AZ54

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.

Our own in-house doctor? That'd be nice to have. If he's right then all the better for the recovery.

I agree Acho looked good out there. I would like to see him against the 1's. Acho is playing OLB while SMC, Jones are ILB. I'd say Acho might be able to give us some quality rotation with Allen, McPhee, and Houston when he returns. Acho, Allen, McPhee being the better pass rushers and Houston better on run downs. Speaking of McPhee he didn't impress me. I like his strength and movement skills but he seemed like he was trying to hard to make an impact play instead of just handling his assignment. On one play he gave up a big run by diving inside and giving up outside containment. The RB just cut outside him to a wide open field. Hopefully he'll settle down and just let plays come to him.

Amos was quietly promoted to practicing with the 1st string. Vereen, after a poor showing against Miami, is back to 2nd string. It appears this will hold through the 2nd preseason game. Jennings had a veteran day off and McManis got his snaps as the first team nickel back. That is the first time McManis has moved into that spot (with the 1st team) and sign the coaches were impressed with his play against Miami. ---------------------- I finally finished watching the Miami game and will just list some observations in no particular order. I didn't see much from Rolle and so I'm still not impressed with him but I hope it's a just a veteran laying low until he gets through the preseason. It seems we'll have some options among our WR corps for the last spot. I know Bellamy is currently playing as the 5th WR and he got plenty of snaps against Miami but I don't like him that much. He's not very quick nor fast and doesn't get separation easily. Some of the other players seem like they are doing well, Meredith, AJ Cruz, and Lawrence. It's hard to evaluate them when they were playing against 3rd string competition but they looked like they belong on the field and I think this competition won't be decided until late in the preseason. Carey ran well between the tackles, his best strength with his quickness, and showed power to move the pile a couple times. I wrote him off after not hearing much the first two weeks in camp but may have spoken too soon. Rodgers appears to have secured the 2nd RB spot and looked decent. We know Langford will have a spot so again for Carey it's all about do we keep 4 RBs. For the 4th spot Carey's main competition is Daniel Thomas and Perry. Thomas looked slow and prodding and didn't impress at all. Perry had a nice long run but otherwise wasn't very quick on cuts at the LOS. Then again Perry has special teams value on his side. I hope Cornelius Washington can improve his run defense. With his long arms he might develop into a good DE in this scheme but it will take a full year to realize that. That might be too much to ask but he shows good movement on pass rushing from that spot. He's on the bubble but did make a good impression once again on kick coverage. Will Sutton has slimmed down and has his quickness back. He's no good as a 2-gap player and gets washed out of the plays easily but he does show some of his old 1-gap quickness and ability to get into the backfield and disrupted several plays. Overall I didn't see much in pass rush from our starting Dline and that's a concern. Eddie Goldman didn't do much but you can't miss him on the field and he moves better than I expected. I think it's going to take him some time to develop. SMC and Jones cover a lot of ground. They both looked like they were a half step slow in reacting but neither seemed lost out there. Same for Foster. I focused less on Bostic. I think this entire group should gain confidence from their play against Miami and I hope we'll see a step up with more impact plays in the next game. Kyle Fuller didn't play well enough to give me confidence he'll hold his own in man coverage. I liked the fact we kept running the ball inside, 1st team, 2nd team, 3rd team.

Not only that is was reportedly a great play on SMC to break on the route and reach up high to snag the ball. Bennett was lined up wide and ran an inside slant route similar to the one he had the big gain on against Miami. SMC read it and broke on the ball. Cutler said he never saw him. Of course we'll hear that the defense should know what our offense is doing but the other side is that the offense should know what the defense is doing equally well by now. In this case I'd say it's more SMC getting more comfortable to his role and Jay was comfortable that SMC wouldn't be there so he wasn't looking.

We'll never get details but this might be a spiral fracture as those take a lot longer to heal, especially with the stresses of playing a position like WR. I don't think it's the end of the road for White as this clearly was never a displaced fracture (i.e. fully broken) it should heal naturally with time. Inserting a plate or rod to stabilize it should improve the long term recovery prognosis. Someone said it was handled poorly by the Bears. How? Just because they don't include us on the details of the injury doesn't mean they gave him poor treatment. Unless you are advocating they should have done the surgery 6 weeks ago but that would have definitely put him on a longer recovery time frame. The team clearly wanted to give it a chance to heal on it's own in 6 weeks and hoped he'd be ready for the regular season. Then they slowly ramped up his physical activities to allow the muscles to rebuild and strengthen around the lower leg. It's just bad luck for this to happen but I don't put this in the same category as a GM missing on Jadeveon Clowney's bad knee that needed micro fracture surgery.

With each passing day Carey looks less likely to make the roster.

I agree with the list of improvements except I think Jeffrey fills in for 3a quite well without the attitude. I'm still in believe-it-when-I-see-it mode but I admit this camp has been different. Cutler himself has been completely different since the firings occurred last year. Even during that period of uncertainty he was open and honest about things in a way he never was before. Aside from that attitude change I still think the biggest help come week 1 will be practicing against all the schemes Fangio is throwing at him versus going against a steady diet of Cover 2. That goes for entire offense, not just Cutler, because 3-4's have always challenged our already-challenged Oline. That didn't make make your list or is just part of the great coaching staff. Speaking of coaching...Gase has a part in this as well in play calling. I think it was last week when the D crushed the offense by bringing pressure from everywhere throughout the practice. The next day the offense came out and faced a similar approach from the D but adapted and made huge plays into the big gaps the D was leaving open. I know it's practice but that kind of an adjustment (from a team that seemingly never made adjustments) caught my eye and makes me wonder if things really might be different now.

There is a very low standard here: Last season we were 30th in yards given up and 31st in points given up per game. We all realize there are some players on the roster that don't fit a 3-4 scheme but those players didn't do much of anything last year in a 4-3. If they continue doing nothing this year they'll be gone in year 2 of the overhaul. ....and welcome back, Jordan Mills needs your help.

It's far from set and, aside from McPhee, who starts might vary game to game depending on matchups.

A couple weeks in and getting ready for our first preseason game. Trying to summarize what I've read about the team so far. Offense: QB: Cutler no INTs or fumbles to date. One would think the addiction withdrawal symptoms would take over sooner than later causing a couple turnovers. Clausen hasn't done much but his reps have been limited so far and he'll get his best practice during the preseason games. Not sure what is going on with Fales but Carden is not an NFL QB. Will we keep two QBs or three? Oline: Bushrod is still Bushrod but on the other side of the line Mills has struggled often in camp. Leno has shown some flashes as a backup but coaches appear to be keeping him locked into learning the left side. That makes me wonder if Long or Bushrod is the backup RT? Regardless, RT will be an issue again this season. The interior looks good, Slauson has been a beast in camp, virtually unbeatable and Long is going to be usual self. Montgomery will start for us at C this season but given his experience in the offense and with solid help on either side of him we should be ok here. Backup positions you have to think Grasu, who is starting to play better, has one locked down. The other two spots appear to be Leno and Ducasse but I suspect Ola is in the mix too if for no other reason his versatility. Mills performance will likely determine what we do here among the backups. RB: Forte plus who? Right now Rodgers appears to be the #2 RB. We have to believe Langford will make the roster. If we are keeping a 4th RB that leaves Carey fighting against Daniel Thomas who is much bigger at 230lbs, and Senorise Perry who is faster and plays better on special teams. Right now it appears Carey won't make the final roster. TE: Bennett plus who? Bennett has looked like an elite TE this camp. Haven't heard much of anything about players behind him which is concerning. WR: White hasn't hit the field but we know he'll be there for the regular season. Jeffrey has been outstanding in camp as has Royal. Marquess Wilson has been ok but I see reports of him still running wrong routes or dropping catchable passes. Preseason games will be a big factor for Wilson because he stumbled last season when he finally got on field. Behind the top 4 are Mariani,who has done well as a WR and has the special teams skills, and Bellamy. Do we keep 5 or 6 WRs? Defense OLB: Depth is showing up here. Allen is playing well, Acho, and of course McPhee. Houston also does not appear to be having any issues coming off his injury and has made a lot of plays in camp. Those appear to be the top 4 and it's possible we see all four get snaps in a rotation when the regular season starts. Bass has been looking much better in pass rush and seems be headed for the final roster. The surprise here is UDFA Kyle Woestmann. He seems destined for the practice squad but apparently will be on the bubble of the final cuts. That pushes Willie Young to no-man's land. Willie is still not ready to play so barring injury to someone else he's going to get cut or we trade him. ILB: SMC continues to improve but preseason games are important for him to maintain momentum. He hasn't done anything to lose his starting spot yet. Jones and SMC have been a good blitz combo and Jones has excelled in coverage. Foster is challenging SMC but hasn't quite made the leap yet. Bostic has finally made it to the practice field but has a lot of catching up to do. Right now it appears these are the final 4 ILB. Dline: I see starters Ferguson, Goldman, Ratliff. Jenkins seems like he'll have a roster spot but it's far from certain. After him I don't know. I think Sutton will be gone as he can't hold the point of attack and isn't offering much on pass rush. That means last year's 3rd and 4th Rd picks may be gone (and both were guys I liked ). Cornelius Washington is interesting here. He bulked up and at DE is occasionally able to get inside with a good pash rush but OTOH he's getting pushed around on running plays. It's a transition for him and would likely take another year for him to learn this new role. Can he contribute enough on special teams to make the final roster? I don't know if we keep 5 or 6 Dline. Brandon Dunn has done some good things as well as David Carter who was a late signing. UDFA Williams has been stout at NT on occasion and it seems like he'll end up on the practice squad. Lot of competition behind the top 3, definitely something to watch on Thur. CB: Some surprises here. Fuller seems locked in as one starter on the outside. Opposite him it has been either McMannis, and lately Porter. Porter just went out with a minor hamstring pull. Ball can't stay on the field and when he is there he hasn't been impressive. Jennings appears to have the NB job but I haven't seen anything good or bad about him so far. Terrance Mitchell has turned a lot of heads in camp, not sure if he's playing the slot behind Jennings but he could be the heir apparent there, maybe after a year on the practice squad. Overall it appears we have better depth here than expected but it's still up in the air how good our top 2 CBs will be in the new scheme especially if we have to blitz to get pressure. S: Rolle hasn't looked good. He's a starter along with Vereen, who has been playing better this camp versus last year but I can't expect much from Vereen until I see it. There is no doubt the coaches want Rolle back there for his leadership but if you evaluate their physical play on the field I have to think Mundy is challenging him. If a change is made putting Mundy as starter I think coaches would make it later in the preseason once players are more comfortable with the new scheme (i.e. less of a need for Rolle's leadership on the field). Amos is still learning on the job he'll be a backup this season. The front 7 need to carry the load or these guys will get exposed.

It appears this is nothing more than a move to help special teams. This guy isn't big enough to be a LB nor is he good enough in space to play DB in coverage. One of our primary special teams players, McMannis has looked very good at CB so he might be taking a step back from some special teams roles. Maybe not exclusively but if he's playing on defense he might not thrown out there on every coverage unit. Another key piece from last year's coverage units, Cornelius Washington, is getting pushed around at his new DE position. Although he has shown some good things in pass rush, some other Dline players are challenging him for a roster spot. As far as Groy, reportedly he's struggled in pass protection this camp. It sounds like ahead of Groy we have Leno, Ducasse, Grasu, and Ola (that's assuming the starters are Bushrod, Slaus, Montgomery, Long, Mills). Fabuluje appears destined for the practice squad. Nobody is talking about how Pace managed to trade an OG who likely wouldn't make the roster for a 6th Rd pick from the Patriots. That's pretty good value for a guy who was likely to get cut and if Wells doesn't make the team we haven't lost anything. Patriots have to be concerned about their Oline depth or they'd have waited for more camp cuts and given up nobody.

He's not going out without a fight... http://www.scout.com/nfl/bears/story/15726...notebook-day-10 Yet the defensive play of the day came from McClellin against a counter trey. McCllelin lined up across from RG Kye Long, who pulled left at the snap to serve as the lead blocker. McClellin followed Long across the play and crashed into the gap, knocking Long to his knees before making a play on the ball carrier. It was a highly impressive play by McClellin who, along with Jones, is growing into his new role

When was the last time we had viable options when our #2 WR went down? At this point in camp there are reports that Wilson is looking good (not great) so he should be a little more functional as a 3rd WR than he was last year. Then there is Mariani who is also playing well as a WR in camp. Jeffrey so far is the star, virtually uncoverable according to some reports, and that's great to hear. Royal has also done very well so far. Add in Bennett too with Gase showing he's willing to split him out wide this year.

There is that Eddie Goldman factor to keep in mind.

In all his years in Chicago Cutler has had to practice against the Lovie 2 and then for two years again Mel Tucker's toothless version of the Lovie 2. Given his history I won't make a prediction about how much better Cutler will be at protecting the football but I will say that practicing against Fangio's D this camp is giving him the most variety in defensive looks/schemes that he's ever seen in camp. I can't see this hurting Cutler at all, nor the rest of the offense. http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...57-21e1bad607a0 "They got after us today," said quarterback Jay Cutler. "They beat us in about every period we had. [Fangio] has done a good job of mixing it up. He's not afraid to drop eight or to bring eight. He throws a lot of different things at you—three-down, four-down, nickel, dime. He's got an extensive package, so it makes you think."

I think CB will be the weak link on this defense. I agree there is some potential but I think right now the best we can hope for is that they are average. Right now Ball looks like a $3mil mistake but I hope he turns it around. I can't blame Pace for the 1yr signing, these coaches had no idea what they had on the roster and we needed some assurance. I'm actually hoping to see some pass rush take the pressure off these guys. I like what I hear so far out of camp on McPhee, Ratliff, Acho, Bass, and to a lesser extent on pass rush Houston. Plus I think Jared Allen will play very well for us in a more limited role. Add in CWash as a potential interior pass rusher (I don't see him holding up against the run in this first year inside) and among all the options we might be able to cobble up a good NASCAR package that gets good pressure on 3rd and long.

We're going to know a little bit more tomorrow. Days off from practice like today are used by coaches to stop and assess where players are at and if they want to make changes. We'll see if there are reports of Foster getting more time with the 1's. I doubt we'll see much change at this point. The coaches obviously felt SMC the better player coming out of OTAs or they wouldn't have had him out there calling plays with the 1st team to start camp. Assuming he's still improving I'd expect them to continue to give him a chance to succeed. The fact we are hitting in camp is good for SMC who needs that practice and coaching. I do expect Jones to be one of our starters at ILB. I don't know how much weight he added this offseason but he's bigger than he was last year and apparently has no loss in speed or mobility on coverage. Bostic on the other hand is completely on the outside looking in and players like Lattimore, who is decent on special teams, are trying to take advantage of that opening.