jason

I don't think HOF status relates to that series necessarily. If someone has an interesting story, then that's all that matters. Edelman is 5-foot-nothing, looks like the least intimidating guy to ever lace up cleats, played QB at a community college before playing QB at Kent State, and proceeded to absolutely take wet, corn shits on NFL DBs for 6-7 years of a 10+ year career as a receiver.

As always, for the past 30 years or so, this franchise ignores the OL. They think a bunch of Sam Mustiphers are good enough as long as a few talent positions are good. Wrong. Wrong as it has been for decades. And this year there is the added bonus of no DL either. Trade down from the #1/#2. Trade down again. The one player are #5 or #10 isn’t enough. Stockpile picks. A bunch of 2nd and 3rd rounders would be great after a late 1st rounder. Draft OL, DL, and WR over and over again.

I was at the game. Takeaways: 1. Fields is exciting. It feels like when Hester used to get the ball. The stadium gets energized. 2. Fields missed seeing multiple open receivers. Either he is still struggling with reading defenses, or they were further down the line of progressions. 3. Holy crap is this DL bad. Most GB games I’m convinced they get away with a ton of holds, but they really didn’t need to today. Still saw a few that should have been holds, but primarily the DL had no prayer. 4 Montgomery is still one of the most underrated RBs in the league. He’s making chicken salad out of chickensh*t. OL still a need. 5. The Bears have the #2 pick, and now more than ever I think they need to trade down. This game was near perfect: basically won the whole game, should have, then lost. The Bears need so many positions, and trading back to hopefully pick up another 2nd and more could be huge since the team needs are essentially everything except QB and 2-3 other spots. **Love Sanborn. He was involved in everything.

Several times during the Lovie years, we saw pointless wins that allowed the team to misleading hope, while simultaneously submarining any chance of stockpiling draft capital that helps build franchises. The team has hovered around .500 year after year since 2000. Since 2000, believe it or not, the team has an average of 7.9 wins per season. Of the 22 seasons, 12 have been +/- 2 wins of .500. That's treading water; it's not building a franchise. For 30+ years I have heard about how the meaningless wins help in some way, whether it be cohesion, camaraderie, or confidence. But for the Bears, that doesn't appear to hold true. That's why I think this year is so perfect. The team is deceptively better than their record and stats show. They are hanging in games, showing true offensive spark, and all the while losing. Theoretically, this should bear fruit and build the franchise, which is a refreshing angle the Bears really haven't shown for 20+ years. It's also probably creating a desire in players, because they realize they are closer than others believe. Side note: There have been a few anomalies during the last 22 years. 2002: A 4-12 season gave the Bears the 4th pick, and they traded back to pick Michael Haynes? and Rex Grossman?. Ignore that many others called for a WR or OL for Shoop's horrible offense. Hey, at least the Bears got Tillman? and Briggs. 2005: The team was starting to turn into a monster because of a collection of defensive talent. Looking back, we didn't realize what we had. Urlacher, Briggs, Tillman, Brown, Harris, Hillenmeyer, Vasher, Ogunleye. Wow!? 2006: That collection of players all fit together to build a historic defense, and a wild card pick in Devin Hester turned into the best returner ever?. Truly magical season, but misleading because absolutely everything went right that season, and collapsed afterwards (i.e. 7-9, 9-7, 7-9). 2010: The Julius Peppers boost?. His signing was thought to be the difference maker, and there was new life on defense. Then that NFC Championship game against GB took our soul. 2018: Nearly a 2006 repeat in terms of magic. We all knew it was a fluke because of Nagy's flaws, but it was an incredible ride. The Khalil Mack trade! Roquan Smith was a great pick. Eddie Goldman played 16 games for the only time of his career. Prince Amukamara played arguably the best season of his career. Kyle Fuller and Eddie Jackson had 7 INTs & 6 INTs, respectively, and the only All Pro seasons of their career. Again, unsustainable fortune like 2006.

I'm a huge fan. There is a little HS team in AL called Fyffe that's been crushing teams for years by running the Double Wing. The offense comes from Tim Murphy, who is a legend in many ways. It may not 100% translate to the NFL because of player speed, but I think there are too many prima donna, soft tackling players in the NFL more concerned with trying to punch the ball or strip it versus plugging a hole 75 times a game just in case the back that slams into that hole every play has the ball. https://www.al.com/sports/2018/12/forget-the-fun-n-gun-fyffe-wins-with-fun-to-run-offense.html

So essentially the Bears traded Roquan for Claypool, and got a 5th round kicker. I feel like overall that’s a loss because I feel like Claypool is good (not great) and Roquan is elite.

That's one of the several reasons why it makes so much sense to trade back. Especially this year.

There is no way this should happen. The franchise pick deserves much better defending him. https://www.totalprosports.com/nfl/bears-sam-mustipher-confused-justin-fields-mnf/?fbclid=IwAR2NxLlxiVwbdiDrX8fwaeg47E1T7G6ZJ5LS7SlB0zjl4qT02rTIg65wfdQ

And the crazy part is how half this board was all "trust the process" and "give him a few years" when several of us were saying "WTF is this clown doing" during the entire mess.

I didn't watch the game, but what I'm curious about is Fields running. That's a lot of rushes. Concerning for a QB. More concerning, however, is FOUR FUMBLES? Lost fumbles or not, dropping the rock four times is outrageous.

Who said top 10? As always, I want the Bears to trade down and stockpile. It would thrill me to see the Bears end up near the end of the 1st with extra 2nds and 3rds.

I can't endorse this or cosign this enough. This should be the Bears manifesto moving forward. Further, the front office should ask Fields if he and Jaxon Smith-Njigba have any sort of rapport; and, if so, he should be drafted to make our young QB more comfortable.

Agree on the Amari Cooper thing. Just think, Fields could be throwing to Cooper and Picks this year, which would be a drastically different set of weapons than what he has now.

I think this is a faulty comparison. Ignoring the Kyler Gordon part of it... For all we know, someone like Pickens on the Bears would be the absolutely clear-cut #1, and get nearly every target regardless of situation. It's not like Mooney or Kmet are tearing it up. Many of us expected this because we didn't believe in the plan to draft Kmet while the sour taste of Shaheen, Burton, Graham lingered, and we also didn't think the Bears made a good decision to take a 5th round dude from freaking Tulane and anoint him as WR#1 despite barely cracking 1K yards and only having 4 TDs in a 2021 season that he was force-fed 140 targets. Think about it another way: Maybe the offense would be passing more, and there would be more trust in Fields, if the targets weren't Mooney and Kmet?

Never been a fan of this logic unless you can grab a proven franchise QB with obvious years to go. Kinda like Manning post-Indy. It’s better to go after a team full of B+ guys and have no gaps than a few A+ guys (i.e. Mack) supported by C+ guys. I believe this is essentially the Bear Bryant theory to team-building. The team full of B+ guys make teammates look like A and A+ guys when they don’t have to worry about a bum-ass teammate like Jamarcus Webb always taking a wet dump on the play.

I think the individual surprise will be Edwards. He'll come out of nowhere and put up good stats. I also think the team surprise will be how poorly the defense plays, and that the offense will be forced to carry the team for a change.

This something numerous people brought up, and it goes back to before Fields even. But the retort is always something like, “Yeah, they’re NFL coaches and you’re not,” even though any fool can see and understand why play action would benefit a young, mobile QB. But these genius coaches think they’re smarter than the history of football, and that their system is the best.

I think 6.5 is about right, and wouldn't be shocked to hit the under.

That's an amazing website with a great layout! Have you found a player that the Bears have drafted in the past few years that has measured up well or shown some very favorable comparisons?

Summary post: Monty would be much better behind an OL that blocks consistently and with an accompanying passing game that scares anyone. I don’t love the draft, but I understand it. MasterT is trash. He will probably get cut before the season. I hope the Bears have one more down year to take advantage of having a full draft at a good spot. The WRs are WEAK, and a flyer should have been taken on Justyn Ross before someone else grabbed him. That type of talent was worth a 7th round throwaway pick. He should have never gotten to UDFA territory.

Then again, the Patriots are a franchise that has found winner after winner. Maybe they’re smarter than the Rams here?

I think what I would like to see is a Bears team that moves into the current century in the offensive side of the ball, and tries to build an offense that exploits the NFL’s offensive-leaning predilections. Instead, the Bears respond to what other teams are doing. It’s reactionary rather than causing others to fear the Bears. And that’s frustrating considering last year’s selection of a talented QB who is currently the face of the franchise, but is not being supplied the necessary ingredients to excel.

May as well at this point.

??? Different GM. Different Coach. Same Bears. How in the world they didn’t use at least one of the second round picks on OL or WR is baffling, especially with the ridiculous WR depth this year. And now there has been a crazy run on WRs and the Bears will end up picking a much lesser guy. So much for protecting the face of the franchise and giving him weapons.

Those WR assumptions are only true if Poles accepts those guys as starters. Lord knows the Bears have wasted FA moves and money on guys who had no chance of being the main man on the team. We saw it with the Mike Glennon getting a 3yr deal just before the Trubisky draft fiasco. Or maybe you remember Adam Shaheen getting laughably over-drafted and then battling for the 3rd TE spot with the likes of Brown and Braunecker behind Sims and Miller. Then he got injured, came back, and the Bears signed Trey Burton anyway. If Poles were to draft two WRs like the ones we've been discussing, then St. Brown and Pringle could potentially sit the bench, and Newsome/Coulter fight for a roster spot or get cut. I'm fine with that idea. Hoping dudes like EqStBrown and Pringle suddenly emerge is a riskier proposition than rolling the dice on one or two of the young studs.