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I hope he keeps it up, would be great to see him develop into a beast. I think he has the chance to do so. He's also still extremely young so I think he has room to build out his frame more.

As an interesting cross-set, outside of Jackson, some of the Bears top defensive players were from smaller schools, most notably Khalil Mack and Akiem Hicks. I don't quite know that your example above is all that stastically significant since a heck of a lot of the players I see listed were 1st round picks. The interesting scenario would be is there a higher percentage of later round picks who go on to become quality players who are drafted from bigger schools vs. smaller schools. Further more, I've been curious how much analytics teams look at over the course of recent draft history to see if certain body types / player attributes project better in later rounds (i.e., are you better to take a guy who looks like a great athlete who hasn't produced vs. a bigger name program guy who had great stats but his combine times weren't that good, etc). Going beyond that are there certain attributes that statistically are more significant (i.e, CB in a man scheme's shuttle type or something).

I'm nervous about this game. Giants have looked pretty solid past couple of weeks. I'm just still very nervous about the Bears, especially with the Rams after this one. Part of me has this fear we lose these next two, momentum takes a shift back, lose to Vikes and Packers and are in a world of hurt. And honestly...I don't think it is all that unrealistic. I say all this because when I modeled out the season with a buddy of mine (on the morning of the day we played the Packers on opening night), I had us pretty confidently at 7 to 8 wins at this point with us then rolling off a number of losses. I really hope I'm wrong.

I hope we don't have to sit Mitch and he's 100%. I think Schefter reported there is a possibility Mitch isn't ready this week.

Yeah, I don't think Daniel is very good. He can certainly win the game, but defense and others are going to have to play. He knows where to throw the ball to, so from that standpoint that is okay, but he just doesn't have near the skillset as Mitch.

Man this sucks. I hope he is okay. Seems like all the rumblings are that he won't play.

Thursday night game, on the road, vs. a divisional foe who we beat up 2 weeks ago....there is no way this will be a cakewalk for the Bears. None. This will be a dogfight.

Yeah. The concussion definitely happened on that play. I hope whatever Trubisky's injury is, it is minor.

Yeah - His team still scored 50+ points. There is no debating Mahomes vs. Trubisky at this point. Maybe one day Trubisky gets into that sphere, but right now, Mahomes is playing like one of the best young QB's in NFL history (hell he's essentially playing like one of the best QB's in NFL history). Yes, he had the two picks...one of which was just a tremendous play by the defense and he did have some turnovers. I am a big Trubisky fan, but there is no way if I were a GM I would pick Trubisky over Mahomes at this point (based upon what has happened on the field). None. That said, I'm very happy the Bears made the move they did make and I'm a big believer in Mitch. Hopefully we continue to see him progress and continue to make more steps forward. His leadership skills and moxie are strong and he seems extremely intelligent. I am excited to see him continue to grow and have not yet put a ceiling on what Mitch is/can be. I do believe his floor seems to be a quality game manager who can make the occasional big play. By the way, I should make it clear, I have not yet said that Mahomes will always be better than Mitch. There are many factors to weigh between the two, including who has better personell, who has more experience in the same system, etc. That said, I just can't argue the raw stats as Mahomes has been so amazing. Again, I am happy we have Trubisky and I am so exstatic Pace actually invested in the QB he believed in.

Thursday night football + divisional game. I presume this is going to be a wild one and hopefully the Bears can pull it out (and make it out of the game healthy)!!!

Trubisky listed on injury report with a right shoulder injury. Hopefully he is okay / injury is minor. Evidently it happened after the late hit near the end of the game. He joins Lynch and Shaheen on the injury report as the two of them are both in concussion protocol. Given the short week, I presume there is a good chance Shaheen/Lynch are out this week. Hopefully everything is good with Mitch!

I will say I am just not the type of guy that gets fired up over giving up 2 1st round picks. That said, so far so good. Helped that we filled a position of need with a major impact player who is just entering his prime years.

This was a really good team win and a great performance by the D. Offensively, they didn't put up a lot of points and they turned the ball over far more than I would have liked, but they also converted a good amount of 3rd downs and that says something, given how stingy the Vikings defense is. I'll consider this game a great barometer for the Bears and even for Mitch since Minny is one of the best defenses in the league. In terms of his two picks, the first one was just an awful read / decision. No doubt about that. The 2nd one has me totally confused as Robinson stopped and I don't know if it was a miscommunication, illegal contact (looked like the DB was all over Robinson) or a combination of the two. Was a really odd play though.

He made that great catch and now he's in concussion protocol. Hopefully he is okay and gets back quickly. If he's going to even have a chance at being good, he's got to be available/on the field. You can see the match-up nightmare he can pose (see successful 2 point conversion).

If we lose, it is purely a learning moment. I will not be surprised if we lose and it gives the team a better barometer for what it needs to clean up / improve to get to the next level. I haven't been this excited for the franchise since early in the Lovie Smith era.

Echo those sentiments.

The Minnesota game is going to be a real test. This will be by far the best defense Trubisky has faced all season. Its also one of the better offenses the Bears will face (especially now that Minnesota has Cook back in the backfield). I will state right now, no matter how good or BAD the game ends up being, I'm not going to overreact. This will be a good measure for the Bears as to where they stand...that said, the game to me has no measure on their LT future, albeit, I do think it is a good measuring stick to their current progress.

Fantastic win...special teams and rushing game are serious issues though, and they need to clean it up. Vikings game is going to be a big one.

I agree (in terms of his accuracy). I didn't think it was that bad in the "Bills" game (that was just a really odd game). He hit some huge throws in that 1st quarter and than I presume got extra "careful" given the big lead. That throw to Burton certainly was a WTF throw. Those will happen. The game before that was the "windy" game and we were taking some big shots down field, which aren't going to help the percentages given those conditions. I'd put that as an incomplete. Bottom line he knows he needs to clean-up his mechanics and footwork and some of that will happen more as things continue to slow down and some of it probably takes an off-season of progress. The biggest thing to me is mentally the dude seems to get it and is making a lot of progress. The other crazy thing is just how good the NFL QB's are these days. Mitch has a pretty high QB rating (from a historical perspective), yet its very pedestrian in this current NFL.

Some reports that Shaheen will make his return against the Vikings. Haven't seen the major media definitely report yet, but it seems like a reasonable assumption. They are still being very quiet on Robinson which makes me think it might only be Mack who makes his return this week.

Hopefully they are all 100% as well (and not still 75 or 80%). Great to have those guys back. Will be interesting to see if Shaheen is active on Sunday.

Detroit is jeckyl & hyde. They can be good and they can be bad. Who knows who shows up, but the fact that they got crushed a week ago is probably a bad thing and I'd suspect they come out and play a pretty good game against the Bears. I'm glad we are at home for this one cause that advantage might be the difference in the ballgame.

His ability to read defenses and his overall leadership qualities, give me a lot of reasons to be optimistic. I've said it before and I'll say it again, as he continues to get more comfortable iwth this offense (and as the players get more comfortable...especially after this next off-season), I think we'll see another big step forward. I fully expect these guys to continue working with each other in the off-season and I think Mitch will clean-up his footwork, etc (and I think those things will naturally clean-up as he gains comfort as well). The way I've seen him mature in throwing guys open and making reads, makes me very optimistic with his future. Plus he just seems to have this "moxy" to him.

I hope Nagy tells Cohen he needs to stop going backwards. Cohen is explosive, but we need to channel him better. Those negative plays can really hurt.

I believe Hester would have gotten destroyed being used like Patterson. Cordelle is a much bigger / physical guy who can take more of that pounding. I'd have loved Hester being used in more of the Tarik Cohen / Tyreke Hill roll. Hester's big problem was that he wasn't that crisp of a route-runner but you know he'd get all kinds of space in this offensive system.