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Week 1 - Vikings at Bears (MNF) - W Week 2 - Bears at Lions - L (short week, team still gelling) Week 3 - Cowboys at Bears - W Week 4 - Bears at Raiders - W 3-1 Week 5 - BYE WEEK Week 6 - Bears at Commanders (MNF) - W (2024 rematch with a much better team/coach, bye gives them an extra week to prepare) Week 7 - Saints at Bears - W Week 8 - Bears at Ravens - L Week 9 - Bears at Bengals - L 2-2 Week 10 - Giants at Bears - W Week 11 - Bears at Vikings - W Week 12 - Steelers at Bears - W Week 13 - Bears at Eagles (FRI) - L 3-1 Week 14 - Bears at Packers - L Week 15 - Browns at Bears - W Week 16 - Packers at Bears (SAT) - W Week 17 - Bears at 49ers (SNF) - L Week 18 - Lions at Bears - W 3-2 11-6 If the Bears can beat DAL in Week 3 at home and handle business in the division at home, they have a great chance at going 8-0 at home with the other games being NO, NYG, PIT, and CLE.

4 "short" weeks either after MNF, or leading into the FRI or SAT games. Right now it looks like no more than back to back weeks at home or on the road.

Bye is Week 5 ugh. Feels way too early for me. Earliest bye week should be Week 7.

They released all international games, and the Bears are not on the slate. I do not mind at all that they don't have to travel internationally. The Bears travel the 5th fewest miles. I would say there is not much of a difference in a few thousand miles over the course of an entire season, but with the top 3 teams having over 30K miles and 20K more than the Bears seems like a lot for them, and a good thing for the Bears.

No Thanksgiving Game but we get a Black Friday game. Hoping the bye is Week 12 so it's not a short week on the road in Philly. Week 1 - Vikings at Bears (MNF) Week 2 - Bears at Lions Week 3 - Cowboys at Bears Week 4 - Bears at Raiders Week 5 - BYE WEEK Week 6 - Bears at Commanders (MNF) Week 7 - Saints at Bears Week 8 - Bears at Ravens Week 9 - Bears at Bengals Week 10 - Giants at Bears Week 11 - Bears at Vikings Week 12 - Steelers at Bears Week 13 - Bears at Eagles (FRI) Week 14 - Bears at Packers Week 15 - Browns at Bears Week 16 - Packers at Bears (SAT) Week 17 - Bears at 49ers (SNF) Week 18 - Lions at Bears

It's amazing what a Win-Loss record does for you. It's also crazy that Nix led all rookie QBs in passing TDs and Passing Yards, but you would think Daniels dominated all the other QBs when he only had 27 more passing yards than Williams. Williams had 4x 300-yd games, and Daniels had one, against the Bears, meaning he needed the Hail Mary to even hit 300. Hell, he doesn't even have another game over 275 yards.

Collectively, between Johnson and Allen, they have to be a top 5 play-calling duo for both sides of the ball. Then you add Bieniemy, Randle El, and Harris, and we have some of the best position group coaches as well with a ton of experience either playing and or coaching. HC / Play Caller - Johnson DC - Allen ST - Hightower RB - Bieniemy WR - Randle El DB - Harris

I wonder if they are interested, or want to go full tank mode. Bagent would win them some games. They also drafted Shough in the 2nd round.

I saw two funny ones: Chicago got the papacy before Detroit won a Super Bowl. It only took two days to select Pope Leo XIV, and it took 3 days to select Shedeur Sanders.

I think it is natural for Bears fans to be pessimistic when it comes to passing numbers, but Goff is a good comp. He had 2x years with Anthony Lynn before Johnson took over. He improved in every statistical category. So Goff averaged 8.6 Y/A last year, which followed up back to back years of 7.6 Y/A. Williams was at 6.3 Y/A. So just say Williams adds only 1.0 Y/A to his average, that's over 500 yards from last year's total. If you consider that with the sack reduction, now he is around 700 yards better than last year with nothing else changed. If Trubisky could average 230 yards passing a game, Williams can average 250 per game. Stroud averaged 273 his rookie year. This is kind of funny looking back on it, but Trubisky averaged 230 yards per game in 2018 passing to Gabriel, Robinson, Miller, Burton, and Cohen. Compare that to Moore, Odunze, Burden, Loveland, Kmet, and Swift.

and the same with my numbers, I didn't account for any WR beyond WR3, or TE2. Duvernay, Zaccheaus, Scott, or Smythe. Zaccheaus had 45 receptions last year. I am not saying it will be a lot but even a few catches per player beyond the ones we listed would bump up Caleb's numbers by at least 100-200 yards.

Good to see for the Bears. It looks like the Texans are the first team ever to give a fully guaranteed contract to a 2nd rounder.

My perfect world prediction was: Williams 395-580, 68.1%, 4490 yds, 7.7 Y/A, 31 TD, 8 INT He does have Williams missing 2 games, so the TDs look spot on, but I doubt he doubles his INT rate. Also, if he only averages 35 extra passing yards a game with the addition of Ben Johnson, the new O-Line, Loveland, and Burden, then I still see that as a failure. Stroud threw for 4100 in 15 games as a rookie but Caleb with everything around him better will throw for 500 fewer yards?

Everyone can have an opinion, and it is always safer to go lower because that only increases the chances of the player of meeting the expectations, but in this case, this would not be a successful season for Caleb outside of the 28 TDs.

and he may only end up as a one year rental. Is he really going to play on the last year of his rookie deal without any future protection? If he sees himself as a WR1, I doubt he plays on a lame duck deal, especially knowing he won't be #1 in targets.

Williams had a 9-sack game, 2x 7's, and a 6. If there was improvement in just those 4 games to 2 sacks, that is a 21 sack reduction from 68 to 47 in just 4 games. Sacks make a whole bunch of other stats look horrible. EPA drops, QBR, and just about every other advanced passing metric really dock QBs hard for sacks, and in some cases, even more so than interceptions. So if Williams does cut his sack total in half, his advanced metric stats are going to look like they were shot out of a cannon. If you apply the updated projected sack totals to last year's QBR, he becomes a top 12 QBR QB without any other changes. He was 28th in QBR last year. That is how big sacks impact all the other stats.

I just find it funny that magically Dallas is now a Super Bowl contender, because they added a good WR2. Yet, if that is the case, then PIT should drop the same amount with the loss of that player, but they won't. Pickens is good, but not that good. Mooney has outperformed him over the last few years. For some reason the media makes him out to be some elite WR1 and yet he has never produced like one, even in college.

Yeah, it is definitely challenging to assess, but I think you have to break it down step by step at the time of execution. First, he made the trade assuming the 2024 QB Class would be better than the 2023 Class. He nailed that. Then there's getting Moore in the trade. Even with a terrible offense, Moore has been 6th in the NFL in receptions over the last two years and 8th in receiving yards. That's top-ten WR production. Adding Moore also ensured you had a solid eval of Fields. So I would say this was another feather for Poles. Then it's the Darnell Wright pick. Just exclusively evaluating Wright compared to other OL drafted around him (Paris Johnson, Skoronski, and Broderick Jones), Wright was the Wright pick. Then it comes up to the 2024 draft, I think we have to wait longer to assess if he got the picks correct, but at the time of the picks, I would've taken Williams and Odunze (or Bowers), so this is leaning towards being the right moves. Then he closed it out with the Burden pick. So he could've done things differently in hindsight, but at the time of the moves and state of the team, they seem to be as close to on point as you can get.

I just have to revisit this now. Caleb + Bowers + Irving alone would've been crazy.

Out of Thuney, Jones, Billings, Brisker, and Byard, Thuney is probably the one you extend, even if it is just for a 2nd year.

How many fewer sacks can we expect to see in 2025? New coaches, new scheme, revamped O-Line and 2 shiny new weapons. So Williams led the NFL in sacks last year with 68 on 562 passing attempts, which was the highest sack total since David Carr's 68 in 2005. At first I thought, ok, if he can drop by 20%, that would be solid. That would be 14 fewer sacks for a total of 54. That would've still led the league last season without Williams' 68. So it needs to be lower. So the next number is 33%, can he cut his sacks down by a third, so can he cut 23 sacks to go to 45? That would still be top 10 in sacks, but less than Burrow, Darnold, and Daniels. That seems a lot better. Bryce Young went from 62 to 29 from 2023 to 2024. Some of the raw total drop was tied to fewer attempts but he also dropped his Sack% by 3%. If we apply that same concept to Williams and say he cuts down his sack rate from 10.79% to 7%, his total using last year's numbers would be 44. So that 44 to 45 number seems legit and realistic. Now if we use those lost plays and apply them to his percentages, he instantly adds 170 yards of passing and 16 more completions to his numbers from last year without any other change. If Williams can improve on his comp% by 5%, that would add another 28 completions and 300 more yards. Now we are at 4K passing without any other changes than sack reduction and improved comp%. Now add better scheme/coaching + better O-Line + better weapons and I could easily see mid 4K passing for Williams in 2025. Of all the 2024 QB Draft Picks, I think he will lead them in several stats including passing yards.

I honestly think two things hurt Poles in his first few years as a GM, Eberflus and Fields. It seems he was forced to hire Eberflus or pick from a small list with Eberflus being the best option. Then having to figure out if Fields was the real deal or not as quickly as possible, which sort of forced the Claypool trade and overpay for Davis. Since that point, Poles has been about as good as you can be as a GM given the restraints and resources. Williams for Young straight up is a win for the Bears, but then when you think you ended up with 6 starters for that one pick is crazy, all thanks to Lovie and Davis Mills comeback win.

Not necessarily, but they would have to make room under the cap to actually sign them to a contract if that contract total for the year exceeds their available cap space, and once they get to 90 players, they would have to cut someone for the roster spot too. I think they will go into camp first and see what they got before committing any extra money out. Poles like that summer 2nd wave of free agency.

Pickens traded to DAL. Crazy to think of all the drama around him since the draft and he ends up getting traded for a future 3rd round pick. Good value for DAL. PIT basically swapped Pickens for Metcalf and dropped a 2nd to get a 3rd.

Without knowing if the rookies will even amount to anything, that seems like a risky proposition for the Bears at this point, but I could see Kmet moved before Moore, but not any earlier than the trading deadline. Moore is not even in the top 10 for WR AAV, and by next year, his deal will be a bargain AND he is signed for several more years. I would keep him at least thru 2026 or 2027, and that's only if Odunze and Burden rise to their potential.