AZ54

We had some debate about this over the offseason. I felt at the time since we were seeing Mizzell take snaps away from Cohen even in the playoff game that coaches felt he was maxed out. Looks like they want to pare things down even more from what he did last year. This might explain why we went after Patterson which I don't think anyone was expecting. At least I wasn't expecting us to have interest in him and certainly not at $5mil/yr. https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/08/21/matt-nagy-we-gave-tarik-cohen-a-little-bit-too-much-at-times-last-season/

The Bears reportedly converted $7mil of Charles Leno's salary this year into a signing bonus. That gives us an extra $5.3mil in cap space this year. We will have to wait and see what Pace does with this. The Whitehair extension has been rumored all offseason but we could have done that without this extra cap space. https://twitter.com/FieldYates/status/1164179053223567364

Not much changed for me after watching the 2nd game although Kwit was back to his usual self in run support but remained his usual self in pass coverage. Nobody else really stepped up at ILB so that might be helping Kwit's cause. Whatever workouts Kylie Fitts was doing have seemingly cost him all of his lateral movement quickness. He has enough strength to hold the edge and unfortunately that's about all he does even in pass rush mode. Irving hasn't impressed me at all, and to be fair he didn't impress me much last year either. Like Fitts he is more or less a straight line player with little bend to his game. I can see Pace keeping an eye on cuts to find some OLB help but decent edge talent rarely hits the market at this time. Game 3 will tell us who the likely bottom roster guys are. Will Nall get the start at RB or will it be Whyte?

For all the team has done to find a kicker I don't think (within reason) that compensation would be the deciding factor. In fact we kept the kicker who will likely cost us a 7th Rd pick. If they were even we could have kept Fry and our 7th Rd pick. I say within reason because we weren't giving up a 4th Rd pick for a kicker. That's where we've draft Eddie Jackson, Cohen, and now Ridley so there is too much value there. It seems to me the kicking coach has been able to work with Pineiro and improve his consistency. While Fry might have been the more accurate kicker in the near term I think they were close enough, and with Pineiro improving, that they went with the upside. Given the cold weather conditions he'll be kicking in that is where the stronger leg matters because the ball won't travel as far. Add in the fact that there won't be any kick returns to deal with.

The one player who stood out last night was Javon Wims. Everyone else looked like either a backup (RRH, Williams, and maybe a couple others like Shelley), a few look like practice squad players (some of the other DBs Joseph and Franklin III), and most look like someone who will never wear a Bears uniform again. Nall looked versatile in that he can do quite a few things lining up at different positions but he didn't look like he could get away from anyone. Then Mizzell took his place and managed to make Nall's performance look much better. I don't think Kerrith Whyte looks like anything more than a practice squad player, he needs a lot of work to loosen up his running style and quit focusing on speed. Is Marvin Hall fast? If so why is it he can't run past anyone? I should add Calvin Ridley does look like he belongs on an NFL field. People are excited about Clifton Duck. I don't see it. He made a great diving INT but he's not fast and he's not exceptionally quick. As a little guy you better be one of those two. OTOH he's solid enough that he won't kill you in coverage, he'll just let a team walk right down the field. At best he's a practice squad candidate but he'll have competition among Joseph and Franklin III.

Yes and one thing is very clear: Nagy is not going to show anything in preseason to the Green Bay Packers. I suspect Montgomery and the rest of the RBs are done running routes except for some basic stuff. We have plenty of rumors that Mitch won't throw a pass in the preseason. When you practice every day against the best defense in the NFL what more do you need?

Just like Devin Hester was at this point in his career, I think 5 years into a players career you know exactly what they are. Patterson is not a TE. He's not really a WR because his hands aren't that good. If he was a legit WR with his size and speed he'd be making a lot more than $5mil/yr. He's a gadget player who the defense still has to account for whenever he's on the field. Plus he is just good enough as a WR that you can't ignore him on deep routes. Wherever he goes he's taking someone with him or we gain a lot of yards.

It's been one preseason game and one training camp in the books, and Emanuel Hall already ejected. I see two players on the bubble that, barring injury I don't think they make the 53. Kwiatkoski looked slow while Kevin Pierre-Louis looked good. Maybe he was out of position on occasion but he stayed with plays and showed more ability to recover than Kwit. I think he makes the roster and we go with Smith, Trevathan, Iggy, and KPL. Braunecker. It's not so much that he's done anything wrong rather it's that Bunting showed he can threaten the deep middle of the field in a much better way. Knowing the injury issues Shaheen has and the fact they asked Sowell to slim down and compete with him it seems clear we'll keep both of them. That leaves a backup to Burton and this is where Braunecker doesn't fit ...something that was painfully obvious in the playoff game. Bunting looks like a much better fit backing up Burton.

He's fast and that was a speedy exit. Nagy says there was too much competition. I say for that much athletic talent to get cut this early he had to be lazy in meetings, study habits, or in the training room not rehabbing like he should. Or perhaps all 3. https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bears/practice-notes-another-fight-emanuel-hall-gets-cut-and-more-bears-first-practice-back-halas

I finally got to watch the entire first game. I think the one thing that stood out the most was how much better the young CBs Franklin III and Joseph played compared to last year. We may have some decent depth this year. Skrine and Shelley are both playing well. I didn't really catch Tolliver out there. If their good play continues, and if they look good on special teams, I won't be surprised if a team grabs one of them for the bottom of their 53-man roster. Further down the roster for us is Denmark who seems destined for the practice squad.

Some positive words for one rookie https://twitter.com/tomkavanaugh44/status/1160194003364720641

That hug he got from Nagy after scoring the TD spoke volumes about what Nagy thinks of him. That confirmed what Nagy wanted: When the defense is perfect, or the offense isn't perfect, Montgomery can still make something positive happen. https://twitter.com/BaldyNFL/status/1160264068290228224?s=09&

That TD run by Montgomery looked exactly like his college runs. He never looks fast (because he's not) yet players are struggling to get a hand on him. Even on his little screen pass up the right sideline he perfectly times and inside cut fake and then nets another 9-10yards before being pushed out of bounds.

I like it. Got a link?

Were you looking for this? https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2017/03/jon_gruden_believes_mitch_trub.html

Another Twitter feed from camp... https://twitter.com/jacksobleTLS/status/1158836875253231618

Interesting experiment here with Montgomery being the slow but quick cutting RB while Whyte is pure straight line speed. Last year it was Nall, who is not that fast, struggling making cuts. Reportedly he worked on his agility this offseason. As we get into preseason 3rd/4th strings I expect Whyte will make a similar big play impact as Nall did last year but again it might not be enough to make the 53. There are more observations at the link. From Dan DeYoung on Twitter...https://twitter.com/DanDeYoung80 More 3. I realized today that Kerrith Whyte Jr. really hasn't done anything that makes me think he deserves a roster spot. Ryan Nall has honestly looked much better so far. We will see when preseason starts if he turns it on. #bears

https://www.chicagobears.com/news/daniels-making-fairly-seamless-transition

Trubisky struggled a ton early in the year, especially in the Arizona game I attended. The improvement was obvious across the season and hopefully continues this year.

Add in the reports that Miller has really matured this season and is more focused on getting the details right and he'll be a tough matchup for any DB.

It is different but he's so quick he actually freezes the defender and gets inside him. Once you have the DB sitting back thinking you'll turn back into him, set that up for a few plays, then you add on a double move and go upfield. He'll be wide open up the sideline.

Sure. Nobody is able to block Mack one-on-one. Dline players are often in the backfield making plays. Yet still the Oline is blocking well enough for Trubisky to often throw TDs, for Montgomery, Cohen, and Davis to make some splash runs. To be fair your RBs are also making some occasional big plays in the passing game as well. It's early and against this defense it's hard to know.

It's a bit hard to tell given the distance of the camera angles but Pineiro appears to have slightly altered his kicking motion since coming to the Bears. He seems to be staying on his plant foot longer instead of putting all his momentum into the kicking leg. His competitor Fry appears to have better leg strength now after working with the Bears. Regardless both are kicking better than I expected and both appear to be NFL kickers. I credit the kicking coach Nagy hired.

Two years ago it was all about can he take a snap from under center. Last year it was all about him learning a new complex offense and from a bad first four games he found his way into the Pro Bowl as an alternate. This year he knows the offense much better and started out good in camp then faded a bit. I do know this...since HHCD has been back on the field Mitch hasn't played as well. I don't know which way to read that but it is interesting.

Just cover him. https://twitter.com/BearsBarroom/status/1157291769597501440?s=09&