BearFan PHX

I hope the coaches keep up this mysterious playcalling problem in the 4th quarter and we dont win another game. I seriously think they may be thinking that they want to win halftime, and the 3rd quarter, but not the game.

lol

I hope theyre using the bye week to get Eislen ready for some action. As long as we are kicking the tires on all these people, let's see Eislen in action. More for Harry & Leatherwood too. I hope we keep losing games 32-31 that would be great. I hope it happens against our DL mostly on the ground, and not too much on the secondary.

I agree, we don't want to fall too far, we need a dominant DL player. There are probably 3 or 4 of them, some better than others. So trades down to #15 are too far for us - I agree. Unless we are targeting the WR from TCU? But I dont think so. However, you can do the math for trading up, and sometimes even having that other team (that you dont want to drop too far in the draft order for) in the bidding still gives you leverage on the price the team you ARE willing to trade with will have to pay. In that sense, having another good QB declare at best is neutral for us, and at worst, affects the value of our pick somewhat? Even worse though, is that the NFL Sunday Ticket is probably moving from DirectTV, their contract is up this year. And whether they keep it or not, there will be a bidding war, probably between Apple and Amazon. That means the salary cap is likely to move up significantly. And unfortunately, that weakens the value of our huge cap dollars vs other teams this offseason. I think the best way to calculate that is to take the current Bears cap space for 2023, and divide it by the total 2023 cap space of all teams together, and you get a percentage. The Bears have 7% of the available cap room, or something like that. Anytime you add more money equally to each teams available cap room, that Bears' percentage (and our leverage in the market) goes down. Teams will be able to resign players they would have had to lose. Also, Poles has something up his sleeve to get us a true #1 WR, but I gotta say, I dont really see it. Who is the player in the draft or Free agency who will be a true #1 WR for 2023? I guess we can see why Poles was willing to go so high for Claypool.

LOL well said. Good QBs are always needed. But then again, We got Fields at 11, and the Chiefs got Mahomes at 10. So teams do wait for QBs to fall in draft years where there are more than 2 good ones available. The draft is always foggy. Im glad we have our QB now.

cuts both ways, if there are more talented QBs available, some teams might prefer to wait for one to drop to them.

Lets Go Baker Mayfield! Drove a team hed been on for two days 98 yards in a minute and a half to win the game. And screw the Lions' pick. Let's GO!

whatever we decide to do with him going forward, that is good news.

For sure, its not just about measurables. Glad we passed on him.

I still havent seen Velus catch a ball cleanly even once. Learning and perfecting routes etc is one thing, and can take time, but clean catches are something else.

I feel the same way. I thought of the upside when we first got ESB, but he is double clutching everything. Same with Velus Jones Jr. I'm quickly losing trust with that kid too. Claypool, Harry and Pringle are who I want to see now.

Fair point. The film shows him late out of his stance. But I thought overall he played pretty well. I suspect we are agreeing, and its "words" that are getting in the way. Maybe he can start after the bye week so we can really see him. The Eagles and Bills games will be good tests.

disagree. Heres the tape

I noticed him, and he looked strong. He had his assignments, and he kept people off of Fields. I didnt really see him in the running game.

Agree, Harry looks strong.

Amen

I thought Fields had one of his best games as a passer. I know the interceptions happened, but he was taking big risks because it was an end of game scenario. Also, Fields is not known for throwing the ball into risky areas. If anything he is hesitant to pull the trigger. Today he looked more in rhythm and confident as a passer. Good. Leatherwood looked good from what I saw too. That's a positive to build on going forward. Also, consider that a lot of these starters will be depth next year, and we will have one of the most experienced benches. Some of the players in the secondary today held their own. That's good news too. But mostly, we dont look like a 3-10 team. Our roster is depleted but I see effort and stuff to build on everywhere. It's a no brainer to think that if you put 8 new improved starters on this team, they'd look a LOT different. And just like there are only a few real difference makers at QB in this league, there are only a few real difference makers on the D line too. Most teams dont have a top 5 QB or a top 5 DL, we might be in line to have both. And that's a recipe for real sustained success. I like where we are going, and I liked what I saw today, and Im glad we also lost.

yup - we need tryouts and we need to have "decent" players at every position before the draft. All GMs do that. They fill holes with worst case scenario guys so they have the freedom to go best player available or some version of it.

Yeah I don't want to trade that high pick for a meaningless win. Hopefully our secondary is so depleted that Rogers can pick us apart.

I agree with all of this, but I dont know what Bears scouts think about this years' QBs, and what they think about where Fields is headed. From my perspective in the cheap seats, I agree with you, but Poles will do his due diligence on every possible scenario, and Id love to be a fly on the wall for those discussions.

There is also another interesting scenario. I want to make clear this is NOT what I want, or what i predict, but it's out there and worth mentioning. Poles could keep #2, draft one of the QBs and trade Fields for 2 firsts+. Now I'm not suggesting that he would do that just for the extra first round pick. That would be way too cute and risky. But if he truly doesnt think Fields will ever become a real passer (I think he will!) or if he is 100% sure the QB being drafted is the next Payton Manning, then it's a move he could consider. If it was me, I'd trade back to #4 or something and snag one of the top DL, while getting something extra for the trouble. But Id be happy with just staying at 3 or wherever we end up and taking the DL too. But Poles didn't draft Fields, and he now knows a lot more about his upside, and about the potential in these rookie QBs, than I do, so I thought it was worth mentioning that this is at least an option that Poles has to consider, even if he is as sure as I am that keeping Fields is ultimately the right decision.

absolutely!

I think he is a WLB, not fast enough to take TEs in man

Thanks for the stats. maybe he CAN be Lance Briggs. Kwit and Hillenmeyer never played WLB, so I guess my comparisons are wrong! I hope Sanborn IS a stud for us!

Theyve been playing a lot of zone. thats why we keep seeing 10 yard passes where our guy(s) are just a beat late. And more than one arrive for the tackle at the same time. Everyone knows we are in zone. Consequently, I havent seen Sanborn beaten or looking bad yet. But I also havent seen the coaching staff putting him in that position. I think the staff is really smart, and they are holding 90% of their mojo back because we dont have the players yet for it. I like where we are heading. And I'm a Sanborn fan, I just dont think he will be here very long.