AZ54

A couple weeks in and getting ready for our first preseason game. Trying to summarize what I've read about the team so far. Offense: QB: Cutler no INTs or fumbles to date. One would think the addiction withdrawal symptoms would take over sooner than later causing a couple turnovers. Clausen hasn't done much but his reps have been limited so far and he'll get his best practice during the preseason games. Not sure what is going on with Fales but Carden is not an NFL QB. Will we keep two QBs or three? Oline: Bushrod is still Bushrod but on the other side of the line Mills has struggled often in camp. Leno has shown some flashes as a backup but coaches appear to be keeping him locked into learning the left side. That makes me wonder if Long or Bushrod is the backup RT? Regardless, RT will be an issue again this season. The interior looks good, Slauson has been a beast in camp, virtually unbeatable and Long is going to be usual self. Montgomery will start for us at C this season but given his experience in the offense and with solid help on either side of him we should be ok here. Backup positions you have to think Grasu, who is starting to play better, has one locked down. The other two spots appear to be Leno and Ducasse but I suspect Ola is in the mix too if for no other reason his versatility. Mills performance will likely determine what we do here among the backups. RB: Forte plus who? Right now Rodgers appears to be the #2 RB. We have to believe Langford will make the roster. If we are keeping a 4th RB that leaves Carey fighting against Daniel Thomas who is much bigger at 230lbs, and Senorise Perry who is faster and plays better on special teams. Right now it appears Carey won't make the final roster. TE: Bennett plus who? Bennett has looked like an elite TE this camp. Haven't heard much of anything about players behind him which is concerning. WR: White hasn't hit the field but we know he'll be there for the regular season. Jeffrey has been outstanding in camp as has Royal. Marquess Wilson has been ok but I see reports of him still running wrong routes or dropping catchable passes. Preseason games will be a big factor for Wilson because he stumbled last season when he finally got on field. Behind the top 4 are Mariani,who has done well as a WR and has the special teams skills, and Bellamy. Do we keep 5 or 6 WRs? Defense OLB: Depth is showing up here. Allen is playing well, Acho, and of course McPhee. Houston also does not appear to be having any issues coming off his injury and has made a lot of plays in camp. Those appear to be the top 4 and it's possible we see all four get snaps in a rotation when the regular season starts. Bass has been looking much better in pass rush and seems be headed for the final roster. The surprise here is UDFA Kyle Woestmann. He seems destined for the practice squad but apparently will be on the bubble of the final cuts. That pushes Willie Young to no-man's land. Willie is still not ready to play so barring injury to someone else he's going to get cut or we trade him. ILB: SMC continues to improve but preseason games are important for him to maintain momentum. He hasn't done anything to lose his starting spot yet. Jones and SMC have been a good blitz combo and Jones has excelled in coverage. Foster is challenging SMC but hasn't quite made the leap yet. Bostic has finally made it to the practice field but has a lot of catching up to do. Right now it appears these are the final 4 ILB. Dline: I see starters Ferguson, Goldman, Ratliff. Jenkins seems like he'll have a roster spot but it's far from certain. After him I don't know. I think Sutton will be gone as he can't hold the point of attack and isn't offering much on pass rush. That means last year's 3rd and 4th Rd picks may be gone (and both were guys I liked ). Cornelius Washington is interesting here. He bulked up and at DE is occasionally able to get inside with a good pash rush but OTOH he's getting pushed around on running plays. It's a transition for him and would likely take another year for him to learn this new role. Can he contribute enough on special teams to make the final roster? I don't know if we keep 5 or 6 Dline. Brandon Dunn has done some good things as well as David Carter who was a late signing. UDFA Williams has been stout at NT on occasion and it seems like he'll end up on the practice squad. Lot of competition behind the top 3, definitely something to watch on Thur. CB: Some surprises here. Fuller seems locked in as one starter on the outside. Opposite him it has been either McMannis, and lately Porter. Porter just went out with a minor hamstring pull. Ball can't stay on the field and when he is there he hasn't been impressive. Jennings appears to have the NB job but I haven't seen anything good or bad about him so far. Terrance Mitchell has turned a lot of heads in camp, not sure if he's playing the slot behind Jennings but he could be the heir apparent there, maybe after a year on the practice squad. Overall it appears we have better depth here than expected but it's still up in the air how good our top 2 CBs will be in the new scheme especially if we have to blitz to get pressure. S: Rolle hasn't looked good. He's a starter along with Vereen, who has been playing better this camp versus last year but I can't expect much from Vereen until I see it. There is no doubt the coaches want Rolle back there for his leadership but if you evaluate their physical play on the field I have to think Mundy is challenging him. If a change is made putting Mundy as starter I think coaches would make it later in the preseason once players are more comfortable with the new scheme (i.e. less of a need for Rolle's leadership on the field). Amos is still learning on the job he'll be a backup this season. The front 7 need to carry the load or these guys will get exposed.

It appears this is nothing more than a move to help special teams. This guy isn't big enough to be a LB nor is he good enough in space to play DB in coverage. One of our primary special teams players, McMannis has looked very good at CB so he might be taking a step back from some special teams roles. Maybe not exclusively but if he's playing on defense he might not thrown out there on every coverage unit. Another key piece from last year's coverage units, Cornelius Washington, is getting pushed around at his new DE position. Although he has shown some good things in pass rush, some other Dline players are challenging him for a roster spot. As far as Groy, reportedly he's struggled in pass protection this camp. It sounds like ahead of Groy we have Leno, Ducasse, Grasu, and Ola (that's assuming the starters are Bushrod, Slaus, Montgomery, Long, Mills). Fabuluje appears destined for the practice squad. Nobody is talking about how Pace managed to trade an OG who likely wouldn't make the roster for a 6th Rd pick from the Patriots. That's pretty good value for a guy who was likely to get cut and if Wells doesn't make the team we haven't lost anything. Patriots have to be concerned about their Oline depth or they'd have waited for more camp cuts and given up nobody.

He's not going out without a fight... http://www.scout.com/nfl/bears/story/15726...notebook-day-10 Yet the defensive play of the day came from McClellin against a counter trey. McCllelin lined up across from RG Kye Long, who pulled left at the snap to serve as the lead blocker. McClellin followed Long across the play and crashed into the gap, knocking Long to his knees before making a play on the ball carrier. It was a highly impressive play by McClellin who, along with Jones, is growing into his new role

When was the last time we had viable options when our #2 WR went down? At this point in camp there are reports that Wilson is looking good (not great) so he should be a little more functional as a 3rd WR than he was last year. Then there is Mariani who is also playing well as a WR in camp. Jeffrey so far is the star, virtually uncoverable according to some reports, and that's great to hear. Royal has also done very well so far. Add in Bennett too with Gase showing he's willing to split him out wide this year.

There is that Eddie Goldman factor to keep in mind.

In all his years in Chicago Cutler has had to practice against the Lovie 2 and then for two years again Mel Tucker's toothless version of the Lovie 2. Given his history I won't make a prediction about how much better Cutler will be at protecting the football but I will say that practicing against Fangio's D this camp is giving him the most variety in defensive looks/schemes that he's ever seen in camp. I can't see this hurting Cutler at all, nor the rest of the offense. http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...57-21e1bad607a0 "They got after us today," said quarterback Jay Cutler. "They beat us in about every period we had. [Fangio] has done a good job of mixing it up. He's not afraid to drop eight or to bring eight. He throws a lot of different things at you—three-down, four-down, nickel, dime. He's got an extensive package, so it makes you think."

I think CB will be the weak link on this defense. I agree there is some potential but I think right now the best we can hope for is that they are average. Right now Ball looks like a $3mil mistake but I hope he turns it around. I can't blame Pace for the 1yr signing, these coaches had no idea what they had on the roster and we needed some assurance. I'm actually hoping to see some pass rush take the pressure off these guys. I like what I hear so far out of camp on McPhee, Ratliff, Acho, Bass, and to a lesser extent on pass rush Houston. Plus I think Jared Allen will play very well for us in a more limited role. Add in CWash as a potential interior pass rusher (I don't see him holding up against the run in this first year inside) and among all the options we might be able to cobble up a good NASCAR package that gets good pressure on 3rd and long.

We're going to know a little bit more tomorrow. Days off from practice like today are used by coaches to stop and assess where players are at and if they want to make changes. We'll see if there are reports of Foster getting more time with the 1's. I doubt we'll see much change at this point. The coaches obviously felt SMC the better player coming out of OTAs or they wouldn't have had him out there calling plays with the 1st team to start camp. Assuming he's still improving I'd expect them to continue to give him a chance to succeed. The fact we are hitting in camp is good for SMC who needs that practice and coaching. I do expect Jones to be one of our starters at ILB. I don't know how much weight he added this offseason but he's bigger than he was last year and apparently has no loss in speed or mobility on coverage. Bostic on the other hand is completely on the outside looking in and players like Lattimore, who is decent on special teams, are trying to take advantage of that opening.

I wish he'd have added more to that than the fact SMC is calling plays. I went back and read a bit on Fangio's scheme: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/01/22/dur...fensive-scheme/ http://beargoggleson.com/2015/01/21/vic-fa...fensive-scheme/ From an athletic standpoint SMC has the edge over Foster and it's likely why they want to see what he can do first. I'm sure Foster is better right now as a run defender. Not sure he is better in coverage than SMC though both need to improve. The only thing I've seen commented on frequently is that SMC has been very disruptive in the backfield either on blitzes or getting into gaps quickly on run fits. This competition won't be over any time soon.

The only thing that comes to mind on this, aside from a stress fracture, is shin splints. That's a common injury runners get and it takes some time to heal especially if it's gone to the point where there are micro-fractures in the shin. Since we know there is no issue with him riding a bike, or exercising in the pool this seems like a reasonable guess. http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/shin-splints http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/242169.php

How long before this guy gets reps with the 1st team at RT? Mills by all accounts has not looked good so far while Leno has seemingly played well when he's gotten a shot at LT (when Bushrod had a day off Sat). I think this coaching staff is far from settled on who our top 5 Oline are and I'm not sure I'd move Long out to RT as everyone else wants to do. We have Montgomery (a career backup C) or Grasu (a rookie) in the middle and I'd much rather have either Center covered by Slauson/Long than Slauson/Ola/Groy/Ducasse. We can help someone like Leno/Mills at RT with Bennett or just have the RBs chip that way too. No matter what we might think nobody really knows how well Long would play at RT and I'd rather have one weakness than two.

Jeremy Stoltz ‏@BearReport 54m54 minutes ago It's borderline live contact at #Bears practice today. Running backs brought to the ground on nearly every snap. Huge change

I agree 100% that scheme and coaching will make a big positive impact. I'm not so sure it will translate to improving basic fundamental deficiencies some players have. Bostic consistently over-ran plays and in coverage was often just turning the wrong way. He just never seemed to understand how to keep leverage on plays or players. SMC is in the same boat but with some different things to work on. It's the same with guys like Vereen, Sutton, Ferguson, Carey but they only had 1 season so far and there is more likely upside to their skills if the scheme and coaching is better. Houston is a much better fit at OLB in this scheme than he was at DT last year.

It will be interesting to see if we make a move here. Coaches have seen everyone now and after hitting for a couple days are getting an idea of what backups like Sutton and Jenkins can do.

http://www.scout.com/nfl/bears/story/15692...-succeed-at-ilb "Fox is correct, McClellin has the athletic ability to play ILB in defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s 3-4 system. With the pads on for the first time in camp today, McClellin looked explosive and fast. He wasn’t shying away from contact and was filling gaps with aggression. In addition, he’s been very effective as an inside blitzer, causing numerous pressures today during team drills." -------------------------------- I'm sure we'll be hearing more about SMC soon as this battle for ILB jobs is wide open and we'll see what develops over the next two weeks. Bostic is back in the mix so seeing who is running with 1's when they head into week 2 of camp will be telling. All this is new on defense so like everyone else I'm sure SMC still has a lot of room to grow in this new role but, if nothing else, at least for the first time it appears he is playing in the right position in the right defense. Hit the link for more info...

Jay Cutler is now the 10th highest paid QB in the league. Clearly Peyton Manning, and especially Tom Brady (at just $9mil/yr) are below market value. http://overthecap.com/position/quarterback

We have players hitting players in training camp and I couldn't be happier. We'll have to see the results but after a decade or so of watching lousy tackling and less than physical play in the first few games of the regular season because Lovie and Trestman didn't like hitting in camp this is very welcome news. We have already had one fight and they weren't even in pads. So while I'm not promoting fights I am promoting the fact that you need to work hard to beat the guy on the other side of the line and that means taking it right up to the limit. There is only one way to test that limit. I can't wait to hear how the pads were popping in practice today. While he has casually dismissed this as part of camp I'm sure Fox is working to set the tone early in camp on how he wants his team to play and he'll reel it back in as needed later when guys are wearing down. Plus our GM is right there with him saying you can't find out anything about how tough a player is until they start hitting. Players have received the message. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...0731-story.html

Thanks for fixing the link. Great article on Pace with good insight into how he is running the organization. While it sounds like he's able to capture the human element to running an organization I like the fact that he hasn't lost sight of the accountability aspect. Accountability side isn't covered much in that article but it's in his words every time he has a press conference. I think accountability is, in part, where Trestman failed. With Trestman there was a whole lot of nothing nothing nothing then something big like a suspension of Martellus Bennett from camp for several days. Ultimately it will be talent evaluation where he succeeds or fails but he at least knows he must have the scouting side of the organization in lock step with the coaching side. I like his first draft and his first foray into FA which wasn't spectacular by any means but also didn't put the team into a bad spot with the cap in future years. No desperation here.

Supposedly day to day on White. The coaches said he needed a month off to let his shin heal and that they would bring him along slowly to build up his conditioning before putting on the practice field. If that's true he'll be running on the sideline today. If he's not running then it's a much bigger concern.

Here's the appeal decision, all 20 pages of it. http://static.nfl.com/static/content/publi...00000504265.pdf Brady is a jackass and a prima donna who is surrounded by those who would suck up and coverup for him (hello Mr. Kraft). After reading this I have zero respect (wasn't a big drop anyway) for him and the entire Patriots organization. I hope he goes to court so we can hear all the witnesses. He refused to bring the two Patriots employees who are now indefinitely suspended from their jobs to the appeals hearing because, despite their direct involvement with the game-day footballs and Brady-signed gifts given to "The Deflator", apparently their testimony isn't relevant to what happened and not needed to clear Brady of involvement. They did nothing wrong but are suspended by Mr. Kraft, a brave move by a cowardly owner. Mr. McNally (aka The Deflator) made at least one statement "I haven't gone to ESPN yet" that may indicate we haven't heard that last of his story.

On the Bears website is a 3-part discussion with Pace about the upcoming season. I think it's worth listening to as he gives his insights on shaping the roster. A couple things caught my attention: http://www.chicagobears.com/multimedia/vid...da-806eb0d2fc1b 1) He wants to see physical players on this team. You better not shy away from contact if you want to make this roster and he expects to see that on display in camp. I've never been to a training camp practice but it soundsl like there will be more contact than we've seen in years past with Trestman. 2) He knows this roster has some significant gaps and he's still looking for players to add. Of course that's a standard answer from any GM but Pace indicates he has a couple roster positions he knows need attention but left out specifics. 3) Adrian Amos played well at Safety in OTAs and coaches and staff were pleased (he had most recently played CB in college so there was concern how he'd handle the transition back to safety). When you are rebuilding as we are at nearly over level of the defense this is encouraging news. I wasn't happy with how Brock Vereen played last season but being a rookie I hope he improves. Having some good competition for the backup role at FS behind Rolle is sorely needed.

Yes, I got the wrong link too. I don't even like Potash's top 5. 1) Kyle Long is far from one of my top people to watch perform in camp. I think the battle for our starting Center position is more important to our future Oline success than Kyle Long. 2) Neither is Martellus Bennett although I suspect he knows he won't get away with pushing around his new OC and HC as he did with Trestman before he eventually took it too far and got himself suspended from camp. Desperately seeking $$$ from the new GM he will be out to impress early and often this season. 3) SMC definitely is one to watch, but really it's the competition for both ILB positions. 4) Potash lists Jared Allen as one to watch. However, we have already been told Allen is a part-time player and I think in this role he'll do well for us and will likely be used on passing downs. I'm more curious who ends up earning the rest of the snaps on that side, and how well they are playing. Is it Houston? Acho? Depth at OLB is a concern for this roster. 5) John Bostic....part of the battle for ILB and I'm not optimistic about him. More important than Bostic's status is who ends up at the CB spot opposite Fuller. We spent $3mil on Alan Ball and he hasn't been healthy enough to do anything all offseason. We don't even know if he's ready to practice when camp starts. I don't even know what his injury was/is. Rarely does a $3mil acquisition in the offseason fly under the radar that well and that's not exactly the warm fuzzy feeling you want after spending that money.

I watched a lot of Carey and Rodgers in college. I haven't seen much of either in the NFL but my preference is to see Carey win the job. He's a tougher inside runner and neither of these players has outside speed so there isn't much difference outside the tackles. Carey certainly has to improve his pass protection to stick around. One thing I hope is that Carey gets enough carries to show what he can do. He was never a flashy big play guy, he's one of those 20+ carry guys who grinds and grinds then starts hitting 10, 15, 20 yd plays as the D gets tired. You wouldn't expect that given his smaller stature. While I'd like to see him win the job, Langford is not a given to be our 2nd RB early on. He was reportedly a good pass blocker in college but he has a similar learning curve for pass protection in this new offense so we may want to be patient in the preseason. For sure his speed will stand out among our RBs and I look forward to seeing him on the field.

No matter what he does this year there's no way I'd pay Forte $10mil next year. You give that money to Alshon Jeffrey and Kyle Long who are entering the prime of their careers. That doesn't mean I don't want Forte around, but not anywhere close to that price.

Character was clearly a factor in our draft picks.