adam

I always thought it was hard to evaluate skill position players from smaller schools who are just bigger or faster than their competition. Watson is one of them. 6'5" from a small school where you can just dominate the competition with size. Shaheen did the same thing as a TE.

Yeah, the late signings of Reiff and Schofield helped, but also the emergence of Jones and move of Jenkins.

Lazard is their #1 and he had 40 receptions for 513 yards last year. Without Adams, Rodgers per game passing yards is 160 yards and a 1/3 of his TDs went to Adams. Sammy Watkins is now their #2 but he has only had 1x 1000 yd season in his entire career (2015) and has had one season with 50 or more receptions in his last his last 6. He is more like a WR#3. Cobb is their #3 and hasn't been relevant since 2015. It is pretty comical how far this unit has fallen.

With the shortened week, this is more about seeing what a few guys can do. Gordon and Velus Jones in their first action, Jenkins at RG and Borom at RT, Robinson and Ebner. Can Sanborn and Coley have another standout performance? With only 6-10 plays for the starters, which will probably equate to 4-7 passes for Fields. Seems like a small sample size but it will be nice to see if the updated O-Line with Jenkins at RG will hold up a little better for Fields.

Shocking that the WR Corps would drop off when you lose the one player who was receiving 40% of the targets.

Damn, he might not even make it to Week 1:

Seattle did just lose Bobby Wagner. They still have Jordyn Brooks, but adding Roquan would be a huge upgrade over Cody Barton. Seattle is also one of the teams with the most cap space this year ($15M) AND next year ($40M) but outside of Metcalf and Lockett, they really don't have many appealing players. Their #3 WR is Freddy Swain and Marquise Goodwin is there. Artie Burns is one of their starting CBs. So do the Bears just take draft picks? Smith for Barton + picks? I don't want to lose Smith just for one or two good years of Lockett as he is already 30 and signed to an expensive deal thru 2025, but he would be better than nothing. Smith for Lockett + 3rd Round pick?

or the perceived demotion at OT. Either way, it would be a pleasant surprise to have him plugging the gap as the RG. A line of Jones-Whitehair-Patrick-Jenkins-Reiff/Borom should be very solid and seems like it would only get better with time. The loser of Reiff/Borom becomes the Swing Tackle, and Schoefield becomes the swing OG per se. Mustipher can be the backup C, and 2nd OG.

Right now I am thinking it will look something like this: QB - Fields, Siemian (upgrade from last year) RB - Montgomery, Herbert, Ebner, Blasingame, Evans (upgrade from last year) WR - Mooney, Pringle, Jones, Sharpe, St. Brown, Newsome/Pettis/Webster/Coulter, (Harry - IR) (downgrade from last year) TE - Kmet, Griffin, O'Shaughnessy (push) OL - Reiff, Whitehair, Patrick, Schofield, Jenkins, Borom, Jones, Mustipher, Carter/Eiselen/Coleman (upgrade from last year) So the only position group to get worse is the WRs. Now if Pringle and Jones look solid, that may change very quickly. Without ARob there is a drop off at the top, but I think the floor for the WRs is higher. The other groups are either equal to or better than last year, so the offense as a whole should be improved from last year. DL - Blackson, Jones, Tonga, Edwards, Coley/Pennel (downgrade from last year) Edge - Quinn, Gipson, Muhammad, Robinson/Snowden (downgrade from last year) LB - Smith, Morrow, Adams, Sanborn, Thomas, Johnson (upgrade from last year) CB - Johnson, Gordon, Young, Vildor, Jackson/Shelley, (Graham - IR) (upgrade from last year) S - Jackson, Brisker, DHC, Cruikshank, Hicks (upgrade from last year) You can't lose Hicks and Mack and not have downgrades in those position groups. However, the LB Corps, CBs, and S's look better. So the defense should be very similar to last year's, if not slightly better. K - Santos (push) P - Gill (upgrade from last year) LS - Scales (push) On ST, we have a better punter, and the return game should at least be a push. My assumption is if they go with Blasingame, they reduce the TE position by 1. Roquan's situation will also impact the 53-man. If he is out, they would obviously carry a different LB in lieu of him. It looks like there are about 3 spots on offense undecided, WR6, RB/FB5/TE4, and OL9. On defense, every position group's last spot seems to be up for grabs, DL5, Edge4, LB6, CB5, S5 That is 8 spots on the 53-man, which may include new players from other teams as they cut down the roster sizes. If you take those undecided spots away, the team's 45-man roster would look like this: QB - Fields, Siemian RB - Montgomery, Herbert, Ebner, Blasingame, Evans WR - Mooney, Pringle, Jones, Sharpe, St. Brown, Newsome/Pettis, (Harry - IR) TE - Kmet, Griffin, O'Shaughnessy OL - Reiff, Whitehair, Patrick, Schofield, Jenkins, Borom, Jones, Mustipher, Carter/Kramer DL - Blackson, Jones, Tonga, Edwards, Coley/Pennel Edge - Quinn, Gipson, Muhammad, Robinson/Snowden LB - Smith, Morrow, Adams, Sanborn, Thomas, Johnson CB - Johnson, Gordon, Young, Vildor, Jackson/Shelley, (Graham - IR) S - Jackson, Brisker, DHC, Cruikshank, Hicks K - Santos P - Gill LS - Scales From the remaining names, the worst players on the roster are Mustipher and probably Vildor. What do you think? Both of those guys were starting last year and now are on the bottom of the 45-man. On Special Teams, you need 9 players from Offense and Defense to fill out the 11. If you assume 7 of those names are not named yet, you only need 3-4 names from the 45 guys to fill out the special teams like Sanborn, Thomas, Cruikshank, and DHC. Then whoever ends up as RB5, WR6, DL5, Edge4, LB6, CB5, and S5 fill out your special teams.

Robinson got bumped up to the 2nd team in yesterday's practice and has been getting reps across from Quinn. If they go with 4x Edge, it would be Quinn, Gipson, Muhammad, and Robinson. So there is a chance he is in the rotation.

This has to be a prank page that someone made and then used the name to make calls to teams. There is no way this is real. At this point, if I am the Bears, I am pulling the deal or significantly reducing it.

He looked pretty good here:

Yeah I agree, don't forget Robinson who they had practicing across from Quinn today and the new punter Gill who almost had every punt inside the 20. Crazy rookie class if a few of these guys stick as starters. I feel like Brisker, Gordon, Jones, and Gill will be Week 1 starters with Ebner, Hicks, Robinson, and Sanborn being key contributors. That would be an impressive class. For non-rookies, Sharpe and Trevon Cole really stood out with splash plays.

Jenkins getting work at RG. I think that is a great fit. A line of Jones-Whitehair-Patrick-Jenkins-Borom/Reiff with Schofield and Mustipher as your other primary backups would be pretty solid. It will be nice to see the full offense with Monty, Kmet, Griffin, Pringle and Jones, all who didn't play against the Chiefs, who look to be 5 of Fields top 8 targets.

“The NFLPA has informed us that a person by the name of Saint Omni, who is not an NFLPA certified agent, is contacting Clubs and indicating he is representing Roquan Smith, who is under contract to the Chicago Bears. Mr. Omni is prohibited from negotiating Player Contracts or discussing potential trades on behalf of any NFL player or prospective player or assisting in or advising with respect to such negotiations.” Saint Omni? This sounds like a prank.

Here are Smith's numbers projected to Urlacher's # of games: Urlacher: 1046 tackles, 138 TFL, 41.5 Sacks, FF 11, INT 22 Smith: 1038 tackles, 129 TFL, 42 Sacks, FF 3, INT 15 Smith's biggest flaw is he doesn't cause turnovers. He only has 1 FF in his career. For a guy with that tackles, he should have 3-4 by now with a few more INTs as well. However, for tackles, TFLs and Sacks, he is right there with Urlacher (who is the Bears leading tackler in franchise history).

Pretty cool review on Fields. O'Sullivan reviews all the QBs. When I watched Lance's, I didn't get the same opinion as him. Lance had one nice play on a busted coverage by the DB with no overhead cover. Almost any QB could make that throw. Outside of that, Lance's footwork is horrible, he does this little half-step thing like he is skateboarding with his non-dominant foot (if that makes sense).

I really hope he works out and is a stud. We need some of that on the O-Line. Another game on Thursday, so we will see how he does.

Roquan is #84 (one ahead of Mac Jones). Why is Mac Jones in the top 100?

Assuming it is around the top 10 for each position group, that is pretty good. I doubt we see anyone else on offense, maybe Mooney, but I doubt it. Definitely not Fields or Kmet, and no one from the O-Line. On defense, Roquan will be there, Quinn should be there. I don't think they will put Johnson on there, but he deserves to be. No Special Teamers will be on there since Justin Tucker (best Kicker) already went off the board. So maybe Mooney or Quinn, and definitely Roquan (which will be interesting to see where he falls compared to Leonard - salary comp).

Whenever you are ready, either on the discussion board on the Yahoo League site or here. Either way I will consolidate and setup for the draft.

Wow, I am shocked he cracked the top 100. That is impressive because I felt he was being slept on by the national media. Very cool for him.

I still think he is in the processing mode and trying to dissect what he is seeing. He is still a little late to react or a little slow. On the rollout, sometimes I see QBs do that to give them more cushion to the sidelines. If they go full speed they get there too fast and don't leave themselves any options. He definitely needs to improve, but he needs help from the O-Line and receivers not dropping passes.

Schofield had 1 or 2 bad plays. Probably rusty. He also let up a sack against one of the best DL in the league. He definitely needs to get better, but I think he will with more time in the offense.

Once Fangio left, Nagy got exposed. Besides his terrible play design and play calling, he was a terrible game day HC. Flus even won a challenge. The coaching staff is a big upgrade. Hopefully, we can get some of these injuries cleaned up, Roquan's situation resolved, and the O-Line solidified before Week 1.