AZ54

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.

I wish he'd have added more to that than the fact SMC is calling plays. I went back and read a bit on Fangio's scheme: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/01/22/dur...fensive-scheme/ http://beargoggleson.com/2015/01/21/vic-fa...fensive-scheme/ From an athletic standpoint SMC has the edge over Foster and it's likely why they want to see what he can do first. I'm sure Foster is better right now as a run defender. Not sure he is better in coverage than SMC though both need to improve. The only thing I've seen commented on frequently is that SMC has been very disruptive in the backfield either on blitzes or getting into gaps quickly on run fits. This competition won't be over any time soon.

The only thing that comes to mind on this, aside from a stress fracture, is shin splints. That's a common injury runners get and it takes some time to heal especially if it's gone to the point where there are micro-fractures in the shin. Since we know there is no issue with him riding a bike, or exercising in the pool this seems like a reasonable guess. http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/shin-splints http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/242169.php

How long before this guy gets reps with the 1st team at RT? Mills by all accounts has not looked good so far while Leno has seemingly played well when he's gotten a shot at LT (when Bushrod had a day off Sat). I think this coaching staff is far from settled on who our top 5 Oline are and I'm not sure I'd move Long out to RT as everyone else wants to do. We have Montgomery (a career backup C) or Grasu (a rookie) in the middle and I'd much rather have either Center covered by Slauson/Long than Slauson/Ola/Groy/Ducasse. We can help someone like Leno/Mills at RT with Bennett or just have the RBs chip that way too. No matter what we might think nobody really knows how well Long would play at RT and I'd rather have one weakness than two.

Jeremy Stoltz ‏@BearReport 54m54 minutes ago It's borderline live contact at #Bears practice today. Running backs brought to the ground on nearly every snap. Huge change

I agree 100% that scheme and coaching will make a big positive impact. I'm not so sure it will translate to improving basic fundamental deficiencies some players have. Bostic consistently over-ran plays and in coverage was often just turning the wrong way. He just never seemed to understand how to keep leverage on plays or players. SMC is in the same boat but with some different things to work on. It's the same with guys like Vereen, Sutton, Ferguson, Carey but they only had 1 season so far and there is more likely upside to their skills if the scheme and coaching is better. Houston is a much better fit at OLB in this scheme than he was at DT last year.

It will be interesting to see if we make a move here. Coaches have seen everyone now and after hitting for a couple days are getting an idea of what backups like Sutton and Jenkins can do.

http://www.scout.com/nfl/bears/story/15692...-succeed-at-ilb "Fox is correct, McClellin has the athletic ability to play ILB in defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s 3-4 system. With the pads on for the first time in camp today, McClellin looked explosive and fast. He wasn’t shying away from contact and was filling gaps with aggression. In addition, he’s been very effective as an inside blitzer, causing numerous pressures today during team drills." -------------------------------- I'm sure we'll be hearing more about SMC soon as this battle for ILB jobs is wide open and we'll see what develops over the next two weeks. Bostic is back in the mix so seeing who is running with 1's when they head into week 2 of camp will be telling. All this is new on defense so like everyone else I'm sure SMC still has a lot of room to grow in this new role but, if nothing else, at least for the first time it appears he is playing in the right position in the right defense. Hit the link for more info...

Jay Cutler is now the 10th highest paid QB in the league. Clearly Peyton Manning, and especially Tom Brady (at just $9mil/yr) are below market value. http://overthecap.com/position/quarterback

We have players hitting players in training camp and I couldn't be happier. We'll have to see the results but after a decade or so of watching lousy tackling and less than physical play in the first few games of the regular season because Lovie and Trestman didn't like hitting in camp this is very welcome news. We have already had one fight and they weren't even in pads. So while I'm not promoting fights I am promoting the fact that you need to work hard to beat the guy on the other side of the line and that means taking it right up to the limit. There is only one way to test that limit. I can't wait to hear how the pads were popping in practice today. While he has casually dismissed this as part of camp I'm sure Fox is working to set the tone early in camp on how he wants his team to play and he'll reel it back in as needed later when guys are wearing down. Plus our GM is right there with him saying you can't find out anything about how tough a player is until they start hitting. Players have received the message. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...0731-story.html