AZ54

He's still a dog but he can't hunt anymore. Time to move on.

I'd love to see him back. He brings an energy to our D with his hits that has been missing. He was a full participant in practice Wed and no longer listed on the injury report on Thursday so it appears we'll see him this week. I'd cut Demps this offseason and gladly give his money to Amos on a nice contract extension. We have built a good defense and need to start securing some pieces for the longer term while the price is reasonable. The Safety tandem of Amos and Jackson I think can become a long term fixture for the Bears. Right now after one good season I don't think we'd need huge guarantees here so Pace can minimize the long term risk. Eddie Goldman is another player I'd like to see get an extension this offseason. Then Pace has the middle of the D set for a couple years while he works on to shore up the edges. http://www.chicagobears.com/team/injury-report.html

Oh HEEELLL No! Fisher was done in LA and to be honest it was obvious during his last year or two in StL. I always felt he got the contract extension before the move to LA just as a way for the owner to keep some continuity during all the turmoil. What good HC candidate is going to want to take on a team that is might be about to move to a new city? Fisher stayed with it and got rewarded with some extra cash and then they amicably parted ways. I just think all the years of coaching burned him out and it's way too soon for that fire to be reignited in the way Vermeil did years ago. No to Harbaugh. He'll ruin Trubisky by running too much read-option and taking the easy way out instead of developing him for the long term. It's one thing when you are the early adopter of something new but the NFL always catches up quickly. I'm not in the FireFox mode either. I'm not in the camp that says we must keep him either. I want Pace to make a full evaluation after the season. Weeks ago I felt Tru wasn't improving and that would be the end of it. The last three weeks that has flipped and I've seen improvement in our rookie QB. Not everything is perfect but each week he adds more to game. If that continues I'd rather not break the continuity and just see what we get next year. I'm not as down on Loggains as the rest of the fans because he's found ways to be productive with poor QB play. I think eventually his name rises to the next tier of up and coming NFL HC candidates. It might take him another 5-10 years but I think he'll get there. His offense looks like crap without any WRs but I'm pretty sure nobody could have made this WR corps shine early in the season. Except somehow lately Trubisky's numbers are starting to move in line with real offenses, and that's with the same bad WR corps. We're talking trend line here not worried about the details but we are seeing throws legit starting NFL QBs make. https://www.windycitygridiron.com/2017/12/2...a-play-nfl-2017 Trubisky yards per game: 128, 113, 107, 164, 297, 179, 147, 102 (big red flag here), 271, and 314. I like what Fangio has done with our defense. We're still 8th in total yards allowed per game, and 12th in pts/game given up. That's all while carrying a struggling offense with a rookie QB, and while playing many young players on D. There is a foundation here. Vic is on a 3yr contract so if we want him back we'll likely have to give him a couple years more and risk losing that last year if we move on from the entire staff. I want to see how the team and the rookie QB finish the season before making an evaluation.

I wasn't expecting this surgery but at least he's in good spirits afterwards and on the road to a long offseason of healing. https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/bears-g...ergoes-surgery/

Unrein's position can certainly be upgraded. The hope is that we see the upgrade come from within between Bullard, and RRH. I think Robertson-Harris has already been productive in just his first season at a new position. Long term I think he has the ability to really step into a starting role. Bullard has had some splash plays as well. Somewhere between the two I think we're ok at DE. FWIW I'd like to keep Unrein as a backup heading into next year. I have no issues with adding competition to this spot but I don't see it as a priority.

Absolutely. I assumed when he was cut he was done for the season. Now we achieved some cap savings with the cut but bringing him back for a deal with little guarantee would be well worth it.

When it comes to the running or passing game we need to get one thing clear: Grasu is really bad. On the flipside of this nobody is talking about the good game Jordan Howard had as a receiver. There's nothing spectacular about 4 rec for 26yards but he caught the ball. If he can develop this part of his game going into next season it will help the team quite a bit.

I'm with you on Eddie Jackson today. Many people focus on the turnovers he's had but I think this was by far his best game as a Bear. It was very encouraging to his growth in both coverage and run support. We may have found our new leader in the secondary. Nobody here seems to like Amos (I do at SS) but I feel like we missed him on many of the run fits today. --- Trubisky laid an egg but this was bound to happen. Team relied on him heavily today. For all those complainers about run-run-pass well today we got pass-run-pass and it didn't work the first two series. There was a bit of talk before the game they were going to open things up a bit for Trubisky and I have no problem with that at all. That's because after last week I think he's ready for it at this point in the season. Do this in his first four outings and we might have seen 3 INTs in the first half. He needs this experience and we've seen a trend where he learns from his mistakes. This will only help him improve during the offseason and there are still some issues with throwing mechanics. Of course I don't like any of the INTs and I wanted to win this game today. Yet there were signs of growth outside that. We saw him effectively use a hard count to get a couple offsides penalties, for the first time that I recall. With the in-game Oline changes he maintained his composure and still kept the offense moving forward in the 2nd half. That's a leadership aspect that I think will serve him well down the road. He was clearly pushing the ball downfield this game and it paid off quite a few times including a 3rd and 18 late in the game. It's in a bits and pieces but I still feel he's improving and I'm looking forward to seeing how he responds in the next game.

...or a CB in Rd 2 makes much more sense IMO.

Get the wrong rookie QB and Beckham will whine his way out of town within a year, two at the max.

If I'm a rookie QB I know I want to throw to someone who has a catch radius like Beckham's, not to mention his ability to get YAC.

You need a star to sell tickets, even during a rebuild, and none shines brighter than OBJ in New York. I think he stays and everyone else goes.

Impossible to know but sometimes fun to speculate. Sometimes it's depressing. I don't think Kevin White would have helped Glennon simply because Glennon didn't like throwing to him. When I was at the preseason game against the Cardinals Glennon rolled out of the pocket (slowly) and threw right over a wide open Kevin White into triple coverage 15 yards behind him. Cam Meredith OTOH would have helped Glennon quite a bit. Until we got Inman he was the only guy who could get open beyond 10 yards on his own. Of course none of that would help Glennon be more accurate so we'd still see Trubisky on the field but maybe they'd have split the season. This team was more competitive until we lost Zach Miller. It's not like the offense was really good but when he was out there we had more consistency. Look back at the season and how many games we were in up to the end against good teams: Atlanta, New Orleans (partially stolen by idiots in NYC IMO), the vaunted Vikings beat us 20-17 without any ILB left except Christian Jones. On top of that we beat the Steelers and Panthers. People say those were anomalies but then what we were doing being so close in those games against Atlanta, NO, and the Vikings? In the end injuries are why you need depth on the roster. That takes years to build. We're still trying to finish out the top end of the roster let alone the 2nd tier.

Robert Zeglinski on WindyCityGridiron broke down some of Trubisky's plays against the Bengals. While he does a good job there are two that matter the most to me. https://www.windycitygridiron.com/2017/12/1...f-play-nfl-2017 On the 3rd play he shows watch Shaheen block the DE pushing him to the inside a bit. He pushes him far enough inside to allow room for Trubisky to get outside. He also completely sells his role in the play and gets himself wide open as you'll see the LBs drop way back. We end up with an easy 8yd gain. Excellent job by Shaheen and he looks like a veteran in how well he executes the play. Trubisky sees it all unfold early in the play and just waits for Shaheen to slide out. The last play he shows the Bengals bring a CB blitz off the edge and the Oline misses the block. In this case Cincy lines up with 7 players in a zone blitz situation and Trubisky does not know who is coming and who is dropping. Watch Trubisky's head as he quickly turns left and sees the CB, he then rolls out of the pocket to buy time toward where the defenders dropped back into coverage. That's smart, it's the soft spot of the pressure. This was not a designed rollout, the outcome of the play is entirely on Trubisky. In the past he and the Oline have missed CB blitzes like this several times leading to sacks and fumbles. I'm certain their coaches saw that on tape and expected a sack on this play. Instead they gave up 20 yards. These are subtle things that aren't always apparent at first but both rookies are showing some clear growth in their games.

This week is a short one with the Bears playing Sat afternoon. Here's the Tue practice injury report. We may be getting some players back with Goldman, McPhee, and Amos starting to practice in a limited manner. On the flipside we added Shaheen and Kendall Wright but neither appears to be serious. Detroit has some concerns on the Oline. http://www.detroitlions.com/team/custom-injury-report.html

For those who want to relive some more fond memories...(quality is not the best) I don't know how anyone could watch that 10 min clip and then deny him from the Hall of Fame. Better quality here... http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/

Had to watch this one more time. If they kicked to him twice we would have won the game.

One of the requirements to become a member of the Hall of Fame is when he was on the field did the player change the way the game was played. Hester absolutely did that. He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.

Would you renegotiate Sitton's deal? If he stays I think that's what we should do. He's 31, I think we could add 2 years to his deal. Get his contract back down around $5 or 6mil/yr. Gives us a couple seasons to prepare Morgan to take over.

Looking at the prospects I view filling the RT spot as the more likely scenario in this draft. The only top prospect I've seen who is a likely LT is Williams. I'm good with someone like Rankin in the 2nd Rd. I'm not very high on Ferrell, at least not that early. He doesn't move well enough and I think he benefits more from the talent across that Dline than they do from him. He can fill the McPhee role on the edge so there is a spot for him. I can't see Auden Tate lasting until the 5th Rd but getting him there would be a steal.

This is easily the most entertaining OG highlight film I've ever watched. I know many here are fans of McGlinchey early in the 1st but I see slow feet so I'm less enthusiastic and I think his draft stock will drop as get further into the evaluation process. His neighbor Nelson on the other hand is the only OG I recall seeing slide across the face of the QB late to pick up a blitzing CB/S. He has plenty of power to pancake players as well, which he does over and over in this 2016 highlight film. He's talented enough to be scheme versatile. I'd like to find some 2017 highlights, and of course entire game film, but that will show up soon. My question is where do you value him in the draft? I've seen some reports saying he's one of the top 5 players in the draft, but he's a guard so they don't go top 5. Yes, we need OT help but it's easy to see a scenario where we trade back to 15-20 and some other players we might like (Ridley) are gone. If he's there would you take Nelson? IMO he's got Pro Bowl potential very early in his career and Nelson, Whitehair, and Long would be the best interior blockers in the NFL in 2018. Trubisky will be able to step up in the pocket all day, and the running game with Howard and Cohen??? Josh Sitton has played well but cutting him saves $8mil next year. Should we draft Nelson in the bottom half of Rd 1 if he's best available? Or is it more ... don't care, rather draft best OT available than an OG? Here's a good game to compare McGlinchey and Nelson

https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/pro-3...vations-week-13 Chicago Bears: On his 65 third-down attempts, quarterback Mitchell Trubisky’s average of 9.6 yards per attempt ranks second among 32 starting signal-callers, while his passer rating of 103.7 ranks fourth. Through 13 weeks, he’s the only starting quarterback to have not thrown an interception on any of his third-down pass attempts. ------------------- The sample size is more than big enough to be significant. Then there was this article published before the Bengals game... http://www.thetenyardline.com/2017/12/08/m...-on-third-down/ ------------------- Passing chart against Bengals https://twitter.com/Zack_Pearson/status/939...3530368/photo/1 ------------------- I'm still not sure Bears' fans understood what they witnessed Sun. At least for me it's not something that fits the norm for a Bears QB. On NFL Network the Bears received 1 highlight of Jordan Howard, and then they showed the final score. For comparison about 5min were spent highlighting Brett Hundley come from behind to beat the Browns, and to be fair he had a nice game as well. The information at the links above may define where Trubisky is headed and but they also tell a little about where he's been. It is surprising to see how well he has done on 3rd downs, among the best in the NFL. I watch all of our games and wouldn't have expected that to be true. Then that also begs the question (or blame as some would have it) for why don't we throw more often on first and second downs. On a 3rd down you either make it or you punt, meaning the sack doesn't matter. On 1st and 2nd downs sacks matter...a lot, and make that punt more likely. I think all we need to do is look at his sack percentage and how bad it's been until lately. We can blame receivers in part (some truth there), except those are the same receivers responsible for his 3rd down performance. So it comes back to Trubisky wasn't reading the defense and making quick enough decisions. Fox knew this he they stayed away from putting Trubisky behind the sticks as much as possible, hence all the run-run-pass. https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/qb-sacked-pct That's team sack percentage. If you look at Trubisky's stats he was at 10%. Some games 25%. In the last few games he's getting sacked around 6% per attempt. The wise man will tell me that it's really sacks per pass play not attempt but I'm not taking the time to add all the numbers for that. Just know that it means the Sack% per dropback is a bit lower than 6%. That rate puts Trubisky right in the middle of the league, in line with MVP candidates Carson Wentz, Tom Brady, and fits in with a host of other name QBs like Newton and Prescott. This means Trubisky is now operating in a more NFL-normal space and we can open up the offense more on 1st and 2nd downs. Add in his good performance on 3rd and long and taking an early sack isn't as much of a drive killer as it might have been earlier in the season. For a QB 3/4 of the way through his first season he's doing some good things. For those focused on "poor coaching" hindering him, I said that appeared to be the case 2 weeks ago after the Philly game. Now after seeing the last two games there is a marked improvement in his performance and that is starting to indicate otherwise. We need the last few data points to make a complete assessment but I don't think the NFL Network (and other media) will be skipping Trubisky's highlights for too much longer. For the first time he'll be seeing a team he's already played against. Should be a great measuring stick to see how far he's come along.

Cutting him is little more than a spiteful move. The money is spent either way. With extremely little depth at WR there is zero reason to release Wheaton. Job 1 right now is to get Tru up to speed and that isn't helped by bringing him yet another WR to learn the offense with 3 games to go. Genty had his shot too so no need to go back to that dream. Besides, Gentry has much to work on this offseason, mostly improving his quickness in/out of cuts. Let's give our QB some consistency with the WRs who are running routes for him in practice, even if they haven't been that productive in games. There is plenty of time in the offseason to address who stays and who goes.

Because Cleveland called them to inquire about trading up for the 3rd pick. In the last month before the draft there were many rumors that a serious debate was going on within the Cleveland organization because quite a few wanted Trubisky #1 overall. The logical reason for Cleveland to trade up was to get the QB they most valued. By all accounts that was clearly Trubisky. People dismissed all the talk as pre-draft chatter. Now if Pace said no immediately to their offer and told them he wanted to wait and see who was available then he was showing his hand and Cleveland knows he likely wants Trubisky. In that case it was quite likely Cleveland calls SF and trades up for #2. Pace was adamant he wanted Trubisky, clearly evidenced by the great lengths he went to keep the Bears interest quiet, so he kept Cleveland on one phone line negotiating a trade down deal while on the other phone line he called SF and traded up for #2. Draft analytics killed the Cleveland front office in the end but the statement they didn't have the draft capital to trade up to #2 when we know they were already willing to trade up to #3 overall is ridiculous. They had plenty of picks to give SF between 2017 and 2018. People said Houston didn't have the draft capital to trade up for Watson. If Cleveland was so married to their analytics then why were they on the phone trying to trade up to #3? No one was worth trading up for. We know they were trying to trade up for someone. If it was just a question of Cleveland taking any one of the top 3 QBs because their grades were similar then why did they trade away from Watson? Why didn't they trade up and grab Mahomes? Or since we took Trubisky and SF took Thomas why didn't they trade into #4 overall to get whoever else it was they coveted because they were still on the board and that trade to #4 or #5 overall was cheaper than the move to #3. They passed twice on Kizer late in the 1st Rd so clearly he wasn't high on their board. You are right the picks we gave up make no difference. One thing we know from teams with very good QBs...they win a lot. If Pace is right it's a fact he's was extremely unlikely to find a player, or players with those picks who can make as much positive difference to the team. If he's wrong, then he'd have been just as wrong and likely to get fired for not finding his Cutler replacement in 3 years. If Trubisky has a couple more games like today's then that deal, as well as the big trades KC and Houston made for QBs, will be talked about non-stop leading up to the draft.

A fun game to watch (finally). Trubisky: I see lots of comments all over, not just here, about where this play calling has been all season. When you are on a losing team, better yet rebuilding, everything and everyone falls under a microscope. Trubisky has held this offense back far more than any other player except Glennon. That from a fan who was happy we traded up to ensure we got him. Sure we've had one player or another make mistakes with penalties, or drops, missed blocks, etc. that killed drives but with Trubisky we had to be perfect. However, over the last few games the light is coming on brighter and brighter for him. He's reading the defense more quickly at the snap and we are seeing more and more quick hitting passes. I'm a very unsympathetic to anyone saying this was all because the Bengals were missing players. Listening to that during the broadcast proves how ignorant TV announcers are because they know nothing about the Bears team this year. I was expecting this performance moreso against the 49ers. I'll say that if Trubisky continues to improve then a) we must give his coaches credit for that and we need to be more open to keeping them around. I don't think firing anyone mid-season was going to help us evaluate what we have in Trubisky. When you are largely dependent upon rookies and 2nd year players it is important to get the full body of work befor evaluating. That does not mean I'm saying keep them around, I'm ok waiting to see how things play out. Shaheen: Nice to see him coming around. He still has work to do as a blocker. He missed one assignment that led directly to pressure on Trubisky late in the game. When you have a big man with soft hands for catching the ball, even when catching over his head, you have a great redzone target. He is still largely the self-made DII player we drafted but wait until he hits the weight room all offseason. No need to add bulk, just strength. Oline: Played far better than I expected but part of their success was really Trubisky making quicker decisions. With an effective passing game to balance against the running game we saw a glimpse of what can be. RBs: Congrats to Howard...first Bears RB to hit 1000yds in each of his first 2 seasons. Cohen impressed me because he is starting to run with patience and wait for holes to open, then he's using his lightning quick agility. Staying behind blockers on the wildcat play where earlier in the season he'd have been racing to get out front, is further proof that he's learning. Defense: Dalton wasn't that good today but our defense wasn't making it easy for him either. Mostly this was from good coverage from DBs on the backend. I'm glad to see Callahan back on the field, he makes us much better than LeBlanc, if only we can find a way to keep him healthy. I don't know what the future holds but Pace should bring back both Amukamara and Fuller for next year. Both have played well enough all year to earn that, both will make more money than fans think they deserve. Yet I think we can get both for about what is paid to one elite CB, maybe a bit more. Doing so keeps some continuity but more importantly allows us time to draft a good young CB and let him learn and bring in another CB on day 3 to compete for a spot. The last few weeks have been extremely hard on the coaching staff (nobody on this board would be comfortable listening to non-stop chatter at work that they are about to get fired). Through all that and the big hits on injuries the last two weeks (Unrein, Goldman, Long, Amos) they got this team ready to play for a road game. I liked Fox's comments in the post-game press conference recognizing and appreciating all the young players who continue to work hard.