AZ54

A few folks showed up today with film breakdowns. The Football Scout had the All-22 view just for the first team offense and I think that's the best way to watch what happens. Not bad at all for first contact with another team. Carter looks good, definitely missed one assignment that led to no-gain play but otherwise he belongs on the field. Last year Braxton Jones had a bad habit of opening up his hips to far to pass rushers. You'll see him do that here but he does two quick kick steps and recovers. Ideally he should avoid getting into that position but last year when he got that far out of position he couldn't recover and gave up the pressure on Fields. Darnell Wright appeared to be in control of his blocks.

It's really hard to make much of anything preseason for QBs. How they respond under pressure does matter and is definitely something that carries into the season. Also being in sync with receivers on the routes. PJ Walker had no clue. Justin at least looked like he knows the offense but it's all such a small snapshot.

Both screen throws were intentionally off target a bit to get around the rush. Generally he has liked Justin so I have no clue what this is. I also know PJ Walker is his protege and trains with him in the offseason and he was completely horrible.

Agreed, PJ Walker is just bad. He was equally bad in the Carolina game I watched last season so it's not just a new scheme. Besides that his strength is reported to be his understanding of the game yet we see nothing of the sort on the field. Poles addresses this backup position more aggressively next season and if this team is good that will help attract FA QBs without overpaying. Or we draft one. Vildor is playing for his next job. Even if he were the 6th best CB (he's not) I can't see us paying a backup that far down the depth chart $2.7mil. Gipson vs. Lewis. I have only rewatched the start of the game but early on Gipson benefited from poor blocking and was able to get in on a few plays. On at least one play where he was blocked he got stood up and lifted off his feet, something that has happened to him quite a bit in camp (he may be the leader in getting pancaked). Lewis seemed to handle contact better and win his rushes straight up. He's not as bendy around the corner as you'd like but he got there. Again just early impressions I'll try to watch a bit more later on. Leatherwood only costs us $2mil this year so I don't think salary will be a big factor in who stays. Velus is still in the lead at WR6 but I could definitely see Pettis challenging him in the next 2 weeks. No to Ford or Webster. At safety a lot of press is made when guys just standing in a zone coverage and the QB throws them the ball. I personally don't care about those INTs. I'm looking for who reads the routes well and makes the right breaks to defend passes. All I took away is that Elijah Hicks was doing that better than last year. The others I'm not so sure about.

I watched the first quarter in slo mo to see more closely who did what in the trenches. On both TD plays our Oline was the key blocking 10,20, and even 30 yards downfield. You knew that from the game replay but none of them looked lost in space. Usually you’ll see linemen lunging at the little guys or just falling on their face. They covered ground quickly but broke down and stayed under control as their target approached while Herbert or Moore helped setup their angles from behind. On the first one Whitehair was able to get out in front and then do a 180 and block off Dline chasing it down from behind. I’d say the entire line bought into the conditioning expectations this off-season. Darnell Wright looked good in his first action. It looked like a Carter was the one struggling the most although Braxton Jones gave up one run stop (right before Hebert TD). Tev buried a LB on the same play. Would have been a huge hole if Jones didn’t give up his inside shoulder. Dom Rob is a different player this year. He’s able to shed blocks and made one of the big stops at the goal line. Billings needs larger numbers on his jersey. He is wide enough to properly have a 3 digit number On one of the goal line stops he didn’t make the tackle but he hit the RG so hard he quickly walked him two yards backward. That power showed up on several plays.

Cool. That's what happens when you're watching a football game and a zoom call for a grandkids birthday party at the same time.

I didn't see the entire game but did get the first half and some of the 4th quarter. Velus' muffed the punt after the ball bounced very high and he tried to catch it. Defensive player saw him lining up under it and timed the hit perfectly. Very poor decision but not dropped catch like we saw last year. My impressions: Offense - all the work on the screen game is paying off. DJ made a great read on the defenders but the blocking is what made me feel good about the play. It's one thing to have a good short game but if that's all you have (i.e. Crowton) defenses will eat it up. We have enough speed and the QB to have a good long game. Those two will compliment each other and make it easy for Getsy to adapt to what a defense chooses to take away. I still don't like PJ Walker. Defense - looked much stronger in run defense. There were still some gaps but we weren't always getting pushed back off the LOS. Big Dex is strong and I rewatched several plays and he is not the last man off the snap. We can all forget about that draft day concern. On his sack he got between the LT and LG. Both tried to push him and it didn't slow him down one bit. Pickens didn't have any splash plays but seemed at least solid in holding his ground on most plays. DBs looked good once they settled in. Drop Tremaine Edmunds in the middle of that group and we should be good in coverage. Kyler Gordon is going to have a good year. He's seeing it and he's feeling it. Late game - I didn't see Roschon much. Travis Bell is a short stout player. No length so can't see him doing much in the league against starters but as a practice squad guy you need to call up in a pinch he'll give you good effort. Maybe with a year in the strength program he'll be able to better use his underneath leverage to his advantage.

I have mirrored an iPhone, Macbook, and iMac screen to my TV via WiFi with no issues. Some TVs will need a WiFi adapter to do that but my Sony has the software built in. The picture quality isn't HD perfection but it's still pretty good and far better than watching a game on a computer screen. Using a VPN sourced from the Chicago area might get you the live local games but some streaming services disallow all VPN connections. The other way companies check is to match the zip code from the billing credit card and consider that your local area. Get a burner credit card with a Chicago area billing address and your set. Maybe someone knows what NFL+ does to determine your "local market". "Local games are the games that are available on TV in your market."

Some good insight on the team from the coach plus it was nice to see Kyle. It's obvious now why we went after Kyler Gordon first last year. Scheme fit at NB.

I got this wrong. Dexter is clearly moving into our 3-tech after expecting him to focus on NT. Judging by how often he's in Justin Fields' face he might be a starter before the end of the year. OTOH I expected Pickens would be the 3-tech but now he's doing nothing but NT. Travis Bell is also getting snaps at 3-tech. Pickens has been relatively quiet in camp so far. Given the performance trends right now I expect in week 1 it'll be the top 3 (Billings, Jones, and Dexter) getting the vast majority of the snaps. Dexter might split time at 3-tech/NT. He only slid over to focus on 3-tech a little more than a week ago, maybe 2 weeks at most. If he continues to become dominant at 3-tech and keeps blowing up plays like he did again today they won't waste his energy at NT. We all know the 3-tech is the little engine that makes this D work well. Week 1 is very important. By the end of preseason I expect they'll start hiding him (i.e. less preseason snaps or maybe some NT snaps) so the Packers have less of an idea what's headed their way. https://www.si.com/nfl/bears/news/zacch-pickens-steered-toward-nose-tackle

Might be worth starting a separate thread so people can list what they do to watch games and we can see all options. I still run Dish Network w/ NFL Network and Redzone (which I rarely use) but that's more for the TV from Spain we need to keep my wife happy. In recent years my son has always found Sunday Ticket cheap on the college student plan. This year Google got rid of that and is forcing everyone to full price plans. We're not yet sure what we'll be doing but I'll be doing something to find my Bears game even if I go back to watching them in a bar. FWIW in a pinch I've always been able to find a decent enough "broadcast" feed on Reddit although they often tend to drop out and have to rejoin.

I like Stevenson's moxie too. Just don't get too handsy and get penalties. It's football like any good sport there is always a bit of mixing it up.

His little scuffle with Tyrique Stevenson where he put the DB on the ground likely tweaked it a bit. I think on his next rep is where he pulled up on the route. We don't need injuries but we do need some offensive players bringing the competitive fire. Claypool has helped with that. Hopefully just a couple weeks of rest and he's back at practice. Just saw this from the HC and he seems to sense that his team needs that fire: https://bearswire.usatoday.com/lists/bears-training-camp-takeaways-day-12-justin-fields-darnell-mooney-darnell-wright/ Matt Eberflus didn’t seem to have a problem with Claypool’s chirping. “As long as it doesn’t lead to penalties or lack of execution,” Eberflus said. “If you can keep your focus and that’s how you do it and you don’t fight, that’s how I look at it.”

It seems to have taken him 2 weeks to adjust to the NFL. This doesn't mean he's complete but that's a short ramp up in practices against our players. Now carry it forward in games but that learning curve is nice to see and hopefully he's playing well early in the year. Getting less press has been Braxton Jones starting to show improvement in handling the power rush. Not that he's a power rusher but Jones pancaked Ngakoue earlier today. Maybe he's finally learning how to use those long arms properly. https://bearswire.usatoday.com/lists/bears-training-camp-day-12-justin-fields-darnell-wright-dj-moore/

After listening to his press conference yesterday I'm even more of a fan of Gervon Dexter. Class act, humble but confident in what he believes he can do, and he's putting in the work. He was open about the work he's doing to improve his "get off" but feels that our scheme is more of a natural fit for him versus what he did in college. Today he's in the backfield wrecking a bunch of plays.

Pretty sure he has enough money to raise them wherever he chooses. Keep him on speed dial if needed.

I was hoping Szmyt could at least push Santos better than that. Depth chart has already been updated from the earlier release. Roschon moved up to 3rd string RB. WR now has 3 slots (versus where I saw 2 before) with Moore/Mooney/Claypool all listed as starters. Velus, Scott, ESB round out the top 6. There's a long way to go and injuries could be playing a part of this. For sure Gipson and Vildor are on the way outside looking in. https://www.chicagobears.com/team/depth-chart

First depth chart and there are a couple things worth noting. First Kindle Vildor is way down the depth chart...like way down. At OT Kellen Diesch flirted with a backup role at OT but is now behind Borom and some guy I never heard of ..Aviante Collins. At OG Leatherwood is staying in the mix with Carter for a backup OG role. At WR Velus is behind Pettis and Scott but he's also listed first team KR/PR. At DE DomRob is listed as 2nd string and Terrell Lewis 3rd. Trevis Gipson has fallen into the 'other' category. https://bearswire.usatoday.com/lists/chicago-bears-depth-chart-ahead-of-preseason-opener-2023/

Who did we cut? Chase Allen was let go in a swap with Lewis. Now we add this guy? If he was better than Chase we'd have kept him after minicamp. Although I have to say after watching this I think he's got better tools than Allen. Nothing high end but his size with a year in the system could yield a decent 3rd TE. His blocking technique is often poor where he gets out over his skis too far but that can be improved. His agility to turn around on the move and adjust to the ball is pretty good for someone 6'6" tall. As always these are highlights, and against low level competition, so we don't get to see dropped passes and missed blocks. I'd say he has a shot at the practice squad.

PJ Walker is not very good. For a team that’s been searching for QB1 forever I’m not going to worry about QB2.

I think Scott makes the 53 for sure but if he keeps dropping passes and punts like he did today and yesterday we won’t see much of him. Safety depth is interesting and not in a good way IMO. I expected more from Kendall Williamson but he’s been very quiet so far. Hicks is just an average athlete but seems to be assignment sound. That’s the type of emergency player I’d prefer to keep on a practice squad. The door is wide open for Trahan or anyone to earn a spot behind our starters. CB top 5, appear to be set. Blackwell was a special teams stud in coverage last year so I expect he is #5 and makes the 53. You could call him #6 if you prefer. If we keep 6 I can’t guess who it will be other than, barring injury, I doubt it is Vildor. Overall I think Adam is spot on This year I feel like most positions will be good and have one good backup except safety and OT. Adding Ngakoue fixed that concern at DE. I think one or maybe two of DRob or Lewis emerge there. Green will likely be what he’s always been - a backup level player. There is a lot of competition in the bottom 10-15 players competing for the 53 which will make the preseason worth watching, at least for me. Maybe next year we can cut that number in half.

Nobody missed

Just a solid blocker... and that's a good thing. He's still got sticky hands if needed.

Some insight on what we'll see on Sundays. This kind of matches what I suspected were the concerns with him. I don't regret the signing at all and I know he'll help us quite a bit because we simply didn't have this skillset at all. Of course he has to be playing the run on some early downs but I think we'd be best off to keep his rep count down. I think I read somewhere that in recent years he's taken up to 80% of the snaps. I'd rather see him in the 50-60% range. Keep him fresh so even on run plays he has more energy to fend off the big boys or chase plays down from the backside. Then of course take full advantage of his skills on passing downs. I'd especially like to see him get less snaps early in a game and be available more in the 4th quarter when you need a big play to close out the game.

I'm surprised at how small he is. This is not Poles type of edge player at 6'2", 32 1/2" arms, and just 246lbs. Obviously he has sack production but that really explains some of the run defense issues and his inconsistencies in the pass rush where he only has an 11% win rate. Also likely explains the Bears desire to stay away from a multiyear deal. Players who have to rely on quickness in the trenches struggle as they get older. All other DEs on our team are at least 6'4" 260lbs with the exception of DomRob who is 6'5" 253lbs with 33 1/4" arms. Eberflus can say he's an every down player and to a some extent that might be true over the course of a game but everyone knows that isn't what he was brought here to do. They may also want to say that to justify the money and his fit in the locker room. I'll be curious to see how he's used. At least this one gap scheme fits his quickness skillset well. On a run down he needs to get upfield to set the edge... but then has to hold the containment. Can he hold it and squeeze the play inside well enough?