BearFan PHX

Caleb had the one good deep ball, but his grade today is an F. He is a rookie. He has tons of talent and ability. He is going to get his ass kicked sometimes too. Better now than week 18!

Brutal day for Caleb, and against the Bengals 2nd stringers too. He looked like he was trying to do too much too fast. I felt like he needed to slow down his rhythm a little bit. Instead he was pressing. Ill call it rookie growing pains, but it sure wasn't great to see. Yuck! The defense on the other hand looked like they were 1sts playing against 2nds as they should.

wow that IS cool

yup me too - if Pioli says thats what happened, I believe him. Apologies to Stinger for misunderstanding. I had thought we were guessing at what went wrong, and I figured if we were offering picks, then we already had the contract worked out in broad strokes. Now I see it was all simultaneous. In any case, kudos to Poles for staying disciplined, and not overpaying for someone on the wrong side of 30.

yup, even as they are loading their defense! I also saw analysis that we can fit another good sized contract under the cap given the rookie QB cap allotment. This is especially true if we add DeMarcus Walker to the trade. So I disagree with Stinger that it was Judons contract ask that killed it - we were clearly in on that. I do think Poles was being disciplined as far as how much draft capital to give up, not going above a 3rd. But if wed gotten the trade with a 3rd, Judons contract expectations were still going to be the same, and if wed intended not to pay that, we wouldnt have been as far as offering that 3rd.

awesome find. I loved seeing this.

thats why they wouldnt offer that other 2nd we have. Poles was willing to get into the bidding, but stayed disciplined, and wouldnt overpay. Hendricksen would probably cost a lot more. Theyre asking a #1, Ive seen it theorized that we might offer: 2025 2nd rounder Demarcus Walker Greg Stroman Jr 2026 6th or something

Yeah, it's better to play against the best, but they play vanilla coverages and dont really gameplan anyway. So I think it's just the reps under fire that counts, and from that point of view it'll be helpful for us to get snaps. If they look great, we probably cant take too much from that other than just people know what theyre doing, but if we struggle, that will be a bad signal for sure. Also, I think there is a chance we get out of this weekend with Trey Hendricksen in a trade.

totally agree. DABEARS, and I think Pix originally started it - and I like this place so much - thank you all.

I think everyone agrees with both statements, that "nothing can replace live reps" and "injuries are devastating" The question is how to balance them, and I agree wit you Mongo, I like to see them get more action. But i totally understand why people go the other way. They arent wrong either. I guess it just comes down to an opinion about which is more important or how big the risk is etc.

this coaching staff has never been afraid to start rookies even when they arent quite ready, so its definitely possible.

good point. it's not like other years.

yeah great motor. I couldnt help but notice Kareem on the other side doesnt suck either.

I agree about Herbert being trade bait. Not saying it's definitely going to happen, but I believe we are looking for a deal. And that goes double for Velus. Collin Johnson also had a nice tackle on special teams in the hall of fame game. He might well make the team as the 6th WR / ST specialist even as the #5 WR spot is still being contested?

I agree. And often in the NFL, you end up playing off schedule, and Caleb appears to be as advertised, but youre so right that playing on schedule is necessary too, and hopefully we will see more consistency with that too.

Also, Caleb threw to Odunze from his own end zone on 3rd down, and the defender undercut him - could have been an interception, but the Bills were flagged for illegal contact. Id say Caleb showed some promising moments, but has more than a couple plays to clean up too.

Watching more... To answer my own question, Allen played both series, threw himself into some blocks, but didnt see any targets. The OL played better than I thought. Two of the times the RB got stuffed at the line, it came from 8 and 9 in the box and safeties coming off the edge unblocked. Obviously thats a problem too, but teams wont be able to do that regularly against our three WRs. Herberts first stop down near the goalline was kind of on Herbert, because there was a crack to slip through if he'd made himself skinny. Shelton didnt win the rep, but he kept his guy outside of Herbert, and Braxton moved his guy a bit too. I wonder what the Bears are thinking about Herbert and Roschon.

rewatching tape and getting a better look, I saw a few more things. On the first pass play, the one where Caleb rolled right and threw it away that was called back for holding, he had Odunze open in the middle of the field for 7 yards, but the defender was closing, so Williams came off of him. Would have been a nice first completion if he had gotten the ball right out. I dont know hwat his progression was for that play, but i would have pointed it out for Fields too, so, fair is fair. What a bullet on the DJ deep curl. wow. so much velocity and the ball comes out so fast - Calebs throwing motion can be SO compact. Shelton played well at center, and is the reason Swift got such a big gain on the middle screen where Caleb flipped it to Swift. I think Swfit is gonna be amazing for us. Wright continues to not only move people but turn them in the running game. All in all, it's good to see Caleb do the same things I loved in his college film at the pro level right away. Thats a good sign.

thank you!

yeah, if someone is gonna make the team, they should stand out against the scrubs. If Booker hadnt, that would have been a problem. That he did, is a great sign that hes on his way to being great for us.

yeah it was a tough throw across his body (like the one he made to Kmet) it would have been the icing on the cake. But like you said, its his first game, he looked pretty good. when you said he missed Rome, I thought you meant on the play DJ dropped, and I had missed an open WR on that play, I see now the one youre talking about, and of course i saw it too at the time. Just a little bit outside. We didnt hear Allens name at all. Did he play?

thank you, Ill look again

Velus with another fumble, and a turf monster tackle where he forgot for a minute that he could get up. The guy is fast but a liability.

Pix, can you say more about which play he missed the WR open in the end zone? When the game is done Im gonna rewind and try to find the play.

Caleb with a nice scramble! And then a great rhythm throw to DJ who dropped it. Caleb look in control out there. So nice to see a Chicago QB look like this.