adam

Oh boy, this was seen as a positive before the season and now looks like a boat anchor on the Titanic. 1. Leno, signed through the 2021 season with cap hits of $3.3M this year, $10.3M in 2020, and $11.3M in 2021. Dead money of over $5M a year makes him borderline uncuttable. Based on what he was earning before this contract, you have to think some of the performance downturn has to do with him getting all this money and getting lazy. His first full contract total earned him just over $2M and he got 7 times that in a signing bonus in his new contract. Feels like a huge overpay now. 2. Massie. For some reason Pace thought it was a good idea to lock him up until he was 33. I was not a fan. Massie has cap hits of $3.8, $8.3, $9.3, and $9.4 through 2022. So next year our bad bookend turnstiles will cost the team $18.6M and in 2021 a whopping $20.6M (ouch). Unlike Leno, at least the team has some wiggle room with Massie and can get out of his contract a little easier ($2.6M in dead money in 2021 and only $1.3M in dead money in 2022). So at worst, we are stuck with both of these underachievers for another season. 3. Long - Set to earn $9.6M in 2020 if team accepts club option in March. I assume they won't and will use that cap space elsewhere. 4. Whitehair - Just signed that long deal and is locked up thru 2024, his cap peaks at $12.2M in 2023. Not much to say here except maybe a move back to Center would help the offense get going again. 5. Daniels - I forgot he was so young (only 22), which gives me hope that he can turn it around. He is signed thru 2021 on his rookie deal. So I would expect him to take Massie's money in a new deal in 2022 with the team eating some dead money to move on from Massie. 6. Coward - On a one-year league-minimum deal. Only 24 years old, I wouldn't mind locking him up a for a few years. He has a lot of potential. 7. Larsen - On a one-year $1M deal. At 32 yrs old, seems like he has something left in the tank. I wouldn't mind keeping him around as a backup. 8. Bars - They just elevated his contract to the rookie minimum from PS minimum ($136k to $495k) so he could end up on the active roster by the end of the season. I see him eventually starting or pushing for a starting spot. All in all, it looks like Long will not be with the team next year, but the other 4 starters will be on the team together (unless traded) for the next 2 seasons (2020 and 2021), which can't be seen as a positive at this point. Leno is 28 and Massie is 30. Leno might have some trade value but I don't see it. Pace has really made it difficult to improve one of the weakest units on the roster, and the team has a lot of cap space invested with very little flexibility.

For Mahomes, maybe on a few, but most of the time he is tossing it to a wide open guy without having to do too much work behind the LOS. For Daniel, I didn't see many open guys. Daniel's throw to Arob was into super tight coverage and his 3 picks were into double-triple coverage (1 INT called back). I agree wholeheartedly on Trubisky, I just think he is in a lot worse position than Mahomes or Watson, and even if he is not as good of a QB as those guys, not having top-end talent (Hill, Kelce, Hopkins) that gets open makes him look even worse. Then you couple that with a line that can't pass or run block and you have a recipe for disaster. Plus the playcalling has been absolutely brutal. If Montgomery is so elusive (which I believe he is), why not get him the ball a few times in the flat out of the backfield? Cohen gets the bulk of those but he can't break a tackle. I would love to see Montgomery isolated on a CB out there.

I would say the offense is an F, I don't know how it could be much worse at this point. O-Line, which was supposed to be solid, has been terrible. All the skill position players outside of ARob have been underwhelming. Nagy said they were at the next level from last year, which was all lip service. Whatever he is trying to do, it's not working. I just don't see much separation from our receivers either. Even on some of ARob's crazy catches, the defender is normally right there with him. With all of Gabriel's speed, why can't he get by Safeties? If Miller is so good at changing direction, why is he not open? I don't even know how to evaluate the QB position yet because everyone else has been so bad. How about the TE group? Burton and Shaheen have both been ghosts. We need to bring in (Ben Watson) or bring up some fresh blood. Miller I would give the defense an A. They are the only reason we are 3-2, two of the TD drives against OAK were less than 20 yards for our offense. They are not perfect, but the offense is really making it hard on them with time of possession. I think of it as a sprinter. The first few 100 yard dashes are great, then after that you have reached your physical capacity, the time drops off considerably. The defense is the same way, after so many plays, there is just not enough gas in the tank. With injuries as well, I think the defense is doing what they have been asked to do. On a side note, a few of the defensive players were complaining about chop blocks from the Raiders O-Line and if you go and watch the tape, it was happening on almost every run. I don't think any blocker should be allowed to dive at your legs to take you out, regardless if you are engaged with another blocker or not. All they have to do is dive at the side of your knee and boom ACL gone. The NFL really needs to look at that. Supposedly Oakland has been doing it all year and have only been called a few times. Special Teams - I would give them a B. O'Donnell is having a career year and has handled kickoffs. If not for Miller's stupid penalty, there would not have even been a chance for a run back against OAK. Also, Miller lost contain on the runback, so double whammy there. Pineiro has come in and done everything he has been asked to do, even with an injury. Returns are few and far between anymore, so to get one every few games should be seen as a positive. Coaching - I agree, definitely a D. I would say Pagano saves this from being an F as the defense has come to play and looks way more prepared than the offense. Heistand and Nagy are both failing. I am glad we have a great family culture in the locker room, but it also needs to have accountability. I agree that the window has shrunk considerably than what we originally thought, however, with a few moves we will be ok. To me you let Floyd, Long, Amukamara, Daniel, Massie, Leno, and Burton go. We need to get younger and cheaper. Those moves will help a lot. We re-sign the core guys and try to get some extra picks through trades.

Mahomes is a great QB, but he is not otherworldly like his stats were last year. Even to start this year, look at almost all of the big plays, the receivers are WIDE open. Any QB in the league can make those throws. KC has no running game and it is going to come back to bite them (like us), if you can't at least threaten with the run, the passes will dry up.

They should be if KC is that good. The rankings basically discount the Indy win as a fluke, yet say the Oakland win was not. Just funny how the narrative can be spun to support their position.

Not that this is something new, but it is interesting to see how the media reacts to two different losses this week. KC and CHI. So we lose to OAK in London with our backup QB and several other injuries to the same team that beat the Colts in Indy the week before. Those same Colts just beat the Chiefs in KC. So you would think, things like Power Rankings would reflect a similar outcome for the Bears and Chiefs. We both lost to middle of the road teams (both now 3-2), yet one did at home and one did at a neutral site. At worst, we should fall fairly even in power rankings, which is an easy way to judge how others see the teams. However, that is not the case, check out these differences: NFL.com: Chiefs drop 1 spot, Bears drop 6 ESPN.com: Chiefs drop 1 spot, Bears drop 4 SI/MMQB: Chiefs drop 3 spots, Bears drop 7 CBS Sports: Chiefs drop 4 spots, Bears drop 5 Yahoo Sports: Chiefs drop 1 spot, Bears drop 2 Sporting News: Chiefs drop 3 spots, Bears drop 7 USA Today: Chiefs drop 1 spot, Bears drop 3 So on average, the Chiefs dropped 2 spots with a conference loss at home, while the Bears dropped 5 spots for a non-conference loss with a backup QB at a neutral site. A few polls also have us behind Detroit and Minnesota, which makes absolutely no sense. Just thought that was an interesting look at how we are valued. We have two weeks to prep for New Orleans and I would say that (as a conference game) is truly a must win. Can't go back to back years 3-3 in the first 6 games and expect the same outcome.

I can see a complete overhaul of the O-Line and TEs after this year. Burton is overrated and not reliable while Shaheen has never lived up to his draft status. We can't afford to pay everyone, and we can get similar performance for a lot less. On the O-Line, the only guys I would keep are Daniels and Whitehair, but move them back to the original positions (this is still a head scratcher for me). Massie and Leno are the most overpaid and overrated tackles in the NFL. Continuity doesn't matter if they suck. Long is done, great dude, but injuries have clearly made him a shell of his former self. Time to take a year off or go on IR for the remainder of this season and see what you can do in TC next spring. Get Bars up and see what you can get via trade or on the waiver wire. I would seriously consider trading Miller, crazy to think we gave up 2x 2nds to draft him.

Mongo, There is history of both travel plans working, and it ultimately comes down to each individual. I can tell you that I personally need 2 days to be fully back to normal upon arrival in Europe. However, that was when I stayed up during the flight over and then didn't go to sleep until I was on European time. I was very tired that first day, but after a second night, I was good to go on Day 3. For some reason, if I slept on the plane over, I never fully adjusted until Day 4. So depending on when they flew over I am sure a few guys weren't 100%. I would have liked to have seen them travel a day earlier than they did, but this is just an excuse for bad play and bad game planning. What's crazy is how a play or two completely changes the narrative. If KPL doesn't run into the kicker or Chase doesn't throw one of those picks, then everyone is praising the team for stepping up in the 2nd half and showing resilience and intestinal fortitude in a win. Now that we lose, all the negatives are extremely highlighted. I am doing the same thing. Here is my take, we were a 10 win team last year that won 12 games (lucky with turnovers) and are probably a 9 win team this year (O-Line is horrible) that can win 11 or 7 just as easily. We have just as many elite players as huge holes on the team. This keeps us in every game but also makes us incredibly inconsistent week in and week out. Do you know we now have held a lead in every game that Nagy has coached? 22 straight games and have not lost by more than 7 in any of those games. Just think about that for a second. Since the start of 2018, the Pats have lost 5 games, with 3 of them by more than 7 pts (11, 16, 24) to the Jags, Lions, and Titans. Those 3 teams combined for 20 wins last year. Interestingly enough, they also never led in any of those 3 games. There is only one other team who has led in every game since 2018 and not lost by more than 7, the Chiefs. Which makes a lot of sense considering where Nagy comes from. If this team has SB aspirations, then maybe a loss is what is needed to light a fire under some of those asses. Guys need to be put on notice. Long needs to go to IR, Bars needs to be called up and Coward needs to start somewhere on the O-Line. If Leno can't play LT without holding, then they need to put his backup in and live with it. Smith was a liability on the field on Sunday, after the first Raiders TD, Kwit should've played the rest of the game. Miller needs to shut his mouth, run his routes and catch the damn ball when it's thrown to him. He literally gifted OAK 7 points after a stupid taunting penalty and then was the guy who lost contain on the kickoff return which put OAK in position for an easy score. Unacceptable.

Parkey on 5th team in 5 years, that should tell you something.

They both need to be activated, cut Long or put on IR, and I would rather see Horstead over Shaheen at this point. Does anyone know if Shaheen even played?

We needed to stack the box and have a player in every gap. They can't block everyone, but half of Jacobs runs were in holes with no one filling the hole. I didn't hear or see much from our vaunted safeties either. Trevathan was the most consistent the entire game. An alarming performance considering what they looked like against Minnesota the week prior.

Mack is having to expend a lot more energy than any other player on the field, so I will give him a pass for now. What about Floyd, did he play yesterday? There is no way we can give him a new contract. Where did our secondary go? Why are the CBs playing 10 yards off the ball conceding 5-7 yard plays on 2nd and 5? EJack, where you at? In 5 weeks he has only made one or two noticeable plays. We have way too many players underperforming and that's on the defensive side of the ball. The entire offense outside of ARob has been underwhelming as well. This all points to coaching unfortunately.

Another gut punch, this win bumps OAK up a notch in standing for draft order and bumps us down, so we essentially lose more draft capital in this loss vs gaining some back.

Yeah, just like Jacobs, once up to full speed, he is going to gain 4-5 on every play, but if he is being hit after 1 step or sometimes as he receives the ball, I don't know what he expected to do. Jacobs was untouched until the 2nd level on at least half his runs. Montgomery had zero.

Yeah, like I said, 7-8 wins at best. Nagy's company line of "great practice" is comical now. Nagy is starting to look very overrated, especially as a playcaller and with team preparation. Lack of preseason shows. Let's get all the trick stuff that fools no one out of the playbook and call some trap plays, counters, and play actions like real offenses do. I have never seen an offensive line this bad. We are getting holding penalties where our RB loses 2 yards. Leno is the most penalized player in the NFL, $38M contract. Great job Ryan Pace. I don't know what the issue is. Long literally taps rushing defenders on the shoulder, then turns the other way to block air. I don't get it. When we are in a running play, how can we not move the defensive line at all? They end up 3 yards in the backfield every play. It is really getting old. We need to scrap this zone blocking scheme and go back to a traditional play-action offense. ARob is a beast and literally makes 2 highlight-reel catches per game. If we are 3-2 with this schedule, we now need to go 7-4 for 10 wins.

If you couple absolute garbage O-Line play and the questionable playcalling, what are the QB's expected to do. I get that they are missing some throws, but the more you look at this holistically, I am now shifting more blame to the O-Line and coaching.

11 rushes for 25 yards, this offensive line may be the worst in the league. Almost comical at this point.

On the Roughing the Passer call against Daniel, Long literally tapped the defender's shoulder as he let him by. Embarrassing. As currently playing with this O-Line, this is a 7-8 win team. What's crazy is KPL doesn't run into the kicker, we probably win the game.

All we needed was a FG, with 2 Time Outs, Daniel can't make that pass when all we need is 15 yards for a FG.

As good as the defense has been over the last two years, when we needed a big stop late in a game, they have allowed a long TD drive and we lost. Looks like another one here.

Seriously on Leno can get a holding penalty when we lose 3 yards on a run, bench the dude.

McManis never needs to be a healthy scratch again. He did that while being held, huge heads up play to save a TD.

and just like that defense comes alive, Cohen has a huge punt return, and Daniel to ARob again! Bears up 21-17! Holy crap! 21 unanswered points and the Raiders don't know what happened. Defense needs a stop here, don't give them any life. Miller with a stupid taunting penalty and Raiders get the ball at our 35 after long run back, wtf.

Yes, I will take full credit for this lol. That's what we need from him. Bears go 90 yards and score making it 17-14.

What luck, after a 3 and out on offense, the Raiders bumble a pitch and the Bears get the recovery. Then Montogmery literally pounds the ball in on his own on two tries for the score. 17-7.