AZ54

WR talent is not that good this year with a few late 1st Rd prospects. I'm staying with Bradley Chubb as our pick if we don't trade back. Then again, winning a few more games will push us toward the middle of the 1st Rd. Arden Key fits better the mold of what Fangio wants but he doesn't play like he has any strength in his upper body. We always say a year or two with NFL trainers will improve things but if a player doesn't have the work ethic it won't matter. Expect the Bears to spend some time with him off the radar to get to know the player.

Sad that he can't learn a simple lesson. On the positive side cutting him next year frees up $3.5mil. I don't see a reason for Pace to wait to make this decision. Negotiate the injury settlement now and let's move forward with Kwit, Jones, and Trevathan.

I think we'd have seen a WR in Rd 3 with Kupp a likely choice. His route running skills would be welcome among this group of WRs. Last year all the chatter was that 2018 QBs were a great group. I didn't see it except perhaps for Darnold. Now even Darnold has come back down to earth plus the rumor is he's staying in college. I still don't like Rosen (as a leader or passer) and Josh Allen still looks like a project. Apparently the 49ers now agree having traded for JimmyG. That also means the 49ers will want to trade back in the draft but other teams may have the same QB assessment and won't pay the price. I don't think Cleveland's front office will survive the miss on Watson. Remember they traded back from #12 with Houston to let them draft Watson. Anyone who has watched Kizer for two quarters knows he is showing the same limitations and accuracy issues he had in college.

What I see is coaches who are not afraid to give Trubisky time to learn and instead are relying heavily on the running game. Along with that they are working with new WR from the practice squad, a rookie in Cohen, rookie Shaheen, new to the offense Sims, new to the offense Kendall Wright. The only stability in the offense's receiving weapons, Zach Miller, just went down with an injury. I see that they are also not taking the easy way out and simply relying on Trubisky's strengths (i.e. roll out right read half the field) and instead are being patient by keeping him in the pocket more often so he can improve there. This is what he must learn to be successful long term. You only need to go back to the first preseason game where Trubisky lit it up in his first game and recall what plays he was running then. They also didn't fall back heavily on simple read-option plays that he ran in college and are limiting his exposure to injury. Remember RGIII and how the Shanahan's ruined his career in just his first season. Last year Cutler ran more read-options IIRC. Nor do they rely on a heavy mix of simple WR screens. Again, he's being asked to read the defense downfield. The Bears call plays where Trubisky has to read the left side of the field (one of his weaknesses in college) so he can learn and get comfortable throwing there. Again, it's a long term view to develop skills he lacks, or more correctly is not as proficient at. Recall the missed throw for a first down late in the game. I see a QB who knows he can take negative plays (sacks) instead of throwing INTs if he's not comfortable with what he sees. For now this is the right decision. As the season moves along I expect he'll start seeing the field better and finding some of the open options he has missed in his first few games. I see a QB who has learned the protection calls, and done well enough with them despite seeing nearly every blitz possible in his first 4 games. Pretty sure someone taught him that. I see a QB who has improved with his command of the plays and in the huddle. He is getting the team to the LOS early enough to have time to read the defense. He is often given two plays and does check to the second play so he's reading the defenses pre-snap and getting us to a better play more often than not. I don't have game pass to review games in detail but my sense is that his footwork in the pocket has improve greatly since he arrived. For a guy who rarely (if ever) took snaps from under center this is all new for him. Surely you recall all the concerns in training camp when he occasionally stumbled or botched a snap under center. Back then it was going to "take a full year" for him to get this down.

My thoughts are with him and his family. The injuries he has dealt with throughout his career were all challenging yet he kept coming back in great shape and with a positive attitude. That really shows tremendous character and leadership. I thought the Bears would move on from him this year and go with a younger player in Brown but when you read the comments from his teammates it is understandable why coaches felt he needed to be on this team. Give him his TD!

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300000086...-secondary-down

Right now with 7 sacks through 8 games this deal is looking like a bargain.

It has literally become comical to watch. I scan other message boards for our opponents each week just to learn a bit about their strengths and weaknesses. I've come to the conclusion that nobody in the NFL likes their HC unless his name is Bill Belichick. Nobody likes the play calling on either side for their teams unless they are dominating and ranked top 5. To read all this you might think players have zero responsibility for what happens on the field. "Loggains is too conservative and too predictable". Loggains throws on 3rd and 1 and he's horrible. Loggains calls a TD play to Miller (it was a TD) and nobody mentions him. Loggains also called what should have been a TD pass to Howard but Howard dropped the ball (again). Is that Loggains fault or does he understand the Howard often drops these passes so he doesn't call that play often when he's in the game? With better execution on just three plays (add in the missed FG) Loggains called a game good enough to win on the road with a rookie QB and two practice squad WRs. Trubisky still has a way to go. He was inaccurate at times and a bit late on some throws. He is progressing though and reading the field better. It will take more time for him to read defenses quicker, and to get on the same page with all these new WRs but I think he is headed in the right direction. It is entirely possible this team wins 3 of the next 4 games and is sitting at .500 in early December with 4 games to go.

He wants out because he has never lived up to his draft status. No need for him here. We have Sims who is another underperforming TE, Shaheen developing, and Brown who can fill in the role for Miller.

What is there in the way the Bears have handled Connor Barth that makes you believe the Bears feel he is the long term solution at kicker? At the time of Gould's release he was routinely missing extra point kicks.

I agree, get the running game going early and it bodes well for staying in the game.

Considering Cohen fits in as a slot WR for a few snaps here and there I still like Wright next year for the primary slot WR role. If we get Landry we should pass on Adams. Wright will be much cheaper than Adams and better suited for that role. Someone is going to think that a WR from GB must be really good and will overpay Adams. In other words with Cohen around I'm keeping just 5 WRs: Meredith, Landry, Inman, Gentry/McBride/Bellamy (may the best man win), and a 1st-3rd Rd draftee.

Not a lot of risk here. In any case you won't find a better WR prospect in the 7th Rd in the next draft. At least not one with this high of a floor (to borrow the old Angelo term). He's not very fast, nor is he slow, but from the highlights all I can see is that he's good when he's wide open. He's not very stout for his height so I'd like to see how he can handle contested catches or how well he can track the deep ball. Time will tell but he fits in with all the others so why not take a chance.

Maybe this was Loggains telling Trubisky that we understand you don't have the WRs you need to throw 30 times in this game? We won't force it. Or maybe he told him look, your Oline can't handle the Panthers' Dline, we have a good lead so don't worry about the big plays just take what is there and keep their offense on a long field against our D? After years of watching Cutler, and more no-name QBs than can fit on the team bus, throw games away by trying to force a pass into tight coverage I'm ecstatic that our rookie QB, in just his 3rd start, understood what he had to do (really what he absolutely should not do) to win the game against a playoff caliber opponent. He had a 14pt lead behind a defense that was playing great and allowed them to win the game. I will 100% take Trubisky's stat line in this type of game versus what Newton did. Newton was playing from behind but with the better overall team and also behind a very stout defense. More than any other stat, two INTs separated the two QBs performance. For too long I've been on the wrong side of this equation as a Bears fan. The extra bonus was watching Newton pout during the game, and again after the game, and still again during his press conference Wed. Last year all the complaints about Loggains were that he wouldn't run the ball enough with Howard and he kept passing too much with Hoyer and Barkley. It's not a huge sample size but I don't see the history of Loggains', or Fox's, time with the Bears where we should be sitting here thinking the entire plan with Trubisky is to throw 10 times or less for the rest of his career. Certainly that is not why Pace traded up for him. In any case the fact Trubisky threw 25 times against the Vikings in his first game shows they aren't afraid to put the ball in his hands if they feel it's right thing to do. That's going to show up again, and likely soon. Despite that, in no way should we be backing off from relying on our excellent running game.

Trubisky has a ways to go figuring out the offense and reading defenses. It is surprising that we don't see him hitting the quick short passes that Glennon was doing, and Hoyer, and Barkley before. I suspect he's reading the field deep to short but behind an Oline and with a WR corps that aren't setup for that it spells trouble. Part of that could be his desire to avoid INT's by staying away from short throws in traffic, aka the quick timing routes. Whatever it is, it needs to change soon so we can have some offense.

If I had Game Pass this year I'd be watching some All-22 to see if players are open or not. It seems to me Trubisky is not seeing the field very well and is holding the ball too long. The Oline did him no favors in the 2nd half either. The D was excellent again and harassed Newton all game long. He looked tired and worn out late in the game. There are still things to clean up with all those 3rd and longs we gave up. Despite those plays the defense doesn't quit which tells me they are starting to believe in themselves and each other.

I like that WR Ridley at Alabama. He's a little skinny but has the ability to win early on routes. If there is one thing Trubisky could use it's someone that can get open quickly and consistently.

Assuming we end up with a top 10 draft pick in 2018, and knowing OLB is a big need for this team I'm keep tabs on some of the better edge defenders in college. So far none of them look like top 10 picks to me. Arden Key might have the length we desire on the edge but plays too lackadaisical for my taste. He's good at making the easy play, earns little more than that. Harold Landry has some excellent quickness in his first step but he's got little more than that. Offers little in run support. Bradley Chubb is the guy I like most. He has very good quickness and speed to get around the edge. His lack of length lets him get swallowed up at times in run support but he hustles to the play more often. FWIW I've heard OT McGlinchey mentioned as a top 10 pick for LT but he looks like he's wears cement shoes (see game against Chubb) and does not handle speed on the edge very well. I like Connor Williams better. Right now it's looking like a prime year to trade back as the value at positions we need sits in the middle to late 1st Rd. Hopefully there is a lot of interest in QBs and even Saquon Barkley.

I read their methods before posting my thoughts. I'd still be more concerned facing Denver's D versus Jags. I agree though that raw numbers like total yards, pts/game, etc. don't tell the whole story. Neither does DVOA.

After scanning the Panthers forums for a bit they have serious concerns with their Oline run blocking giving up a lot of negative plays. That plays into our Dline strengths. Greg Olsen is out. WR Benjamin is nursing a sore knee and even if he plays he likely won't be that mobile in his cuts. Kuechly might be out as well which would be a big loss for their D, not just physical but also from play calling and pre-snap alignments. I think our D matches up well with their strengths and can once again keep the game close. Trubisky and the offense need to open up the passing game, especially if Kuechly is not in the middle running the show. If Trubisky completes 20 passes or more we win 24-20.

It is interesting what they built there but seeing Pittsburgh with the 6th best offense and the 4th best defense throws it into question. Atlanta is the 4th best offense, Tampa 7th, Vikings 9th, GB 14th. Therefore we have played 4 of the top 10 NFL offenses. Perhaps. Go figure the Jaguars #1 DVOA ranking. Their pts/game given up so far: 7 Houston, 37 Tenn, 7 Ravens, 23 Jets (McCown!), 9 Pitt, then 27 given up to the Rams. Bimodal distribution but there's not the consistent dominance you'd expect from the #1 Defense in the NFL. Bortles has thrown 5 INTs across 6 games vs. the Bears defense defending 6 INTs, just for reference. NFL stats show Jaguars defense 9th in yards/gm, and 7th in pts/gm. Then there is the fact they are still weighting some of the score based on what they "thought" the Bears D would be during the preseason, presumably that applies to he offense scores as well. At this point that isn't adding much but still it makes no sense in a league that changes so much year to year. Those same personnel changes can greatly affect the first few games performance as well. I'd be more comfortable using this reference later in the season. In any case it's all weighted averages which might be more helpful plotting a trend line but you can't see the trend line. I don't see us Top 5 in defense and I still trust what I see. I see our defense solid against the run but lacking in outside pass rush. Floyd is now seeing double team blocks on most passing downs. Nobody is worried about McPhee or Acho, nor should they be. We are making up for that, surprisingly, with better than expected play in the secondary. Even then there are still gaps in consistency but if the young players and new players (Amukamara) continue to come together they could close that gap in the 2nd half of the season. There is enough goodness to give a team like the Panthers, who aren't very versatile on offense, some trouble but we won't shut them down.

http://bearswire.usatoday.com/2017/10/19/b...football-focus/ Our defense has been under the radar this season, overshadowed by the horrendous play of Glennon and the slow start with Trubisky. I'm not sure if I'd put us in the top 5 league-wide yet but the performance against Baltimore was impressive.

Alex Smith got hit late. If a player has to take two steps and then get down low in order to dive into the QB's knees, all after the ball is thrown, it's late. Rodgers was a smidgen late but again for a QB who is known for his escapability defenders have to stay in the play.

I think Pace was 100% correct to skip the 5th year option on Fuller. There is nothing wrong with earning your keep and his play didn't merit a 5th year at that price. If he earns it consistently this year I have zero issues paying him the going rate for a CB. He's not elite CB material because at best he'll have 1 good year in 4 but he could earn a very good much contract better than his original 5th year would have paid him. For that he'll have to thank Pace. Amukamara might be in the same spot. Pay both if it's earned and draft a young player to build some depth. Cooper is not a bad option as the 3rd CB IMO but I'd like someone with more talent in the pipeline.

Start with the fact we won on the road in Baltimore with a rookie QB which has never happened under Harbaugh. I scanned a few of the Ravens boards and it reads just like ours. Fire the HC, crappy WRs, cut Flacco, horrible play calling, defense got run over and couldn't cover anyone, etc. http://forum.russellstreetreport.com/showt...-0TD-2INT/page2 Anyway, I thought our defense played great. Gave up 9pts total including the short fields given up from a couple fumbles. Two INTs, one a pick 6, and our own forced fumble and recovery. I felt (hoped) Amos would fit in better at SS with someone like Jackson behind him and it appears that may be the case. Either that or getting benched woke him up. Kyle Fuller has come from out of nowhere to be the player I thought he would be 4 years ago. I don't see Cooper getting his starting job back. Oline struggled on pass protection and Dion Sims was worthless as a blocker. Despite the heavy run first game plan and all the stacked boxes they faced the run game was very effective. We have to get our passing game, including the pass protection, to be more consistent. I think this will come in time as Trubisky and these WRs get more comfortable with the plays and reading the defenses. I have no clue why Whitehair keeps making bad snaps but credit Trubisky for his composure recovering from those situations. After the game Trubisky said he had largely run/run options at the LOS and so he did check out of some running plays into others depending on what he saw before the snap. He indicated that last week he had more run/pass options. It's hard to know why we set that up but on the road with rookie QB and two new WRs on the outside some of it is understandable. Run the wrong route/throw and you have an INT going the other way. I hope things change soon as these WRs and Tru get more comfortable working together. Trubisky overall played within the game plan and he didn't throw an INT. There were several times he just threw it away instead of forcing it which is good to see from a rookie. I think he looked more comfortable in the pocket reading the field than his first game but he's still several games away understanding all the defensive coverages and blitzes he's seeing. The plus side is that against Minn, Baltimore, and now Carolina he's getting a crash course on it. We'll see how those lessons show up in the 2nd half of the season. I didn't watch closely enough to know how well they did in run blocking but about having McBride and Gentry on the outside (vs. Wheaton/Thompson) should be helping on those outside zone runs. Tarik Cohen listened to his coaches and is starting to stay with the flow of the play better and stay behind his blockers. After some early season big plays he was bailing out too soon and defenses were waiting for him. As he learns from Jordan Howard how to get some patience behind the blockers he'll be more effective. Bad fumble but I wonder if it was a bad exchange from Trubisky because the two players were pretty far apart at the handoff. Overall this was a great win for a rebuilding team. At some point in the rebuilding process young players have to learn how to overcome mistakes on the road and win. We did that. I always believed that learning how to win is a real thing in sports. There are so many execution details to clean up but these players now know they are capable of matching up and winning even when it's not perfect. http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bears/mit...can-improve-win “Every win is a good win,” Cohen said. “We might’ve got it ugly, but it’s a good win. So you gotta take that and run with it and try to run with it and string games together. And it’s really encouraging because we know that we made our mistakes so if we correct those, we know what kind of game it’s going to be.”