AZ54

I understood your joke there and it would be nice if others could for once laugh a bit even as you were willing to mock yourself.

The coaches are making decisions based on the preseason and training camp. I don't see people on the board putting us in the Superbowl. I just see us talking about who is performing well in preseason games as well as discussing differences we see in the new coaches and scheme. Vanilla schemes allow coaches and fans to evaluate individual performances. While we all know it's early, we can compare what we have seen so far from this rookie class to what we've seen from past rookie classes in training camp and the first two preseason games. That's valid and many of these rookies are playing well enough to show they belong on the field. We haven't seen a lot of that in recent rookie groups in their first couple preseason games, certainly not from this many draft picks. It is also fair to evaluate the decisiveness of the new GM and coaches. Emery, Trestman, and Kromer were not hesitant to trade Carimi despite knowing the need to overhaul the oline. They weren't hanging onto Webb as our starter for too long either without trying another player. I think it's fair to say they weren't sure how Mills would play against a first string defense but one game later after they watched the film they've forced Webb to take a huge pay cut. Change is in the air and it is largely centered around what has been our achilles heel for the last few seasons. I see it happening as a result of positive results so it's not just change for the sake of changing. Long outperformed Brown at RG in game 1 and certainly in game 2. Mills outperformed Webb at RT. It's relevant because all were preseason comparisons. It's a good start and I'm ready to see more.

Without stating it publicly there isn't a much clearer way to state that Mills is our starting RT.

I agree with Edwards being a much better option than Blanchard who hasn't impressed me in the preseason. McCown hasn't impressed either. Neither has Cutler.

Right after I post that I don't know that Edwards would be interested in a 2wk tryout he signs with us: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap100000023...h-chicago-bears

Blanchard is not on IR and wasn't cut so it's clear this is essentially a two game exhibition for Palmer for the rest of the league. Not sure it mattered much who we picked up but do players like Edwards really want to come in and work for just two weeks?

I'm going to disagree here because it takes some solid brass to put your star QB behind two rookies side-by-side against a team that has a new head coach with plenty of players, 1st stringers, etc. fighting for jobs and starting roles. These days the preseason isn't what it used to be when teams didn't blitz. On top of that we had a QB, RB, and WR learning a totally different offense so hot reads and other blitz pickups were not likely to be done right. off to the OP topic... Yes, I see the difference. I see coaches who aren't afraid to state the facts. Need to learn to play special teams and tackle players? We all hear it. Need to learn to read defenses and not throw INTs? Need to learn to catch the ball in traffic? Whatever it is this coaching staff is articulate in laying it out and that's to the media and they do it in non-degrading way. I have no reason to doubt players are not getting very specific coaching on their weaknesses. We had some of this with Lovie's staff...Marinelli, Toub, Hoke (very happy we kept him and more on that later) but there is a much quicker sense of accountability with the new coaches. Accountability only goes so far unless you have a valid replacement. What is clear is these coaches can develop those replacements. Where I've seen significant improvement: Coach Groh WR Anderson ... is he ready to replace Earl Bennett? Coach Hoke.. Peanut and Jennings hit the Pro Bowl last year for starters but behind them we have CB Frey ...anyone miss Hayden? CB Zach Bowman crazy I know but he is actually covering WRs and defending passes. Didn't see that in his first go-round with the team. Coach Kromer Plenty of threads talking about the rookies. We also have to consider Brown who seems to be developing into a solid backup player and might just be a year away from starting at LG. Coach Phair DE Wootton who is poised to make everyone forget how to spell Idonije DE McClellin who seems to handle blocks better and has definitely improved his pass rush moves. Somebody will point out that I've mentioned a couple of Lovie's guys but yes, that's the point. These coaches were targeted for retention early by the new staff and it points to what they want in their position coaches. I know these coaches can't make every player good and we can use Webb as exhibit #1. Plus it is still early but so far I do think they are better teachers overall and the probability of developing more young players has gone up significantly IMO. What we haven't seen yet is can they game plan and when caught off guard (it will happen in the NFL) can they adapt within the game to what the opponent is doing. OTOH Trestman isn't giving out any clues either so nobody has really seen our offense yet. http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bears/post...-marshall-focus "We were on a short field, and we were limited in some of the plays we wanted to call in the first 15. We really limited ourselves," Bears coach Marc Trestman said. "We knew going in that if we had as many red zone opportunities that we had, we were gonna have to run the ball because we didn't go in with the normal number of plays necessary or that we would want to use in a preseason game. So we were left to third-down runs, and doing other things to try to split a defense without exposing or using much of our red zone offense. As I look back, you always want to be able to score touchdowns there. We tried to do it. We really didn't do it with a full complement of plays."

Let's not get ahead of ourselves, after all, he's only started 5 games at OG. I type that with a big smile on my face. When was the last time we had our OG block his man backwards for 5 yards behind the LOS? ...and on a goal line play no less. https://twitter.com/PFF_Sam/status/368417643369213952 I understand that won't always happen but happening sometimes is a heck of a lot better than never, and long way from what we've endured the last few years.

The day we drafted him I said he had my favorite attribute for linebackers: He's violent. He might do to short crossing routes what Jonas Salk did to Polio.

Haven't seen the game yet. Reading the play by play was interesting: Run right, run right, pass right, run right, run right, pass right, run right. For sure the coaches wanted plenty of film on the rookies to evaluate. The fact Cutler force fed BMarsh and Forte could have also been part of the plan. I know I'd like to see everyone involved but how much of our offense are we going to reveal in preseason? I'd love for the Bengals to think all Cutler will do in game 1 is throw to Marshall like last year and then watch as he spreads the ball everywhere else.

I agree on both points. You have to laugh when announcers will say a team has a great run defense because teams only average xxx yards per game yet they forget to mention their pass defense is so bad nobody wastes time trying to run against them.

1) Charles Tillman has played special teams for his entire career so I don't see a problem with the expectation. Of course Tillman isn't always on coverage but he contributes. 2) On top of that, Trestman basically told Wilson he had shown enough as a WR to be on the active roster but could make it a lock if he improved on special teams. That also means, if Wilson were to make the final cut, that the coach would also like to have him active on game days. If I'm looking for job in the NFL I want to make the coaches decision to keep me around an easy one, and the decision to cut Weems an easy one. I'd appreciate his honesty and be working hard to build upon that. 3) The Bears have consistently had one of the top specials teams over Lovie's tenure. I'm glad they continue that emphasis with the new coaches. With one of the league's worst offenses, special teams and defense are how we win games. No reason to change that now as we seemingly prepare to start the season with two rookies as starters on the Oline. Hopefully by mid-season the offense is contributing equally as well. Having said all that I think Earl Bennett is going to make this decision for Trestman. Earl can't get back to practice yet and that's a very troubling sign. I do expect him back before the start of the season and I expect him to contribute but his injury history is not going away. For a guy who makes his $$$ working the inside routes we have to expect he'll take some more hard shots. Keeping Weems as a backup WR is not a good option over Wilson based on what I've seen.

Webb showing up here is not a surprise but the line on Williams is. Either the injury is more serious than we've been led to believe or our young LBs are playing that well. I find it hard to see that much confidence in the rookies after just one game. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap100000022...s-on-nfl-bubble Just like two of the players above, Webb plays for a first-time NFL head coach. And new bosses want new players. Webb has lived off his potential for a while, but his potential slip out of the starting lineup could take him off the roster. Another potential surprise in Chicago: Keep an eye on linebacker D.J. Williams if he can't get healthy.

Right now I think Webb is on the hot seat. Kromer said today that "if Webb makes our top 8 he has to be capable of playing two positions". To be fair Kromer and Trestman have been very non-committal on most of the players. In fact I was surprised to hear Trestman's comments about Britton likely being part of the top 8 a week ago. There is no doubt that Webb is sliding in the plans. Can he recover? Don't know but coaches are looking forward to getting Jonathan Scott back. Scott's health and how Britton plays this week likely determine Webb's future. I think Mills has already shown enough to be considered part of the top 8 or they wouldn't have put him with the 1s at RT. Cutler had some nice words to say about Mills and Long, that both were "talented and wanted to do a good job, and that's the most important thing; if you have a guy that wants to do it he'll figure out a way." In his own way that was a backhanded slap at Webb IMO because we know he questioned Webb's motivation last season.

I believe in their data as one objective way to grade Oline. The fact Emery uses their data speaks to that as well despite the claims of others here. For you, me, and most importantly Emery it is just one piece of data. Do you know how Mills graded?

Lost in all the Webb "demotion" chatter was the fact that Kyle Long is also now playing with the 1st team. Trestman stuck to the company line about how this was all part of the plan. I wasn't impressed with Brown in the first game as he seemed to get pushed backward too easily. In fact the sack on Cutler that is blamed on Webb missing his block also happened because Brown missed his block and that didn't allow Cutler to step up into the middle of the pocket and forced him wide to where he got sacked. On the plays I was able to focus on Kyle Long he did ok and most times he held his ground better than Brown. Not sure on the run blocking other than a couple plays where he pulled and opened some decent lanes. Given all the practices he's missed I think Long will quickly pass Brown in overall performance as he gets comfortable with the blocking calls. That doesn't mean he'll be great just that the bar set by Brown isn't that high IMO.

At least with Mills the arrow is still pointing up. I don't think he did that poorly in the first game, at least on the plays I keyed in on him in pass protection. He was up against 2nd string players and that's a big difference from starters. OTOH it was his first experience in an NFL game and overall he looked like he belonged on the field. Trestman was pleased with the work Mills and Long did today in practice. Still had some mistakes but good effort overall. Only one more day of training camp and this competition continues at Halas Hall. http://www.chicagobears.com/multimedia/vid...53-2499a799ed87

Bennett is still sitting out practice with concussion symptoms. This is not a good sign at all.

I think this happened almost every year at the beginning of our season. Plus Lovie's D could never tackle early in the season. Probably not going to change much in that aspect either because Trestman doesn't have them practice tackling to the ground.

Now it's officially a competition: http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/be...st-team-rt.html I don't know if Mills is the answer but at least he's young and so far seems to be improving. We'll see how he handles the week of practice and game reps. At least for Mills he'll not be moved around for the first time at practice so perhaps that will help him. For the moment it appears Britton is only in the competition to be our backup OT. I'm not surprised at Webb's reaction as this is typical from him: "Webb only played 10 snaps against the Panthers, but he said that was more than enough to show what he can do. He said the coaches didn’t express any disappointment and that he wasn’t disappointed about working with the second team." Mills has a lot of learning to do and the coaches put the defensive stud DE opposite him to test him early: “First time going against [defensive end Julius] Peppers — he’s great,” Mills said. “You line up against somebody who’s the same height as me but way faster and way stronger and just go at it with him. It was great.”

Might be why we're hearing that Mills could be getting some looks at RT. One thing is clear: This is now a competition.

Great photos, thanks for posting them. You can see who gets off the line first at the snap on quite a few of them.

I haven't seen the game yet but I definitely wanted to see something more consistent in moving the ball. Disappointed yet, panicked no. It's far to early. The flip side of this would be to anoint the AZ Cardinals a playoff team based on how they played against the Packers. Ain't nobody doing that. Regarding the INT: I expect to see some mistakes in these preseason games with the timing. I personally think the Alshon route was a sight adjustment based on the defense's alignment when the player jumped into the slant route. That's pure speculation on my part. We'll see how they run these routes in the future. I view this as something that is very likely to get corrected as everyone gets more experience in the new offense. More worrisome to me was the lack of production on 3rd downs, and our still unresolved problem at RT. Don't know how the rest of the Oline played either but I'll key in on them when the NFL Network shows the replay Sun morning. As of now it appears J'Marcus and Martellus are going to be best friends as they may line up next to each other for the rest of the season.

I haven't seen the game yet but reports about Webb's performance aren't encouraging. Neither is the report on Britton. As someone said, maybe we don't have a good option. I imagine the competition for the starting role will heat up over the next two games. We'll see what the coaches do at the next practice.

He is getting back to something similar to a zone scheme in terms of the pass protection. At least that is what I hear in Bushrod's comments. I don't think the technique is the same as ZBS and I don't believe that is how we will run block (i.e the short drop step at the snap). I'll leave it up to the Oline experts here to decipher that stuff. Consider that New Orleans had Bushrod, Nicks, and others who I don't think were considered the lighter quicker ZBS types and they did just fine.