BearFan2000

That the Bears are projected to have a slim shot at the playoffs by the "experts" doesn't surprise me one bit and is to be expected. Respect is earned and the Bears haven't earned that in recent years. How they got there to their preciction doesn't make sense. They come up with some crazy "formula" to try to predict what they can't know because every year is different. Too many moving parts and variables. It's more about them trying to look smart. Like the expression if you can't impress them with knowledge baffle them with BS. That in a nutshell is the "experts." They look at the past few years records and what the perceive to be a wasted offseason and draft. NFL experts are about as accurate as weather forecasters. Like Stinger pointed out every year there are teams that surprise everyone. There are teams expected to be awesome and don't live up to the hype while teams expected to suck outperform expectations.

While the future is unknown good or bad there are reasons to be optimistic with Trubisky. His current situation has some parallels to his college situation. I like the way he conducted himself having to wait his turn. He approached practice and games as though he was preparing to start even though he knew he was the backup. He prepared hard so if/when his number was called he could step in and not just place hold but have an impact on the game. He could have taken the route of transferring in hopes to start somewhere else but he didn't. He was a hard worker and a teammate first. His approach has been to work hard, prepare hard, stay engaged and the rest will take care of itself. This work ethic appears to be carrying over as an NFL Rookie. It's the approach you want out of a potential franchise QB. Not to come in as a #2 overall pick expecting to be handed everything but expecting instead to work hard for it. That work ethic paid off at UNC and it can pay off in the NFL. He has a hard working no quit attitude and ethic that teammates can rally around and get behind. Whether he succeeds at the NFL level here in Chicago or not he's giving himself the best chance to succeed. Time will tell.

He's back. Apparently they decided to reverse the decision to release him an instead released some no name WR. Full story here

That also could have partly contributed to his drop in production. He was healthy pretty much all season last year but his strong suit is slot. He is now the most established WR in the group here. I'm good with this it's a 1 year signing for a reasonable number and a cheaper option than Royal who seems like was more often injured than on the field. Putting Cruz in his natural spot could be a win win for both us and him. At this point in his career he has something to prove if he wants to stay in the league. If he puts up solid numbers this season we can extend him or some other team will sign him. With so many ? at WR on this team the more bodies you can throw at the position the better the odds of reaching the 53 with at least a serviceable group. The better our WR/QB play the easier it will be for Howard in the run game. The hope is between the WR's and TE's we'll have enough production to keep the offense balanced and help Glennon and Trubisky

Good point most of the scouts from teams who aren't QB needy enough to be interested or need to take one high wouldn't spend valuable time and resources to personally evaluate. They'd probably only do research to the extent that a QB might effect their pick. It'll all be moot if he doesn't live up or proof Pace knew what he was doing if he succeeds. We have to hope he succeeds and solves the QB problem for the next 5-10 years.

I hope your right, I think at least some of these jumps will happen, which ones or how many remains to be seen. It would be a huge boost for this team to go from last year to in the running. I feel we have a shot at being in the playoff hunt this year. I think we are 2 years from being a serious contender. Rebuilds take time and patience when done properly. Pace inherited a team who's core was depleted of talent by past GM's not addressing the aging core that was responsible for the success we had in the mid 2000's. We were more competitive than our record showed last year, the next step is having these younger players step up, take the next step from being competitive to finding ways to win games that last year we found ways to lose. Winning breeds confidence, confidence breeds success.

How crazy and awesome would it be if not only does Trubisky prove to be starter quality but future HOF'er quality. It would be awesome to finally be the ones to strike gold in the QB position. I do agree with the analysis that had he been a 2 year starter at the level of his one year starting, no doubt he'd have been highly coveted commodity and would have probably been a steeper price. Now that is 3 teams scouts out of 32 teams for perspective. But the possibility of the Bears finally striking gold on a QB is something we fans have longed for. If that does happen we'd look back at this pick and what we gave up may end up looking like peanuts.

Retirement wasn't a surprise, but moving into broadcasting is a surprise. For a player who's had an adversarial approach to media it is a career move that I wasn't expecting. But I do think Jay got a bad rap partly earned but I think often piled on. I wish him best of luck in this new career. I also think over the last few years he matured a lot in how he deals with people and press, etc. He is a decent guy and a hard worker. When he has had the chance to sit down and talk football he comes across as a very intelligent guy. It'll be interesting to hear his commentary and perspective in a setting he's comfortable in. It's a chance to repair his image and prove he's a good guy. He had the support of his teammates, it was always his public image that people ragged on.

I think that what if would kick start us into following the model for QB development used by teams like GB, NE, Denver, etc. Green Bay got Brett Favre in a trade with Atlanta and he became a long time starter. In Brett's time there GB continued to draft QB's high every so often so that they'd have the next guy in house when it was time for Favre to either hang em up or move on. Backups like Hasselbeck went on to be successful starters elsewhere. Till it was time for Favre to move on Rodgers was waiting in the wings to take over. We've seen how other teams value the backups on teams like GB, NE, Denver, etc. That value is a good thing to have and allows you get good value in trade for relative unknowns because teams respect the system they are coming from. The key ultimately comes down to how successful our offense is and the team is overall. But if Glennon pulled a Tom Brady it would bode well for the unit's success if not the whole teams success. It'd certainly be a good problem to have and one that's a bit uncharted for the Bears.

That would be ideal and would present good opportunity for the Bears and for Glennon personally. Should Glennon prove to be a starter quality QB he wouldn't and shouldn't be expected to sit behind a successful Trubisky. He'd have had his chance to audition for a starting gig somewhere and a trade would give that opportunity to start somewhere and most likely a reworked contract to pay him accordingly. We'd get something back in trade either picks or players or some combination. It'd be a win win. That's what I hope happens. It would also mean that the Glennon signing and the Trubisky pick were good moves.

Excellent post. It is hard to disassociate past failure, disappointments, etc. with any new GM, staff, roster, drafts, etc. Most of us have been fans for as long as we can remember. Longer for some of us shorter for others, but life long none the less. Personally at 40 I still remember the 80's and the rise of the Bears to dominant World Champs followed by the slow decline into mediocrity with a few random successful years sprinkled in the mix to the rise of the mid 2000's and the gut wrenching super bowl loss to the Colts that we should have won followed by another decline as the D that lead the resurgence grew old. To the Trestman years which saw the Bears go from competitive to a complete lifeless joke of a team. Pace, Fox, etc. inherited a team with a toxic culture that was complacent about losing and looking bad doing so. When we look at Bears drafts it's hard to not let past head scratching drafts (both at the time and more so in hindsight) cloud how we look at this years draft which is not what we or anyone expected the Bears to do. It's easy to look at this and associate it with the failure of past drafts by the likes of Emery, Angelo, etc. It does hinge a lot on the success or failure of Trubisky. The rest of the picks all have question marks either due to competition each player faced or, injury concerns in Jackson's case. We all expected a somewhat defense heavy draft. We ended up going QB, TE, S, RB, OL. Only one defensive pick and one with an injury concern. I do believe Pace has earned the benefit of the doubt. Even the best GM's make mistakes or have subpar drafts, it happens. But Bear nation has been fairly jaded by the past and when we have a draft that doesn't fit our idea of good we immediately associate it with that past. We see it and start thinking "here we go again." It may very well end up being a below average to bad draft. But what's done is done, we'll have to see how it plays out. Just because a player came from a small school doesn't mean they aren't talented or lack the tools to be good NFL players. Shawnee and Cohen both dominated where they were, it'd be far more concerning if they were just average or slightly above average. Granted dominating Div 2 competition vs Div 1 is something to consider. The full details of what went down leading to us giving up two 3rds and a 4th to move from #3 to #2, may never fully be known. There is a lot of speculation, hearsay, etc. I don't believe Pace would have made the move if he was sure he could get Trubisky at #3. I tend to think that either he knew or had reason to believe he would be gone by #3. Either due to teams wanting our spot or teams looking to deal with SF who had advertised loudly that #2 was up for bid prior to the draft. Pace and his people clearly had Trubisky as their #1 prospect on their board right or wrong. The move ensured they got their guy, if they'd stayed at #3 and someone else jumped to #2 to grab him you lose out on your top choice of the QB's.

And the flip side of that is look what we've given our staff's to work with at the QB position. There is a reason that list of starting QB that used to get thrown up compared to Favre was so full of duds Till we sold the farm for Cutler we changed QB's like underwear. Speaking of trading the farm for Cutler you can always speculate what the picks we gave up for Jay could have garnered us. That set us back draft wise for years, possibly even still feeling the impact of it. Can't make gold out of turds. We either seem to have the guys who have talent but suck at leadership and attitude, or the guys with great attitude but limited talent, or guys who'd be decent if they could stay on the field. Trubisky presents the opportunity to change that pattern.

Glennon would have to be awfully naive to not know the landscape of things when he signed the contract. He was a backup at Tampa with limited NFL starting experience joins a team starved for a consistent good to great QB. A very high likelihood we would spend a high draft pick on QB possibly even at #3 overall. Yes his contract guaranteed money for 2017 is starter money, after 2017 theres little guaranteed money. He signed a 1 year prove it deal no matter how you slice it. That alone is less than total commitment by the Bears. My gut feeling is the drama of his feelings being hurt is more a mountain out of a molehill. Would it be annoying to sign with a team only see them draft someone who could take your job at #2 overall? Sure but if he's any kind of competitor, he won't feel threatened but will welcome the competition, and would motivate him to work harder not to lose the job. That said the part of this situation that is a bit crappy is that he was invited by Bears brass to attend the draft party at Soldier Field amongst the fans when Trubisky was picked. That's crappy and put him in an awkward position, especially if he wasn't told they might be drafting a QB high either prior to attending or even as early as when they were talking to him about signing here. Which takes me back to the point about him being very naive if he wasn't aware of the possibility that even with signing him they might take a QB high. And realize it's a business decision to not put all your eggs in his basket.

I heard from a source close to the media that they are just blowing smoke to get ratings and accumulate clicks. It sounds credible to me. Honestly we know how this works. all the build up to the draft, then the draft is done and outside of UDFA signings there's not much NFL news so you gotta talk and write about something so why not speculate, and even invent drama to get people's dander up or sound like they have something relevant to say when truth is the ones that know what's going on for sure are those in the organization, and even then there are employees who don't know all the details of relationships, who told who what within the management, staff, and Pace. Just like at my job I don't know every detail about the goings on. I can only speculate on things I'm not privy to. I don't buy that he was told to take a QB no matter what, not sure also how much I buy that Pace and Fox are at odds. I have no doubt that Pace and upper management had communication on the draft and I don't doubt they offered their opinions but ultimately the decision was by Pace and his draft room staff. The personalities on the Score tend to get worked up and exaggerate. It riles people up and some of the callers sound like they don't know their arse from a hole in the ground. I'd take what you read/hear with a grain of salt. They will work every angle they can to find a story even if half what they say is speculation or outright lie.

Comes across as a team player, didn't complain when he had to sit behind Williams, made the most of his opportunities and was prepared when he did see the field and made the most of his time when he got the starting gig. I've seen articles trying to stir up/play up animosity between him and Glennon, based on "a source" (most likely a writer's own opinion) controversy makes for click bait. He seems to have a good head on his shoulders, intelligence, and is coachable. I like that he never gave up or let circumstances get the better of him. His time in Chicago might be similar to his time at NC where Glennon will likely be the day 1 starter but Mitchell will be prepared for his opportunity be it in relief, or be it taking the job from Mike. I don't see a guy who will stir the pot and pout from the sidelines.

Great post well researched, thought out and well put. The talking heads ("experts") want to look and feel smart in the moment even if in hindsight they look like idiots. So they will stick their finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing and report accordingly. We get blasted for doing what other teams have gotten praised for doing. These "experts" don't take the time and look deeper than the surface of teams they have no interest in. They look at our 3-13 record and make assumptions and act they know it all. Your also right about their hindsight 20/20 analysis if the Trubisky era turns out good they will about face and act like they knew it'd work. Initially I felt gut punched watching this draft play out, each pick and move left me scratching my head, but, I'm suspending judgement on how this will work out. Pace has taken a risk but, you have to take risks sometimes. Outside of a handful of times the Bears taken far less risky steps to try to solve the QB problem. I got to looking at the Bears QB draft history and risk is not something often involved. I've listed QB's we drafted back to the last couple years McMahaon was here. Not exactly a list of NFL who's who. Trubisky is our highest QB taken since the late 80's, second highest was McCown, followed by Grossman, and Harbaugh. Also drafts prior to 1993 had 12 rounds instead of 7. In this same stretch we didn't take a QB in 1988, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015, & 2016. That's 17 drafts out of 31 we didn't bother taking a QB. Of the 14 times we did half were round 5 or later, 4 were first round, etc. For the most part we've spent our QB draft picks on guys who were at best backups. A change of strategy can't hurt. We've been QB challenged for so long, when Jay Cutler is the best you've had statistically for nearly 3 decades that is sad. People are quick to forget that Pace's first two drafts were pretty decent and last years looks to be one of the better drafts we've had. To suddenly say fire everyone when this draft didn't go the way many of us thought or hoped it would is a bit knee jerk. I can't blame Pace for taking a different strategy and taking a shot at solving the QB position long term. It may take a few tries to nail it. But not trying guarantees you won't nail it unless you stumble onto a Brady type late pick gem. We've spent mid/late picks on QB's for much of the last 3 decades what's that gotten us? Trubisky will likely need some time to develop the Bears as a whole are probably a year or two from being real contenders giving him time to work into the system. In the short term we have Glennon to start 2017 from there is up to Glennon, Trubisky, and the staff to determine. 2017 R1 2 Trubisky 2014 R6 183 Fales 2011 R5 160 Enderle 2010 R6 181 LeFevour 2005 R4 106 Orton 2004 R5 148 Krenzel 2003 R1 22 Grossman 1999 R1 12 McNown 1998 R7 232 Moreno 1992 R4 107 Furrer 1991 R7 190 Justin 1990 R3 63 PT Willis 1989 R7 192 Snyder 1987 R1 26 Harbaugh

all part of the game. Most "leaks" I would venture are intentional to float ideas out there to see what reaction it gets from fans, media, other Teams, and players. You float a series of lies laced with a few partial or whole truths. It's all about getting other teams heads. Most GM's though by this point are pretty set on their plans and backup strategies/scenarios. It just drives us fans nuts trying to decipher what's true and what isn't. Like the Floyd thing last year that rumor was true, there were also plenty of false rumors as well. Just glad tonight is the nigh we start to find out for sure. I for one can't wait. Already told the wife, I'll be distracted the next three days LOL

I agree. If we go DB with our #3 pick I'd rather it be one of Adams or Hooker (in that order). Both are rare talents and would bring game changing abilities to the secondary provided Hooker stays healthy. We have two wild cards picking ahead of us who the heck knows what Cleveland will do, it's Cleveland nuff said. Niners could go any number of ways and will depend a lot on what the Browns do at 1. Who knows we could be sitting at 3 with Garrett on the board.

That's my thinking as well. Browns and/or Niners could be wild cards. If either of them flinches and pulls the trigger on a QB or say Browns take QB, and Niners take Fournette we are in a golden position to have our pick of the defensive studs at the top. If they both wiff and we can take Garret it's a no brainer. But even if one of the two does our pick becomes instantly more valuable. It is exciting, and while these are rumors and the smoke is thick with the draft starting in mere days this would be a dream scenario. I'd be happy with Garret, Thomas, Adams, etc. at 3. It would certainly change the landscape of the top end f the draft a bit. No doubt Pace's phone would be ringing off the hook with teams wanting to jump up for Garret.

Didn't hear the report on the heard, but trading up from #3 for Watson or any of the QBs would be asinine. However if they are referring to trading up from #36 that makes more sense. Or some combination of trading down from #3 and using the extra picks as ammunition to move into the back half of round one makes sense too.

That's why I'd prefer Adams to either Allen or Hooker. Not that all three won't have a big impact on their teams. I'd prefer going with the one with fewer question marks. As for who we'd regret not taking hard to predict even immediate impact much less 2 years from now but if your talking long term I'd say Watson or Keizer. I think both will need some grooming but I think both have bright futures as starters. I'll also throw Adams into the group because I feel like he could be one of those rare enforcers at safety. Allen and Hooker qualify too as teams will pass possibly/likely pass on them due to questions about health, and they may go on to have long productive careers. Risk/reward. It's also hard to know how this draft will go anyone we name here could be someone we draft. It'd be an interesting question to ask after the draft knowing who we passed on. Definitely can't wait for the draft day to be here to find out how it all goes down. It's like waiting to open presents on Christmas/birthday.

Seem's eerily familiar somehow. I think we've ben watching that movie for Cutler's tenure here. Fool me once, fool me twice, etc. I'd rather have a mechanically sound QB than a guy who's all over the place which can work in college but rarely works in the NFL.

That would be a nice scenario. Aside from something like this I'd prefer we stay at 3 take a defensive stud, trade back into the back half of round one and take a QB if we are set on taking a Watson, Trubisky, Keizer, etc. I don't want the #3 pick used on a QB not worthy of that pick just because he's a QB. I seriously doubt Pace will take a QB at 3 if we stay at #3. You don't throw away the value of taking a stud defensive player there to reach on a QB who has question marks and they all do.

No doubt, if Cleveland is that stupid which we know they possibly are. And if SF some how ops to pass as well, it's a literal no brainer that you take Garrett at #3. I doubt it happens though. Cleveland has the picks to trade for an additional later first round pick in order to take Garrett at #1 and taking Trubisky later in the first. In the same vein we could stay at 3 and take BPA, and trade up from our 2nd (36th) pick into the mid/lower first round and take a QB there. Nabbing a Defensive stud at 3, and getting a QB to groom behind Glennon would be a good start. We could even trade down a few slots from 3 still get a stud, and pick up extra picks. There definitely will be options available especially depending who's there at 3 and Pace's phone starts ringing. I wish the draft were this weekend 15 more days. This is when the rumor mill starts going nuts.

As a ND fan, I completely agree with your assessment of last year. The Irish were painful to watch. He didn't get much help from his teammates or coaching. Their record felt worse than 4-8. It has hurt Keizer's stats and potential and partly the reason he opted to enter the draft rather than return to ND this year. Another year in a disappointing Irish program could drop him further. I've felt his situation didn't present the opportunity to shine as much as it could have. It is interesting that the Bears have shown a lot of interest in him. I could see them working some deal to secure him. If we do draft him I hope it means we traded down vs taking him at 3. #3 is too valuable a slot to reach that far, if you want him trade down and get him and an additional pick at least.