AZ54

I just watched Swift's Oline breakdown from the Colts game. Aside from the lazy technique I now think Leatherwood's greatest weakness is a lack of core strength. Power in your upper body and/or lower body means little if there is no core to bring it together. He leans into blocks...a lot, which is something you have to do when you lack core strength (watch people open heavy doors). DTs smack at his arm and his upper body gets rotated easily, which takes his arms/hands off his target. If he doesn't lean forward he gets rocked backward (arched back). Leatherwood even has trouble getting off his initial block to get to the second level because there's no power being delivered in that one arm. He can't keep himself upright while slowing down the DT, he literally has to lean into them and then try to run away to get to the second level. We all hear about keeping your center of mass under control and technique to do that, but it's much more intuitive to do that if your core is doing its job. Watch around the 9 min mark and see Borom and Leatherwood blocking on the same play. Borom in particular looks much better this year even when a defender gets into him hard. If you have time watch more of the plays and you'll see Carter generally has good technique and can hold his ground with it, though he still needs work. I'll give you Borom's highlights from last year for comparison and you only need to watch a couple min to see the difference in him this year. For an inverse example see Gervon Dexter who has the core strength but it has allowed him to get by, to this point, with poor technique.

I agree with your astute comment.

He completely whiffed on one stunt, that was so slow I saw it real time (we're not talking elite Dline from Indy). DT or DE just ran right past him and he barely flinched. I can't believe he's ahead of Carter and so I expect we'll see Carter at LG this week. Give Carter some game time at LG and then all the practice reps there before Wk 1. By the time we get to Wk 1 we'll have a good backup for both OG spots for the rest of the season.

Keep in mind defenses are not yet scheming based on what a QB can and cannot do. It’s why players like Gardner Minshew get four weeks of fame when they take over as a starter. The Bears played to Minshew’s strength at times by blitzing and leaving the slot open. In a real game you’re going to try to force him to throw outside the numbers more often (at least I would). We still have unknowns but at least Bagent has some strengths to his game. I can’t find any with Walker.

He was mostly good but there were a few miscues. Overall he looked like an NFL QB which is great for a UDFA. I watched his press conference. He’s just a humble kid enjoying the ride. In an unusual twist he didn’t elaborate on all the studying he’s had to do or the work ethic. Listening to him you get the sense he understands that it’s just the basic expectation for the job. Where most people would make his situation of dealing with 3 different OCs and offense designs as a negative, or even an excuse. He looked at it as a positive getting to learn different ways of attacking a defense. Then he got to meet and play for Getsy in the Senior Bowl. I have to believe that’s a big reason why he’s here. On one of the sports talk shows someone asked the question if we’d really be comfortable with Bagent in a real game versus PJ Walker who has experience. IMO that’s the wrong question. Would I be comfortable with Walker in a real game? That answer is a definite no. As for the money on Walker I look at it like this: We spent $3 or $4mil to find a backup QB. If we’ve done that, regardless of who it is, it is very reasonable in today’s NFL. There’s no reason to throw good money after bad.

Roschon brings a lot more power to the contact point than Forte ever did. DBs are not going to want to tackle him for an entire game. The running style is similar to Forte.

I agree. He was bad in the Panthers game I watched last year and he's the same inconsistent QB in Chicago. Walker has the strongest arm among the backups but when he throws it's always a surprise to see where the ball ends up. We gave him $1mil guaranteed and would carry $2mil in dead cap this year. That's be worth it because it frees up $2mil next year and I won't have to watch him in a Bears uniform. Among the backups Bagent has looked the best so I think game 3 is the deciding factor. Bagent at least looks the part when he's in the pocket, with the exception of when he ran straight forward into a sack. He has better size than Peterman and similar athleticism plus he sees the field well (at least in this game but having 2 days of practice against the Colts helps). He might have a little bit better arm than Peterman. There's no reason the Bears couldn't keep read-option plays in the plan with Bagent but the deep routes won't happen People are fast with these cutouts.

As weak armed QBs go he looked really good. We will get exactly what the Colts got with Minshew. There are too many passes out to the sidelines that just hang in the air and starting CBs are going to jump those routes.

Noodle arm QB.

I saw that. It’s very interesting because it seems to be based on comfort with how well Fields is playing. I think there are other factors such as Kramer being the likely starter at center. From Flus’ perspective he’s seen enough of what Fields can do against the Colts defense that nothing more will be learned. At least not enough as compared to the downside risk of injury if a protection call is messed up.

Went for the INT and collided with Pittman. He was all shook up but no obvious injury.

Quietly Roschon got snaps with the 1st team yesterday.

This is a really good breakdown of the two rookie DTs. Dexter gets added to the very small list of men I've seen lift a 300lb offensive lineman up in the air with just one arm. There are a lot of positives about Dexter in this game for run defense. He's got a lot of room to grow as a pass rusher but he'll learn. Pickens had a few good plays too and he can play strong too. Football Scout squeezed in a couple clips of Travis Bell and you can see just how quick he is.

Searching for Mongo in the crowd...

There just might not be a better way to teach a big strong man like Dexter how to get lower and maintain leverage.

I know next to nothing about the Colts and their roster. I was scanning their depth chart and we'll get to see a few good matchups. With 2 days of practice plus a game the players will all know each other well. We have a sense of our roster now, how do they matchup? At the top of the list everyone has been talking about Buckner against our OGs and Pittman Jr. against the CBs. They have a few players I had interest in during recent drafts who I'm curious about: LT Bernard Raimann, WR Alec Pierce, WR Josh Downs. Any other good or interesting matchups?

The metaphor is good even if the material science isn't. Although there is a cautionary aspect to it as well because soft iron is only going to yield soft iron. Hanging out with lazy people produces more lazy people. It's important to find the right person or people to work with, or role model. Offense practicing against a poor defense is not going to improve.

The Trubisky comp for yards is valid as a floor especially with a 17 game schedule. The number one thing all of the best offenses have is big plays. Without the talent for that you are left dinking and dunking your way down the field. Even Mahomes in his breakout 2nd season would have a big game but there'd be 3 or 4 WR screens or short crossing routes that would go for 30/40/50 yards. So he threw for 400yds but almost half were on 4 simple plays w/ a ton of YAC. Those type of plays also tend to put a defense on its heels and play safer which can open up more easy underneath. We have the players to get those big plays.

I don't know even know where this came from since everyone on the planet uses a grind stone to sharpen iron (or steel) because the sharpening material must be harder. But this is football not engineering so whatever gets them out of stupid questions from journalists is fine by me.

That's a pretty good first effort by Carter. Like they always say it's best when nobody notices them and he was quiet.

With Breece Hall recovering from a knee injury I understand why the Jets signed Cook. He can carry the load early while Hall ramps up. Elliot...you don't need to pay that much for the second part of a two back system. At least Cook still played well last year. Elliot is a shell of what he used to be.

It doesn't appear we pay $2.7mil... "The Bears are now responsible for Walker’s contract year, though that checks in at just $895K." https://www.profootballrumors.com/chicago-bears-news-rumors

This headline was not on my bingo card. In fact I don't know if the Bears Oline has ever had such a good start in the first preseason game. https://bearswire.usatoday.com/2023/08/14/bears-offensive-line-impressive-preseason-performance-against-titans-pff-grade/

Listening to Flus today it appears Roschon has moved up to #2 on the depth chart. I don’t think that’s firm yet but it sounded as if he’s going to get a good shot at keeping it this week.

Unfortunately his competition has similar issues with fumbles and drops: Pettis and Scott.