AZ54

From the 2nd day of training camp it was obvious Carden would never be an NFL QB. With Clausen injured it doesn't hurt one bit to get a look at Desert in this 4th preseason game since he knows most of the system from his last two seasons. He'll get cut after the game but at least the Bears will have another QB on speed dial if need be later in the year.

Where did you see the news about Slauson having a concussion? I can't find any reports on that. Are you confusing Clausen with Slauson?

You can put Jared Allen at the top of that list.

No surprises beyond Jennings so far. Al Louis-Jean really disappointed me as I expect him to improve and compete for a roster spot but I suspect he just doesn't have the work ethic needed to succeed in this league. He hasn't changed much physically since we first signed him so he's clearly not a workout warrior and guys just ran through his weak arm tackles.

I think Terrence Mitchell has played well enough to stick around IMO. We're rebuilding and it makes more sense to give the roster spot to a young player who has upside than to a veteran like Porter who has an injury history and is already injured before the season starts. Porter was playing well before he went down but I'll take the youth right now.

I don't think Vereen was going to make this roster. If you can't tackle and can't cover why keep him? Rolle hasn't done anything of note this preseason. Mundy wasn't lighting things up either and now with this injury we're really thin here.

I worry more about the pressure up the middle with Ducasse who has some of the same traits as Leno and Mills in that he gets overextended and/or out of position too often. I saw on one play against the Bengals where Ducasse went out to run block and the defender just side stepped him and ran into the backfield and hit the RB. Like SCS stated the loss to our inside running game will also be significant. Not a good spot to be in right now. FWIW last year's super sub Ola has fallen by the wayside this offseason. I don't know if that means Ducasse is better than him or he's just worse than he was last year. I know Leno struggles at times with his technique but at least when he gets it right he is just fine which is more often than not. While he might not be ready yet the arrow might be pointing up on him. Mills on the other hand seems to either get pushed around or DEs just flat out run around him play after play after play. As far as backup OGs Grasu doesn't have the strength to succeed at OG. Neither does Montgomery but most likely we're keeping both OC on the active roster. Expect to hear rumors about the Bears scanning the waiver wire this weekend and next for Oline help, or possibly making a trade. If we can find someone more serviceable at OG than Ducasse then keeping Long at RT will give us a decent combination.

You might be correct in that you could be the only one supporting this. RGIII is not seeing the field right now in the offense "he knows". He looks completely lost with respect to what the defense is doing and more often than not he's dialed in on one WR. From what he showed in his 2nd preseason game (within that offense "he knows") he cannot perform better than Clausen does with our offense. There is no way I can see him coming in to an offense he does not know and performing better than Clausen at any point this season. If you take a chance on a guy like this it is done during the offseason (i.e. next offseason) when you can carry 90 players and he has the time to learn the offense and coaches can work with him on his fundamentals. There is no way I can see us giving up one of our 53 roster spots to carry RGIII this season as our only backup QB behind Cutler who we most likely know will miss some games. When you consider all the injuries to our WRs I will not be surprised to see us carrying 6 WRs to start this year. Any team bringing him in should do so with the intention of telling him he's the backup QB. He needs to come down off his high horse for a couple seasons IMO and sit back and learn without the pressure. If he turns it around in a season and competes to be the starter a year down the road no worries. I just don't see that happening next year anywhere in the NFL.

He's not a 2 gap player, just let him get upfield that's his forte. It certainly won't hurt having at least one Dlineman who can do this.

New boss in town and performance is king. Fuller better get the message too.

Simple statement does not in itself imply that the action is easily done. But given our remaining talent at WR and the talent on our Oline which leans toward better run blocking than pass protection. Let me phrase it another way: I think it makes more sense to focus the 1st string offense on the run game in the 3rd preseason game since more of those pieces are in place rather than focusing on the passing game with some players who likely won't be on the final roster.

and people want sympathy for the Packers because they lost Jordy Nelson. It's time to find a running game and deal with this.

As far I have heard his only reps in practice this offseason have come at LT, even in camp. That was until Mills went down just before the last game against Indy then he switched over to RT on Thur before the game. That's why i said we have to give him a bit of a break for some of his issues because one day of practice isn't exactly enough to get proficient on your technique.

Interview was done back in the summer when Bennett was holding out. In classic media fashion they wait to release it until the season is about to start. Just keep that perspective (Bennett's) in mind when reading it. Remember, after his holdout Bennett joined Cutler down in Nashville where Cutler helped him get up to speed on the offense before camp started. Of course this is the time everyone said Alshon hated Cutler. http://sportsmockery.com/2015/07/alshon-je...ceiver-went-to/

This is why Leno has largely practiced at LT this offseason and throughout camp.

I'm sure many players would say the same about Martellus and his antics....sometimes you follow him and sometimes you don't.

I don't care one bit for the Packers or their fans. I don't want to see any NFL players get injured but reality is that it happens every year. Watching Rodgers being nearly in tears over this was entertaining, although not as much as the press conferences after Ha Ha misplayed that lob pass in the playoffs last year. Good luck finding a Packer fan who says it's too bad we didn't have Tommie Harris in our last Superbowl. Did the Packers care about our Oline injuries last year? Our Dline injuries when the line was decimated to the point of bringing guys in off the street a few years back? No they just went and put up a ton of points and laughed at us.

The league does have a set policy on this. https://www.nflpa.com/active-players/drug-policies https://nflpaweb.blob.core.windows.net/medi...icy_9-29-14.pdf Violations of Law Involving Other Substances of Abuse Apart from and in addition to any other provisions of this Policy, Players convicted of or admitting to a violation of law (including, within the context of a diversionary program, deferred adjudication, disposition of supervision, or similar arrangement including but not limited to nolo contendere) relating to use, possession, acquisition, sale, or distribution of Substances of Abuse other than alcohol, or conspiring to do so, are subject to appropriate discipline as determined by the Commissioner. Absent aggravating circumstances, discipline for a first offense will be a suspension without pay for up to four (4) regular and/or post-season games. If the Commissioner finds that there were aggravating circumstances, including but not limited to felonious conduct or serious injury or death of third parties, and/or if the Player has had prior drug or alcohol-related misconduct, increased discipline may be imposed. Read further at the link because there is a clause allowing consideration of extenuating circumstnaces. As far as Ratliff's case your argument about waiting 2 years to punish him is incorrect. The car crash happened two years ago but the case was only settled in April 2015. I am on the other side of the fence and prefer the league does not punish people before they are found guilty. Even then the league still takes actions when players are not guilty. I hope Brady and the league go to court. The Patriots fired or suspended two employees for tampering with the footballs. Yet Kraft and Brady maintain that nobody did anything wrong. Then they refuse to provide those employees to the league for the investigation. You can't have it both ways. In court the NFL will have the right to discovery of all evidence and can call those two guys to testify as well as subpoena their phone records. Brady has been adamant he's done nothing wrong so I'm sure he too would love to hear from their own mouths what those two guys did to the footballs to get the owner (who says nothing was done wrong) to fire them. Certainly anyone unfairly fired like these two guys wants their day in court as well.

Good update. Regarding the Dline I was also impressed with how well Jenkins is moving around in pass rush for a guy who was supposed to be nothing more than a run stopper. Sutton continues to make plays but he needs to stay to 1-gap and just get penetration to disrupt the play which is his strong suit but agree, each week he is playing better. Haven't seen much out of Goldman yet except for the fact he doesn't get moved off the ball at all. Willie Young was out there with the 2nd string getting pressure on the QB just like he did last year. Great to see him back, I never thought he'd return to action this soon nor did I think he'd be able to rush like that so in preseason. He is one to watch because Bass seems to be fading after a fast start in camp. If Young can return to form we should have a solid rotation among OLB in terms of pass rush/run defenders. I agree on Acho, he should be in the starting rotation. I don't think what we see (Acho 2nd string) means he won't be a start or rather part of the starting rotation. It is preseason and when competition is close coaches want to see different players against 1st string in a different games. Let's see if we go to a normal Dline rotation in the 3rd preseason game with Acho and others like Sutton getting some 1st string reps. DS are still the weakest link on this defense but some of the backups like Mitchell and McManis are showing they can play. I'm less worried about Fuller than others but I agree he needs to play tighter in coverage. SMC and Jones. They are in on the plays but it's all new to them and so they are a step late. I expect with more experience we will start seeing more plays near the LOS. We also aren't seeing a lot from ILB blitzes, at least nothing like the reports I heard during camp. It seems that is being kept under wraps until week 1. I don't see much difference with Foster out there either except he's not as fast getting to the edge. Bostic is still slow as he works his way back from his injury. RB clearly is Forte, Rodgers, Langford. Carey has done well running inside and moves the pile. I am less impressed with Perry. He just doesn't have the lateral movement at the LOS to find the hole. He has special teams value but Langford can replace that. With Mariani appearing to be locked in as our returner do we keep Perry around for special teams over Carey? WR impressed me this game. Wilson is now injured but I suspect not too badly or he wouldn't have returned to the game and ran so well after the initial hamstring injury. Losing time in the 3rd preseason game will hurt Cutler's timing with him. Really it was the 4-6 WRs that impressed. Bellamy looked good as did Meredith. Each week Meredith looks more like he belongs out there but it's hard to say how much he understands the playbook. I see Meredith as a strong candidate for the practice squad. I know it's preseason so we need to temper our thoughts both good and bad but seeing so many WRs contribute like this is not normal for the Bears, even in the preseason. That has me thinking that the real positive in all this is the scheme and the coordinator setting up plays that get guys open and are easy reads for the QBs. Like all things in the NFL, once teams figure out what you are doing it no longer looks so good. It's about seeing if we can come back with a counter punch and still scheme guys open later in the season when it counts. Then again this was the Colts team that practiced against our offense for 2 days before this game so they knew what was coming and Bellamy was out there with the 1's. Even missing 2 of 3 top targets Cutler seemed comfortable out there and that wasn't the case last year when our backup WRs filled in. I'll just say that Gase has piqued my interest in seeing what he can do. I'll give Leno a break at RT. He been played at LT all camp until this week. It's a big change with the footwork. Regardless of who we put out there OT is the weakness of the Offense. I do not want to see Long moved outside. I like what we are starting to find with our inside running game. If we continue to build on that it will help temper the outside pass rush except of course on obvious passing downs. I don't think we'll be nearly as effective running inside if we move Long outside.

Anyone else wonder why on this play Amos is going full Chris Conte and running forward to the underneath route right past Fuller and Hilton?

I believe this falls into the duh category.

It's practice and a closed one at that with restrictions on the media as to what they can report. It is impossible to know what went on at Indy other than the fact we got to face a very good mobile QB and an offense that has excellent players at the skill positions. You can't ask for better than that when it comes to getting prepared for week 1. Our D got owned on day 1 but owned day 2. Yes we lost in the 2min drill but they also ignored a sack we had on Luck that kept their drive alive instead of putting them at 2nd and 18. Offense didn't go anywhere on either day so there is legitimate concern. However, I have no clue if we ran the ball like we would in a regular season game or if we skewed plays toward the passing game to see what the backup WRs can do. That would be done because better to evaluate WRs and pass protection in the less physical practices and RBs in the more physical game on Saturday. I'll wait and see how the offense does in the game but certainly without White and Jeffrey our WR corps is not going to scare anyone. Can our inside running game be effective with a weak WR corps allowing safeties to focus on run first? I'm not optimistic. Plus there is this: Leno filled in for an injured Mills and instantly looked better protecting against the edge rushers. This competition isn't over yet.

It appears this is all about coverage skills and that is not Mundy's strength. It's not Vereen's strength either. Then again neither is tackling and Mundy is a better tackler than Vereen. Rolle hasn't done much that I've heard but I'm sure the coaches want him out there for his leadership and ability to get the DBs lined up. That will be more necessary with Amos, who only played safety one year in college, out there.

I don't think Porter played in the first game but he was back on the field in practice today so hopefully we'll see him against Indy. Right now our top CBs appear to be: 1) Fuller 2) Porter 3) McManis 4) Ball and 5) the young kid Terrence Mitchell. Al Louis-Jean hasn't looked that good. Jennings is still in the mix as the #1 NB but hasn't done much of anything so far and I'm not sure where he fits in that list above. His lack of production so far makes it seem clear he won't be on our roster next year. This year? We'll see how much of a look McManis gets at NB this week in Indy.

Meredith 4 for 47 yards, long of 15 yards Lawrence 3 for 25 yards, long of 12 yards Bellamy 3 for 15 yards, long of 5 yards Cruz 1 for 15 yards Too early to know much of anything on any of these guys competing with Bellamy but to me the early numbers indicate he has competition for the job. The bigger surprise in that game is that Mariani had zero catches. I thought he was on the field quite a bit and reportedly has looked good in camp running routes.