BearFan PHX

Ha! Eat THAT Rodgers!

It really shows how much of a team game football is. A great player looks bad on another team, and vice versa. until you have enough pieces in place, it's hard for anyone to look too good. And that comes back to the trouble of evaluating Fields with this team around him. Another draft and $100 Million in cap space should help!

lol totally. I guess they just cant win without Getsy!

amen!

For better or worse, the Rams know Quinn well and chose him to fit their system before.

yes you're right about that! I meant 2023 and 2024. I think the June first thing means that 4.2 mil goes this year and then another 4.2 mil (or whatever) goes against our cap next year. Maybe I have this wrong, but my current understanding is that all the guaranteed money goes against our cap and the new team only pays salary and signing bonuses going forward, and that's 14 Mil and 13 Mil for 2023 and 2024? I totally encourage you to prove me wrong, because if so I will learn something, and I am very open to that!

Its not that high, wed have to eat the guaranteed portion, so his cap figure for the team trading for him would only be 14 Million and 13 Million for the next two years. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/chicago-bears/robert-quinn-7729/

my guess is someone will realize that he is the only threat on our DL, and hes getting all the double teams etc - and if they have other threats, then Quinn will be better. Also, they wont have pay the 17 million, because a good chunk of that is guaranteed money that we will have to eat. The big question is whether more than one teams wants him bad enough to start an auction.

Im all for it. Id take a first and something else for Roquan too.

Hero-ball is the path to ruin. I totally agree.

totally, no way the Bears are near the top of the league in pass protection. That alone should disqualify any and all information from that site whichever one it is. yup

I read in the comments they grade whether a blocker has their hands on the defender for 2.5 seconds. That might measure whether someone swims around you or not, but it doesnt measure all the times our guys got bullrushed up the middle and pushed into Fields. These PFF type measurements are the opposite of information - they actually cause more confusion than understanding.

what a ridiculous stat! First off, we can all see with our eyes that the Bears OL does not have a "strong pass block win rate" and surely not the 3rd or 4th best in the league I mean come on, that's insane. Secondly, if a QB is holding the ball too long, that often means receivers arent open on those plays, so you cant say it's "mostly on him" Id like to offer a different analysis - the OL is like a revolving door, and the reason that Fields' sacks come later than the average is because he is mobile and tries to escape, which extends the play. But seriously, Seth Walder is a moron if he truly thinks this.

Tag and trade!

exactly, and unfortunately, in the beginning, that looks like Poles has no eye for talent, but then when you see what he paid them, it tells this other story.

Looking, yes. But hopefully only signing players that you think are the best options youll see in the next year and a half at those positions - otherwise you end up singing lesser players to long term deals, and that is the ongoing mistake we are digging out from. Getting incrementally better at the expense of the future roster is a mistake Poles has avoided so far.

Im not done with Jones yet either. He's obviously raw. He needs to learn all the rookie lessons - catch the ball before you run with it etc etc, but it's too early to give up on him. But right now is he kind of a meathead? Yup LOL But I agree, there is a good chance he will end up a speedy WR who can play in the league. You cant teach speed, the rest you can try to teach, and a lot of the times it works out.

I agree, Stinger. 6 wins sounds about right. But the OL is gonna haunt us all season, even if Leatherwood comes along and plays well. Hopefully it wont be as bad as what we've seen, but it's never gonna be great this year. Year Zero: 6-11

AZ, I am seeing all of this the same way you are.

100% all of this.

Yeah I do hope a few of these guys develop. Leatherwood, Eislen, Harry, and the DT from Minnesota come to mind. I'd love to see some of them succeed. But next year, you gotta play well to keep your job.

Im hoping (and it might well be a total fantasy) that Leatherwood will bring something. I really hope so. There is only one really bad outcome to this season - if Fields gets injured and we can't develop or evaluate him. To that end, the OL is a serious problem. But not one that's easily fixed. This is football hell. Thanks Pace and Nagy!

Poles is doing fine. He wasnt identifying talent that he could afford that fit a long term plan. He's cleaning house and the cap, and NOT spending on the wrong guys this year. These arent examples of guys Poles thinks are good players. They are examples of cheap players that have like a 20% chance of becoming something. They are lottery tickets, not investments. This is not year one of Poles, it is the end of Pace and Nagy. If you want to cut some players though, I'm all for it. This grace does not extend far into next year though. This is a one time deal because of our draft and cap poverty this year.

I agree, George postponed this. I was yelling about it on here back then. But a lot of people were. I didnt have a crystal ball, it was obvious, everyone could see it. I guess that the cap hit one year earlier on Mack was too much to swallow, and that probably played into it, like you kind had to wait until this year to eat $60 Million, because $90 Million is too much to swallow. keep in mind we are paying two QBs that arent on the team in addition to Mack (Foles & Dalton). It's evidence of how deeply Pace & Nagy screwed us. Well, George and Teddy, but yeah. Yeah, they get this year. But they don't get too much next year. I know we will have a ton of new players and it might start rocky, but if it looks like this in October next year, I say just nuke the entire city of Chicago from orbit and start over as an expansion team LOL.

Just keep telling yourself: 1/3 of the cap is going to 2 QBs and a Pass Rusher who arent even on the team anymore. We didnt even have a first round pick! That's Pace screwing us from the GM grave. Poles agreed to take this year on so he could make real decisions next year. We are lucky he did. Let's not be all over him for it. The roster is terrible, but Poles is doing the right thing. There is no possible way to have been more competitive this year UNLESS we signed medium talent guys to long term deals. We didnt have the cap space to sign to short term deals. So here's the NFL: The best thing is to have great players on long term deals. The next best thing is to have draft picks and cap space to find great players to sign to long term deals. The WORST thing in the NFL is to have not great players signed to long term deals. That's what the last 20 years have been - optimists coming in saying they could take what we have, and add a few pieces to win. Thats how you end up with not great players on long term deals. The ONLY way to get out of that cycle is to sit a year out, and clear your cap space. That's the uncomfortable disciplined approach. Poles is right on schedule so far. Now, next year he has to make decisions, and then he will be judged on whether he can find talent etc. This year, he has taken a flyer on a bunch of castoffs. The ideas is that maybe a couple will have a rebirth. Like Leatherwood for example. Is he a bust? Maybe he will find himself. Maybe not. But this is the year for taking those chances. The result is the awful terrible product we are seeing right now, and it would be much better if we had a solid roster to develop a young QB with. But that wasnt the choice, that wasnt possible. So do you want to save this year with whatever you can cobble together, weak with cap dollars, and long term promises? Or take it on the chin, and then be in the drivers seat next year?