Alaskan Grizzly

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?

I have a strong suspicion that Shaheen will be gone soon. Kid’s made of paper...unless he makes some amazing transformation... Interesting with the signing of Horstead the Bears currently have two Ivy League players at TE (Brauneker being the other).

Coach Pagano hosted his 7th annual cancer benefit tailgate in Indy. Most all the Bears coaching staff went along to include Pace and McCaskey. Gotta hand it to these guys and their ‘family centric’ theme. Not only do they keep talking the talk..they walk the walk. That’s some good sh*t. https://bearswire.usatoday.com/2019/05/10/bears-brass-supports-new-defensive-coordinator-chuck-pagano-at-chuck-strong-gala/

And to be fair...it’s been “comical” ever since Robbie Gould left. Sure getting Parkey at the beginning didn’t seem risky but who knew? Hindsight being what it is, yes now it is funny. But for him to have to agonize over just a kicker rather than 3-4 other key positions is a lot better than where some other teams are right now.

The point of my sarcasm is more about Pace’s willingness to trade draft capital for what seems minimal gains. In this case it’s possible he could give up a 7th round for nothing right? Sure I understand 7th round is 7th round but still...

And now the Bears have three. This one for a 7th round pick, another to a three year contract and a guy named ‘Blewitt’. Yay....

Ever the Devils advocate; anyone remember Roberto Aguayo? (Once himself a Bear - if only for a ‘cup of coffee). Also played college ball in the State of Florida...and set many records while doing so. I think questions like ‘why doesn’t Oakland want him’ and ‘how will he do in the swirling winds of Chicago’ are valid concerns.

We shall see. (Coming from the Jordan camp by the way). ? For what it’s worth, the more I read and learn of Montgomery, the more I like. No doubt a high character kid. So he has filled in for Howard in that regard. Time will tell how he does on the field.

At 5:21... “...if our guys were there, like Devin...”. You’re suggesting he may have wanted Montgomery and just said that to save face? Yes he probably was concerned with the Bears taking RB but apparently it wasn’t to take Singletary.

From this it’s pretty clear the Bills were set on Singletary. Still makes some question Pace’s motivation to try and jump ahead.

I saw this story and thought it spellbinding. I really like that Nagy is so perturbed by what Parkey did to us (all of Bear nation) that he would set this up in the way he did. And that nothing can be taken for granted, not even the kicking game. This is a perfect way to show how serious you are. He’s gone from people buying into his style of family play to ‘you’re either in it to win it or you’re out.’

NM

I’m not a mock drafter and this is not the answer you’re looking for but... Because I’m curious why wouldn’t you have traded up for Montgomery? I see most of your picks looking similar to how they shook out, just a different order. I agree that Montgomery and Williams probably could’ve (or will) similarly produce(d). Personally I like the Ridley and Hall picks. With Nagy needing as many pieces as he can get to make his offense go, I like the idea of potentially how those two will contribute. Still think the CB/NB needed addressing and you did earlier in the draft similar to probably what I would have done.

Watched some highlight film on him. Think we may have found our next NB in either Shelley or Denmark. I give Shelley the edge only because he played in higher level competition but he needs to work on his ‘eyes’ for pass coverage. Can’t spot the ball if you’re looking into the chest of the receiver and your back is to the ball. And he has a tendency to wildly flail his arms while facing the receiver which could be bad for a few reasons most notably DPI. If Tolliver doesn’t pan out at CB maybe...just maybe...one of these guys will be tapped to take over for Amukamura

Watched a few more highlights of Montgomery’s while sitting on my back deck (it’s sunny as I’ll get out up here and nearing 60 - that’s warm for us). Anyhow, still haven’t seen a lot of catches from this kid but almost immediately said ‘that kid reminds me of Maurice Jones-Drew’ in his style of play. I saw a few here mention Payton like moves but have to say to me it’s more like MJD. (Maybe it’s the #32)

What other choice do we have? Far as I know none of us are Nagy or Pace. Lol...

Wouldn’t each kick be counted as a down or would the play include precise simultaneous kicks?