Alaskan Grizzly

I read envy from ‘those people’ and other teams when I see stuff like this. To only have to worry about a kicker for next season is a problem EVERY team wished they had. And to think had SF not slapped the tag on Robbie, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. Robbie will be a Bear again...even if it’s only when he retires. https://chicago.suntimes.com/bears/2019/6/12/18663212/bears-49ers-robbie-kicker-gould-sells-home

Cool ‘behind the scenes’ story on how the Bears acquired Mack. Also note towards the end of the story how on day one while at practice Mack was already displaying his leadership skills. Freakin awesome. https://www.chicagobears.com/news/how-the-bears-acquired-all-pro-khalil-mack

There was a story that came out shortly before Blewit was gone that said Nagy is now having the team use the ‘Masters silence’ (or something rather) when the kickers are up doing their practice. Apparently they are drawing from the intense silence that occurs during major golf tournaments and when everyone is forced to be silent. Nagy says the eerie effect adds to the intensity and pressure. It was said towards the end of the 100 anniversary celebration last weekend they had all of the team, about 20 alumni and family members all go out onto the practice field. They had all three kickers try the infamous 43-yarder in front of that crowd with the ‘Masters silence’. And according to the story...all three missed. Blewit may not be the only one shown the door. https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/bears/ct-spt-bears-kickers-matt-nagy-masters-20190605-story.html

I was eyeballing one of those for Mack... With regards to Trubisky; I see he’s contemplating wearing McMahon’s headbands for the season. That would be pretty sweet. I saw somewhere that Nagy had installed a T formation play last year during the first game against GB to pay homage to the old Bears under Coach Papa Bear. Gotta love that and something tells me there will be a ton of stuff like that this year. Really like that link to our teams rich history!! Gonna be a lot of fun this year.

Well played Virgina!!! Long live the queen! May she see one, two, three more SBs!!

My bust. I had recently watched the Rams highlight game and it was there he threw the 3 INTs. For some reason in my fog of a brain I was thinking it was the philly game...thanks for the correction. Watson threw for 4165 yards and 26 TDs last year. Of those Hopkins caught 1572 yards and 11 TDS. That’s roughly a third of the receptions and TDs that Deshaun threw but clearly not all of them. Who were the other QBs in Houston before Watson arrived and played with Hopkins his previous four years? Saying they were “easy stats” is like saying Allen Robinson makes the QBs he plays with automatically better.

Way cool Bill! Thanks for sharing! I bet Akiem still heard about your gesture regardless of the circumstances.

In homage to the 1936 team. Kinda think it’s cool. Not sure about the socks. https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/bears/ct-spt-bears-uniform-stripes-1936-replica-20190607-story.html

Devils advocate: yes I know, it’s the unpopular view amongst Bears fans but I still am not convinced making the jump from three to two has yet proven itself out. Yes he made a pro bowl (as an alternate), yes he improved his stats from year one to year two and yes he has shown his ability to run as an alternative to passing. But he still looks shaky on intermediate and long throws (he was intercepted three(?) times in last year’s playoff game), and year one was with Fox (as many remind us as almost an excuse) where two was with the more affable and cunning Nagy and his running will only get him so far. The eye test I apply tells me that he’s still got ALOT to prove. You say Wentz was this and shoulda been that; he’s been injured most of the last two years. Why? Mostly because or his running. Watson has out-produced overall compared to Trub right? But he too was hobbled by injury. But what’s more he didn’t have the same defense that Trub did to help recover from when he made mistakes. I still see Trubiksy as a version of Mariota or even Andrew Luck. High draft picks but little yield (when talking ratios). Mariota could be something great too but hasn’t really had a chance to flourish due to not having a lot of great players (on offense and defense) around him. Luck, although hampered by injury for the last two previous years, came on strong last year after getting better physically and bringing more talent around him. And they added another Reid disciple in Frank Reich as HC. That I think is a huge parallel to how well Trubiksy will do. It’s still about him proving the naysayers wrong (myself included) by his product on the field, plain and simple.

Awarded by the man himself...during the centennial...gents I get a feeling this year is gonna be special. Pretty damn cool. (Video link at bottom of story is good to watch). https://www.chicagobears.com/news/butkus-honored-to-give-award-to-khalil-mack

Maybe a little early for hype videos on these guys, but still cool nonetheless.

Yep..

The simple question is and should have been at the time; why couldn’t they tell ‘us’ then that had a hernia injury. Why wait until now? Then link the two together? I don’t get the strategy in not saying anything about it. Does it matter in the long run? Maybe not. It’s just peculiar to have waited all this time.

Thank you sir!! I haven’t had a ‘break out’ since I was a teenager! (Badum-bum)

Doubling down on what Boston Boxer said. When he played LaFleur was a backup QB on the IFL’s ‘Omaha Beef’. Hes still a backup QB...just in a different outfit. And on your point NYC, I just recently discovered my next door neighbor is a Packers fan. The back door to his house was left open yesterday while he was out, so I asked him (via text) if he wanted me to close it for him. He said ‘yes please, but don’t vandalize my Packers room’. (he knows I’m a Bears guy). The door led to his den which was adorned with Packers stuff. I will say temptation did not get the best of me...this time.

An even more important question; who chugs better, Trubiksy or Rodgers? https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/video/who-drank-it-better-packers-aaron-rodgers-or-bears-mitch-trubisky I like that Trubiksy has his OLine with him while he does his.

This is an interesting way to start the new season. I’m sorry but... http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000001032437/article/packers-matt-lafleur-tears-achilles-playing-basketball

Which I like ... personally speaking. I want to say the more successful defenses the Ravens had were when Pagano was there.

I was thinking about this recently and had heard some time ago about some nuances we might see between Fangio and Pagano. One specific difference were the frequency and type of rushes. Fangio was never known to be a heavy blitzer. A lot of his ‘front seven’ success was predicated by the skill of the players. Mack, Hicks and Floyd all were able to individually feed off one another’s success primarily through their raw pass rushing skills. Occasionally Fangio would pepper in a blitz or two to throw things off. It sounds as though Pagano likes to blitz more and ad some tweaks especially with his interior linemen and backers. Think Nagy but more defensive minded when it comes to creativity. In the article below it goes into a little more detail about these diffences. One that I found intriguing is how Pagano expects more pass coverage by his interior linebackers. That could be a problem for Trevathan and something worth watching. For Smith it’s more in his wheelhouse due to his ‘lateral speed’ and pass coverage ability we saw in the highlights from college and a few times last year so that will be fun to watch. https://bearswire.usatoday.com/2019/01/12/changes-chicago-bears-defense-chuck-pagano-colts-vic-fangio/

Why wouldn’t it be mentioned what the injury was during the playoff game? Why all the ‘cloak and dagger’? And here we are all these months later...

Good point Bill and we’ll summarized. I know many will knock Eli Manning but that guy has won two SBs. As has Peyton, with two different teams. As Stugotz would say ‘when you mix championship rings into a soup, no matter how you stir it, you always get a winning recipe.’

‘Back in the day...’ I’d get what they’d call burners from weight training while playing football. Most of the time it was while we were doing squats or deadlifts. Burners were close calls of hernias. I don’t think I ever really had a true hernia but there were a few guys that did. Don’t really recall how they were treated back then. More recently my brother in law, who is an avid weight lifter (and played hockey) has had a few hernia operations. It doesn’t seem to have slowed him a lot. He and I are both in our 50s now so really that isn’t a good measure to what Burton is experiencing. The point of all this rambling is although painful, hernias are pretty easy to fix these days (think they use some sort of mesh stuff) but I think it’s more on the individual to recover and manage. Seems odd that Burton is still having issues all these months later. I do remember him saying before that his body “locks up” during certain medial situations. I’d be curious how many more times he may lock up going forward. And with this issue still bugging him, how much longer he’ll be able to contribute full time. Will be interesting to watch develop. I like Burton personally. Hope he’s able to come back 100% all the time.

Preach!

Agree with Lemon that Wims will be a breakout on offense. And maybe even Ridley. They seem similar in skill set, or at least Wims and older brother Calvin did/do. Roquan Smith I think will emerge as the new heir apparent for that long line of Bears dominance at MLB. I think maybe this year we start to see Trevathan slow a bit and Smith begin to take over some of the play calling. As an aside, I saw a comment on another thread about how Hampton and Dent were the heart of the ‘85 defense. Was just thinking the other day about that very thing on our current team and two names came to mind; Trevathan and Hicks. Definitely not the best players we have but certainly the cement that keeps it together.

This was from ChicagoBears.com: https://www.chicagobears.com/photos/top-100-bears-of-all-time-25-1 Has the top 25 on this story but links for the other 75 in it too. Agree on some of your thoughts. If Jackson is so high why isn’t Mike Brown higher than where he is? Also why isn’t Robbie Gould higher on the list? Didn’t he set the highest scoring record in Bears history? And other accolades?