adam

Awesome, send us some play by plays!

Yeah I see that as well. The get off needs to be instinctual.

Is "iron sharps iron" the new "collaborate"?

I just think the bar is too low for us. We are so accustomed to bad QB play that we are celebrating 3K passing yards. If Justin plays 16 of the 17 games, is it really a stretch to think he can't pass for 225 yds per game (3600 for season)?

The more I look into this, the more I believe Fields is going to easily throw for more than 3500 yards. We are just so tainted by the last two years that we can't see past those. Trubisky averaged 208 yds/g for the Bears. Even in just a 16 game season, he averaged 3328 yds per season. That includes his rookie year where they barely let him pass. Trubisky threw for 3223 yds in 2018 (in 14 games), that was 230 Y/G, which would be 3910 for 17 games. So who did Mitch have to throw to? These were his top 7 targets (ARob, Gabriel, Cohen, Burton, Miller, Howard, and Josh Bellamy)! The leader in receiving yardage was ARob with 754! I forgot how bad that offense was because the defense was so good. Then in 2019, he threw for 3138, in 15 games, that's 3553 in 17 games. His top 7 were: (ARob, Cohen, Miller, Gabriel, Monty, Wims, and Burton). Just compare that to the projected Moore, Mooney, Claypool, Kmet, Tonyan, Herbert, Foreman. Very few guys from those teams would even make this roster, ARob would be WR4, Cohen would be RB3, and Burton would be TE3, but those 3 are it. If Fields can't throw for 3K or more, he is just not it. I believe he will but if he doesn't they will have to move on from him because there are zero excuses when you compare the offenses from the Mitch era.

At this point, the core of the team is set. At most they will churn the bottom 2-3 slots of the roster. Rarely do any of these new additions matter unless there is a surprise cut, injury, or trade.

Yeah, PFF is not good at many things, and rating QBs when there are already stats to do so is silly. It's mainly because his throw to Moore was off, yet if you look at the ball out of his hands, it was just an odd ball. He threw around the defender to Blasingame, and escaped the pocket on the Herbert one. Not much else he could really do.

Good luck, let us know if you get in.

Crazy to think that this went for a 50+ yard TD pass.

Crazy to think both Elliott and Cook are the same age. Elliott came into the NFL one year prior and has 600 more carries, 3300 more yards, and 80 more receptions. Cook is entering the danger zone of career touches, and Elliott is smack dab in the middle of it. Risk of injury or steep decline is super high for Elliott, Cook still probably has a good year to two years left in him.

The Bears have had 80% turnover on their 53-man roster since the 2021 opening day roster. The only players left from that roster are: Fields, Herbert, Mooney, Kmet, Whitehair, Jenkins, Borom, Johnson, Jackson, Santos, and Scales. Assuming Gipson and Vildor miss the cut.

Robinson would not clear waivers. Ebner might, but some teams have crappy RB rooms. It is highly unlikely the Bears keep 5 Edge. Looking back at last year's snap counts, they never suited up more than 4 DEs and only had 3 in Weeks 17 and 18. There is not enough snaps to go around. Same goes for RB, the 3rd RB gets only a few offensive snaps, and the 4th RB rarely gets any. It is still wild to me that almost every player that is no longer on the 53-man from last year would even make the 53-man this year. Outside of Roquan, and maybe DHC as S4 and ST, the other 23 players wouldn't even make this year's roster. Gipson is one of those 23 fighting for a final spot on the back end of the roster. I don't think people outside of Chicago understand the amount of turnover the Bears have had. All they see is DJ Moore, Wright, Edmunds, and maybe Stevenson.

The only guy he could replace is Dylan Cole. The LB Room is stacked, but they can only have 5 on the roster, with only 2 on the field most of the time.

Yep, it looks that way. The split second hesitation allowed the blocks to be setup just right for him to slip thru. If he catches and goes, the defender's angle changes and he gets around the block.

Very true, he still has to work on his short game accuracy, even though the ones to Blasingame and Herbert were fine. He needs to do the easy things better, which is weird. It is nice that he has playmakers that can do the work for him. Just with improved YAC alone, increased attempts, he will easily surpass 3K passing yards.

The front seven facelift is impressive considering they traded for Moore and drafted a OT in the first round, and still did this to the front 7, and improved the secondary at the same time. Smith was the biggest loss, but basically negated by Edmunds, but then you go from Morrow to Edwards, Blackson to Billings, Muhammad to Walker, Watts/Pennel/Jonathan to Green/Dexter/Pickens, Vildor/Jackson to Stevenson/Smith. DHC probably the biggest net loss on the entire team unless someone like Cole or Colbert emerges as a ST superstar. Outside of that, all seem like upgrades. 15 losses replaced by 14 new players (Safety > RB accounts for loss of 1).

Here is a comp from last year to this year. 10 offensive players replaced by 11 new offensive players (currently 1 less Safety, 1 more RB). Mustipher, Reiff, Griffin, Wesco, Tonges, Pringle, Smith-Marsette for Davis, Wright, Tonyan, Lewis, Johnson, Moore, Claypool are massive upgrades across the board. bears53_comp.pdf

So most stats are meaningless. Most of the preseason stats leaders never amount to anything in the league. However, I tried to see if there were any trends from players that Fields has been comp'd to in terms of career progression (Year 3 leap, gets true WR1, etc). This is what I found, it might be completely irrelevant, but interesting nonetheless: Preseason Comp% J. Allen - 54.5%, 64.3%, 76.9% (Diggs), 100% L. Jackson - 50%, 62.5%, 75% J. Hurts - 42.9%, 100% (Brown) T. Tagovailoa - 70.6%, 80% (Hill) J. Fields - 61.2%, 76.7%, 100% (Moore) Everyone of these QBs improved their comp% YoY in their first few years. One other note, Fields had a better rookie comp% than Allen, Jackson, and Hurts. Just something to watch to see where Fields ends up after playing a few more series this summer. In comparison, Jordan Love had a 68.6%, then it dropped to 55.4%, and popped back up after the first game to 70%. Just something to watch for. If he doesn't keep it over 68.6%, then he is trending the wrong way.

The Athletic released their 53-man projection and the main difference is they are keeping 5 RBs vs 4. For me, that is hard to see, if you already have Herbert, Foreman, and Roschon getting carries, is there really much more for Homer and Blasingame AND Ebner? I think it is going to come down to Ebner vs Gipson/Lewis. One of those 3 are not making the team. For the other bubble positions, they have Jaylon Jones as CB6 over Vildor and company. They have Adrian Colbert over Thomas and Trahan for S4, which is fine to me.

Yeah, a lot of interest for sure. We are debating Air Yards in the first preseason game, lmao. One other note, I can't wait until we get some TE targets and see Claypool out there with Moore and Mooney. Someone is getting CB3 on every play.

Lance looked really shaky against LVR. His stats look good, 10-15, 112 yds, 1 TD, and 4 sacks, but he got super lucky twice. He threw a RZ pass right into Duke Shelley's hands and he ping ponged it right to a SF Tight End for the TD. Near the end of the 2nd quarter, he again threw it right to a defender who dropped it. Anytime there was pressure, he looked really shaky. Other young QBs: Love 7-10, 46 yds, 4.6 Y/A, 1 TD (Clifford looked 10x better than Love) Lawrence 5-6, 36 yds, 6.0 Y/A, 1 TD, 1 INT (his INT was ugly) Wilson 14-20, 123 yds, 6.2 Y/A, 1 TD, 1 sack Mills 9-12, 99 yds, 1 TD (Mills always seems to be decent) Pickett 6-7, 90 yds, 10 Y/A, 1 TD (he looked really good) Howell 9-12, 77 yds, 6.4 Y/A, 1 TD, 1 sack Trask 6-10, 99 yds, 9.9 Y/A, 1 INT, 3 sacks Willis 16-25, 189 yds, 7.6 Y/A, 1 INT, 4 sacks Young 4-6, 21 yds, 3.5 Y/A, 1 sack (he was getting crushed) Stroud 2-4, 13 yds, 1 INT, 1 sack (looked really bad) Richardson 7-12, 67 yds, 5.6 Y/A, 1 INT Levis 9-14, 85 yds, 6.1 Y/A, 1 INT, 4 sacks Trubisky 1-4, 10 yds, 2.5 Y/A, 1 INT (looked like vintage Mitch)

It has to be parody, the throw to Blasingame hit him in the chest while he threw it around an LB.

This is straight fire. I saw this on Twitter too. Really cool and fits them well.

Yeah, Vildor is gone with that amount of cap savings. Gipson vs Lewis is one of the storylines, which is great because that is not for a starting position and shows the depth Poles is building. True on Leatherwood, I am thinking his spot comes down to injuries. If a OT is out then he stays, if Davis is out, they will need a Guard. For Velus, I am just tracking the touches: Velus: 2 PRs, 1 target, 1 reception Scott: 1 PR, 1 KR, 2 targets, 1 reception Webster: 1 PR, 3 targets, 1 reception, 1 tackle Ford: 1 target, 1 reception I felt like the newer/younger Safeties played well enough to make S4 interesting.

I hope they do because we need all the pass rush help we can get. On Velus, no clue, I am sure someone would take a flyer on him with 3 years left on his rookie deal.