adam

late throw on 3rd down.....

and of course, Moore hurt on the 2nd play of the game. This team is cursed.

They are the worst defense in the league, it will be hard to lose.

TEN lost so Bears are currently 7th. WAS just took the lead against the Jets, a Jets loss would slide the Bears to 8th. For draft position, LAC, TEN, and NYJ might all lose. If NYG loses on Christmas to PHI, the Bears slide to 9th with a win.

CAR giving everyone a heart attack, what the hell, 33-30 against CAR?

This season the Bears had the NFC South and the AFC West, next season they get the AFC South and NFC West. It feels like a fairly even schedule. The Bears get 9 home games next season, which is nice. Here are the current non-division games: @SF, JAX, @IND, @HOU, LAR, SEA, TEN, @ARZ, WAS, NE, CAR I know we don't know what some teams will look like, but to make the playoffs next year, the Bears would need at least 6-7 wins from this group. So CAR, NE, WAS, ARZ, and TEN seem like highly likely wins. They would need 1-2 from SEA, LAR, HOU, IND, and JAX. What do you think? I feel like that is very reasonable and the odds should have the Bears favored in at least 6 of those.

Some coaches who seem immune to criticism: 1. Robert Saleh 16-32 in 3 seasons with the Jets. What exactly has he done in NY? This is without Brady in the division. 2. After a great start (prebuilt team), Mike Vrabel is 12-19 in the last two seasons and 5-16 in his last 21 games (lost their last 7 last season), which is the same as Eberflus.

Fields definitely can still turn the trend around, but it can't keep waiting another game or another season, he needs to have a dominant game today. Then do it again against ATL, then in 3 weeks, do it one more time to close out the year. That would really send a statement.

Sort of on topic, do you remember the slide that the Bears showed where they rated their players and Claypool, Velus, and Fields were their top rated players based on athleticism? It is interesting that the top 3 rated players may all end up off the team and as potential busts. To me, there are certain positions where that matters more than others and it seems that QB and WR are not two of them.

Merry Christmas!

Chargers loss drops the Bears to #6. With the Giants, Jets, and Titans all with 5 wins, a win would send the Bears down to #9 or #10 if ATL loses. With all the other games, the Panthers now have a .006 SoS lead on the Patriots.

Watching the early Saturday game, I was curious to see how the PIT QBs compared to Fields in terms of career arc. Below is their ELO comparison. Fields was trending as the worst of the bunch, then had that huge turnaround last year where he actually surpassed Lawrence and Pickett at the same number of starts (between 22-27). Since that point, Pickett continues to trend exactly how he started. That is interesting to me because he did have a ton of college attempts and was one of the QBs that "is who he is" and from the looks of it, that was spot on. Lawrence turned it around and has been steadily improving over his last 20+ games. Fields has a chance to revert some of these trends with 3 great games to close out the year. Then he would at least be trending up year over year.

I am cheering for a win and a clean game, but not disappointed if they lose.

I don't know if there is another sure thing like him in the draft. He is an automatic 1,500 yard/10 TD WR annually for a decade.

He does it effortlessly, we can't pass up on him. Instantly a top 5 WR, Jefferson, Chase, Lamb level.

oh nice, good news on the neck.

I don't know if you heard the interview with Hightower, but when CLE elected to receive, it got them all flustered, and they took the wind for the 1st quarter? Who does that? So they screwed themselves knowing it was a 5-yard difference with wind.

Here is my trade back outside of top 3 (first 5 rounds only):

Do you have a favorite guy per round? For me, 1st is MHJ, in the 2nd, probably Legette and Fautanu, in the 3rd Powers-Johnson, Brenden Rice.

Great move, the most accurate kicker in franchise history. Don't make the same mistake twice. They let Robbie walk and regretted it. Now all we need is a new punter and our kicking will be an advantage.

Sack rate has always been in an issue with Fields, but I didn't know it was this bad. I thought he improved on it considerably this season, but now closing out his 3rd season, he is in some dubious company when it comes to sacks and hits. For his career, Fields has the 2nd highest sack% in NFL history for a 3rd Year QB at 12.49%. To put that into perspective, the most sacked QB in recent memory, who literally was shellshocked out of the league was David Carr, who is 9th on this list with a 10.41%. For overall sacks within the first 3 years, Fields is 9th with 126. With 3 games left, it looks like he will more than likely surpass Jake Plummer (128) and Fran Tarkenton (129). If you take into account sacks + rushing attempts, only Cam Newton took more hits (114 sacks + 364 rushes=477) than Fields in his first 3 seasons so far (to Fields 126 sacks + 328 rushes=454). Fields only needs 24 rushes/sacks in the last 3 games to pass Cam Newton. Obviously not every rushing attempt is a hit, but still, this is not good for Fields longevity. Cam's sack% was only 7.17%. Cam Newton played 8 seasons, before missing one, then coming back with one arm in NE for a season, and started 5 in Carolina to end his career at 32. Ultimately his last full season in CAR was when he was 29. Fields will be 25 in March. I wonder how much of this goes into Poles assessment?

I'm good with Poles moves. Velus was #71, so I wouldn't call that a late pick, the 7th pick in the 3rd Round. I really think the late run on WRs in the 2nd made him reach. He drafts Brisker at 48, and only 9 WRs have went so far with guys like Thornton, Pickens, Pierce, and Moore all still on the board. Then they all come off the board in the next 6 picks. So the 3rd starts and not a single WR is selected and he does not have a 4th rounder. By the time they pick again, it's pick 168, where he picked Braxton Jones. Crazy fact, guess who went the pick in front of Jones? DaRon Bland, NFL leader in INTs. In an alternate universe, the Bears have Abraham Lucas, Alec Pierce, and DaRon Bland instead of Jones, Jones, and Gordon.

If you did, great call, I didn't really think he was that bad, but he has been really bad. So bad, I am surprised they never considered bringing in someone off the street. Gill is last in NFL in net punting at 37.2, to put that into perspective, Nick Folk, K for TEN, 39 yrs old, had to punt twice in a game due to an injury and his net is 39.0. Gill only puts 25.5% of his kicks inside the 20, 3rd worst, that is half as many as the league leader, which is insane. His net last year was 39.0 and he was putting 30.3% of his kicks inside the 20.

It feels like Scott and Mooney are very redundant, and if you plan to keep Scott, I don't think they bring back Mooney. What sucks is Scott has also underperformed, and I wouldn't mind moving on from him next season as well.

I try to see this from utilization vs production. A Center touches the ball on every offensive play, that to me is more valuable than WR2 who may only be the 3rd most targeted player. Then comparing to 3T and Edge. Who is replacing who? At Center, even a league average player replacing Patrick would be a huge upgrade. I also can't believe Punter is not listed but we get to PR, WR3, and TE2. My list would be: 1. Center 2. Edge (Edge and 3T are basically interchangeable needs for me) 3. 3T 4. FS (Free Safety and WR2 are super close) 5. WR2 6. Punter (Gill is one of the worst punters, we can't afford to gift 5-10 yards per punt) 7. TE2 8. RB2/3 (The RB room really nosedived this season) 9. WR3 10. OL Depth That is not necessarily the order I would draft in, but if I could only have 1, I am getting a new Center over anything else.