AZ54

If you want to get a sense of what's to come with our defense read this article. https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/bs-sp-ravens-0825-20110824-story.html

I'm the opposite because I don't see either Mizzell or Cunningham as good 3rd options on the roster. Cunningham was a good versatile player but he's slowing down now and Mizzell just doesn't offer much in either size/strength or athleticism. I see no reason to get rid of Howard this year. Just let his contract play out and draft his replacement in 2020. This year, I don't care if we draft someone or sign a cheap FA but somewhere we should be able to find a better option for our 3rd RB position that offers more on KRs and special teams coverage, or has some home run speed to help spell Cohen on some plays.

I wasn't familiar with Pagano's background but after doing a bit of research I think he's the perfect fit. Scheme wise what he does fits our players perfectly. I was always one of those fans who didn't like how often Fangio would rush 3 and just cover on 3rd and long. Sometimes he'd even rush 2 and drop 9 into coverage. Overall Fangio's defense worked very well and I regret losing him. However I believe the talent we have now can do even better with the right timing on aggressive play calls and we won't see those games where we shutdown a team for 3 quarters only to give up 10-14pts in the last quarter. We have the coverage ability in the secondary plus with Trevathan, Smith, and Floyd, Pagano can mix up coverages similar to what Fangio did but he'll blitz more often. Everything I've read says Pagano likes to make the offense do things according to his schedule, meaning speed up the play force the ball out early. On top of that his background before being a DC was as an outstanding DB coach. He coached some of the best pass coverage units in the NFL before he was the DC in Baltimore and that wasn't always done with Pro Bowl talent.

I'm glad Vic got his chance to be a HC. I wish it was a better scenario. The last thing I'd want is the GMs best friend stuck as my OC. Elway is on the hot seat right now. If things start to get wobbly players will know they have a back door channel to the GM.

Parkey has a fundamental problem in that he lines up differently for each kick and more often than not his plant foot lands at a different spot relative to the ball. I didn't realize this until my son, who is a former soccer player, pointed it out while watching a game weeks ago. From there I started watching him more closely. In the second game winning attempt he took an extra small half step to the left versus his first kick. That was likely his adjustment because on the first kick the ball went through close to the left upright. He usually strikes the ball well but without a consistent approach angle to the ball, and consistent plant foot placement, he connects at different parts of his leg swing and it's coming off his foot at all sorts of angles. Hence every kick is it's own adventure.

Just a couple but it took two kickers on two attempts to make as much noise as Parkey can do on a single kick.

For those who are walking away from Massie who are you looking to put at RT? Coward? Or FA and how much will that FA be cheaper and better than Massie? Draft pick? These are the FA available per Spottrac. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/all/right-tackle/

If you saw the college championship game you'd know that Parkey is a trend setter.

With Gould sitting in the stands with his family watching the Bears lose on a last second kick, I'd say there's a fair chance that will happen. SF may even offer him more money but I could see him returning. Unless SF were to franchise tag him.

Based on Spotrac.com here's the list of Bears who are FA this offseason and their last salary. We have $19.6mil in cap space plus the certain $6.3mil we'll get when we cut Sims gives us $26mil to spend. The only other cut that I think could happen would be Acho giving us another $2.375mil in cap space. Spotrac forecasts Callahan's market value to be 4yr $28mil. I think coming off a broken foot and surgery lowers that. If nothing else, stacked up against all his other missed games in recent years, he'll have difficulty finding a GM willing to commit 4yrs with a big bonus. With $26mil to spend who do you want back, or do you cut Acho and spend $28mil. If you want to cut Parkey his cap hit is $4mil but his dead cap is $5.2mil. You will lose $5.2mil of the $26mil to cut him. Massie $6mil White $4.1mil (he'll be gone) Lynch $4mil Callahan $1.9mil (clear NB starter in the NFL when healthy) Bellamy $1.9mil (core special teams player and Club Dub DJ who played ok at WR in limited spots finished with 14 rec 117yds) O'Donnell $1.5mil (he punted much better this year but is not worth a big contract) Kush $1.35mil Cunningham $1.05mil Witzmann $790k Zach Miller $790k Marcus Williams CB $790k Nick Williams DE $705k Patrick Scales $630k Amos $628k Isaiah Irving $510k ERFA Rashaad Coward $510k ERFA For reference the total of the above contracts is $27.1mil. Our rookie pool for Rd 3/4/5/7 needs to be about $2.2mil (3rd Rd - $700k, 4th Rd - $560k 5th Rd - $500k 7th Rd - $500k)

Among the young players we can look forward to seeing improve I forgot to list Javon Wims.

It's not being discussed but Trey Burton was a very late addition to the injury report and didn't play. At that point the entire game plan is in and practiced and there's no time to adjust. I see a lot of chatter about the play calling early in the game, and to be honest all those short passes outside really bothered me. Last year in the playoffs Nagy lost Kelce in the middle of the game and it basically shutdown the Chiefs offense. He interviewed for the Bears job a day later. On the flight to Chicago he made it clear to Pace how important having a TE who can stretch the field was to his offense. For him losing that player two seasons in a row like that has to feel like a curse. I just wonder how much it impacted Nagy's play calling early in the game or if the boring short plays were all by design to get Trubisky comfortable.

If you had told me In August about this season going the way it did I'd have taken it in a heartbeat, bad kicking and all. I think we got the right head coach for Trubisky. I think we have the right QB for the future and look forward to him improving after a second offseason in this offense. And we get to watch Khalil Mack again next year! I see some of the posts about how the injuries went our way this year but that's in part because they've been so lopsided against us in recent years. We lost a couple key players for this game most notably Jackson, but also Callahan and Trey Burton, plus we had Kyle Long back but he wasn't 100% if you noticed him limping a bit when he was running. Next year should see an improved Kevin Tolliver, Bilal Nichols, James Daniels, Mitchell Trubisky, Anthony Miller ( who will get his shoulder fixed so he can lift his left arm which might have made that one long catch stay a completion), Roquan Smith, Leonard Floyd, and Deon Bush. Bush wasn't Eddie Jackson but can he do what Amos has done this past year? I think so. In doing some quick cap space math and I'm thinking we could sign FA Gould if we let Amos go. It will depend on what Gould wants in a deal but if he doesn't want to break the bank and it's somewhat team friendly we might squeak it in. That could require a little help from Kyle Long with an extension that lowers his cap hit. If we let Coward take over at RT then it's easy to do. I give McManis a ton of credit because he played well in Callahan's absence. With his injury history Callahan's price has come way down but I'd like to see him return. Perhaps we can agree on a 1 or 2 year deal that gives him some bonus but keeps him young enough to really cash in on his next contract if he can stay healthy.

There just one problem with this scheme to block Mack and it is named Hicks. On top of that, if they slide protection this way including with the Center then guys like Goldman, Nichols, RRH, and Floyd will win the day. https://twitter.com/i/status/1080272735140495360

I'm going to call this the Eddie Jackson game. I don't see them being able to run on us so hopefully we can make them one-dimensional. While I expect the Eagles to try to use a lot of screens and quick passing plays to keep our pass rush at bay there will be plenty of times Foles holds the ball to go deep. Foles is playing some good football but the problem for him is this defense practices against the exact same offense. Yes, their defense does too but their DBs aren't in the same class as the Bears DBs. They don't have Eddie Jackson on the backend who knows how to read and cover the route concepts coming at him (they have ex-Bear Corey Graham in his 12th season). Fuller knows how to play Alshon on the perimeter and will largely just wait on his breaks. Amukamara will work to get Agholor off his route timing. LIkewise we have good interior coverage players in Smith, Trevathan, and McManis to take away some of Foles security blanket plays. Hopefully we can get a turnover or two. They have two good OTs and it's hard to say how much pass rush we'll generate off the edge. Will they double team Mack or let the OTs handle him one on one while focusing on shutting down Hicks? We need good coverage to get Foles to hold onto the ball and then I believe the pass rush will be there. This might be a good game to mix in some blitzes as teams have been able to get to Foles and there is no way his ribs won't be bothering him. On offense Trubisky just needs to keep doing what he's been doing and take what the defense gives him. I think their biggest matchup problem might be Cohen. Just looking at some highlights of their last few games their secondary will often give some early wide open looks in coverage for easy 10 yard gains. DeShaun Watson ran quite a bit on them so if they get back into man coverage Trubisky should just do the same. That could also spell big plays for Cohen if he beats the first man. This is a great coaching matchup between old friends who know each other very well. I like the Bear chances at home to win 24-17.

Re-drafting the 2018 picks from Bleacher Report. At #30 the Vikings would pick James Daniels over CB Mike Hughes. I hope they continue to collect DBs early in the draft this year. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2812522-re-drafting-the-2018-nfl-drafts-1st-round#slide30

Fitzmagic. Rodgers was going to run the table because he always wins at Soldier Field. The Vikings (twice) were coming to town to show us who's the boss. Then again on their home field in a win-and-they-are-in scenario, with the Bears mostly locked into playoff positioning, we should lose. In the old days the reporters ripped the paper right out of the typewriter and started over.

Expect more as in the future, or expected more as in this year? For the future I agree and I think that's fair to say. For his first year in this offense, along with a lot of new WRs, I think he's grown tremendously since week 1. Nothing highlighted that more than his 75 yard drive that took up 9min late in the game after the Vikings closed within 3pts. At one point on a third down the Vikings went with a heavy blitz. Trubisky calmly made the hot read and threw it perfectly to Wims for a first down. More importantly than the stats is that he setup that play with 3 backup WRs... on the road in that noisy stadium. Amazingly nobody outside Chicago seems to give him credit for that drive. If his name were Brady or Brees he'd have been cool and efficient dissecting the Vikings top 5 defense to put his team up by two scores late in the game. But he's not, and he can't even get a mention on NFL Network. I'm ok with that. Stay out of the spotlight let everyone jump all over Big Dick Nic in Philly (apparently his new nickname) because he completed 85% of his passes against the Redskins. Ignore the 85% Trubisky completed a week earlier. When I listened to his press conference after the game Trubisky is clearly seeing the field and understanding the offense far better than he ever has.

In the next year or two I think you will be seeing a lot more from Orlovsky. He's already parlayed his little Youtube videos into a job at ESPN. He hung around the NFL for 8 years and you don't do that as a backup QB unless you are working at your craft enough to run the offense in a pinch, or you're an elite athlete and can run like the wind. At least he himself can make fun of that play where he was running outside the endzone.

What Nagy did is take his young QB into what was a home playoff game for the Vikings, and he won without his best receivers on the field. That was against one of the top 5 defenses in the league. Seeing the Rams up as big as they were I would not have played the starters that much in the 2nd half. Nagy, to his credit, wants it all and he wants his team knowing they can beat anyone anywhere.

Yes I'd contribute we need back at the helm of the Vikings next year.

That was some serious butt kicking we did. Missing our two of our top three, then all top three WR for the second half and we still put up 24pts on their turf. I"m glad to have Kyle Long back. What a difference he makes inside. Even our 2nd string D was bringing it late in the game. We have lots of injuries to sort out so hopefully all goes well but I can't see Miller returning this year.

Sounds like Kyle Long is back.. https://bearswire.usatoday.com/2018/12/27/kyle-long-chicago-bears-practice-return-healthy-nfl-playoffs/

Of course I want to win...the Superbowl. To do that we need key players healthy so this cannot be a win at all costs type of game. Players that need less snaps to prepare for the Wildcard game should get the rest. In an ideal world we rattle Cousins (again) and get some big defensive plays early to help build a big lead in the first half. Cousins is under a ton of pressure and there is no way he can ignore the chatter about him not being worth $84mil. We need to get hands on him early and often. Their D is going to play us tough again but I just posted their injury report in the game thread and they have a few key players who cannot practice: Eric Kendricks, Linval Joseph, Mike Remmers, and Xavier Rhodes. They may play but it's unlikely they'll be fully healthy. Trubisky was not very good in the first game agains the Vikings. He'll be looking to turn that around and his new found love of taking what the defense gives him should help him here. Can we take advantage of their defensive injuries? I don't know and we have our own issues with Long and Jackson likely out this game. IMO if we can get Howard going early we win. He'll take the heat off Trubisky on the road. He'll make play action work better. He'll give defenders someone else to worry about running besides Trubisky (see my "What are the Vikings worried about" post in the game thread). He'll make Cohen look that much faster. We have one other ace in the hole and that is Shaheen. Sims went out the week before the first Vikings game and Shaheen, although back, wasn't fully in game shape and he had 0 targets that game. While Shaheen hasn't lit it up in the passing game he's another legit option. More importantly is that Howard has been at his best rushing these last 4 or 5 games since Shaheen has been on the field (after his concussion). It hasn't been mentioned here but I don't think that's pure coincidence.

...and their injury report for this week. For some reason the Bears site didn't list our injuries. https://www.vikings.com/team/injury-report/ Player Position Injury Wed Thu Fri Game Status Anthony Barr LB Shoulder FP (-) C.J. Ham FB Elbow DNP (-) Linval Joseph DT Knee DNP (-) Eric Kendricks LB Hamstring DNP (-) David Morgan TE Knee FP (-) Mike Remmers G Low Back DNP (-) Xavier Rhodes CB Groin DNP (-) Marcus Sherels CB Foot DNP