BearFan2000

Arlington definitely provides space to build a big state of the art stadium.

Another thing to consider this season is how the offense was called/ran at the start of the season and how it was called/ran the second half of the season or more notably after the bye. We started the season barely throwing the ball and pretty much running on every down. Hard to put up passing stats when you're rarely throwing the ball. I feel like since the bye the offensive scheme started to cater more to Fields's strengths and towards the end of the year we saw him throwing more. So I think it's hard to really judge based on this season's stats.

Very true and it can be hard to keep that perspective. It’s in our blood as Bears fans to hate the cheese heads, and want to see our Bears beat them and stick it to Rodgers. I don’t think there’s a sports team or player I despise with every fiber of my being like Rodgers and the Packers. But regardless of todays game or this season as a whole I feel the future is bright. We have talent to build around and we go into an offseason with good draft capitol and cap space. Poles has a golden opportunity to shape this team into a winner.

Letting Jones and Dillon run all over us with little resistance to me was a big factor as well. We’re all questioning the shotgun on 4th and inches. I think Getsy tried to be unconventional there and it bit us. We did get screwed on the replay, but to be honest it was one of those calls where had it been ruled a TD on the field it would have stood. Still sucks. Here’s hoping the players and coaches learn from this game.

One thing that jumped out at me on the broken play where ha scrambled and hit Pettis for the 51 yard touchdown was that he stayed in control the whole time. Once he got separation he set has feet and then threw the ball. Even on that play he didn’t look panicked. I know Dante was open by a mile but that ball was well thrown. Trubiskey would have missed Pettis by a mile with a clean pocket.

I agree, I would be willing to bet that Pace would have gone through with it to try and save face in the moment to the detriment of the team when it's later revealed he didn't pass and ends up not contributing due to recovering from his injury. One thing Pace proved in his time as GM as he had conviction on moves and not even common sense could stand in the way.

I can appreciate Johnson's take on this and shows maturity and professionalism. Rather than whine and pout, he straight up said he knew he'd have to prove himself to the new staff. That's the reaction of a hard worker that doesn't expect to just be handed the starting spot.

This is what it really boils down to. At this point all we or the media can do is speculate and try to read the tea leaves. As fans we want to look for the positive possibilities because we have a vested interest in it all working out. But till it actually plays out on the field we won't know for sure. One thing for sure is first impressions matter, if there's stumbling out of the gate you'll have the nay sayers being vocal about how they told you so. Likewise if things start off good the opposite will be true. We have to keep in mind it's a marathon not a sprint. It's probably going to take time for the offense to fully find its identity rhythm.

His story is so hard to read, can't imagine going through what he's been through. It can be easy to lose sight of players as individuals. I've always liked Cohen and he's been easy to root for. I agree with Adam, it would be nice if he could still be a part of the team/organization in some way. He's the kind of personality you want to have around, and even if his playing days are done I think he can still have a place here.

I feel like the college game can allow QB's to get away with mechanics issues that they can't get away with in the NFL. Coverages are tighter, windows are smaller. Timing and ball placement is so much more important. Cleaning up footwork, and mechanics is often one of the bigger adjustments QB's seem to have to do to successfully make the transition from college to pro.

I like this about him too, it shows his passion for the game and having that passion drives him to work hard and be the best he can be. Will he turn out to be the franchise QB we've been desperately searching for all these years/decades? The jury's still out but if he doesn't become what we hope he does it won't be for lack of effort, hard work, etc. This makes him easy to root for as an individual and what he can bring to the team.

Does feel a bit catfishy and very well could be someone trying to cash in knowing he's a pro athlete and and is after his money. It's possible something consensual happened between them, the timing does throw some doubt on this, if it happened in Feb, and she claims to have witnesses and had a rape kit done, yet nothing is said publicly till now. We also don't know what actually happened or didn't happen. Pointless to form any conclusions one way or another at this point. Best to let things play out legally. Pro athletes, and celebrities male or female can be easy targets for people looking to trap or take advantage of them for financial gain. Doesn't mean Roquan is innocent, doesn't mean he's guilty, he doesn't strike me as the type, but, I don't know him personally. The fan in me is hoping this is that he's innocent, and the accusations will turn out to be false. I think if we've learned anything recently from cases like this that we need to be careful to condemn or cancel someone simply on accusations alone.

It's possible they are holding out to see what comes out in the June 1st cuts? I too am surprised that we haven't seen much activity in FA on the OL recently. There are some guys out there. It's also possible we're talking to agents and there just hasn't been anything to report. As for Kirkwood, never heard of him, I think they are taking the shotgun approach.

PA does take the QB's eyes off the defense but only for play action part of the play. It's a very brief time. I always found it crazy that under Nagy we hardly ever used play action even though our run game was having success and opponents didn't respect our passing game and were more often playing the run especially with Nagy's play calling being so predictable. It's quite simple, if your run game is effective play action will be effective, but we didn't do that. And play action is even more effective with a mobile QB like Justin. Defense is closing down to stop the run, and have to react that the play is now a pass, but if they get back in coverage there's often lanes to run where Justin can pull it down and take off. Under Nagy the league was playing chess and Nagy was playing checkers. RPO's became the shiny new thing, but as you mentioned defenses adapted quickly and the RPOs aren't as effective anymore. I want to see Getsy install a real NFL offense tailored to our players. One that actually does the smart thing rather than being an OC who think's he's smarter than everyone else. There's nothing out there that NFL defenses haven't seen, you just need to be flexible and be able to attack defenses in different ways and adjust in game.

This surprised me but no way of us knowing what the reason for the failed physical was or if there was an injury that we were concerned about? I'm starting to get the sense that this staff is taking medical evals more seriously than previous regimes. With our past issues with injuries that to me could be a good change. We seem less likely to invest in players that have physical concerns. We'll never eliminate potential injury issues but I feel like we are monitoring this more closely. Here's hoping that bodes well for having better team health in season.

He makes some great points about age not being as big a factor as it used to. Also had no idea he's only 11 months older than Hester when we drafted him.

Camp body

Also really glad we went in with 6 picks and came out with 11 selections and did not touch any of the 2023 picks. With this draft and FA moves, along with improved coaching, the opportunity is there to lay the groundwork in 2022 to enter next offseason and the 2023 draft with more targeted additions that can put us in a position to truly be competitive. With our NFC North rivals improvements on the offensive side of the ball, it makes sense to try and strengthen a very weak secondary, so this may help us keep games closer and thus more competitive. We weren't going to address all our needs in one offseason. Especially with limited cap space and draft capitol.

Very thorough writeup, on the picks. I must admit that outside of the prospects that got the most attention pre-draft my knowledge was quite limited. I found I was doing my research on these players after we'd picked them. While I was thinking we'd go WR/OL or OL/WR with our 2nd rounders, I think we got two solid starters out of these picks with both Gordon and Brisker. I like what I've seen and heard about Jones. He strikes me as very versatile and could be used in a lot of ways. The OL that we drafted I knew absolutely nothing about. I liked seeing that we entered day 3 with 3 picks and ended up with 7 selections ( I believe). And Poles took several bites at the OL apple. I can see us adding a vet to fill the LT spot this season. At the very least we've added depth to the OL and who knows one or more of these guys might develop into a solid starter. It's awesome to see someone like Hicks who's super excited to be drafted by the Bears. It's easy to forget what it means to the guys at the end of the draft and even UDFA's It's their shot at their dream of making an NFL roster whereas the top tiered prospects it's generally not a matter of if but when they'll get picked. I have no doubt this kid will work his butt off to make the cut.

I too wish we’d gotten something for him, tells you what his marker is. Since he left Philly he’s not been blessed with landing in a good system. good guy wish him well.

I agree with this, especially the part in bold. That was one of my hopes going into this offseason and particularly the draft. We have not made moves that cost us future capital. It hurts not having first round picks. I hope Poles sticks to his goal of maximizing draft capitol. I knew this years draft would be more low key if we stayed put. As long as we get 2-3 starters and some guys who can contribute and we go into next draft with our full compliment of picks or even extra picks that will be huge. it is hard not to view the draft not being rained by how Things have been in the past. You need a steady hand to draft well, we’ve had so much reactionary drafting that we’ve come to expect at least one or two dumb moves that cost us more than it gained us. I too was expecting round 2 to be OL/WR. But I’m good with the picks we made plus the Jones pick in the 3rd. This roster needs help, and you have to start somewhere. Having a strong D will help keep games close while the offense finds its identity. Let’s not forget we go addition by subtraction with Nagy gone. Getsy May never have called an offense but he’s been around a prolific offense. This season is more about 2023 and beyond than it is about 2022.

It's finally here, Draft starts tonight. A little less exciting today as we don't have a first rounder. This will our first look at how Ryan Poles runs a draft room. It's his first ever draft as GM. I'm both excited and nervous on how this will go. We have definite needs and only 6 picks. I won't focus on specific position or players but more or less what I'd like to see us do in general. Trade wise, if we do make trades I hope that we do so in a way that maximizes value. I don't want to see us sacrifice limited 2022 capitol, or borrow heavily from 2023, to not get back good value. I want us to be smart and strategic about our draft day trades if we make any. I prefer trading down vs trading up, but not just to do so. It has to be calculated based who's on our board and if we can drop a few picks to gain extra picks and still get our guy. I don't want us to sacrifice the opportunity to grab a guy who falls to us or is on our board at a pick just to gain more picks. When we do pick, I really want to see us take the smart pick, if a talent falls to our pick, and fills a need, take the guy. I'm so tired of watching good players fall to us and we all see it only to see us take someone that makes us scratch our heads. Whether it's taking a player we could have had later or could have traded down to get and maybe picked up an extra pick or we just take someone they fell in love with pre-draft rather than the talent that dropped. We only have 6 picks we need to add as many impact players as we can, whether it's contributors, starters, or guys who can work their way into a starting role. We can't afford to be cute, or act like the smartest man in the room and think we know better than the rest of the league. Based on what Poles has said about the draft, I think he'll take a more smart calculated approach than Pace did. But till he drafts we don't know how he will run the draft. Our picks as everyone knows for now are: 2-7 (39) 2-16 (48) 3-7 (71) 5-5 (148) 5-7 (150) 6-7 (186)

This. I'd be pretty confident most if not all of us have done this at one time or another. Will say FL wouldn't be my choice I'd rather do it in a nice empty midwest lot with snow on the ground (in my youth of course). Having your kid with you is not smart or setting a good example. For all we know the kid could have been egging his dad on to do it, but you have to be the adult in the situation and not be reckless with your kid in the car. It was a poor decision but as long as he understands and this is an isolated incident I see no reason to come down hard on him. If off field issue become an issue, then more drastic measures are needed. I feel like this is the type of thing that can provide an opportunity for a new HC and GM establish what they expect out of their players from a behavior standpoint. It's part of creating the culture you want, and defining what is and isn't acceptable.

The way the picks are awarded needs to be changed as other's have mentioned teams poorly managing cap get compensated for losing guys they can't afford to keep, or teams trading for a good player at the end of their contract getting rewarded when that player signs elsewhere. Every year teams that don't need extra help are awarded comp picks in some cases because they worked the system. While teams fighting to be competitive don't get anything, because they lack big name players that would award them comp pick when the player leaves. I like Adam's idea that it should only be for players coming off their rookie deals especially since they are compensatory "draft" picks rather than including FA and vet players. The way it works now is teams can work the system to get extra picks.

Agree, the myth that you must have a true #1 to be successful is just that. If you have a collection of very good to great #2's and solid 3s, that can make up for the production of not having a true #1, and in some ways it's better IMO. There's cases where a team has a true #1 but the rest of the WR corp is meh. Defenses will take your #1 away and force you to beat them with your other WR's or on the ground. Fixing our OL will go a long way towards improving timing between Fields and Mooney or any receivers.