Starting a new thread just to keep track of post game analysis on the new players.

This surprised me mostly because I don’t recall having a Bears QB who the coach said doesn’t need more snaps to improve before the season starts

Do I need to see Caleb Williams in the preseason? No, I do not. I see him every single day in practice," Johnson said, noting that Williams will be ready for Week 1 based on what he's seen during practice this summer.

I would like Caleb to get a couple of series before regular season just to get real game feel. If not, in BJ we trust.

I also want Bagent to look all-pro and make him a hot commodity. He has 2 years on contract and trading him after the season for a 2nd would be a huge power move.

Bagent is a good QB. He will get a chance to start somewhere, and before that he will be an excellent backup if we have need of him (hopefully not!)

I just hope we get some high draft value for him when we do trade him?

53 minutes ago, BearFan PHX said:

Bagent is a good QB. He will get a chance to start somewhere, and before that he will be an excellent backup if we have need of him (hopefully not!)

I just hope we get some high draft value for him when we do trade him?

That is what I am saying. Let him roll all pre-season and put his game on display. If the Bears feel good with developing a new backup next season, then turn Bagent into a 2nd or high 3rd. The QB class is supposed to be deep, maybe get a 4th or 5th round prospect.

This might be the first year where I’m excited to see our second string play. I feel Bagent is good enough as QB that I can get a sense of the backup receivers. Beyond that we have Wills, Logan Jones,Rousch, Hayden Large,and RB Ahmed. Defense of course VDB but really what do any of these LBs look like? Are the rumors of Hyppolite playing better true? I think they’ll be conservative with the DBs due to the injuries so I expect a lot of snaps with guys I never heard of.

8 hours ago, ASHKUM BEAR said:

That is what I am saying. Let him roll all pre-season and put his game on display. If the Bears feel good with developing a new backup next season, then turn Bagent into a 2nd or high 3rd. The QB class is supposed to be deep, maybe get a 4th or 5th round prospect.

3 hours ago, AZ54 said:

This might be the first year where I’m excited to see our second string play. I feel Bagent is good enough as QB that I can get a sense of the backup receivers. Beyond that we have Wills, Logan Jones,Rousch, Hayden Large,and RB Ahmed. Defense of course VDB but really what do any of these LBs look like? Are the rumors of Hyppolite playing better true? I think they’ll be conservative with the DBs due to the injuries so I expect a lot of snaps with guys I never heard of.

We still have some roster holes, but we also have a lot of places where we have great depth too.

I cant wait to see it on the field. Lets GO.

Traits to watch for

https://www.nfl.com/prospects/jedrick-wills/32005749-4c62-6320-8b63-20c37d057bf8

8 hours ago, AZ54 said:

Traits to watch for

https://www.nfl.com/prospects/jedrick-wills/32005749-4c62-6320-8b63-20c37d057bf8

Those traits easily convert to an all pro guard if he doesn't work out at tackle.

It's game time! We have to practice too. BLTs for lunch brought to you by a big glass of milk to wash it down. 🍻

Nice stop by Bush; TFL caused CLE to go 3-and-out. Good play by our new LB.

23 minutes ago, Pixote said:

Nice stop by Bush; TFL caused CLE to go 3-and-out. Good play by our new LB.

Bush and Sanborn look good. DBs not so much. DLine not seeing much

Agree about Bush.

Gallimore and Van Der Berg looking pretty good. Muhammad not looking lost out there, and Thienemen showing speed and around the ball.

WIlls with a bad pressure, and Bagent not looking like someone would trade for him.

Its early.

Was hoping Bagent would look like a top 30 QB, but not much today.

Cromah might make this team at DE. He has been in Watsons face often

Bagent seems to be heating up now. Looking much better!

2 minutes ago, BearFan PHX said:

Bagent seems to be heating up now. Looking much better!

Right on que, after I post.

Davis and Alexander are looking good at WR too.

19 minutes ago, ASHKUM BEAR said:

Right on que, after I post.

Davis and Alexander are looking good at WR too.

well Id just called him out too LOL so both of us were wrong LOL

Wills has had an imperfect game, but hes got the edge over Amagadje in my book

1 hour ago, BearFan PHX said:

well Id just called him out too LOL so both of us were wrong LOL

I didn't even see that until now, lol.

Decent preseason game that they can return to practice and work on filling the bottom roster needs.

1 hour ago, BearFan PHX said:

Wills has had an imperfect game, but hes got the edge over Amagadje in my book

Kiran is going to the practice squad, IMO.

My bad, I guess I wasn't paying full attention.

I just read that Woods, who we just signed to help at Safety because of injuries, left the game with a groin injury!

What is going on with all of the groin injuries?

I didn’t get to watch the game live but it’s recorded and that gave me a chance to rewind and review numerous plays. I’ll do even more of that later.

Sorry this is going to be a bit of a rambling post because i have a lot on my mind.

My of my how far we have come. We start our 2nd string QB, 2nd string Oline, 3rd string RB, and 3rd string TE and WRs. Yet it still kinda looked like an NFL offense. That’s the high level view. Now the details

Tyson Bagent - played poorly. He was often late on throws, or off target, even on simple check downs. These WRs fighting for a roster spot didn’t deserve to left hanging out for DBs to hit them that way because of bad throws over the middle. Tyson needs to protect his teammates much better than what we saw.

Maurice Alexander - he’s bad. Just cut him. My top take away is that we have a plethora of 5th, and 6th WRs on the team. I’ve already seen articles praising Alexander for his performance but what I saw was a little guy who was too easily knocked off his route. As a returner he was very timid and doesn’t offer anything you can’t find among dozens of players, and he’s definitely down on first contact. We now have other options...

Scotty Miller - He’s ok, plays stronger than Alexander so if it were my decision he’d be on the practice squad not Alexander. He’s not quite 53 material but in a pinch you can get production out of him.

Kaden Davis - looks and runs like an NFL WR. Reminds me of what we saw last year from Jahdae Walker in the preseason. His drop was really bad but other than that he performed well and I can see him on the 53 if he can handle special teams. I suspect his work ethic to get this far will close that gap and he has a great mentor in Khalif Raymond who kinda followed a similar path to the NFL getting cut numerous times of his first 3 years. Although Bagent served him up on a platter for the DBs, that’s a catch you need to make in the NFL. Improve the hands and we’ve got someone who can provide productive snaps as a backup. I know he’s made a couple spectacular catches in practice so maybe this was one-time mistake.

JP Richardson - can’t say why he’s so far down the depth chart but I trust the coaches. Still, when he gets the ball in his hands he looks like a guy who can play in the NFL. Practice squad again?

Roush - NFL TE. Nothing more needs to be said, just give him time to learn.

Roschon - I saw someone somewhere say Roschon is in the doghouse. No he’s not, he’s just pedestrian by NFL standards. He might be one of those good guys that sticks around the NFL for 5-7 years at the bottom of rosters but that’s all he is.

Salvon Ahmed - He’s little but pretty quick. Definitely offers something different on offense from Roschon but can he cover the other little things like pass pro and special teams? Ben said the same in the post-game press conference and the coaches intend to find out. Aside from the screen play his other runs didn’t really look that good.

Brittain Brown - He looked just ok.

Coleman Bennett - He looked just ok. I know he got a TD but I didn’t really see any special traits in his running. At the end of the day I was hoping one of the 4 depth RBs would stand out in some way and all we got was one good screen play.

Amegadjie - He’s ok but just never looked comfortable. He’s more of a grabber (i.e hands on the outside) versus being a guy with a good punch to knock a DE off his path.

Wills - He’s the opposite of Kiran. His punch clearly can knock a DE back and once that’s done he controls the play. His feet are quick his mind is slow. The sack he gave up was due to being late off the snap and then late to move to get outside, as if he was thinking about his assignment. I imagine Kiran got the nod in the 2min drill before halftime for that reason but I don’t recall seeing Wills in the 2nd half.

Logan Jones - NFL player. Love his strength, power, and quickness to move the second block. Whenever he earns his starting job we’ll be in good hands.

Malik Muhammed - I like him. Some mental mistakes but nothing unexpected from a rookie learning two jobs. I think he’ll be good for us long term.

Beanie - The INTs don’t impress me on overthrows. The passes defensed and the quick reaction to shutdown a screen did. I want to see more.

Thieneman - no splash plays per se but he did what I want most out of a safety in that he was in on every stop after an intermediate gain. Meaning he keeps 10 yd play from becoming a 15 or 20 yd gain. Brisker and Byard couldn’t get the sideline as quickly and would just run guys out of bounds after the extra yards were gained. He got pulled early for obvious reasons.

Hyppolite - looked much better than last year. Still not perfect nor close to the anticipation we see with a guy like TJ Edwards but he’s at least in on the plays. He left early Injured again so we'll see but he didn’t appear dinged up at all in the locker room afterwards.

Jack Sanborn - welcome home with open arms

Jordan VDB - he needs to learn how to stay on his feet but there were some good plays. I think he has a long way to go but on the flip side his athleticism is going to be showcased best when they start doing more scheming with twists and stunts.

Lynch - This is the Walmart version of Dayo. Great value. He was applying pressure on numerous plays. Not saying he’s starting caliber but might be a good depth player.

Jayden Loving - Very impressed with him. While the media is focused on the Beanie INTs they skip the real story of the Loving’s pass rush creating it. On another play he chased down a RB on the sideline 20 yards downfield and made the tackle. Hustle for sure but also his quickness, power, and speed were on display. I want to see more.

Here's the sack Wills gave up. I agree with AZ54 on how it happened. If it's an isolated first week mistake, so be it. But if we start to see it regularly, then you just cant trust him. This looks exactly like the bad tape I saw on him several months ago from his time in Cleveland.

Caleb is so important if this is how he's gonna be a few times a game, then hes not trustworthy. If it's a one off, and he plays consistently, then great.

https://x.com/thedawgspodcast/status/2088696552281837846

I went to the game yesterday. Was raining until game start and then quit and started again when the game ended. Being live, Kaden Davie, Ahmad, and Lynch names were mentioned a lot. Bagent didnt look good but Keenum was smooth as butter.

Ahmad stuck out but is more of a scat back type to me, but Johnson was very reliable but not spectacular. Johnson plays STs so that may give him the upper hand. As a third back, who would fit that spot better? One of the RBs will be on the practice squad so probably Johnson gets the nod?

I think our DL looked pretty good and definitely the LBers were all over the field. I suspect we are a lot better against the run this year. If you look at stats Gallimore played well and Kromah was a stud. 2 sacks and a FF . He moves very well, could he be a outside shot at the rotation at DE?

At LT, neither stuck out to me, I think there is no doubt Braxton will be the starter.

I don't know how much stock you can put into anything for Week 1 of the Preseason against the Cleveland Browns. With that said, I would be more concerned if someone looked absolutely terrible, and that was not the case.

The Bears only had 2 penalties all game, which is a good sign. Hopefully the starters can keep up the same discipline as the backups who played.

If I had to name names of guys that may sneak into the 53-man roster, I would say: Ahmed and Davis on offense and Kromah and Hyppolite on defense. That would all depend on how many of each position group are kept.

Ahmed looks like an all-around better back than Johnson, but is not really a short-yardage guy (if that is even what they are looking for). I feel like Davis really complements the rest of the Bears WR corps (Odunze, Burden, Raymond, Thomas, Walker, and Davis) makes sense as Davis is also a ST contributor. McCloud and Miller are probably the other 2 options here depending on what Ben wants.

DT is going to be interesting. You have Jarrett, Dexter, Gallimore, Street, now van den Berg, and Turner is still out there somewhere. That is 6 guys and Odeyingbo will sometimes rotate inside. So they won't keep 6 for sure. 5 is the max. So one of Turner, van den Berg, and Street won't make the cut.

Assuming the Bears Bush, Edwards, Jackson, and Sanborn, are the top 4, and the 5th slot is probably Elliott's (when healthy), so where does that leave Hyppolite? The Bears will only keep 5 LBs on the roster. Sewell is hurt but still on the roster as well.

BLUF:

RB: Roschon vs Ahmed
WR: Davis vs McCloud/Miller
DT: Pick Two: Turner, van den Berg, Street
LB: Pick One: Elliott or Hyppolite or Sewell

I think Turner fits into the DE equation since they reportedly asked him to slim down. We need help there for sure. Regarding pre-season of course it’s hard to gauge but I look at it this way, if you can’t win 1v1 battles in the preseason you won’t win them in the regular season. That said, I ran the slo-mo on the 2nd half: Kromah was winning a lot of battles and he was getting double teamed a lot, and still winning. I think he sticks on the 53.

DT depth is going to be a battle but from what I saw I’d say Street is the odd-man out. I liked Lynch, VDB, and I liked Loving as all were winning some battles throughout. Loving was even holding his ground against double teams better than Billings was last year. Granted it’s all backups but that is the job. Much more needs to play out in this battle.

I also watched a lot more of Kiran and Wills. They were rotating them on series instead of by quarter. Wills late start that gave up the sack in the first half… didn’t see any of that in the 2nd half. In fact he was often the first hat moving with Keenum. I imagine he’s more comfortable with Keenum’s cadence. Regardless, he looked better than Kiran who quite simply always gets beat, if not early, he’ll get beat late on the 2nd move. Wills moves into 2 string IMO but we’ll see what the coaches say this week.