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Which roster would you take, Bears or Pats? The Pats went 10-7 last year. Here is how our roster stacks up: CHI vs NE Offense QB - Fields vs Jones - I like Jones, but he was the guy that was the most NFL-ready but with the lowest ceiling. I think we will see that take shape over the next two years. I will take Fields here, just based on upside. Pats were 8-1 when they held opponents to 17 or less. They were 2-7 otherwise. So Jones didn't have to do much for 10 wins. Fields by a few. RB - Montgomery/Herbert vs Harris/Stevenson - This is a fairly even group, especially with the Bears having Blasingame and probably Ebner. Monty is probably the best of the bunch, followed by Harris and Stevenson. However, as a group the Bears are deeper. Wash. WR - Mooney/Pringle/Jones/St. Brown vs Parker/Meyers/Bourne/Agholor - Pats win easily here, though Mooney would be WR1 or WR2 on this team. Pringle probably WR3/4. The jury is still out on Jones and St. Brown. Parker only had 515 receiving yards last year. Pats by a big margin. TE - Kmet vs Henry - I like both, Henry is very consistent, 3 straight with over 600 yards, 4 yrs ago had 579, and never had less than 4 TDs with a high of 9 last year. Kmet had more receptions and yards his 2nd year than Henry did in his. Also, Kmet's 60 receptions last year ties Henry's career high. So I will call this a wash, but I would put Kmet's name first. Wash. OL - Reiff, Whitehair, Patrick, Schofield, Borom/Jones vs Wynn, Strange, Andrews, Onwenu, Brown - For as bad as some make our line out to be, I would take it over the Patriots. Bears by a little. So for offense as a whole, with the large gap at WR the Pats have a lead that dries up with the QB and OLine. Offenses are basically too close to call. Defense DL - Muhammad, Jones, Tonga, Quinn vs Wise, Godchaux, Guy - A slightly different defensive front, but I will go with the Bears here with Quinn, Muhammad, and Jones over their guys. Bears by a few. LB - Smith, Morrow, Adams vs Judon, Bentley, Wilson, Uche - Smith is better than all of them and it is not even close. Judon would be second, but way back from Smith and closer to Morrow. Bears by a few. DB - Johnson, Gordon, Brisker, Jackson vs Mitchell, Mills, Dugger, McCourty - Bears have a stronger group overall, McCourty is 34. Mitchell and Mills combined for 1 INT last year. Bears by a little. Even if you called one of DL, LBs, or DBs a wash, most people would take the Bears defense. ST - Santos, Gill vs Folk, Bailey - A wash here, I would take Santos and Bailey. Also note that McDaniels is gone, so it is now Matt Patricia as OC? He was a terrible HC and I didn't know he was an offensive guy. Thoughts? Little nugget about Jones.

You are correct, they updated their stories. It went from this tweet, then others said severe as well and could be season ending: Now they are all back tracking. High ankle sprain is 6-8 weeks like you said, so he could miss the first 4 weeks of the season. At that point, would he be that much better than Sharpe that you would want to bring him off IR and bump someone like Sharpe off the roster? I just don't think he is that high up on the depth chart to matter.

Here is a vid of Jenkins on one drill, seems to be moving good for a big man:

Someone to watch that I liked early in free agency is Tajae Sharpe. If Harry is out, I can see Sharpe making the roster as WR4/5 (Mooney, Pringle, Jones, St. Brown, Sharpe).

It looks like Harry's injury is serious, probably out for the year (or most of it). I wonder if Poles will bring someone else in like Emmanuel Sanders, Adam Humphries, Will Fuller, Kenny Stills, or Cole Beasley?

Jenkins at RT and RG, then RT with 1st team. I am glad to see him getting reps.

Absolutely true. If Fields doesn't improve, nothing else matters. For the run game, Blackson and Tonga were pretty good last year, and they added Justin Jones who was good for the Chargers last year. Then we have speed at LB to make up for some mistakes up front. Roquan and Morrow are the fastest duo in the league.

Gotta love how people get paid to write this crap: They have several guys on rookie deals, signed Reiff for $3M with incentives, Schofield for $1M, and Patrick for under $2M. If anything, Poles should be praised for doing that much with the limited cap space he had. Then he drafted 5 OL and 2 may even make the 53-man roster and Jones may even start. Then for WR, again Mooney, Newsome, Jones Harry on rookie deals, Pringle, St. Brown, Pettis on smaller deals. So if the signed Kirk to $20M a year over Pringle, would that make the team better? Maybe, but enough to warrant an additional $18M on one player? For TEs, again Kmet, TE1, on a rookie deal. Griffin and O'Shaunessy are solid backups. This is the silliest argument for success. Then in the article he says these nuggets on why the Bears won't win 6.5 games: He listed Goldman as "a significant player" on the front-7. The dude was a ghost in 2021 and didn't play in 2022. LMAO. He said "the Bears have one of the weakest secondaries in the league" but didn't mention the upgrades with Brisker, Gordon, and Young. He said Poles "did not prioritize upgrading one of the league’s worst offensive lines" but didn't mention they signed Patrick, Reiff, and Schofield, and drafted 5 OL. So you sign 3 starters and draft 5 with the hopes that one or two stick, and that may actually occur. With the team carrying 8 or 9 OL, you could potentially have 5 new OL out of 9. Whitehair, Jenkins, Borom, and Mustipher would be the only carryovers.

Yeah I agree. I think his ceiling is QB Coach and he was promoted 2 levels above his mental capacity. You could tell he was overwhelmed. They won in 2018 due to Fangio. Once he left, Nagy's Bears did nothing. Nagy mishandled Mitch and Justin, and he was a former QB, that is unfathomable. Another aspect of the team that is overlooked is the coaches. We have an upgrade at pretty much every coaching position on the team. That may not increase the team's ceiling, but it will increase the floor.

Seems like camp bodies with Roquan out.

I guess we will have to see how this plays out. Hopefully he returns and balls out and this will be in the rear view. We really need him to excel because we can't keep missing on all these top picks, especially ones we traded up to get.

Betting the over at 6.5 wins seems like a pretty safe bet. I think there is a greater chance that the Bears win 7 or more than there is that they lose 11 or more.

Here are the other 7 games: HOU, NYG, WAS, DET, DET, ATL, NYJ (all teams with 7 or less wins last year) None of those teams are better than the Bears. Davis Mills, Daniel Jones, Carson Wentz, Jared Goff, Marcus Mariota, and Zach Wilson are the QBs. I think the Bears can split with Minnesota and the Eagles (9-8, with Jalen Hurts) and Dolphins (9-8, with Tua) are winnable games. I am not sold on the QBs yet. So the Bears can go 5-2 against the really bad teams, split vs the ok teams 2-2, and lose all the rest vs the good teams and still go 7-10.

It would be really nice to get him back into the mix. When healthy, I think he can be a top notch tackle. It also really helps with O-Line depth. If we have Reiff, Jones, Borom, and Jenkins who all can play Tackle at an average starter level, we wouldn't see a big drop off if someone had to rotate in. Kramer vs Mustipher will be the interesting battle to backup Patrick.

"this deal" "dealing with a thing" I was thinking it was conditioning or weight.

There have been so many red flags with Nagy, once the glow of 2018 wore off, it was clear he was not the guy. Even with his press conferences, it was always jibber jabber, like an actor playing a coach. I always felt it was off. Then in the different offseasons, there was the kicking competition, that seemed to take priority over other things. Not doing any scramble drills? Not running scout team until the week prior? No wonder the offense was always underperforming. I feel like coaching and scheme alone are going to make this team improve a game or two. Nagy was that bad.

I don't know if an injury is better news or worse news for the whole situation. You never want to see a guy injured but at the same time, would the other stuff be worse at this point?

The difference is if he was never coached to do things or was and couldn't/didn't. It now seems like he has all the tools and making of an NFL starting LT, which is impressive. If he played at a bigger school, he would've went several rounds earlier.

I put my comments in yours:

Leno got paid, got married, then had a baby. He got other priorities. You could tell the difference, just like Goldman and Jackson. Pre-big contract and post-big contract. Two completely different players. Jackson's occurred after the knee injury against GB. He has never fully recovered.

I currently have it set for 7pm on Thursday September 1st. That is one week before Week 1 Kickoff game on TNF. That would give everyone the weekend and a few weekdays to adjust their rosters.

As bad as that draft was then, it is even worse now. Trubisky then Shaheen. They could've had Mahomes and Kupp lol. Interesting that SF schooled Pace, the drafted Solomon Thomas instead of Mahomes, Watson, McCaffrey, and Jamal Adams. I agree on Mitch. Nagy was half the problem, but Mitch was the other half. It was easy to see. He has been a year removed from playing full time, and now in a new system. I would not be surprised if he is not the Week 1 starter.

I would like for him to succeed, but he seems to be struggling. From the Athletic: Seven Shots Drill, is 7 plays from the 2 yard line. Trubisky is now 3 for 20 as the Steelers starting QB. One of the conversions was a Najee Harris run. Now this: Pelissero: Steelers now splitting first-team reps between Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph

Wow at 15? He is a beast.

Leno was at best average, but once he got paid, he did get a little lazy. The cut really woke him up as he has played better in Washington. He always seemed like a nice guy but man he gave up on a lot of plays. I posted some videos of him blocking air when there was an LB right in front of him on a run play, and that LB makes the tackle. I think Jones has the potential to be much better than Leno. From the actual practices and press conferences, he is already way ahead of the pace of a 5th round pick out of a smaller school. Here are some of weaknesses from NFL Draft profile, with my comments: Weaknesses Inaccurate hand placement in run game. - Seems like a technique issue that is fixable. Below-average acceleration to second-level landmarks. - Monty has been getting hit at the first level for several years, so I am not worried about the 2nd level yet. Can't generate lower-body anger as drive blocker. - Seems like a technique issue that is fixable. Rarely ever low man at the point of attack. - Seems like a technique issue that is fixable. Inconsistent bringing feet through completion of the block. - Seems like a technique issue that is fixable. Lethargic hands with spotty punch timing. - Seems like a technique issue that is fixable. Platform instability leads to imbalance in punch contact. - Weight room and trainer as well as technique can fix this. Needs to eliminate his outside-in pass-setting approach. - Seems like a technique issue that is fixable. Beaten inside throughout the game by Arizona State rushers. - It was one game lol. If that is all his weaknesses, sign me up, he can have half of those cleaned up by Week 1.