AZ54

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300000081...marquess-wilson Good luck to all because they are going to need it.

I like that we picked up Banks late last year but I'm not as high on him. Nothing wrong with taking a shot a player like this. If he has his act together I think he has a good chance to make the final roster especially with the concerns over Fuller. That will depend heavily on how well he handles special teams. I don't see him as a likely starter but if he were to put it all together I'd put his max ceiling at being able to challenge Cooper to start, not Amukamara. Realistically I think he's competes for the 5th or 6th spot. In terms of surprises it sounds like Shaheen may be the biggest one, both literally and figuratively. I've seen and heard (podcasts) multiple people say that he looks very comfortable on the field (i.e. knowing the plays) and his pass catching has been outstanding. Of course there will be the adjustment when the pads come on but according to Freeman, Shaheen is already playing aggressively and does not appear intimidated at all by the jump from DII to the NFL.

Attendance doesn't mean participation in practice. We do have a handful of players with injuries (Meredith, Sitton) or still recovering from surgery (Long, Trevathan). I haven't really seen anything on the rookie contracts except that Trubisky is not signed.

I'm not sure we've ever seen every player attend all OTAs and minicamp. http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...9c-0dcf6884176b

Technically Barkley was the #4 QB since he wasn't on the team until the end of August. Without Shaw's injury I doubt he'd have been signed at that time. Maybe they'd have brought him in when Hoyer went down.

The Tribune has a good article on Jordan Howard and his offseason work. Most notable was the eye surgery and he now has 20/20 vision. I'll be curious to see if this helps his pass catching. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...0613-story.html

I've been thinking about this. Our defense ranked top 10 until the last 3 weeks of the season. That was despite the lack of consistency on the offensive side of the ball and the injuries. CBs: Who were we trotting out there in the secondary last year? Hopefuls like Jacoby Glenn and Bausby for some games. A rookie unknown in LeBlanc who played well despite being moved all over the field. Whatever reservations I have for Marcus Cooper he's a far better option than either of Glenn/Bausby. Amukamara is also a step up from Porter. I like Callahan and LeBlanc and think both are NFL quality starters at NB. Both proved capable of filling in outside. Our 5th CB is going to be one of Fuller/Banks/Hall. S: Demps makes this better but not quite where we want it to be. I still like Amos in the box but we're still in a wait and see for Deon Bush. Unlike most I'm not that high on Eddie Jackson although his physical talent fits what we want in the deep middle. Their success will depend on the front 7 but there is no doubt we have more depth here than last year. Bottom line among the DBs is that we are at the point where one or two of Pace's draft picks are going to move to the practice squad or won't make the team at all. Fuller can be added to that mix as well. Overall the competition for roster spots for the DBs is much tougher going into training camp than last year when we all knew the late round draft picks would make the final 53. OLB: I am very encouraged by McPhee's participation in the offseason. He'll never be a full-time player again but if he can handle 60% of the snaps on defensive side we're in very good shape. Willie Young is still a very good player when he's getting about 30-40% of the snaps. Then we have Houston filling in for Floyd at times. Despite the chatter about him being cut Houston is still a good OLB for us especially on run downs. If an experienced Dan Skuta is our 5th option then we have some very good depth across the board. We could certainly use another speed player off the edge in this mix but this is a solid group. ILB: I like Freeman alongside Kwit to start the year with Trevathan working into the mix mid-season. I'd like to see one more quality player here because Timu is too limited in coverage. Dline: If Howard is out there we will have one of the best DT groups in football and two of them (Goldman, Hicks) have the power and quickness to push the pocket. If we had a star player out there people would be talking about this D. We don't have one yet.

I remember a game where he was out partying the night before and played horribly the next day.

Here's a nice video about Trubisky http://www.csnchicago.com/chicago-bears/be...ack-first-grade

I see nothing but caution in the quotes from the teams coaches and organization. Goff is a wonderfully accurate passer when he has time to throw. When the pocket closes down in college he always threw off his back foot and it showed on the accuracy and velocity of his throws. Trubisky is not immune to throwing off his back foot either. In fairness, there are times when it should absolutely be done (short route, wide open receiver) and the QB needs just a split second more time to get the ball out. Watch any game and it's clear that every QB does it to some extent but if they try to push the ball into a tight window or further downfield they often end up in trouble. Trubisky tendency is more of what you see here at the 1:50 mark: http://archive.draftbreakdown.com/video/mi...-stanford-2016/ Back to the original topic. The Bears are also being cautious with their words. All I was pointing out is that Trubisky is at least putting in extra time to learn the offense. We've had other 1st RD QBs in the past who did not do that at all. So at least in this aspect of finding a QB willing to put the time in to become good, it appears Pace was right. I expect Mahomes and probably Watson are equally as committed. Kizer I'm not so sure. Nobody knows how Trubisky's effort will pay off. That's about all I'm looking for 6 weeks into his first offseason. If he keeps his focus it'll show up early in training camp.

This was on the Bears' website a few days ago. We can't know if he'll succeed but we can at least feel good knowing that Trubisky is not going the route of Cade and Rex. Neither of them wanted to put the time in nor had the dedication needed to become a good QB in the NFL. I suspect some of his conviction to get the playbook down this quickly comes from when he hit the bench in 2015. He'll wait his turn this year but not without a fight. Training camp might be more interesting than expected. We'll know early on if he's maintained this focus throughout the summer. http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...8b-c199b5ee3c59

My wife being from Spain will gladly confirm that there was one woman who did not laugh at him.

This is one way to make themselves look better for their owner. Since at least half the league's execs are on or close to the abyss of unemployment they naturally want to say "but hey at least I didn't do that...".

No clue. I see something called "playoff leverage" and have zero clue what it means nor do they define it and how it's calculated. I think the playoff leverage is some half-assed value assigned to a single game that, for purposes of writing something in the middle of the summer, they want us to believe is critical to these teams making the playoffs.

http://beargoggleson.com/2017/05/13/danny-...tatus-question/ There isn't a lot of confidence in him being ready for training camp.

Decker not so much but David Harris does interest me. He's 33 and near the end of his career but with Trevathan likely to start the season on the PUP list and then struggle when he returns I wouldn't mind having Harris' veteran presence on the roster. He's more of a run defender and won't be capable of what Fangio wants in coverage but at least he should know where he's supposed to be. Pace will likely wait to see how the market sets up for him and we have to consider what role Harris is willing to accept. Would he be ok if Kwit and Freeman start ahead of him? Pace will not want to do more than a 1yr deal but we have $26mil in cap space and if there's just a small bonus we can minimize risk in case some young player steps up. Who do we have competing for the 4th ILB spot? I think it's just Timu and a bunch of rookies.

I agree, we'll see more catches out of the backfield. That may include our newest FB Burton who reportedly can catch as well as block. If he makes the final roster he might have 20 receptions on the year. Just enough route running to make LBs question what the FB might do, and maybe he's just left uncovered for a few big gains. I still think we'll see a lot of 2 TE sets so that drops the WR stats as well. They'll use 2 TEs for the running game and passing game. Shaheen is definitely a player to watch in the preseason. How well he's picking up the offense and blocking at the NFL level will determine a lot. Fortunately, he has a good role model in Sims to learn from. We still have Miller who can line up at a variety of positions. Yet the fact Pace was/is willing to trade him means we're likely to be using the bigger TEs, or that he thinks Brown can contribute just as much as Miller. There's a lot more depth here than what we had heading into last season.

Sanchez was not brought in to throw passes. He was brought here to help the young QBs work through the ups and downs of life in the NFL. I don't have a problem with him as our 3rd QB. You either have an experienced veteran who failed as starter in this role or a promising young QB. With two promising young QBs (varying amounts of promise) we can't afford to have a 3rd inexperienced player in the film room with them. I'd love to have Josh McCown in this role.

I think Kendall Wright gets cut because I don't think he has the work ethic to last at the NFL level. Plus among slot receivers I think Cruz offers more versatility in what he can do. I hope Wright proves me wrong. If they are all healthy at the final cut down: WRs: White, Meredith, Cruz, Wheaton (still has legit deep speed), and Bellamy (special teams is his ticket) I see Braverman and Gentry on the practice squad ready for call up duty. I only see 5 WRs because I think we end up keeping 4 TEs as our we focus on the running game and providing good pass protection options for our inexperienced QBs: Miller, Brown, Sims, and Shaheen Brown and Miller both offer enough running routes from a number of spots, and both can be effective against LBs if split out. Add in the human Joystick as a player who can fill in at times in the slot. Likely won't see that until later in the season as he settles in with the playbook. Pace eats $250k in bonus money because the other $500k bonus is only if Wright makes the final roster. C'est la vie.

I think we have enough veteran middling WR talent to ignore Maclin.

If ever there was a GM who followed the JAG (Just Another Guy) philosophy it is Pace. Heading into his 3rd year as GM he has no concerns handing out 1yr deals for these type of players and seemingly finds another one the next season if that one didn't work out. So yeah, at this point the roster has all sorts of question marks. Despite the question marks on numerous starting positions I think he's been successful building much better depth. For example on the Dline: Howard, Goldman, Hicks, Bullard, Jenkins, RRH, and Unrein. Oline similarly now has some quality depth at OG but of course lacks it at OT. I think 2018 Rd 1 OT is most likely (doesn't have to be LT) given the investment in Trubisky. Beyond that, it's a roll of the dice. We know that if he sees someone he views as a solid starting LT coming into draft range he'll trade up to get him.

Burton appears to be a bit more adept at pass catching than his competition. I'm glad we have two players vying for the FB role and among the many TEs this will be a battle for what will probably be the 53rd player on the roster. (4th TE vs. FB vs. 4th RB). http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players.../michael-burton

I'm still optimistic he's going to turn out to be a good player for us. I don't think that happens this year as he learns a new position. If he can still run well, and the offseason workout videos seem to show that he can, then special teams coverage could be his ticket to making the 53. Best case is he challenges Bullard for significant backup reps at DE. Or maybe that's the worst case because it means Bullard hasn't progressed as we hoped. If he sticks around, down the road I can see RRH in the LDE role when we are in a 4-man front. IMO converting RRH to this role has better odds of success than when we converted Cornelius Washington to 3-4 DE. That worked out well for Washington who will make $2.3mil and then $3.5mil over each of the next two seasons. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/colum...527-column.html

According to Victor, he signed here to be a slot WR. He definitely sounds like someone who was not happy playing on the outside last year. I would also say he's not happy ending up on a rebuilding team without a good QB situation, but it's a 1 year deal. He has his work cutout for him to get back to the receiving numbers he's used to. http://www.espn.com/espnradio/chicago/playPopup?id=19464031

I don't mind adding more competition but I have low expectations for Cruz. Then again I have low expectations for Kendall Wright so maybe one or the other works out for us.