AZ54

Which explains why Ben Johnson is now touting the physical traits of Wills. Remember that last year the competition was simple: Best pass blocker at LT wins.

Thankfully Ben doesn’t apologize like this. It’s just preseason but I’m confident Ben wants to win big. https://www.nfl.com/news/browns-coach-todd-monken-apologizes-for-being-emotionally-hijacked-by-offense-s-penalties-during-training-camp

People starting to line up behind Wills: Wanny, Thayer, Harbor. Lots of NFL experience. None are saying he’s playing the best. Just saying he looks and plays the most like an NFL LT. We start to find out for ourselves this weekend.

I keep seeing 4 to 6 months which best case puts him on the field in December.

To be fair, with Ben around there’s no longer any reason to feel like a punt is your best offensive play.

Getting back to basics of football. Wanny is another pundit I like As a former coach he won’t call out players too often but if it’s not good you’ll know it When he starts talking positively about guys like VDB, Wills, and, to my surprise, Hayden Large then I think there is something good going on

National media are good for the big things like FA where the agents are working the entire league. There are some small nuggets during draft time but they focus too much on first round prospects and there is too much group think.

Easy walk through today. Luther was walking around with no limp. Zavion walking around with no limp. Cam Lewis returned to practice. Kyler Gordon. Shamar Turner made the trip along with Ozzy.

It’s not dependent on severity of the injury. PUP would surprise me because he’ll have a lot of work to do getting back into playing shape.

It’s too soon to know what we’ve got but I wouldn’t start by trading the player that is in the lead of the group. For sure we’re not keeping 3 at LT with ozzy returning this season.

VDB keeps moving up and now this news is starting to make me optimistic about our Dline. We desperately needed one interior pass rusher. What we don’t know is if the rest of the Dline is so average or bad that it’s easy for him to standout. We do know we have a good Oline inside. I’m watching for news on who he’s beating on the Oline to see if I should get on the hype train. There’s been no talk here about the backup DBs we recently signed. I really like the pickup of Xavier Woods. He adds lots of experience and he’s a good football player. He is a bit limited in some aspects and a 25% missed tackle rate likely explains why he was available. Now we roll into the season with two good starters, and then Hicks and Woods as backups along with Cam Lewis. Backups are all backups for a reason but with that much game experience on the bench I think we have the best depth at Safety in a very long time. If you geek out on film as I do then here you go: The Bears also added a promising depth piece at CB in Beanie Bishop. He’s little (hence the nickname?) but quick. Definitely not fast but as a UDFA he had some productive snaps for the Steelers in 2024 after making the 53 and ended up starter. Then cut, goes to NO, gets suspended for 3 games but don’t know why and now he’s here. I said he’s not fast but I see now on his pro day he ran a 4.39 forty I just don’t see that in pads. The Wikipedia link has the full pro day stats. He’s a football player player type, I like how he fights through blocks but for a 180lb guy I have to think there are plenty of times he just gets pushed aside. Seems like a fit in the slot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beanie_Bishop "Bishop signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers as an undrafted free agent on April 27, 2024.[14]Bishop notably made the Steelers' 53 man roster out of training camp as a UDFA, even earning a starting job in the secondary after an impressive offseason. During a Week 7 game against the New York Jets on Sunday Night Football, Bishop intercepted two passes from Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, both of which would ultimately lead to touchdowns for Pittsburgh as they won 37–15.[15] During a Week 8 game against the New York Giants on Monday Night Football, Bishop secured a game ending interception against Daniel Jones, Pittsburgh won 26–18.[16] Bishop was named Defensive Rookie of the Month for October having: 16 tackles, 5 pass deflections, 3 interceptions, and 2 tackles for loss."

That’s what I’m thinking. The biggest surprise so far has been the fact that Dayo is almost exclusively taking snaps at DT. That continued even after Sweat went down.

Each day we’re getting a little bit spoiled as we hear about these good plays on offense. Seems like there are always a couple standouts each day. For some perspective a coworker is a Bills fan. He smiled and told me the fans are really happy with DJ. He’s making big plays every day. I said yes he’s good, who else you got? The smile left his face and he said “nobody”. Enjoy this ride it’s been a long time coming.

For PIX