AZ54

Adding Williams would be huge for the Oline. On the option of moving Leno inside while I think that might be a better fit than LT IMO he doesn't have the strength needed to hold up inside.

Ha, just posted that in the other thread. I agree completely.

I've watched the highlight above, read numerous threads about Oline play, and watched Dr. Phil's The Tape Never Lies and it's clear the Oline is in serious need of fixing. That's been clear all season Long (pun intended). On the play Rosenfels highlighted it's seems to me one of the two Olinemen on a double team are supposed to come off that initial block and get to the ILB Martinez. That's either Daniels (most likely IMO) or Leno. These guys can't do that. I'm not sure it's Hiestand's issue either because we had highlights of Bars in the preseason doing exactly that. He had to learn that while at Notre Dame. Bars would block the man with one arm to assist his teammate getting setup for the block, and then peel off to the LB. Maybe Dr. Phil is right and Daniels is just too weak to handle this because he's always got his arms bent all the way in when blocking (meaning he's using his body weight on defenders). Same thing goes for Leno. I'm not an expert on Oline play so that's just what I've observed watching clips this season. Whatever the reason is, this has to be fixed. Defense don't care if we run even with 6 in the box because they know they will have unblocked players.

One former Cyclone (Rosenfels) trying to help another (Montgomery). https://twitter.com/i/status/1206968490567098368 If Nagy is serious about his "self scouting" then he'll realize he needs help in the running game. It could be the passing game is just his forte and that's fine but don't surround yourself with other passing game coaches (Helfrich). I see these two in Nagy's office over the summer scheming up new passing plays. Then the season comes along and they just call the same old running plays to mix in on occasion so they can say.. I called a running play now let's get back to passing.

It would be sweet but Urlacher was an athletic freak, especially at his size. Roquan Smith speed and coverage skills plus another 25lbs. That doesn't come along too often. Most people remember Urlacher is his later years for obvious reasons but when he was young he was running down Michael Vick.

Josh Woods ILB played Safety in college. He looked ok in coverage in the preseason but out of place in between the tackles. Position changes like this take time and if KPL is showing anything it's that patience can sometimes be rewarded. I definitely see Woods back next year and, assuming it's Roquan/Kwit/KPL, then adding a new player to compete with Woods makes sense. https://www.chicagobears.com/team/depth-chart

I'm still a fan of Duke Shelley and think he'll grow into the starting NB role. Skrine's contract says he's here next year regardless but best man plays. I still like Skrine but I recognize he has some limitations. However, we can't leave him alone on Adams with no coverage over the top. That's a coaching issue not a player issue. Either that or, as I just watched the replay, HHCD was out of position on that play. We went single high safety and they split the field right in front of HHCD. He had to honor the route right in front of him and with no pass rush that's what you get. I like Tolliver to take over for Prince, and we can add depth with a pick later in the draft. OT is my top priority followed by TE/OLB. We won't be in a good spot for an OT but good OLB/TEs can often be found in Rd 2. I'd take a safety too if they drop to us as I'm not sure HHCD will be back (not sure he should be either). Bush isn't the answer but he might be worth keeping around as a depth player.

Miller has some growing up to do and have better route discipline before I'd re-sign him.

This was game was lost because of the shoes. Whoever decided what cleats the Bears were wearing was wrong. Packers had no issues on cuts and we had players constantly falling down on offense and defense.

We need to see the youngsters in the next two games. Bench Amukamara and let Tolliver play. We're already seeing Horsted and Holtz at TE. It's time to give Nall some carries and see what happens. Ridley needs more snaps (he did today) as does Wims, even if some come at the expense of Robinson. We might as well take care of the best WR we have but this also has to be measured against making sure Trubisky has every opportunity to continue his improvement. There were at least two passes today where receivers either slipped (Cohen) or quit on routes (Miller) and the ball looked like it was thrown to nobody.

Two penalties...one called one (Pass Interference) not called at the end of the game. If grabbing a WRs arm before the ball arrives is not PI then what is?

Montgomery will not be HoF caliber but he can be the bell cow because of his versatility. He needs a Kamara type to handle 10 snaps each game. Cohen is not that player, he's the 3rd down specialist.

IIRC Braunecker had concussion issues last year too. If it weren't a recurring issue I'd be more inclined to think he'll stick around. He's still a fringe roster player who at this point has already been out played in the passing game by two players who weren't on the team to start the season: Holtz and Horsted. He's a good special teams player and emergency backup at TE. He might stick around especially because there's a chance he could get a Superbowl ring but anytime you go on IR because of a concussion it's not a good thing. They could have easily put Horsted back on the practice squad when Braunecker was ready to return but they chose the rookie. I saw rumors this past week that Trevathan was getting close to returning. Clearly if we make the playoffs we'd want him on the roster. The choice between putting him or Braunecker on IR was an easy one.

Braunecker to IR to make room. He won't be back full strength but having his experience in the rotation so others get less snaps will be a big help to our Dline. https://www.chicagobears.com/news/roster-moves-hicks-activated-braunecker-to-ir I would not be surprised at all if Braunecker retires this offseason. He has long term plans to be a doctor or medical researcher. Weeks off trying to recover from another concussion might be the trigger for him to make the career change.

I was against the signing thinking we paid too much for him. After watching him all season he's a flat out stud on special teams both as a returner and cover guy. Nobody can stop him from getting downfield first on punt coverage. We pay tens of millions of dollars for a defense to stop an opponent from gaining 10 yards. Patterson can do that on each punt by preventing a return. On top of that he occasionally offers enough of a spark on offense to give us a big play. I don't think we've been able to truly utilize him mainly because our TEs have been so weak in the passing game. As a LB, if you see Shaheen coming at you are you worried that he'll go out on a route and catch a pass behind you? Or do you just assume he's blocking for Patterson who was coming behind the LOS on a possible jet sweep play? I'd just go after the player most likely to get the ball. Missing Patterson could mean giving up a big play. Missing Shaheen might mean giving up 10 yds... at most.

I'm happier with him vs. Alshon. Stats are similar but I still think ARob is a better fit in the locker room. We absolutely should extend him for 4 years. First off he's the right type of player you want to extend. Second we can structure the contract so we lower his 2020 cap hit from $15mil (currently) to as low as we want. Let's just say we take his cap hit from $15mil to $5mil. That alone gets the team from around $13mil to $23mil. I'm also one of the few who wants to extend Leonard Floyd for 3 years. His versatility is still an important part of our defense. If he develops into the pass rusher we expected he'll still be young enough to get his really big contract. We can do the same on the contract structure so we open up another $5-10mil for 2020. Call it $30mil in cap space. Kyle Long is getting cut which frees up $8mil now you have $38mil. Prince is another candidate to be cut. I still like him but reality is at 31 years old in 2020 he's not likely to be more durable. Tolliver looks ready to take over the spot. Add another $8mil now we have $46mil. Gabriel's concussion issues concern me. I like him and he's a consistent part of the offense when he's available but one more concussion and he could done (if he's not now). We have WRs waiting in the wings (Wims/Ridley) who have already shown similar production in games. Cutting him saves $4.5mil now we have $50.5mil. I see zero reason we can't extend Robinson's contract and free up this cap space. With that we can look at doing a 2 year deal with Trevathan (should be modest) and keep Kwit. Eddie Jackson also deserves a contract extension. It won't be as high as it was looking like last year but it will still be a big deal. Even with that Pace can still be a player in the FA market to bolster depth at OLB, TE, OT, WR.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say they grew more lax calling holding penalties the more focused they got on QB safety and keeping them from getting injured. That comes from the owners who understandably want to protect their main asset. Fans feel the same way when it's their QB who got injured.

I'm in agreement here, TE is one of the top priorities. Small fast WRs are found on day 3 in the draft every year. I also agree with Ashkum that a legit #2 RB is a higher need than the WR. Cohen is not an RB2, he's an RB3. I'd like to see more of Nall as a runner but it doesn't appear we'll see that, and Holtz has taken over the role (FB/H-back) I used to think Nall could fill. That's an indication Nall isn't a fit there. We can find a good RB2 on day 3 too.

I think earlier in the year I put him right behind Kyle Long for worst blocker on the Oline. Unfortunately we put our backup OT Coward at RG and now with Massie out we have our other backup OT Lucas at RT. At least I can say Hiestand was right about keeping both of them. The only other option I was hoping for was that Bars was ready to take over at RG and we could have moved Coward to LT. Leno's not going anywhere unless we know his replacement is on the roster. That won't happen until training camp next year. I agree with the engagement, contract, and now a baby is reportedly on the way, are all distractions that pulled his focus away from the job. Hopefully he can turn it around this offseason. He was always an average talent who succeeded by not making the big mistakes. Not this year.

We really need someone with some speed among the WR corps. Gabriel has serious concussion issues but we should expect to see someone fast added this offseason.

It must be fake news but Watson only completed 56% of his passes and had two INTs.

Going into this offseason this young team will know not to take anything for granted. I think there will be a much better focus on the details of what needs to be done from the coaches all the way down.

The Bears won 3 games in 11 days. First, that is always a difficult challenge (see Dallas who didn't travel on T-day). In that short time a lot has changed.

https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/football/news/bears-javon-wims-injury-not-major/ Wims only suffered a slight knee sprain in Thursday's win over the Cowboys, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports. Wims' injury isn't deemed to be major. However, a recovery timeline has yet to be announced. Having played on Thursday, the 25-year-old has the benefit of a few extra days to heal before the Bears take on Green Bay in Week 15. ----------------- I wouldn't be surprised to see him play against GB given the extra days of rest.

Roquan, Trevathan, Prince, and Hicks all out. I don't like prevent defenses unless you are inside 4min with a big lead, or maybe last min or so. IMO we went into prevent too early, around the 7min mark. We had key players out and I think it affected some things in the prevent that ended up giving up more yards and let them stop the clock. Initially I think Pagano wanted to protect the sidelines and was willing to give up some easy plays in order to force Dallas to burn their timeouts or burn the clock. We didn't always do that well. Then late in the game it seemed they constantly went toward Tolliver and the coverage on big pass near the end that gave them the FG was totally blown. The DB went for the INT where if he just tackles the WR at the 20yd line and keeps him in bounds that game was over right there. I recall seeing about 20sec left when he caught it, and maybe 12-14 when he got out of bounds. If he's tackled inbounds by the time the offense runs 30 yd downfield and gets set Dallas might have had time for one more play. Even if they clock it, there would be a few seconds left and they could choose FG try or TD. Instead we missed the INT and then we left the sideline open and the WR ran for another 10 yd and stopped the clock.