AZ54

I assume he'll end up on the practice squad. Who will take his spot on the 53?

Bridgewater looked horrible on any pass longer than 10-15 yards. If that continues you will only have to cover anything deep against this team.

It's good but it will also take time for our players to learn how to make all this schemes work. 3 of 4 Dline are 2nd year or rookie.

I'm glad to have Acho back as his speed at OLB will help. I didn't think Washington's injury was that serious. I think this is a way to keep Washington around for another year and give him time to adjust to the weight gain, maybe even add another 5-10lbs, for his new position at DE. He showed some potential at times. The bigger question is how are we going to fare with just 4 Dlinemen: Ego, Sutton, Goldman, Jenkins. Ratliff won't be back for 2 more games.

Far from the biggest issue we need to fix. Any draft pick dedicated to finding a return guy should go toward another shot at fixing any of a number of issues on this roster from Oline, Dline, safety, OLB to improve the pass rush, even QB.

Tough game and surprisingly competitive, far more competitive than I thought it was going to be. IMO the defense was actually ok considering all the new pieces and scheme. Ok is not good, but it was not the disaster I've been watching the last two seasons. It's impossible to go from 31st to top 10 in week 1 so I'll accept that as progress and see if we move forward next week. The achilles heel though is the lack of pressure on passing downs. Jared Allen does not have the burst to get to the edge like he used to nor can he bend back in against an OT when he does get a little leverage. Maybe Willie Young can provide some of this edge pressure for us once he gets healthy. Goldman looked very good at times in the 2nd half and I think his presence really helped the run defense later in the game. CBs were in position on majority of plays there were just some great passes and some great catches by the Packers. There had to be a reason Rodgers tucked the ball down and ran so often (aside from the open lanes the Dline gave him) and it seemed he usually had to go to his 2nd or 3rd read. Next week agains the Cards will tell us a lot about which direction the D is headed. Offense ran the ball early and often, and effectively. Clearly Forte is going to be the man inside the redone. Jeffrey looked like a man who hasn't run much in the past month. If he comes out the game healthy he should be getting after it in practice this week and I think we'll see a bit more burst against the Cards. I thought Cutler did a great job at the LOS reading the defense and getting into the right plays, protection. We consistently got the LOS with plenty of time to survey the field. Cards lost Ellignton today with a PCL injury to his knee. OTOH we seem to be getting healthier as long as our WRs can practice this week.

For some reason I can't recall any defense Tucker called in the last 2 years.

I have no idea what to expect in this game other than to say I expect we'll lose. I just don't know by how much. Things I'd like to see: 1) Cutler stay within the offense and avoid the big turnover. He showed signs of this throughout the preseason. I'd like to see that continue when it matters, at home where fans love to boo him, and against our biggest rival who is likely to put a lot of pressure on the offense to score points. 2) Kyle Long stopping Peppers cold, and anyone else that comes his way at RT. 3) Defense getting better as the game progresses. New players, very young ones at that, and a new scheme so we all know there will be mistakes made. Can they learn and adjust as the game progresses? 4) Defense making some big plays behind the LOS. Might sound odd to follow #3 with this but I'd like to occasionally see signs that our blitzes, scheme, and/or players occasionally see it and get after it to make the big play. Can anyone get pressure off the edge? Up the middle? 5) Cutler handing off. Cutler handing off. Etc. Might as well start sorting out the running game in week 1. If it's going to be anywhere near respectability that is what will carry this offense this year. 6) Langford running up the middle. He made a good impression on me in the preseason running with more strength than I expected and using that burst to get to the 2nd or 3rd levels quickly. Seeing this will also mean seeing less of Matt Forte. While that might sound like a bad thing I really want the coaches to keep Forte's carries to a reasonable level so we have him available and productive throughout the season. I know Rodgers is #2 but let's give this rookie a few carries too because he could really help us later in the season once he gets acclimated.

I worry too much for his health to put him on the field again.

And the league conspired to cover up just how long they did it and how many games it affected. It is amazing how well they knew some things that other teams had never done on offense except in practice. Takes a bit of the genius out of it.

The NY media will never pick up on this.

I saw an article that listed the average age of our 2014 roster as 27.0x but I can't find the link. Reportedly we are now around 26 as you calculate. The average is not a big difference, standard deviation or median would provide more insight because we have rid ourselves of most of the players over 30.

The winds of change just blew into town but for now they think he's "quality depth".

I wouldn't necessarily walk away from Fabuluje as our future starting RT, or RG. I can see Bushrod moving over to RT next year and giving another season to Tayo to develop but I can also see that back injury ending Bushrod's career with the Bears in 2016. Something had to start clicking with Tayo later in the preseason because he made the final roster, and these coaches will cut anyone not performing. From the outside it seemed Tayo was at best just a practice squad candidate.

I wasn't sure if I was reading Barrow's draft profile or John Bostic's. http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players...60/lamin-barrow But physical ability is there and worth a practice squad look to see if he can learn to play with better instincts.

All we really know is that Alshon wasn't on the field for the 20min of practice that was open to the media. Nobody knows what he did prior to that. For comparison it is clear to the media that Bushrod did not practice. Why that is less of a secret I don't know. There is no depth chart posted on the Bears website. No news about who is starting at RT. No news about who our starting CBs are. No news about starting OLB other than the obvious McPhee. Starting Dline? We only have 5 of them so we have to figure they are all going to play. Fox is keeping his cards close to the vest.

Really this is the model every NFL franchise is operating under. I'm not sure why everyone is so enamored with Green Bay's drafting when other clubs like Seattle have done far better in recent years. For sure they have found some talent in the draft at times but they've also missed on a few high picks. Julius Peppers has a $12mil cap hit for them this year and they had to do that in FA because they failed at drafting DE/OLB for several years. Anchor any team with a future Hall of Fame QB in this modern-rules league and you are almost a lock to make the playoffs each year. That makes all those other issues fade into the background.

I'm in agreement here. First Jennings, then Foster who was expected to contest for a starting spot or at least be a good backup, now Mills. Out of all this SMC is a starter at ILB.

I didn't even know there was a guy named Bryce Callahan on the roster. Keeping 11 DBs is a surprise to me, 6 CB, 5 S. Seems like we're throwing a lot of darts at the board hoping to hit on a few. OTOH we only have 5 Dline and one of them is C. Washington who is in transition to a new role inside. I don't expect much from him this year and figure he flashed some potential there especially in pass rush but made the roster more off his special teams ability. So we're just running with 4 experienced Dlinemen unless Fangio considers moving guys like Houston/McPhee inside as part of the rotation. Ratliff is on the reserve/suspended list so I guess he does not count toward the 53.

I will update my thoughts... Tayo sticking around likely means there is a lot of concern about Bushrod's back and of course our other OTs are not playing well. Leno returned to backup LT and I think the experiment with him at RT is over. With Mills making the final cut I expect he will start at RT in Week 1. Is Tayo kept around as insurance at OT, or are we working him into the backup OG slot since Ducasse hasn't played well?

Wow Tayo made the final cut. We'll see if that holds or if Bears try to move him to practice squad as they shuffle the bottom end of the roster this weekend. At WR keeping both Meredith and Bellamy. Have to figure Meredith heads to practice squad once (or if) all the WRs are healthy.

I'm right there with you. He'd be a great addition to the defense and while I'd give him the big contract I don't want to give up too much in future picks to get him.

I find Foster getting cut surprising and I didn't think he played that poorly. Certainly didn't see where he got pushed down to 3rd string. I'm guessing the coaches are going with the upside of the young guys like Timu who's performance kept getting better each week. Plus at least Timu has been in on a few good kick coverage plays so that had to help his case. There is the money factor as well as this frees up cap space that could allow us to sign a vet Oline or safety that gets cut for salary cap reasons. That could be even more prevalent if the Bears were trying to trade for someone because their existing contract carries over.

Great work to pull that together. I agree that there seems to be something at work with the schemes or coaching finally having some players in the right spot to make plays. Even Cutler has seemed at ease in the pocket despite the bad edge protection. We don't have the talent to compete at a high level but we might have the coaching in place to be competitive once again.

It's hard to think of a defense that has been as bad or worse than the Bears in the last couple seasons. Atlanta is one of them so I doubt someone they cut as part of their improvement effort is going to help us. I'm sure Pace is watching every name on the waiver wire but I would think we'd be more likely to target secondary help that gets cut from a team with good safeties or corners.