AZ54

For the money we're paying him and his part-time status of 50-75% of defensive snaps, Ogletree has been good. He has 27 solo tackles vs. 26 for Jackson. He also has 3 passes defensed vs. 0 for Jackson.

I'm smiling just thinking about it.

I never expected anyone to offer much if anything for ARob. Since we aren't likely to make much use of freeing up his cap space any offer would have to be at least equal to what we expect we'll get in a comp pick, keeping in mind of course that there's a year and a round difference between the comp pick vs. 2022. I don't see a reason to give him away when our most important project this season, developing Fields, is helped by keeping ARob.

Mahomes still has elite arm talent but I said before that draft in college he had some very Cutler-esque games with multiple INTs. It's in his nature to do all things possible to make the play. Of course those plays can end up on highlight reels for both offense and defense. This was my biggest question with him... how would he handle things when the talent around him isn't as good. He was brought into a perfect situation and made the most of it. I've seen him play in a couple games this year and it's definitely interesting watching how he handles adversity, even some of his emotional outbursts towards his teammates.

I'm amazed how quickly he recovered from that injury. I wonder if they'll give him a week of practice before getting him into contact but seeing him back at full speed alongside Herbert is going to give teams headaches. This comes at a time when Fields is beginning to get comfortable in the offense and they are now moving him around too.

Missed the game for the 2nd week in a row and only saw a few highlights. That defensive performance was pitiful and in an odd twist of fate on Saturday I got to see Mel Tucker's Mich State team beat Jim Harbaugh. Life is odd at times but I should have known something wicked this way comes. I wish I had seen Fields performance, maybe I'll be able to catch a replay on NFL network later in the week. Anyone who has even only played backyard football knows how ridiculously difficult it is for a right handed QB running to his left to throw that pin-point pass to Jesse James in the end zone.

Ah memories of the Al Davis phone calls to the sideline demanding they go deep.

I'm ok if they got a deal for ARob. As far as I'm concerned we can replace him by going with more 3 TE sets with Jesper. Foles, Jackson are obvious yes but Jackson's contract means nobody is going to be interested unless we're giving them something they really want like a draft pick. Graham... given our horrible pass offense we can't go by anybody's stats or we'd be getting rid of every TE and WR. I wouldn't mind trading him but I'm not sure anyone needs him for their playoff run, and could fit his contract in their cap space. TE is a position that gets injured a lot and his cost is sunk for this season. We're not going to get much in return for a 3 month rental (trade) by another team and we're not likely to use his cap space. Unless it's a can't refuse type of deal we might as well keep him around as insurance and he's helping Jesper and Kmet too. Train your replacements! Trevathan I feel the same as Graham. We won't get much in return, if anything, so we might as well keep the depth/insurance policy. Dalton I'd trade, but agree not both him and Foles. We've committed to the future. Williams I'm keeping. There's no reason to short change the running game now while Fields is still at the beginning of the learning curve. Gipson: Never really saw him do much so if someone wanted him for some strange reason (like they never watched his game tape) then sure send him their way.

I'm all in on extending Montgomery and keeping a solid 2-man RB rotation for the next 3 years while Fields is settling in. We're going to unload Dalton and Foles so with Fields on his rookie deal use the spare QB budget to fit in Montgomery. As mentioned, this is also a position with high injury rates so having a good backup is critical for Fields. Plus both of these RBs have proven they can be successful running behind a less-than-ideal Oline too. In the future if Fields blossoms sooner than later, or meets the highest expectations, and we need cap space or a trade to shore up another position we can look at moving Montgomery if he has enough value. Add in the fact that we have Mooney and the "question marks" at WR and maintaining a good running game for the next two seasons is mandatory IMO.

When players add a significant amount of muscle/strength it usually comes at the expense of losing some quickness. If a loss of quickness is what ails Mustipher he might recover from it but it will likely have to be done in the next offseason.

You make me miss having the subscription to the All-22 or coaches film. We just ran for 100yds against TB. You're saying not once did we call the same running play?

I'm perfectly good with Fields being our starter. It's not like this is a Superbowl contending roster being held back solely by the QB. He's learning and he's improving. Let it continue.

Riddick I like as an talent evaluator. GM is a different role I'm not sure he's ready for. I'd certainly interview him to see how well he's thought out his "organization" and how he'd run it. Florio? It is so much easier in life to have a job where all you have to do is criticize the work of other people. Never seen anything from him that says he can evaluate talent in coaches. He only seems to be a talking head who regurgitates what everyone else is saying.

The NFL doesn't take kindly to teams putting out speculative injury information. Players are not held to the same standard. That's why all teams typically follow a strict protocol when it comes to releasing injury status and typically do so along league required deadlines. I don't really care that Nagy didn't go out of his way on a Monday when he's game planning with his staff for this week's game and take 10min and tell us that Larry Borom should be back practicing. Especially if they want him to be cleared by the medical staff first which might be something that happens on Tue. Wed is press conference day. Both Borom and especially Jenkins will need practice time before they are ready to play. I like what I've seen of Borom but I'd be surprised if he was starting this week. I expect Elijah Wilkinson back at RT but if Borom is his backup that is a far better option than Simmons. Also nice to see some positive news about Jenkins returning. If he's expected back in a few weeks that could mean he's already back in the building working out.

Headset turns off after ~15s so last 10s of play clock there is nobody yelling in his ear unless the Bears were in a hurry up offense mode at that time? I didn't see that part of the game. Regardless, if the Bears use a spotter to catch that in the defensive huddle then Fields and the rest of the offense have to be able to take that from the huddle and process it realtime. Fields said he went with a quick snap but the receivers weren't ready for that so they left late. It sounds like that Oline had it right. Brady and Rodgers know where to scan for that 12th man running off the field who is typically sprinting to get off the field. Fields on the other hand is likely still focused on reading the D and setting up protection. I say you keep putting it on his plate so he learns it.

I'll disagree with Romo, bringing in Dalton isn't going to save his confidence and more likely will harm it. if you've told him we believe in you, just go out and learn how to run the offense and we'll live with the mistakes. Then a few weeks later... well we can't live with those mistakes so your benched and we'll let Andy finish this game. If the opinion is the other way around and we'd bench him to protect him from such a poor Oline performance well then I say he's a competitor and I believe he's a good teammate. I can't imagine he'd want any special treatment on a day the offense was struggling. I'm ok standing alone on this one. IMO I saw Fields getting to reads across the field, and to checkdowns. He's doing it faster than he was but still too slowly to be effective with that level of pass protection. Was he doing that all the time? No. Neither did he have time for that and he knew it. I just think he's moving in the right direction and pieces are starting to come together for him. On the high passes that led to INTs. I think Field's altered his throwing motion a bit to speed up the release because he'd been from behind so many times. I'd have to do some side-by-side video comparisons but it felt like he'd was short arming the passes or not doing his normal full wind up. Plus he got happy feet. He's fought through adversity in high school and again in college and made his way back to the top. I'm staying with him.

i saw most of the game but missed many key plays. I agree with the sentiment that we can lose Jackson and ARob and not miss a beat. There's plenty of well deserved negative comments so I'm going to focus most of my comments on the good things I saw. With a few gripes mixed in so I can vent. First, I think Fields is starting to read the defense better. Simmons was fodder for their edge rushers and the lack of time eventually got to Fields and affected his feet and accuracy. As far as the gameplan I think the coaches wanted to give Fields a chance to test their secondary and I'm ok with that game plan. Staying with that after the late scratch of Wilkinson? Not sure. I see the argument that says you prepared Fields for a batch of plays all week. Do you abandon that and make the rookie go with stuff he didn't practice? OTOH I like and agree with what Jason said about the play calling. Why not stay within that same cluster of plays that has given him some success? Kalil Herbert is really good, at least running with the ball. Pass pro is lacking as is normal with a rookie. We have a great 1-2 combo with him and Monty going forward and this run game is going to be Fields best friend in the 2nd half of the season. I liked the defensive effort in the second half. Especially the goal line stand. There is some heart to this team and in these situations I really want to see who is going to keep fighting (and that's not a reference to Nichols). Roquan was exhausted late in the game yet was still working hard. Others followed his lead. Desai will build on that. I missed some big plays but the secondary with backups in DHC had some good plays in the 2nd half with passes defensed. I know Tampa was being nice running the ball for a while but Brady wanted that next TD and then they let him throw for it and we shot it down. Forget about Eddie Jackson for a bit; when I see guys like DHC and Shelley playing their best football (I'm not saying great football just the best in their careers which means they are getting better as the season moves on) that bodes well for coaching the future talent we'll be adding. I like our new returner Grant. Oline: Whatever wasn't happening in pass pro they managed to run well today and they did it on their field. I don't focus in on their play during a live game like others might but several players had to be doing something right for Herbert to get 100yd rushing against a good front 7.

Maybe there are no good options?

Can't throw good money after bad. He'll be gone next year post Jun 1 and, as you say, we can use the $6.1 mil to find someone who will contribute more. He's not the first guy to get a big payday and then stop being a football player. I supported the move to extend Jackson's contract at the time as we had space available and it seemed to get in early before it got way overboard. Yet here we are throwing life preservers off the deck to salvage whatever we can.

Having watched a few Bengals game now, I'm waiting for when the Bengals fans realize they drafted Andy Dalton 2.0 in Joe Burrow. Yes I get all the hype on Burrow but I never cared about the media. All I have to do is put on my "Mitch glasses" where every minor infraction is highlighted and the gaps in his passing skills are obvious. Burrow may yet overcome his lack of arm strength and some of the poor throws but today, I'd take Fields in a heartbeat over him. Said the same about JimmyG a few years back when everyone was in love with him and where is he now? None of that makes me a QB savant, I really just ignore the NFL hype train, ignore stats somewhat, and just focus on the question: Would I be happy with that pass if he were my QB? On the contrary it does have me convinced that a perfect QB is a really rare thing (duh) and if we're ever going to see it happen in a Bears uniform i understand it takes time to develop. Fields is not picking up the offense as quickly as I'd like but he's also done some things we haven't seen in some time. His deep passing skills are the best I've ever seen in a Bears QB. Keep in mind my fan experience only goes back to the Vince Evans era. I can be patient (as if any Bears fan has a choice) and still believe Field is worth the risk of the draft investment and he's worth investing time to develop. If Field's doesn't fully develop into his full potential then we definitely need to put a coach and team around him to win football games. In other words I think Fields floor will be good enough to win games with while his ceiling is high enough that he wins games.

No. My experience is that you need to be careful making assumptions of next-level readiness based on short-term results in current role. In other words, I've made the mistake of promoting someone too early. He's improving, I like what he's doing on D, the D players all seem to be responding to it, and I think we're in good hands going forward. Does that mean he's ready with his vision of what offense he wants to run? Is he fully prepared for all HC responsibilities? Pace took that gamble with Nagy and I think we've all seen how cracks in the foundation lead to problems.

Yes and that was another reason to get Fields on the field this season.

Didn't get to see the game so thank to all for the summary. We're going to have to do something with Jackson. Bush or DHC might also give up some big plays but they also makes other good plays to somewhat offset things.

I don't think it's likely they are extending Quinn as that would have rolled up into his new deal. More likely they realized Quinn's performance made them comfortable he should be staying around in 2022 and 2023. Shuffling the money likely didn't affect cap space much in future years but will affect dead money and cap savings in those years if we were to cut him. Putting it in post here so we can if the numbers change. https://overthecap.com/player/robert-quinn/1343/ 2022 dead - $9.3mil, savings $6.7mil 2023 dead - $6.2mil, savings $10.9mil They are making room for someone else's extension and the most likely target IMO is Roquan not ARob, and definitely not Hicks. At this point ARob seems replaceable, Roquan is not. Unless ARob suddenly realized his market value is crashing and he'd like to stay here with Fields on a team friendly deal. Either way any money they can pull into this year on a new contract probably helps. 2021 cap hit $6mil 2022 Smith is on the books for $9.7mil for the 5th year option. We have to expect this is the baseline deal for Roquan and Leonard's cap hit for 2021 is $8.2mil. The Bears can now handle Roquan's cap hit increasing from $6mil to ~ $9mil. https://overthecap.com/player/darius-leonard/6921/ "Darius Leonard signed a five year, $98.25 million contract extension with $52.5 million in guarantees on August 9, 2021. $33 million is guaranteed at signing including a $20 million signing bonus."

Me too mostly because I thought Edmunds would offer more as a pass rusher and we needed that help in a bad way pre-Mack of course. In their careers Edmunds has 5.5 sacks and Smith 13 so I freely admit I was wrong. Edmunds is on a team with lots of good defensive players around him, especially up front so no excuses there.