BearFan PHX

thank you, I had that backwards. Kind of makes more sense in terms of the vegas opening line then.

so true. we need to see it on the field before we really know anything. And youre right about the last 40 years - what a shit show. Love all of this. exactly.

Braxton Jones has been announced as the starter at LT for Monday night. Im not surprised. Apparently Ben Johnson said the competition will continue, and could continue until the bye week. That also makes a lot of sense, and says to me that Trapilo still has a chance to take the job. May the best man win.

For sure Moore is more expendable. If Burden balls out, then Moore and his cap hit are likely traded after this year. What I said before is that if Kmet doesnt play significantly better than he has, then he is trade bait at $11.6M a year. I also said if his play improves he can find a place on the team. The outcome of that remains to be seen, but Kmet has had some good plays this offseason, so let's see, Also I agree whether Kmet stays or goes, that 2 TEs is a big part of Johnson's offense. There are other cheaper TEs out there too who can beat a LB when Loveland takes the safety coverage. But if Kmet dominates, then of course he stays. And that goes for any player - if you dominate, you're probably gonna stick around, and if youre being paid a lot, and someone else can replace you, then youre tradeable. Im sure you agree.

amen, Ill buy the first round for everyone.

wow! so Vegas opened us as favorites on the road. Thats good news. All of this says this is anyone's game. Lets go!

ok well why does YOUR butt hurt? One wonders...

lol dude its Ok for us to agree.

Im saying 24-19 or 20 Bears, so we are in the same ballpark.

riiiight YOURE playing chess. you are completely delusional. Also, if you want to play victim, go read my original post - I didnt call you any names, it was you calling me butthurt that started that again. I think the best word for you is just to call you what you are: a fool.

wild, when I googled it said 5 days ago it was Vikings by 3.5, so that's why I said what I did. What you saw is, as you rightly say, the other way, and probably predates my 5 days ago. So then yes based on your report, not enough bettors were betting on the Bears. I think Vegas gets it right on the initial line, and then people get involved LOL Sometimes groups of people are extremely smart, better than experts, so hopefully not in this case. Sometimes narratives distort the group processing, which is what i hope is happening here. Do you have a link that shows the Bears were favored? Anyway, regardless of Vegas, I'm still saying Bears 24 Vikings 19 or 20. 17 wont be enough without a consistent pass rush from the front four. Hope Jarrett makes a big difference! The Vikings generally have a very good run defense, but Johnson seems to know exactly how to exploit it based on AZ's post in the podcasts thread. Assuming of course that Swift can find some of the same things that Gibbs does in that video.

totally agree, and I also agree that where they have him ending up seems fair. And there is nothing that says he cant do better than that too this year. Soon he should be a top 5 QB, thats what you expect from a consensus number one overall with his skill set.

right. Im just saying the bet is where Caleb will be at the end of the season, not right now. when DABEARS said "Makes no sense for him to be this high with what we have seen - doesn’t mean his future isn’t bright though - but he has a lot on his list of things to really develop and to start stacking together. " I was just saying - right based on what we've seen would be the MVP vote right now, but the bet is what the MVP vote will be at the end of this season, after we see more things than weve seen so far.

man you are such a jerk - you really are. Im not the only that told you that adding words like "I think" before a statement is good practice. Instead you just say "Ben Johnson is not going to" And when I say my opinions the right way, now youre saying that means Im making definitive statements somehow? How does that even make sense to even your tiny little pea-brained mind? You are like arguing with a woman. You take zero responsibility for waht you say, and you try (and fail) to twist things illogically to make it as if I was doing what you actually were doing. Grow up and take responsibility for what you say. Also, what is this fascination you have with people's contracts ending when Caleb's comes new? Thats not a thing. Youre confusing getting the GM and coach aligned. The idea is you space your contracts out so they dont all come due at once. Otherwise, you resign Caleb and have no one left? That makes sense to you? What this all really is - is it upsets you to think about trading anyone on the team. You have some need to protect the feelings of DJ Moore - trust me, he doesnt know who you are, he doesnt know who I am, he doesnt give a crap about what we think. But if you look at the good teams int his league, they trade the good players that they arent going to extend. When young players on rookie deals challenge highly paid and good starters, then the teams trade the starters. This isnt rocket science, although for your tiny angry reactive brain even rock science seems too much. Take responsibility for what you say and stop being such a bitch.

so the line originally was Vikings by 3.5, and now its vikings by 1.5 or 1 - that means they needed to adjust the line to get more $ on the Vikings side. It means bettors are enamored with Ben Johnson and probably over confident in him? The opening line is closer to what Vegas THINKS will happen, and then the activity of the bettors adjusts it from there. Obviously too many people took Chicago and 3.5 points, so they dropped the line. So I guess Vegas saw the Bears as 3 point dogs, and the people disagreed.

good one. Let's hope swift can break those tackles so the LBers have to bite down and the crossing routes are open on playaction.

See, you dont know what BJ is thinking. No one here does. You could say something like "I dont see BJ doing ______" But as much as you want to keep every player, wht you dont understand is that when you trade players, you get NEW players and cap room. And you will love those players too. So would we just cut DJ Moore next year? of COURSE not for the reasons you said, but could we trade him? Sure!

ahahahahaha FU Packers!

if this was a current ranking, then youre 100% correct. I think instead this was ranking the odds that they will be MVP at the end of the year, so it's not based on what we have seen as much as what they think we might see this year?

OK so based on WAY too little information, Im gonna predict Bears 24 Vikings 19 or 20

totally agree, and LOL @ Burden approves

this is right in my opinion.

So here's some possibly interesting news. It's been like 2 weeks now that we've heard Trapilo is exclusively taking reps at RT. Going into the KC game. And the common wisdom was that Trapilo was now out of the running at LT. At the time I wondered if that was permanent, or something to motivate everyone as well as get him snaps at RT to be a swing tackle at least. And I said at the time that you give a guy snaps at LT too if you want to prepare him for swing tackle, so he would get at least that much action going forward? So today there is an article in the Trib of an interview by Sean Hammond with Poles. Now, I don't know when this interview occurred, so if it's been sitting in the can for 3 weeks, then there is nothing here. But that's a long time for an interview to go unpublished? So Im wondering if it happened since the KC game? The article says "As the season nears, Poles recently sat down with the Tribune to discuss the first training camp with Johnson as coach, the evolving relationship between Johnson and Williams and more." so that sounds like after camp closed to me, so after KC. In the interview Poles is asked abut the competition at LT. and Poles says: "you have Braxton, and you’re trying to evaluate a guy that’s coming back from a pretty significant injury. And then looking at last year’s tape as kind of the bar, can he get to that point and better? But he’s not quite there yet. He’s closing in on it. But then the person he’s competing with (Trapilo) is a person that’s never played in the league versus Kiran, who didn’t have his first year, coming from a smaller school (Amegadjie missed most of the 2024 offseason after an injury at Yale). And then Theo enters the conversation, who from a length standpoint may not have everything but from a foot speed and toughness (standpoint) has a lot of things that you like." So if that is current, that is VERY interesting. It says Trapilo is still right there, and needs more experience. And the description of Jones is just that he's still fighting to regain just where he was last year. All this to conclude: Maybe Trapilo is still on the radar at LT, and maybe we will see him after the bye, or earlier if Braxton is awful. Here's the whole interview: https://archive.is/41r0X#selection-2239.101-2255.138

with a good QB and no pass rush, teams can beat the bottom 1/2 of the league that way, but when you go against another good QB and its a shootout, then its a different story. But youre right, clawing into the top 5 is next year's window - probably - dont want to put a ceiling on a team Ive never seen yet! But yeah, if Caleb is a bust, then all else is moot. But I am not personally worried about that. I think he'll break 4,000 yards this season. As unsure as I am about some parts of this team, I am very bullish on the Caleb / Ben Johnson pairing and where it will lead Caleb as a QB. Cant wait to see it unveiled next week.

right. and with the line only being 1 or 1.5 this is anyones game