adam

It basically forces teams to use 3 LBs. Looking at LB coverage grades, I was surprised to see D'Marco Jackson as the 2nd highest rated LB in coverage, only behind Fred Warner. 4th was a guy named Devin Bush who played in CLE last year. 18th was TJ Edwards. So the Bears have 3 of the top 18 coverage LBs in the NFL. On the flip side, there are a few others from the division, Cooper from GB was 9th and Campbell from DET was 12th. So the Bears may have gotten ahead of this trend on both offense and defense.

It seems that we finally have one benefit, the 3rd least amount of travel: and if the Bears open the season in Seattle on Wednesday, they would have 3,432 miles already out of the way and have the least amount of travel for the remainder of the season by a huge margin. Panthers are the least with 8,740, but if the Bears got that 3400 out of the way before Carolina even played, the Bears would only have about 7,244 left (the least by 1500 miles). Teams like SF and LAR will spend over 4 days worth of time on airplanes during the season.

Glad to see Caleb working with WRs and Loveland outside of the facility. Burden, Jahdae, Odunze, and Loveland seem to be getting extra work in which is great to see. First at USC then at Northwestern.

Then you add the lack of compensation for the Cunningham stuff and the recent scheduling, it seems that Goodell doesn't care too much for the McCaskeys. If you look at the bye weeks, the Bears have gotten shafted almost every year. They never get a favorable bye. Then when they had an international game, it was considered a home game, so they ended up with only 7 games at Soldier Field.

Another slot option.

I am not saying anyone sucks, just at this point the Bears have gotten zero return on investment for Pick 109 from the 2025 draft. BUF used that pick on Deone Walker, who is a starting DT for the Bills and would be a first round pick in a redraft. The Bears were weak at DT and Poles decided to trade out of that spot and then pick Hyppolite and Frazier with the new picks. That is a terrible exchange. The Bears scouting staff seems biased one way or another. It seems to not work more than it works. So you get Monangai in the 7th but miss on Velus, Pickens, Scott, etc in earlier rounds. I know every team misses on picks but in 5 years Poles has wasted more than an entire draft's worth of picks. That miss rate is too high. He needs to hit on this 2026 draft and all future drafts otherwise there will be a steep dropoff in talent when Caleb's new money hits.

LT is still a question mark, but a healthier Braxton is better than an injured one.

Frazier thing sucks for everyone. The Bears traded Pick #109 and drafted Hyppolite and Frazier. Got literally zero out of that pick. BUF got a productive DL with that pick btw.

For GB, they are betting on Parsons health on defense, and the health of Watson and Kraft on offense. I don't know why Kraft is getting so much love. He had 2 great games last year, but those were the 2 best games of career, and the only two games over 90 yards receiving. So to me, those were outliers, not some new trend. Those games plus 2 games where he had a TD with only 2 receptions really warped his stats per game and per reception. However, for his career, he averages 37 yds per game, which is 8 yards more than Cole Kmet.

Without considering the draft picks, which right now seem to favor the Bears, it seems like every other NFC North team got worse this offseason. GB lost 2 guys on their O-Line, plus Quay Walker, Rashan Gary, and Wicks and Doubs at WR. At some point in the last few years both Doubs and Wicks were anointed as WR1s. GB's big add, Javon Hargrave who was subpar last year in a MIN defense that was really good. They traded for Zaire Franklin, who is a less dynamic Quay Walker. They also lost Malik Willis who was arguably the best QB2 in the NFL. So to me, they will take a step back. They also lost their DC. DET lost Monty, Decker, Glasgow, Reader, and Raymond and only added Cade Mays at Center. They also added Pacheco but he does not get the dirty yards that Monty got. They seem to be taking another step back. Another team that expects to get better from within. MIN lost Greenard, Kelly, Hargrave, Allen, and Harrison Smith. That defense will not be the same, and they still have 9 at QB. Their big add was Eric Wilson at LB? What am I missing here? How are they winning 8 games? The Bears may not have gotten substantially better on paper, but they didn't get worse. Byard Brisker becomes Bryant Thieneman, which should be an overall upgrade. Edmunds to Bush is an upgrade. The two biggest losses outside of the guys already mentioned are Moore and Dalman. Dalman was literally replaced by 2 guys, and Moore's targets are going to Burden, Odunze, Loveland, Thomas, Raymond, and Roush. So not all of Moore has to be replaced by a rookie.

I think Jacas and Jones were their top 2 guys at 57, Jacas goes at 55, so you could with C#1 at 57. It does make sense. I guess the only argument you could make is trading back from 57 to get more in return than 60, but then you risk getting sniped at 58 and 59.

I do like that the Bears are finally getting with the program and understanding the college pipelines. They haven't been going with too many small school players. Zah Frazier was the only pick in the last few years from a "small" school. I would like a few more picks from top 5 schools but this is a solid group. Oregon - 13-2 (4th) Iowa - 9-4 (17th) Stanford 4-8 LSU 7-6 Texas 10-3 (12th) ASU 8-5 GT 9-4 (31st)

Probably pissed off that he had to wait to 124 to get picked when he was projected in the 3rd.

and free agency will be a thing of the past. They may sign one bigger contract per season, but they will have to make it work via trade and the draft.

That is true. Just like in previous years, I am leery about older prospects (thanks Velus) because it is hard to gauge their actual performance considering they are playing against a lot of 18 and 19 yr olds at 23 and 24.

Not that it would impact the Bears, but free agents signed now won't impact comp pick formula.

Logan Jones will be 25 in October, he is at least a year older than Loveland, Turner, Burden, Walker, Sewell, Odunze, Newman, Monangai, and Booker. Jones is only 3 years younger than Dalman.

The Bears won't be able to afford Edge, LT, DT, or CB in free agency once Caleb's contract extension hits. So the best way to offset that is to have as many players at the highest cap positions on rookie deals in 2029. So any player drafted this year after the 1st round would have one year before they would have to be resigned. I have to think that was considered. Basically every player in a high cap positional value position would be unlikely to get a 2nd contract unless they were a stud. However, lesser position guys like S, C, and TE could be resigned, because their average cap hit for that position is less. So it would make sense for the Bears to invest fully in Edge, DT, CB, and OT in the top 3 rounds of 2027, 2028, and 2029 to offset Caleb's incoming deal.

It is just starting to feel like Poles MO. Zig when the league is zagging.

If Poles is cooking something, then that makes the draft make more sense because you don't want to lock in a roster spot (due to draft pick status) if you need the spot available for a move like this.

If the Bears get one more vet, like Cam Jordan or DaJuan Jones, I would be happy. Bosa would be a consolation prize, but I almost think run stopping is a bigger issue than the pass rush, but both are equally bad.

Oh no, there are a bunch of NFC North non-Bears on there. However, I remember mocks with Chop Robinson, Myles Murphy, and Siaka Ika on them for the Bears. All crazy busts.

I would not be surprised if they went RB really early.

So I wanted to see who was more correct, the consensus on players (big boards) or where teams selected them. I have more work to do with this, but here is a quick snapshot. I looked at 2023 and 2024, just rounds 1-3, and identified the 3 lowest producing players based on their draft slot, the busts. Then I compared that to where the big board had them. In 11 out of 18 the team drafted the player higher than the consensus, making bad picks into busts. The consensus only had 5 players higher than they were drafted that turned out to be busts. So the consensus is over 2x more accurate than the teams own evaluations. Meaning that if all these teams stuck to the big board, they would've had 2x better odds at hitting on a player. 2023 Van Ness @ 13 (27th) - TEAM REALLY WRONG Anudike-Uzomah @ 32 (32nd) - BOTH WRONG Murphy @ 28 (17th) - CONSENSUS REALLY WRONG 2nd Round Ojulari @ 41 (57th) - TEAM REALLY WRONG Cam Smith @ 51 (41st) - CONSENSUS REALLY WRONG Foskey @ 40 (73rd) - TEAM REALLY WRONG 3rd Round Hooker @ 68 (47th) - CONSENSUS REALLY WRONG Stromberg @ 97 (N/A) - TEAM REALLY WRONG Ika @ 98 (88th) - CONSENSUS REALLY WRONG 2024 McCarthy @ 10 (28th) - TEAM REALLY WRONG Chop Robinson @ 21 (40th) - TEAM REALLY WRONG Darius Robinson @ 27 (61st) - TEAM REALLY WRONG Polk @ 37 (48th) - TEAM REALLY WRONG Sinnot @ 53 (105th) - TEAM REALLY WRONG Rakestraw @ 61 (46th) - CONSENSUS REALLY WRONG Trice @74 (98th) - TEAM REALLY WRONG Reiman @82 (202nd) - HOLY SHIT TEAM REALLY WRONG Lloyd @88 (84th) - BOTH WRONG

My hope and theory is the Bears have something in place to address an upgrade at Edge, but it won't come until after June 1st, whether that is with a free agent or thru a trade. That is my only hope, otherwise this feels like a very weak offseason where they side-graded because of the losses at C and S. So the additions of Bradury and Jones are a wash with Dalman. Bryant and Thieneman are an upgrade at Safety, but if the DLine can't stop the run or rush the passer, how effective will the secondary even be? Then on offense, you traded your WR1 in hopes that your other guys will elevate, but ultimately all the other moves were rotational or backup in nature. So technically, the offense is worse on paper going into 2026 and you still have questions at LT.