AZ54

Never said he wasn't a good coach. Go to the way-back machine and you can dig up many posts from me saying he should be the next Bears HC .... that's from when he was at Stanford the year before he left them for the NFL. The back story on him in SF was all ego-maniacal and I don't think the Bears owners want to deal with that. More than anything it was his ego that blew up what he had going in San Francisco and cast him back into the college ranks. Even then he carried some of that with him to Michigan. It's entirely possible that he's matured but I doubt the owners want to take that chance. Those of us old enough to remember Ditka's HC years here might consider the risks of a volatile personality acceptable because there are some similarities. Enough similarities to explain why the two struggled to get along in Chicago. I know that he'd be better offensively than Nagy but you're still going to get some oddball plays here and there that make you wonder what he was thinking. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/columnist/dan-wolken/2019/12/01/michigan-ohio-state-jim-harbaugh-doesnt-get-it/4346892002/

You got it right. Quinn has done this despite not having the 80's Bears defensive talent alongside him. I'd put Mack, Roquan, and even Hicks when he's healthy on par with some of those guys but only Roquan has been on the field for much of the year. Plus with COVID rules he's often had to deal with 2nd and 3rd string players getting called up short notice. He also didn't benefit from a good offense taking early leads to where he can just focus on chasing QBs. Plus, like Dent he's playing on one of the worst grass fields in the NFL for half his games.

No chance the Bears want his dysfunction.

Baker is learning a bit how Justin Fields felt in that game as he got sacked 9 times tonight.

Say what? It’s there a new fridge in town?

That sucks Watching Andy play QB is boring and it does feel like someone is protecting Fields.

Congratulations! She’s a cutie and will bring you many special moments.

This is a good start but is focused on our top needs CB/WR/S. There are many other players to keep an eye on this game. https://thedraftnetwork.com/articles/chicago-bears-2022-nfl-draft-cfb-players-to-watch More names... https://sports.yahoo.com/2022-nfl-draft-5-college-football-playoffs-themed-predictions-171145930.html

That's tragic. My heart goes out to his son. JD was one of those constants I relied on for years in Bears media coverage and he will be missed.

We've already seen some of Mahomes when he loses his elite weapons and he comes down to earth. He struggles too with INTs when his pass protection breaks down. He's really good when he gets 7s to pass like he did against Pittsburgh this past weekend. Rodgers too can be more human when his surrounding talent drops a bit. Just take Adams off the field and the offense looks much different. Both Mahomes and Rodgers have elite arm talent and still make insanely good throws during their "average" games. In some aspects Fields has shown some of that as well. Brady on the other hand does not have elite arm talent but it's enough these days and he's accurate. He just seems to keep on truckin' regardless of who is on the field with the caveat being when he has Gronk you can't stop him. Or maybe nobody can stop Gronk. Brady is so good on the field he might even be able to make Nagy look good as an OC. He's so good at the quick decision and throw that your only chance is to cover up receivers early and then hope the pass rush gets there before they break open. He knows the weakness of your coverage and who and where they'll get open later in the play.

My confidence level is not as high as it was at the mid-point of the season but even then that was all based on optimistic hope. I still see some signs of progress but signs of him not seeing things well enough. Even the easy things like screens. Further he appears to be playing somewhat distracted, disinterested, or maybe it's just plain frustration with this offense. Something is clearly upsetting him and that shows in his post game comments where he talked about the lack of discipline on the offense. I think it was after the Vikings game he said maybe it's time for players to run some laps when mistakes are made in practice even if it's him. Whether he intended to or not, that's calling out the coaches. I think Fields has no respect whatsoever for ARob. Mooney has been working out with Fields after practice since training camp and it shows. ARob has been headed for his car as fast as he can. Considering ARob was supposed to be making Fields job easier, Fields has come off that target and we've seen him even more focused on Mooney, Byrd, and most recently Grant. There have been more TE targets in his last 4 games as well which is something everyone was asking for weeks ago. I'm glad he's been starting so many games. For next year I hope he fixes the slow processing time, perhaps we'll get a glimmer of hope for that in the last games. Maybe a new offense and coach will help with that but I understand the caution in expecting a big leap.

The LT/RT is the situation is much more fluid these days with teams moving pass rushers to either side, or even keeping their best pass rusher on the left side to attack the (usually less agile) RT. Both of our young OTs have already shown starter traits so that's great, just need consistency which should come with experience. I agree, coaches should put them in whatever slot gets us the best output on the field.

I don't agree. Winning matters. I want to know for which players it matters too and these are the times where players true character shows. That's why I loved the inspired effort by the defense in the Vikings game. If the team or coaches started tanking for draft slot then what kind of effort would we see from Thomas Graham? I wasn't able to watch yesterday's game but give me Darnell Mooney fighting for 10 extra yards instead of just getting the first down and then protecting himself in the middle of the field. Give me Byrd elevating in traffic for a 2pt conversion at the end of the game. Give me Quinn on a record setting sack pace despite having a depleted Dline for the second half of the season. Give me Roquan Smith all over the field making tackles, even as he battles a nagging injury. We can argue about talent for next year (Byrd and others) but part of the calculus in any player evaluation is if winning matters to them. In these meaningless games we get to discern that. That's why there is nobody here (that I know of) asking for ARob to come back. He's made it clear he is not for winning, just focused on a new contract. It's not that I don't understand the benefits of draft position but IMO there is a greater benefit to having the right players in the locker room with a winning mindset and work ethic both on and off the field. There will always be the obvious athletic traits needed to play in the NFL but you do well when you can find this winning trait in draftees. That's how players like Hunter Renfrow and Darnell Mooney become legit NFL WRs above their draft status.

On Montgomery's TD highlight Borom is playing LT so there isn't much reason to watch this game.

Is Jenkins playing? I don't have the game broadcast and nfl.com isn't working either. Took me 20min to figure out why Fields isn't playing.

I agree and I think that's the difference between what we see in Baltimore with Lamar Jackson. When it's a QB run, it's a clear QB run. All that cuteness makes it more difficult for Fields to digest what's going on and forces him to think too much. That pitch option is probably why he wasn't carrying the ball as tightly as he should have been. I'm not excusing the fumble because he saw the contact coming at him and there's no excuse for not putting his left hand over the ball.

I think that's fair. When i watched them live in a game in AZ Eddie Jackson't athleticsim stands out among all players on the field. He just has to decide if he's going to use that to his advantage or not. So far it appears not.

....and he'd be using Horsted instead of Graham in the red zone because all he does is catch TDs. Graham just can't move well and he's easy to cover these days. Horsted has enough agility to challenge a DB. It seems Nagy thinks that using Graham, who might be a better blocker than Hosted (I say that with great caution), can fool a defense enough to think it's 50/50 run or pass. For me, if you have a receiving weapon they will struggle to cover just put them out there and forget about trying to fool somebody. You can still surprise them by running (let's call it 70/30 run to pass) when Horsted is on the field. I really am surprised that the HC who loved Trey Burton, and who was touted as the key to opening up the offense, won't put Horsted on the field. Simply put: Nagy has changed since his first year and I don't think it's becaue of Justin Fields.

Even if he's available for 6 games a year?

We need a Mike Brown type at Safety to bring some leadership, energy, and accountability to the secondary. That's difficult for us fans to discern in the scouting process.

Or not spend as much money in FA at CB. OTOH Overthecap.com has him valued at $2.1mil which we can easily do. What happens will depend on how he finishes the season. If he can't play much he'll definitely be in the 3rd tier of FA with the lowball bottom-of-the-roster contracts. If he stands out with big plays as he did against Minn then he'll end up in the 2nd tier with some teams expressing varying levels of interest depending on his contract demands. I expect Bears to make a low offer and then let him shop around. If they want to match it they will. Hicks has already said he'd like to finish his career in Chicago so I believe he'd give them a chance to match.

Just taking a quick run through in a draft sim (thedraftnetwork) and I run into this scenario at 37. Safety is a need and Battle at this spot is a consideration but I'm not crazy about that option because I think there will be good safeties available later in the draft. Emerson I like as a CB but if Graham plays well then this need drops a bit and then we're looking more for an inside NB talent versus someone who can play outside. You can find that type of CB later in the draft. I don't like Bell and think he'll drop after the combine because everyone catches him in all of his highlights. He's quick and shifty and I think he'll be a productive slot WR but ideally we need someone on the outside.. That leaves me with Metchie. He's also a slot WR but he can line up outside. He's got the knee injury so we'd be drafting him knowing he won't play until mid-year (this is assuming his medicals check out). He's a 1st Rd talent IMO and he can work the entire field. Even if he's gets in mid-season I think his route running skills will have him ahead of other prospects. Ideally we could trade back a bit but there isn't anyone other than Metchie I'd want. Unless we trade back much deeper into the 2nd Rd. In this scenario I'd take that trade late into the 2nd because it should net us a 3rd Rd pick. I haven't done much scouting on all these players, mostly WR and CB so far. Wondering if anyone else has strong thoughts on taking one of these players at 37? https://thedraftnetwork.com/articles/thomas-graham-stats-chicago-bears-vs-vikings-mnf 37.Trent McDuffie CB Washington 38. Malik Willis QB. Liberty 40. Jordan Battle. S Alabama 41. Martin Emerson CB. Mississippi State 42. David Bell WR. Purdue 43. Kenneth Walker III. RB. Michigan State 44. John Metchie III. WR. Alabama 45. Jermaine Johnson EDGE. Florida State 46. Zion Johnson. IOL. Boston College 47. Christian Harris. LB. Alabama 48. Isaiah Spiller. RB. Texas A&M 49. Logan Hall EDGE

Come off the practice squad and play well in your first NFL game under the bright spotlights of MNF alongside a makeshift secondary that has never played together and you're going to get some attention. It's too early to say he's our starter opposite Johnson next year but he might earn it in the last few games. What will be most interesting is that he'll get to see the Vikings twice which is really lucky for him. For people like me who were wondering why we didn't see him sooner, he explains that himself: He wasn't playing well enough consistently. To his credit and the Bears he stuck around and worked on his craft. I look forward to watching him the next few games. https://thedraftnetwork.com/articles/thomas-graham-stats-chicago-bears-vs-vikings-mnf If he looks like a legit starter opposite Johnson then it greatly helps our offseason. Still need to bring in competition at CB but might not be as big a spend in FA or draft stock.

The criticism of Olsen was that he couldn't block and thus would never develop into a full-time TE. Pass catching was never an issue. I'd rather not talk about Mike Martz.

That is a true statement about Hampton and the comparison to Hicks is accurate. I'd like to bring him back too but it has to be at backup money because his body can't hold up to starter snaps anymore. A DT like that who can give you 20 snaps a game with 3 big negative plays, those are plays that can end drives.