adam

The All-22 posts 24 hours after game end, so I will look at it tonight. However, from the TV view it was pretty evident he was terrible and avoiding contact. Looking back at his numbers, it is clear to me that Jackson is not the same player since the injury. It has nothing to do with the contract. He is avoiding contact so he doesn't get hurt again. It is either physical or mental, but he is not even a quarter of the player he was in 2017 and 2018. The mistake by Pace was not seeing the steep decline in his play in 2019 and signing him to an extension only after 3 years of play. He was already a different player. In 30 games prior to injury he had 8 INTs and 21 PD. Since that point, in 37 games, he has 2 INTs and 10 PD. In 7 more games, 25% of the INTs and half as many PDs. And those last 2 INTs were the last play of the games against Sean Mannion (MIN) a hail mary, and a deep pass by David Blough (DET) on Thanksgiving into double coverage. It's not like those two plays were impactful. So his last meaningful INT was the one he got injured on against GB in 2018, which is crazy. So it is coming up on 3 years since he has a seriously impactful play that changed the game.

Lol, I was winning with only the opponent's defense left. The only way I could lose is with a turnover by KC in the last 2 minutes of the game and that is exactly what happened and that was after a Pick-6. So in a matter of 20 mins I went from being up comfortably to losing to a defense that got a Pick-6, INT, and 2 fumbles in that timeframe. All I needed was one of those things not to happen and I win.

Pace's biggest issue was cap management, but the cap situation looks much better with how Quinn is playing. The worst contract right now is ARob as the highest-paid player on the team with a $17.9M Cap hit. Then you have Goldman at $7.8M who hasn't done much. Foles is getting $6.6M as QB3, Graham is $5.3M for 1 reception, and Eddie Jackson is getting $5M to be the worst player on the entire roster. For 2022, Jackson's jumps to $15M which is scary. Goldman's jumps to $11.8M (if he doesn't improve, he is an easy cut), and Foles jumps to $10.6M. They need to move any, if not all 3 for anything they can get. Cap relief enough would work. I would not even oppose trading Jackson with a draft pick just to take him off our hands. There are teams with enough cap space who could use a better draft pick.

This is a winnable game for the Bears. The Packers lucked into a win against the Bengals two weeks removed from doing the same thing against SF. This will be Fields' 3rd game with Lazor as the play callers. At this point we should start seeing improvement from him and the offense overall. Hopefully Hicks is back for this one. Davante Adams now has 42 receptions on the year for 579 yards. He accounts for almost 50% of their passing offense, which is bonkers. If you can limit Adams, like the Saints did, you win easily because it looks like Rodgers throws to Adams regardless of the situation. Out of 163 attempts, Rodgers has targeted Adams 66 times. If possible, I would line up Johnson on him the entire game. The Packers defense is in the bottom 3rd of the league, better than the Lions and worse than the Raiders. So the Bears should score in the mid-20s. It is going to come down to the Bears defense. If they can keep them under 21, the Bears win. If they allow more than 24 they probably lose. The Bears have back-to-back double digit wins while the Packers have won 3 straight by a total of 15 pts with 2 GW FGs. Packers will be on the 2nd of back to back road games after playing an extra 10 minutes with OT on Sunday. The Packers won't have Za'Darius Smith (12.5 sacks in 2020) or Jaire Alexander (13 PD in 2020), two of their top 2 defenders. That would be close to not having Mack and Johnson for the Bears. Bears have 18 sacks, Packers have 10. INTs are 5-4 Packers. Rodgers averages 2 sacks a game, Bears average just over 3. Rodgers had 5 INTs all last year, already has 3 in 5 games. So 3 sacks and an INT would be perfect for the Bears defense in this game. Weather for the game looks perfect, around 60 and sunny with a little wind. If it comes down to it, I like Santos over Crosby in the kicking game. An early prediction, I am going Bears 27-23 in a close one.

The Chargers only scored 28 on the Raiders. I would've liked to have seen another TD instead of FG, but they got 4 scoring drives, just like the Chargers did against the same defense. The Bears did it on the road where the Raiders defense should've had the edge. They also did that without Monty who has been a huge percentage of the offense. On the short yardage plays, I thought they were bad play calls, but the overall grade was fair. Grant had a 21-yard and a 17-yard punt return while Webster had 4 for a total of 13 yards. How much better could he have been on those? O'Donnell averaged 50 per punt with 5 of 5 inside the 20. Renfrow was only able to return 1 for 9 yards. Drake had 3 kick returns and averaged 17.5. All in all, Grant had 107 return yards and the Raiders had 44. I don't think you can ask for a better game from your special teams unit. I agree on the offensive coaching, but this is really just Game 2 for them with Lazor calling the plays. How about defensive coaching? Does Desai get any credit for the defensive resurgence? I feel like he is scheming pressure. Also, even though the Raiders had a TD drive, that was one of the toughest to get I have seen in a while. It took them 16 plays to go 74 yards and only come away with 6 pts. They burnt the clock on themselves. Same thing with their FG, 13 plays and 69 yards for 3 pts. That is some super-efficient defense right there. It is definitely another B game. The good part is they still have room to improve in a lot of areas, but are still winning. That is a great sign.

I loved that play, especially on a player like Abraham, who is a heavy hitter.

The worst part of the Glennon deal was Glennon. The idea was ok, but there were other vets available to be a bridge QB, Glennon was not one of them. For the Dalton deal, with Pick 21, there was no way the Bears thought they were getting a 1st Round QB with all of them expected to go in the top 10-12 picks. So Dalton was essentially replacing Trubisky and then Fields fell into their laps. If the draft happens first, I think there are several moves done differently, and Dalton is never signed. Right now, Fields needs the game experience. Outside of Lance, all the other rookie QBs got an entire offseason and QB1 reps. That was the mistake. Fields should've been splitting the reps with Dalton. That is why ARob is struggling and Graham has 1 reception on the year. There is no chemistry and timing built with those guys yet. To me, this is where we should start seeing Fields improve. 3 full games under his belt with game prep and QB1 reps. GBs defense is better than Detroit's but worse than Las Vegas. Right now Quinn looks much better for the contract. The biggest mistake in the last few years is signing Jackson for that amount and length.

Losing FFB in garbage time from a fumble is a terrible way to lose.

Probably a little low, but the defender had no chance. Also, Horsted was facing the sideline, so he couldn't really throw back shoulder the way Horsted was engaged with the defender.

They did that without Hicks, which is huge. We have yet to see Hicks and Goldman with Danny T and Gipson at the same time. I disagree on Jackson, rewatch the game. He is the worst player on the field on every play. It is like a random fan in uniform told to run around in a designated area and look busy. He has 0 passes defended in 5 games, 1 TFL, 0 INTs and takes a penalty at the LOS when he is not going to make a play anyway. He can't tackle, avoids contact, and has yet to touch an opponent's pass with any body part. He has one impact play all year in 326 snaps. That is unheard of. Gipson has 165 snaps

Defense Post: It is hard to give any bad grades to a unit that only allowed 9 pts and one TD. DL - C+. This unit is clearly missing Hicks, you don't hear many of their names called during the game, but you don't hold Jacobs to 3.2 a carry without the DLine clogging holes. The biggest name was Edwards getting two penalties, one that negated a huge TFL. Hopefully Hicks is back next week for GB. Edge - A, Mack gets his revenge game, a sack, a ton of pressures and another sack on the 2-pt conversion (that doesn't count in the stats book). Gipson had another sack where he manhandled a TE. I didn't realize how big he is. Quinn had a quiet game, but was playing against the Raiders best O-Lineman, so I will give him a pass. The constant pressure had Carr jittery all game. ILB - A+, Roquan Smith is a beast. Danny T with his first game back. This unit was really solid. They didn't allow and big runs, helped in coverage to contain Waller and Renfrow and you could tell no one wanted to go over the middle the way Smith was crushing people. With Trevathan back, Ogletree now becomes an A+ sub instead of a B- starter. CB - B+, Outside of one or two plays, this unit had arguably their best game. Tackles were made and you didn't hear their names called for bad plays. That to me is a win for this unit. Shelley and Vildor played very solid. S - C+, If I am grading Gipson, Houston-Carson, and Bush, this unit got an A. Jackson got an F. Gipson had a sack, and DHC had a huge INT. Out of all the players on the 53-man roster, Jackson is the most worthless. I have no clue why they keep running him out there. Don't do it because of his damn contract. If he is not playing up to par, bench him. I have never seen an NFL safety avoid contact like him. If you have a chance, watch the entire game and key on him on every play. He just runs around near the action but not quite close enough to impact the play unless it is right at him. He literally can't tackle a tackling dummy, has had one impact play the entire season (5 games), 0 passes defended, and has now gone 21 games without an INT. ST - A, Santos with 2 huge FGs, keeps his streak going, and I was pleasantly surprised by Grant who had a nice punt return in his first game.

What a win! This was a signature Chicago Bears victory. Great defense and an efficient running game. This is also setting up Fields for some opportunities in the passing game down the road. Teams are now going to have to commit an extra defender to the box to stop the run. The difference is we now have a QB that can hit the deep to intermediate throws. Offense Post: QB - I would give QBs a B-. I was expecting a little more out of the passing game, but no turnovers (INTs or fumbles) is great to see. The injury scare was enough to give me a small heart attack, but luckily Fields is ok. Hopefully there aren't any long-term nagging effects from the hyperextension. The Bears actually passed for more 1st Downs than they rushed for, and 3rd Downs were much better. That is an improvement from last week. The Raiders literally had 7 defenders in coverage which made it really hard to pass, so the Bears took what they gave them and gashed them on the ground. I still would have liked to see more than 119 yards passing. RB - This was easily an A, filling in for Monty, Williams and Herbert combined for 139 yards on 34 carries. I was hoping for 20-25, so to get 30+ is awesome. Herbert looks perfectly suited for a zone-blocking scheme. His ability to see the cutback lane is amazing. I don't know what the Bears will do with Monty next season and going forward, but a Monty/Herbert two-headed monster would be a formidable duo. I expect to see a lot more Herbert going forward, even when Monty comes back. TE - This is such a hard group to grade, but I will go with a C. When given the opportunity, they produced. Horsted caught Fields' first career TD pass, Kmet had a nice catch for a first down and Graham may have had the run block of the game. Still, I would like to see a few more passes go their way and maybe a few to Graham in the Red Zone. OL - B, this unit is now exceeding my expectations, only two sacks on Fields, one his fault, and this unit mauled for almost 150 yards on the ground. Would like to see a little better pass pro, but the difference between this game and the Cleveland game is night and day. Daniels took the soul of a poor Raiders defender, I like the line's nasty. They are starting to play with an attitude that is needed in the trenches. I think Peters is rubbing off on them. We haven't seen this type of stuff since Kyle Long's prime:

I love what Roquan is doing. He has really rounded into an All-Pro LB. He is the only LB in the NFL with 50+ tackles, 2+ sacks, 1+ INT, and 1+ PD. Plus he has a TD. He is on pace for 170 tackles and 7 sacks in a 17 game season.

Rookie QB Watch: Zach Wilson is now 1-4 and leads the NFL with 9 INTs. Mac Jones got his 2nd win against another rookie QB, beating Davis Mills, who actually outplayed Jones. Trey Lance got his first start and lost. He had more rushes than passes, 0 TD, 1 INT Trevor Lawrence is 0-5 and is 2nd in the NFL with 8 INTs. The other 4 QBs are a combined 3-13 with 2 of those wins against other rookie QBs. Fields is now 2-1 as a starter. His stats haven't quite been there, but in both games the Bears were just protecting the lead.

Watching the SNF game, it seems like this may be true now. Outside of Mahomes, Kelce, and Hill, and to an extent Edwards-Helaire, KC has very few other quality players. This is with Mahomes on the 5th year of his rookie contract. Next year Mahomes contract goes up $28M to $36M, Chris Jones will be $29M, Frank Clark $26M, Hill will be $21M, and Joe Thuney $18M. That is $130M for 5 players! Also, there is not much wiggle room in any of those contracts (a ton of dead cap already). This is their last year in this window.

Don't underestimate how bad Nagy can screw things up.

Huge road win for the Bears, first game without Monty and both Williams (16-64 yds) and especially Herbert (18-75 yds) played really well. I like the cutbacks, Herbert has amazing vision. The Fields injury was scary, hopefully it's nothing he will have to deal with next week. They went very conservative after the injury. Horsted with a great TD catch and Graham may have had the block of the game, or push, helping Herbert get 3 more yards against a DLineman. The defensive effort was impressive. This was a borderline dominant performance, on the road without Hicks. The Raiders had the #1 Passing Offense coming in and were limited to 206 passing yards and the Bears also had 3 sacks. Mack was only credited with 1 sack, but I swear he had 3 lol. Gipson had another and it was nice to see Danny T back in there. DHC with a huge INT and it felt like Roquan was killing people out there. He is an absolute beast and you could tell receivers were worried about going over the middle. Waller was only 4-45 on 8 targets and one of those was the blown coverage for 29 yards. So when covered he was 3-16, which is crazy. On the flip side, can they just bench Jackson for the year. He is the worst player on the defense and it is not even close anymore. I would rather have anyone else out there but him. He just takes up a spot on the field, he contributes nothing. Almost all the blown coverages him, missed tackles, yep, offsides penalties in a critical situation, check. That dude needs to go. Do something with him, just don't play him anymore. Cairo Santos continues his longest active streak the same day as a record number of kickers miss kicks. Mason Crosby missed 4 (3 straight). Grant looked good on the returns and averaged 19 yards on punts and 23 on kickoffs. If not for a crazy bounce on one he would've had more. I was happy with his performance. Bears 3-2 going back home to face GB who barely beat Cincinnati. They are beatable, but we will need a better game from Fields and have Johnson shut down Adams who seems like the only threat yet they don't cover him.

After watching some of the other rookie QBs, I am so glad we have Justin Fields. Zach Wilson (leads NFL in INTs) playing against a terrible Atlanta team today is 5-13 for 42 yards and an INT at the half. CPat, who has 1 incompletion for the Falcons has a higher passer rating than Wilson. This is Game 5 for Wilson with the entire preseason as QB1. The Jets traded Darnold for this. Mac Jones and Trevor Lawrence (2nd in INTs) are game managers. Trey Lance looks more like Taysom Hill with almost an even split of carries and completions. It will curious to see how he looks as the starter this week. It would be crazy but the last two QBs drafted may end up being the best of the crop.

It would be a good game to use the TEs and he has the ability. Hopefully he gets a shot.

They nailed 3 drafts in a row (2010-Okung, Thomas, Tate, Chancellor; 2011-Carpenter, Wright, Sherman, Maxwell, Smith; 2012-Irvin, Wagner, Wilson, Sweezy). That is 13 starter-caliber players in 3 years. That's how you get really good, really fast. However, of those 13, how many are left with the team.....2, Wilson and Wagner. In the last 9 years, they have drafted only 8 of those types of players (Lewis, Metcalf, Carson, Ifedi, Reed, Clark, Lockett, and Britt). Only Lewis, Metcalf, Carson, and Lockett are still with the team. So they have 5 original draftees as major contributors from their last 12 drafts. From what I have seen over the years, you need at least 2 main contributors a year from the draft to remain at least competitive. Those teams stay around 7-9 to 9-7. The teams that have a franchise QB, add 2-3 wins. So you can look at teams like KC and see that even with Mahomes, they are in decline. Every year they lose someone like Fisher or Peters, who were stud draftees and replace them with very average players. Since drafting Mahomes, they only have two players that would fit that criteria, Hardman and Edwards-Helaire and even now, Hardman is borderline at best.

Hicks, James, Holtz out for Sunday. Nall up and based on the need for an extra blocker, should see some snaps. Danny T also activated from IR, and Gipson (S) should play.

I doubt they pull the trigger, but Dalton is a little more mobile than Foles. That was my thinking. Maybe one more bad game and loss by Smith will change their minds. Not many teams have the QB room like the Bears. Denver and New Orleans are also options. Bridgewater is hurt and they are avoiding Winston who is only averaging 153 yards a game passing. I would be shocked if all 3 were on the roster the entire year.

I don't expect much from Smith. Wilson literally would win 3-4 games singlehandedly. With one of the worst defenses in the league, and in the NFC West, I don't expect them to win more than 1-2 in their next 6. That would put them at best at 4-7 with 6 to play. That's if Wilson can come back in 6 weeks which would be miraculous. Seattle is really interesting. They won the SB, then lost it the following year (2014) but have not really done anything of note since then. Hard to believe Carroll not running BeastMode for the win was 7.5 yrs ago.

It looks like Russell Wilson will be out 6-8 weeks (my fantasy season is over), that would be a perfect location for someone like Dalton.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/10/08/damon-arnette-trayvon-mullen-wont-play-sunday/ The Raiders have 2 of their top 3 CBs out. They are starting Nate Hobbs across from Hayward with one of Amik Robertson or Keisean Nixon in the slot. What a huge break for the Bears. Zero excuses to lose this game.