AZ54

I was able to rewatch the game with a lot of slo-mo on plays. Dline just looked tired and got pushed around a lot, even Billings. In fact the whole team looked tired with little burst to anything going on until maybe the third series on the field for both offense and defense. Nonetheless there were some good things to note: Oline: Drew Dalman I thought played well, seems like a good addition, Jonah Jackson too. Darnell Wright played poorly early then settled down a bit but never looked dominant. Braxton Jones did ok, as usual had some missteps in protection but I don't recall the bad step where he gets beat early. Newman missed a couple assignments and gave up immediate pressure on a couple plays otherwise he looks good for a late round pick. Trapilo looks good enough to keep pressure on Darnell Wright. Theo Benedet got blown up a few times by Gillotte and then settled down a bit but he had a big wake up call when he first took the field. I didn't pick up on who the backup LG/RG were but Bates was in at Center. If we can fix the blown blocking assignments then overall the pass protection was just ok. Run blocking was just ok as well but this feels like the best depth we've had on Oline in a long time. Given all the bad Oline history I can definitely see the Bears keeping 10 Oline on the 53, 9 for sure. RB: Swift had two plays where I believe last year he'd have tried to get outside but instead he stuck his head down and dove forward. One was for a first down, the other just for a 3yd gain. The coaching impact there was good to see. The rental RBs looked like dudes fighting for a job somewhere but showed no outstanding traits. WRs: We're good here. QBs: I still think Caleb has a problem with big games, maybe against big name QBs, where he wants to look good and make the big plays. He was holding the ball too long early on but got going later. Love the TD to Rome where he looks outside at first then sees Rome and fires fast. Overall this was a mediocre showing from him but i still believe he'll settle in more with this offense and expectations as the season moves along. If nothing else getting so many reps against KCs defense was a great way to prep for the MNF game. I think there are some similarities to what both teams do with their front 7 although on the backend KC might use more man vs. zone by the Vikings. Bagent is worth every penny. Dline: Poor although Sweat looked like his old self early on. Nobody else looked good. LBs: Didn't even notice them other than Edwards getting beat easily by Kelce in the middle of the field. DBs: Here I felt we had sticky coverage all game long. There were some bad penalties and a couple blown assignments late. Mahomes was often forced to hold the ball longer than he wanted. If we could have mustered a pass rush to compliment things that game would have looked a lot different.

How is that neck collar on Robinson not a holding penalty?

there are always "NFL streams" available.

Typical practice squad QB.

One week after seeing how beneficial having two good TEs can be people want to trade one of them. I doubt this is more than some media person’s proposal. The money still doesn’t fit the cap.

2nd round pick value if he plays well this week. Not that it’s our intent this year or even next but on the last year of that deal? Poles gave himself two years to find the next backup. This officially ends the Case Keenum hype train

2yr $10mil incentives up to $16mil. This is good for both sides. Tyson gets more time in Ben Johnson’s system which will only help him down the road. We get a quality backup at a critical position.

I’d play the waiting game. We just had a very deep draft class for RBs. Some productive backup RBs will get cut.

OZ has exceeded my expectations. When was the last time we could say we have 4 good WRs? Two good TEs plus Swift andMonangai out of the backfield. We have a toughest schedule but realistically how are the Packers DBs going to cover that group?

If the score was the other way around the media would already be putting the Bills in the Super Bowl. We’re not that naive here on this board but that game was a clear sign that this coaching staff is different. So was Caleb. I might have been the only Bears fan that celebrates when Caleb threw the ball in the dirt after Buffalo blew up the RB screen play. It was the first time I can recall him understanding don’t take the negative play and move on to the next play.

If the light is turning on for Booker this defensive front could be a good one. I think Dayo has also been challenged to make more plays because in the last week he’s been more aggressive in his pass rush and getting home. He has non existent the first half of camp.

Yes and frustrating but these coaches refuse to just hand it to someone.

No don’t create two problems.

Y’all have a lot of confidence in preseason reporting. I’d have been good with Josh Simmons but I do wonder about those work ethic questions and how that would fit into Ben’s culture. Ersery too could have helped. We’ll see how it shakes out by week 8. i watched Bears reports and we had a lot of good plays against the Bills. I watched Bills reports and they were happy because they had a lot of good plays against the Bears. The one player that caught their eye as a problem: Rome.

I"m not that worried about LT because at least there are 4 options roughly as good as Braxton Jones so I know what the floor is. Can we make it better than that? I sure hope so but as Ben Johnson said today it might take some time, even into the season to get it right. Ben was clear about Ozzy that he's too slow off the snap, but he's much better at RT. He likely has good enough traits to get where we need him to be but switching from RT to LT hasn't been as easy as hoped. Ben likes what Theo has done at RT and decided to try him at LT but again it's going to take him time to adjust. It'll be interesting to see him this weekend. Kiran is just a wildcard...there was no mention of what they think of him. My biggest concern with Braxton is the mental lapses where he gets beaten very early in the snap. It's one thing to lose the rep 2s into the play, another to lose inside 1s. His good plays are acceptable but I suspect at minimum Ben wants to find a more consistent floor or Caleb is going to come out of the some the play action fakes and get leveled.

I’ll just take Ben Johnson at his word that he wants his starters to get the maximum number of reps they can get in camp and preseason. By letting them skip the game they were able to pick up an additional 50 practice reps. It’s not the same as a game but he also doesn’t have dumb down the script like he would have for a game. The joint practices allow him to do that and he gets to see what they can do well. After this week things start getting locked in and he said as they prep for Wk 1 the offense will get trimmed down with shorter play calls and a clearer game plan. He’s keeping his cards close to the vest stating that they still don’t know what type of running game they’ll be using. He’s keeping the Vikings guessing.

It could be that our best option if Wright goes down is to move Trapilo from LT to RT and bring Braxton off the bench. Game day active rosters give limited options that are different from long term replacement. Either way a little competition is good.

Maybe but proper stance also applies to reacting to a sudden Inside rush.

I only heard generic talk about technique being good one day and bad the next and the standard needs to be met.

I know we've got some injuries to the CBs but we just added 4 safeties to our roster. Something is going to change on that depth chart. I hope Owens gets cut. I was hopeful for Tysheem Johnson was good enough to make the 53 but adding this much competition late in camp doesn't bode well for him.

Gonna be harder to hold the ball in the pocket with two hands until he gets full strength back.

AZ’s skimmed down analysis. Trapillo is just stronger than Jones and it showed up everywhere. Most importantly to me is that Trapilo has quicker feet and he’s better at taking baby steps to mirror pass rushers. Kinda surprising for a tall guy.

Ozzy showed he belongs on an NFL field and the game wasn’t too big for him. However it shakes out our backup LT will be the best backup LT we’ve had in years.

That game felt organized. I watched to the bitter end with two 2 min offenses. Plus the way we ended the first half it always felt the way an NFL game should feel. I didn’t see players running on the field late or time outs for misalignments. In short I didn’t see what I usually see in a first Bears preseason game.

I’d be equally happy if Amegadji turned into a good starting LT.