DABEARSDABOMB

I'm going to guess Kevin White.

Is he actually going to play week one? I presume he will be pretty limited and likely miss at least the first week?

I’m changing my tune a bit and getting more jacked up about this. I wish we had a full offseason with Smith and Mack and the rest of the gang but on paper the D is looking way up. I think they have the ability to be elite..although I still think playoffs will be tough this year due to all the new faces and what I expect to be some up and downs offensively as trubisky develops and the team continues to learn. Long term I think the arrow is pointing up and hopefully the production during the season matches that.

My fear is I have long thought Mack is overrated and he is coming off his worse year. Have never seen him as the elite guy the rest of the media world has but hopefully he really is that elite difference maker who can help make our d next level special. He will need to be given the picks plus a contract similar or more to what Aaron Donald just got.

Wow. Two firsts and more.

I don't think O'Donnell will be our punter. I think we end up going with the rookie.

I never said it guaranteed success, but it would be foolish to not invest in that pick. It's one thing to immediately cut ties with a 4th or 5th round pick (even that isn't preferred) but its a whole nother thing to not put a distinct amount of time into a guy drafted #2 overall (there was obviously enough that you liked that you invested that highly in him, so you better be able to invest the time into him). Either way, this is a moot point because Trubisky has performed in practice and been picking things up appropriately. I haven't heard any rumblings of any major concerns regarding him (a year ago, people literally thought Jared Goff wasn't going to be the starter a few weeks into the season for the Rams...and most didn't even think he deserved to start). Trubisky has done what you'd expect of a young QB. He very much could bust, but thus far he's done nothing to indicate you shouldn't be pouring 1000% of your resources into his development and Pace has very much done that by surrounding him with what he believes to be a bright offensive coaching staff (and one who they believe are very capable of developing a young QB) as well as shiny new offensive weapons (Robinson, Burton, Gabriel, & Miller). That said, this is a complex offense and it is a young player, who had limited college experience, who is in his first year of this offense. We should absolutely expect growing pains, but we should also see long-term improvement and hopefully more and more moments of greatness and larger pockets of that greatness. Bottom line is Trubisky has done everything asked of him thus far, he's still got a hell of a long way to go and even if he lights the world on fire this year, he still has a heck of a long way to go to become a consistently great QB. Reality is he has far more risk of not being good than being great (nature of the beast at this point), but we need to invest everything in him to increase al of the odds of him being a great player. Certainly he's shown indications...but many many mediocre to bad QB's have as well.

Trubisky was the #2 overall draft pick last year and has gotten all of the major reps. Daniel is a career backup (albeit one with good familiarity with the systme). There is absolutely ZERO QB controversy and there shouldn't be any (no matter how much Trubisky could stink this year, you invested the #2 pick in him and need to give him his chance). By the way, lets not act like Trubisky has sucked all preseason or something either. This is Trubisky's team and barring injury will be all year and should be next year as well (when you invest a #2 pick in a player, you stick by them and let them develop or not develop but you invest the time in them either way).

Fantastic news!!! Alright kid...come in (hopefully he's in good shape), get in better shape, learn the system, work hard, and get up to speed. Sucks he didn't get those practices in, but he's going to get some preseason action.

Shit...if I knew me making a post like this would spur Smith to sign...I would have made it a month ago haha.

I agree; We can only hope he can end up being so good that he bounces back and can be valuable this year (similar to Bosa in San Diego; that said, I think Bosa is the exception to the rule vs. the norm).

This is going to go all the way until the start of the season (when a player actually starts to loose money).

Daniels 1st pick had nothing to do with him. 2nd pick depends on who misread who, but overall when Daniels was protected (1st two drives especially), he looked good. Later on, Ravens had a pretty good pass rush and Bears struggled to move the ball. No major injuries and a few young players flashed...I'll take the game as a plus. O'Donnell also had some really nice punts.

Agree with all of these things. About the only comments I have related to the game to be honest. Was good to see all of those things.

Yep - If this is true, it is all on Smith and his agent.

I normally am one that typically can understand both sides of a holdout, however, in this case, based upon the facts at hand, it appears to me that the Bears are way off here and should back down. I can't think of any legitimate way to even defend the Bears position (albeit, maybe I'm missing out on a key fact set but it seems to me that the concern is that he gets suspended and all of sudden the Bears pull his guaranteed money from him and walk away (because he stinks / is a bust / etc). The intent of the rule was not to cut players over stuff like this.

Great summary, but one thing to remember is we have a young QB in a brand new system and its supposedly a pretty complex system. Lots of new parts and concepts are going to make it relatively probable for natural growing pains. I think we have to remember that and to me the big thing is seeing consistent progress and development. I don't think we'll be a top 10 unit this year but my hope is we are trending that direction by the end of the year. Hopefully I'm wrong and you are right and we just shred like the Rams but I don't know that we should expect something like that to happen.

I hope they work things out. Just think of Chargers last year and the long holdout they had with Bosa.

I agree - I'm pulling for him too cause he's fun to watch when he gets rolling. If he can become a solid catcher, it will make him more dominant. Hopefully he stays healthy cause that is the only thing that could hold him back.

I just hope for no injuries

I thought those were real cool. Will they make a difference in actual play...probably not...but cool nonetheless.

I think the defense outperformed a year ago. The nice thing is, we do have Hicks / Goldman who can generate rush from the line and hopefully we see steps forward from RR / Bullard. Hopefully Floyd is healthy and steps up the pass rush and Roquan might help a bit there as well. That said, we don't have any other dynamic players that I anticipate emerging from there. I don't think we will be bad, but I certainly don't think we will be as dynamic as if we had one more guy. But we can only address so many holes and it will be on the list next off-season, ideally in a draft that will have a lot more depth at the position (I think I saw where like 7 of the top 10 prospects for next years draft (yes...very preliminary) were dl/pass rushers. I don't expect to be picking top 10, but in all honesty, i still expect we are in that range of 14-18.

I can't give Nagy any credit for White. I suppose there is the route running / natural development, but I can't blame the past staff for the fact that White missed multiple seasons due to injuries.

Below is a link to an excellent article highlighting each of the UDFA free agents the Bears brought in. https://theloopsports.com/2018/04/30/bears-breaking-down-the-udfa-class/

Hard to judge the grasu pick. He suffered two major injuries so we never really got to see what he could have been.