years. There is nothing stopping him from hiring a former QB or two to assist him in watching film since he feels this is so challenging.

Some interesting advanced stats on Monangai plus he's very focused at OTAs.

If the reports are true and this deal has saved us $8mil in cap space for 2025 what is the plan for that money? We had $6.7mil in cap space before the deal. If Poles were satisfied with the roster build for this year he'd be trying to pull in as much cap hit as possible for next year or the year after. It isn't much to play around with and while I see lots people on Youtube saying we can now go get Hendrickson if we want him. I suppose that's true but it seems too rich to me. I suspect a different vet DE signing on a 1yr deal.

I watched a couple Colorado games he never stood out to me as an elite player. At least with Jeanty you could see him making everyone else look like they weren’t on the same level. Then again Hunter didn’t have a good QB and had poor play calling. I’ll be curious to see him play in the NFL.

I don’t think either need to be true studs. Trapillo has to be good enough to replace Jones and keep LT cap hit low for another few years. Anything more than that is upside. From initial reports he moved very well for being so tall. Jones strength is in the running game especially when on the move and Trapilo might be able to match that. if Monangai can replace Roquan and be an effective compliment to Swift that’s a win. If he can add in some pass catching he may challenge Swift for snaps. If we do end up with a good LT1 and decent RB1 we’ll be remembering this draft for a long time.

I don’t think the chatter about Hendrickson is anything more than what if speculation. I agree we can’t afford the $40m cap hit as it wrecks the future plan quite a bit. Not that we couldn’t make it work if we really wanted to. Between the draft pick and cap hit this makes no sense to me. Now if I could get them to take Edmund’s off our hands in the deal… The Thuney deal is just a matter of time.

The quote from the story it said... "at times I came in and just watched film alone, nobody told me what to watch". That does not mean at all times. Nor does it mean he never had coaches showing him what to look for in film study. Why does it compare to Jayden Daniels? Because he Daniels is alone with nobody telling him what to watch for when he views film in the early morning hours before practice. The comparison is that Jayden to my knowledge has not publicly complained about doing the extra film study alone. In this case, neither has Caleb complained. It's just his father stepping into his son's business. Many Bears players over the years have talked about how they do their own film study either at home or in the facility.

Counterpoint...lots of ex-NFL players saying to step up, be a professional, and stop blaming your coaches. As James Jones said... there were many other players in the room with him and the coaches when they were watching film. Or this is Caleb's dad trying to protect his son from accountability for all of his mistakes last year by making it appear everything was the coaches fault. Practice hours are highly regulated and most players watch film on their own. This story is going to follow Caleb all the way into training camp. If his daddy issues don't go away quickly he's not going to have a lot of trust in the locker room. https://www.si.com/nfl/bears/former-players-discredit-notion-no-one-helped-caleb-williams-watch-film Just one

I don't usually watch this stuff but I was curious to see Tyson Bagent and what he had to say about this offseason. A few things stood out. Overall it's a good enjoyable interview. Asked to pick a breakout player this year: He chose two one offense one defense: Caleb....said he's putting in the work and the coaching they are getting and the players added to the offense is absolutely going to make a big difference for him. I was surprised at his defensive choice: Gervon Dexter. Bagent said he (paraphrasing)... just works hard on everything every single day. Get an indoor stadium it'll be easier to throw for 4000yds. It's not the cold but the wind that wreaks havoc on passes.

Agreed.

This is how you respond...

Oddly I was saying all along before the draft I don't think Caleb wants to be in Chicago. Nothing I saw on video, from combine press conferences, interviews, to his pro day, showed body language that indicated he wanted to play here.

This is the offseason. Of course you can't fully judge any of our players until they are actually playing a real game but it's ridiculous to say we, and the coaches, can't learn anything about a player while they are performing drills. Until we get to the games the coaches have no choice but to evaluate them on their form, technique, assignment discipline, etc. from drills and practice. In the past we've seen other Olinemen struggle with position changes (i.e. Kyle Long) and getting their feet, stance, and punch timing right early on in the offseason. The rookie, at this point, is not having similar issues with this transition. Of course I'm basing that off other camp observers not my own but Clay Harbor used to line up next to LTs in the NFL and he knows the expectations and what "good" looks like far better than I do. For me this is a positive start for the rookie. A rookie I had low expectations for. If there is nothing to learn from these drills why then are coaches wasting their time on them?

Players were just wearing shorts and t-shirts but based on what Clay Harbor and a couple others have said about rookie minicamp Trapilo surprised them with how good his pass pro form was at LT, smooth and quick in his sets. That's it, that's about all you can get out of a rookie minicamp with no contact and no playbook. Concerns that he won't look natural at LT after playing at RT seem to be gone. Next we'll add in Kiran during the OTAs and see how he's doing but this battle looks to be off to a good start.

I can't wait for this sideline show to begin with Brian Schottenheimer as the band leader and Matt Eberflus playing second fiddle.

What catches my eye is the quicker cuts Monangai can make versus the two step change of direction we see with Roschon.

It all forces a defense to plan for many options in the game. I'm curious to see how Ben uses all these talents against the Vikings defense. If Caleb can read it quickly and get the ball into the playmakers hands these players can feast.

He’s a better player than Roschon Johnson.

Wow down to a single weak link on the Oline. I hope that’s all we’re dealing with because it will be a massive change from the jail breaks we’ve seen the last few years. FWIW our new center has the exact same issue as Braxton with bull rushes so time will tell. Hopefully the new Oline coach can help both of them fix it.

Braxton is pretty good as a run blocker. I'd say for the running game we're likely to be among the best in the league this year.