AZ54

Valid point. One elite pass rusher doesn’t win the day. The best pass rushes come from all directions even if one is not elite. They still have Gary and they got better overall. Pass rush has to be paired with coverage and that is their weakness.

All the smoke and mirrors they use at the LOS pre-snap means defenders are out of position. We have the WR talent to exploit that. We need Caleb to figure it out quickly too. Fortunately Ben Johnson is no stranger to their tricks. Being at home where our players can hear each other helps a lot too.

I watched this game breakdown by Chase Daniels. First, apologies to Luke Newman who I said missed a block that caused an early pressure in the redzone. In fact it was a slide right protection call and our buddy Braxton slid left. How do you know Braxton messed up? Because his eyes and looking right the whole time and he's the one chasing his missed block. There are a few other misses, some on Caleb especially early. My main takeaway is that on every pass play Caleb had an answer, even the blown block above was a likely TD play if given 1 more second. After watching this I feel like Ben is setting us up for success and this offense is much closer to the promised land than I thought. There are still a lot of details to get ironed out and we're not consistent enough to recover from shooting ourselves in the foot. I can see something good headed our way later this season.

So... we have a 53 man roster with no LS? Are we going to try to keep him there and just make him a game day active as long as possible? Bears do get notified if someone wants to poach him and can make the first move. https://bearswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/bears/2025/08/27/bears-updated-53-man-roster-after-moves/85853033007/

Yes it was an existing condition of some sort.

He clearly has some type of illness because Poles said he’ll be under the care of team doctors. No clue beyond that.

I expected Roschon Johnson to get cut. It's still possible if they sign someone.

RBs will depend on who goes on the practice squad. Poles has done that consistently and been able to rely on that RB with success when needed. Most likely that RB will be Wheeler. I'm pleasantly suprised to Jahdae Walker make the 53 but from day 1 when I saw his tape I liked his talent. For a guy who I think had 35 catches last year I just wasn't sure if he had the route running skills and special teams traits. He showed it all. I still think there might be some potential with WR JP Richardson who we didn't get to see much of due to injury but he seems like a good candidate for the PS. I didn't like Owens last year either and was also hoping he'd get replaced. Safety is a big need next offseason.

Me too but he’s similar to Monangai and he had conditioning issues at times in college.

Dayo’s problem IMHO is that he is weak. His arms fold up at first contact and his body always bows backwards. No core strength. He has quickness and speed but little bend and can’t marry it up with any power.

Trading an IOL was not on my Bears bingo card.

Because Newman outperformed him and might make the 53.

https://bearswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/bears/2025/08/25/bears-exploring-trade-jordan-mcfadden/85819069007/

Odd strategy for a preseason with a new QB. https://vikingswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/vikings/2025/08/22/studs-and-duds-from-the-vikings-preseason-finale-against-the-titans/85789643007/ “Well, that wasn't the best ending to the preseason. In a game that was not very good for the majority of the roster, the team now limps into the regular season on a two-game losing streak from the preseason. Of course, the majority of starters never played in the preseason, including starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who appeared in the first game but hasn't been since as the team protects him.”

I agree. The Football Scout changed his format because he now has scouting contracts with agents and others. I always have the fast forward button at the ready.

I doubt it but he might view Scott to the Vikings as a strategic advantage for week 1 if he's on the field.

Here's another one I was watching because I was bored and my feed dropped at the end of the game. Instead of watching Bagent I focused on backup Oline players. To me Amegadjie looks to have poor hand placement then has to rely on leaning on defenders. Trapilo need some refinement but I could see a future for him as our starting RT. He included two views of each play.

Slow start for the Bears but so far cuts include RB Deion Hankins and S Major Burns. Trades have started around the league. I wonder if we'll be active in swapping some of our depth pieces (i.e. Tyler Scott) for late round picks or depth at RB. I don't think we have anyone else of marginal value who won't make our roster but perhaps there could be someone among the DBs that flashed enough to help a team with a lot of injuries. Unless they are content to trade one of the backup Oline players but that seems very presumptuous given our history at that position.

I blame the whiskey. Balvenie Doublewood 12yr.

I watched this video and with his all-22 shots it makes me feel much more confident in our team. This is a kind of a long review with him mostly talking but I link my sources. He doesn't review a lot of plays per se but there are many clips where you can see the coverage was pretty good. We don't see a lot of blown assignments. The pass rush was bad as we know. Offense the Oline looked good. It was Caleb with some poor decisions which is what many here thought. Caleb can grow out of that with more experience with the scheme and more of Ben Johnson in his ear. We have 2 weeks to prepare for Minn and I'm feeling better about that game.

We're Bears fans. Of course you understand our concerns about the QB. . Edit: I should add that the execution in both 2min scenarios in the game should give us all hope. Regardless of starters/backups the organization and execution there is a good sign that things are going to be different.

5 days between games, one live padded practice on Wed, travel on Thur. In his post game presser after the Bills game he said in pre-season he just uses the same old playbook he's been using for years. I doubt he put in much more effort than that on a short week.

I think Zah goes PS. Walker is a PS lock IMO but could slide into the 53. Depends on the things on all the other stuff that's harder to assess: special teams/meeting rooms, assignment-sound, intangibles.

I simply think the Bears are too high on him to give up this early. Who else do we have as the 4th LB? Ogbon? Hippolyte is just relying on his old habits of watching the plays and then running faster than everyone else to get there. He needs to improve his ability to read plays and react sooner, then he can stand out. It obvious on film, he knows it too and said as much in his most recent press conference. In the meantime he needs to become a core special teams player. Let's coach him.

I was able to rewatch the game with a lot of slo-mo on plays. Dline just looked tired and got pushed around a lot, even Billings. In fact the whole team looked tired with little burst to anything going on until maybe the third series on the field for both offense and defense. Nonetheless there were some good things to note: Oline: Drew Dalman I thought played well, seems like a good addition, Jonah Jackson too. Darnell Wright played poorly early then settled down a bit but never looked dominant. Braxton Jones did ok, as usual had some missteps in protection but I don't recall the bad step where he gets beat early. Newman missed a couple assignments and gave up immediate pressure on a couple plays otherwise he looks good for a late round pick. Trapilo looks good enough to keep pressure on Darnell Wright. Theo Benedet got blown up a few times by Gillotte and then settled down a bit but he had a big wake up call when he first took the field. I didn't pick up on who the backup LG/RG were but Bates was in at Center. If we can fix the blown blocking assignments then overall the pass protection was just ok. Run blocking was just ok as well but this feels like the best depth we've had on Oline in a long time. Given all the bad Oline history I can definitely see the Bears keeping 10 Oline on the 53, 9 for sure. RB: Swift had two plays where I believe last year he'd have tried to get outside but instead he stuck his head down and dove forward. One was for a first down, the other just for a 3yd gain. The coaching impact there was good to see. The rental RBs looked like dudes fighting for a job somewhere but showed no outstanding traits. WRs: We're good here. QBs: I still think Caleb has a problem with big games, maybe against big name QBs, where he wants to look good and make the big plays. He was holding the ball too long early on but got going later. Love the TD to Rome where he looks outside at first then sees Rome and fires fast. Overall this was a mediocre showing from him but i still believe he'll settle in more with this offense and expectations as the season moves along. If nothing else getting so many reps against KCs defense was a great way to prep for the MNF game. I think there are some similarities to what both teams do with their front 7 although on the backend KC might use more man vs. zone by the Vikings. Bagent is worth every penny. Dline: Poor although Sweat looked like his old self early on. Nobody else looked good. LBs: Didn't even notice them other than Edwards getting beat easily by Kelce in the middle of the field. DBs: Here I felt we had sticky coverage all game long. There were some bad penalties and a couple blown assignments late. Mahomes was often forced to hold the ball longer than he wanted. If we could have mustered a pass rush to compliment things that game would have looked a lot different.