adam

Man, 2 anytime TDs is easy money right now. A PJ Walker led team scored 25, and they have allowed 25 or more in 3 out of the last 4 weeks (20 in the 4th week). So the Bears will have an opportunity to put up points.

Here is the thing with Jackson, the Bears have all this cap space WITH his cap hit on the books. They already have over $125M for 2023. That is a ton of money. Jackson is $17M against the cap, Whitehair is $14M, Jones is $7.4M, and then Patrick at $5.3M. So unless you can get a better player than Jackson for $7.5M (cap savings), then you might as well stick with him for at least 2023. In 2024, his dead cap goes down to $5.5M which makes it much more appealing for both side (Bears with less dead money, new team with less to pay).

The highest paid Safety in the league makes $19M (Derwin James). If he is looking for that kind of money, then yeah, definitely trade for assets. However, he signed a heavily backloaded contract, but his AAV is $14.6M, which is 7th in the league. He is signed thru 2024 so there are several windows to move on from him. I am just saying for at least next season, there is easily enough cap room to keep his salary on the team (since it is already accounted for). The decision will more than likely come after next season when he has one year left on his deal. There will be several similar Safeties due new contracts before Jackson is due (Bates, Poyer, Hyde, Ward, Amos, Bell), so they will set the market for his age group.

Bears will have over 200 yards rushing, Fields will have over 100 and at least 4 TDs. I think he will end up in the mid 200s for passing yards with 2-3 passing TDs, over 100 rushing yards and 1-2 TDs there. If Monty is healthy, he should have a big day. Kmet gets another TD, Claypool gets one too.

I figured we would settle in around pick 12 and Baltimore around pick 22. Baltimore is going to make the playoffs, but a first round loss would be really nice for our 2nd round pick. 10-12 spots is not that big of a deal outside of the 1st round. If a stud DL, OL, or WR is not there at our first pick, I would love to trade back with the first rounder. Going back 10 spots is worth a second rounder. Going back 20 is 2x 1st rounders.

I just made a comment that the Bears missed a marketing opportunity by not signing Taco Charlton on Tuesday. Ashkum just replied that we signed Weiner on Wednesday as a joke.

Jackson has become the leader of the defense with the loss of Hicks, Mack, Quinn, and Smith. I think they will extend him for a few years to see this thing out. If we can lock him up and Johnson up with extensions, the Bears will have 4 of their 5 secondary starters locked up for 3-4 more years, then they can add one more via FA or the draft. That is very rare to have that type of continuity in any unit. I am not sold on Vildor being anything but a sub. I am fine with our subs and ST players like DHC and Cruikshank.

LeSean McCoy is an idiot. Just a hot take. He was overrated as a player and he is a clown analyst. He doesn't even know the name of plays. Both of Fields' long TDs were on scrambles, not called runs. He is just being super productive on scrambles compared to other QBs getting a few yards. He is breaking off huge runs. Why is he being penalized for that? Should he only go 10 yards and slide, then dink and dunk down the field to score? The goal is to score a TD and win the game. Fields is doing that. Fields also has been the best athlete on the field. The ball needs to be in his hands on most plays. As teams adjust to this scheme, there are going to be a lot of opportunities over the top.

For age and cost, the team is going to have to be really careful about overloading one position group with a ton of money. So I assume they are going to try to hit on one major FA acquisition in each position group of need, then fill in the rest with rookies and vet minimum guys. To me it seems like there are 7 starting spots that could use upgrades. OL and DL need the most. Then WR and CB, then maybe LB. If they can go OL/DL/WR in their first 3 picks, that would be great. We just need some high end studs. Fields, Herbert Kmet, FA or Rookie WR1, Mooney, Claypool Jenkins, Whitehair, Jones, FA-OC, Rookie-OT Gipson/Robinson, Jones, FA or Rookie DT, FA or Rookie Edge Morrow/Sanborn, FA or Rookie LB FA-CB, Johnson, Gordon Jackson, Brisker Thoughts on these holes? Any others?

He is not that bad. He just doesn't have an elite trait, but he works hard. His biggest problem is his little juke stutter step. Instead of just hitting the hole fast like Herbert, Monty does a little juke step before he gets going and by then the hole is gone.

???

It would've been much better to sign Taco on Tuesday, a missed opportunity by the Bears.

Now this:

Damn Herbert to IR? I didn't know he was hurt. That's 4 games. I guess it is Monty-Ebner time. I didn

CPat is back and healthy, he is still a threat. London is pretty good as well. I am not worried about scoring. I am worried about the defense. Yeah, Mariota is serviceable, but that's it.

I would like to see more quick passing plays, uptempo and getting Claypool more involved in this one.

Fields only saw a slight increase in his DVOA to a -32.5%, but it is still an improvement. He has 7 more games to continue his development.

Looking at some early stats from other QBs, Fields compares most favorably to Michael Vick and Lamar Jackson than any other QBs at this point in his career. Fields doesn't yet have a 300 yard passing game in 20 starts. Vick only had 2 in his first 70 starts, his first coming on his 16th start and the 2nd one in his 45th start. Jackson only had 1x 300 yard passing game in his first 40 starts. So Fields has time to match or surpass both of these guys in passing. For rushing, Vick had 9x 100 yd rushing games in this 70 starts. His first in his 13th start and his second in his 18th start. Jackson had 5x 100 yd rushing games in his first 20 starts with his first start being one. Fields has 3. Fields had his first 100yd rushing game in his 6th start, his second in his 19th, and 3rd in his 20th. So Fields is ahead of Vick, and very close to Jackson's pace (who won MVP in his 2nd season with 1x 300 yd passing game and 5x 100 yd rushing game).

Houston ain't winning lol. However, the Raiders and Jaguars should win a few.

Not necessarily created, just accelerated. The Bears have $45M in dead cap from those moves this year and another $13M for 2023. So the tradeoff is eating the cap hit this year to free up money next year.

The eye test and the stats weren't matching. Now he is breaking NFL records. With 7 losses already, hopefully that quells any type of playoff aspirations from fans this year, and now everyone can just be excited about Fields development.

This is the perfect game for the Spiderman meme. Bears 32nd Passing Attack, Falcons 30th, Bears 1st Rushing Attack, Falcons 4th. On defense, both teams are near the bottom of the league in pts allowed (Bears 24.7 vs Falcons 25.0) and sacks. This is a Fields homecoming game, but also a Cordarrelle Patterson, Ryan Pace, Germain Ifedi, Abdullah Anderson, Nick Kwiatkoski Revenge Game. Falcons are 3-2 at home. The Falcons have lost their last two with their last game being a loss to PJ Walker and the Panthers by 10. They are somehow 4-6, but are not much better than the Bears, but are only 1GB for 1st place in their division. I feel like this will be very similar to the Lions game, low scoring and close in the first half, then the wheels fall off both defenses in the 2nd making for a high scoring game. Bears 34-31. update: Bears 37-24 (Dome game, Fields will be even faster on turf)

Right now the draft order is HOU, LVR, CAR, NO, JAX, CHI. With SEA (from DEN), DET (from LAR), HOU (from CLE), PIT, and DET all with one less loss. It is pretty crazy to think the Bears have as many wins as DEN, LAR, CLE, and PIT right now. Hopefully those teams start winning. I am surprised by how bad LVR, NO, and JAX are this year. HOU, CAR, and NO are taking QBs for sure. LVR is up in the air. So the Bears could possibly get the 3rd best non-QB off the board. After the Bears pick, DEN, LAR, CLE, and PIT are not taking a QB. So that leaves DET, ATL, WAS, and IND as the next team's looking for a QB. So there may be potential to trade back a few spots and recoup another pick without the risk of losing a top player. Next week feels like a win against ATL (so they don't lose 4 in a row). Then losses to NYJ and GB would have them 4-9 into the bye. After the bye its PHI, BUF, DET, and MIN. 3 easy losses and a possible win against DET. That is 5-12 max, potentially 4-13 which would be a top 4 pick.

Fields has just put a mushroom stamp on the 2021 class. No one drafted in the last two years can sniff his colon, he is that far ahead of everyone else and that is after a brutal first 4 games. Even in another loss, he had a QBR of 73.3, his 4th straight game over 64.0 (50.0=league average). Going back to the MIN game, he has had 5 out of 6 games with a QBR over 64.0. So last year he finished the season with a QBR of 31.4, one of the lowest ever and last in the NFL for qualified starters. This year? Now 11th at 57.2, ahead of Burrow, Herbert, Brady, Lawrence, Cousins, Murray, Rodgers, Wilson, etc. His year group and this year's rookie class: 2. Lawrence 52.1 3. Wilson 49.1 4. Pickett 39.4 5. Lance 35.5 6. Ehlinger 34.3 7. Zappe 33.5 8. Jones 32.6 9. Mills 32.5 10. Willis 3.7 (if qualified, would be the lowest QBR ever) The turn around has been nothing short of spectacular. This may be the new norm for the Bears offense, 200+ yards rushing and 200+ yards passing with Fields accounting for 300+ yards every game.

I am not a fan of Williams or this scheme. Besides the lack of pass rush, the coverage is so soft that any QB can just play pitch and catch all day.