adam

Has anyone noticed the doom and gloom about the Bears offensive line for losing Leno and Massie, yet the Packers won't have 2x All-Pros on their O-Line to start the season (David Bakhtiari - PUP, Corey Linsley - left as FA) but you don't hear much about that?

53-man compared to same time last year: QB + Fields/Dalton - Trubisky RB + Williams/Herbert - Cohen/Nall/Patterson WR + Goodwin/Byrd/Perriman/Webster - Miller/Ginn/Ridley/Wims TE + James/Horsted - Harris/Saubert OL + Peters/Mustipher/Borom/Wilkinson/Simmons - Leno/Massie/Spriggs/Coward/Hambright DL + Goldman/Blackson/Tonga - Robertson-Harris/Jenkins/Urban OLB + Attaochu - Mingo/Vaughters ILB + Ogletree/Jones/Johnson - Trevathan CB + Burns/Christian/Crawford - Fuller/Skrine S - McManis Perriman can't be signed until they waive someone else, my assumption is Johnson, Crawford, or Simmons. To me there are clear upgrades at QB, RB, WR, TE, and DL. Slight upgrades at OLB and depth at ILB. OL is a wash but the backend is better as Coward was literally the worst OL in the league last year. It looks like CB is still the biggest issue. Johnson will have to replace Fuller as a true CB1 and someone else will have to replace Johnson as CB2. That is a big ask. Slot gets better just by losing Skrine. ST coverage units are a concern, but Webster will help in the return game. No matter what, pretty much anyone was going to be a downgrade from Patterson at KR. Outside of CB, I don't see how this team is worse than last year. Even OL, the team is returning 4 starters from last year and really the only change is Peters for Leno.

ARob, Mooney, and Monty will all be good values in fantasy. Whenever Fields starts, he will have a lot of upside ala Jackson and Allen.

Minus 3 - Trevathan and Jenkins to IR. Rodney Adams waived and hopefully added to PS. Plus 3 - Bears sign Breshad Perriman, WR, re-signed Marqui Christian, and add Artie Burns to active roster.

Good call Mongo. It looks like the O-Line got pushed back several yards. On an RPO, they need to at least stand their ground. That made the 4th and 2 into a 4th and 4.

7 ILB is interesting but Jones can play both inside and Edge. So it is more like 5.5 / 6.5. The biggest surprise for me Xavier Crawford making the roster over Roberson, Trufant, and Christian. Quarterbacks (3): Andy Dalton, Justin Fields, Nick Foles. Running backs (3): Khalil Herbert, David Montgomery, Damien Williams. Receivers (5): Rodney Adams, Damiere Byrd, Marquise Goodwin, Darnell Mooney, Allen Robinson II. Tight ends (5): Jimmy Graham, J.P. Holtz, Jesper Horsted, Jesse James, Cole Kmet. Offensive linemen (10): Alex Bars, Larry Borom, James Daniels, Germain Ifedi, Teven Jenkins, Sam Mustipher, Jason Peters, Lachavious Simmons, Cody Whitehair, Elijah Wilkinson. Defensive linemen (5): Angelo Blackson, Eddie Goldman, Akiem Hicks, Bilal Nichols, Khyiris Tonga. Inside linebackers (7): Joel Iyiegbuniwe, Caleb Johnson, Christian Jones, Alec Ogletree, Roquan Smith, Danny Trevathan, Josh Woods. Outside linebackers (4): Jeremiah Attaochu, Trevis Gipson, Khalil Mack, Robert Quinn. Cornerbacks (4): Xavier Crawford, Jaylon Johnson, Duke Shelley, Kindle Vildor. Safeties (4): Deon Bush, DeAndre Houston-Carson, Tashaun Gipson Sr., Eddie Jackson. Specialists (3): Pat O'Donnell, Cairo Santos, Patrick Scales.

With Adams, that is only 5 WRs, so I assume they will add another unless they go with 5 TEs by keeping Holtz and Horsted. If they can trade Foles, that will free up a spot too. Once Jenkins goes on IR, that is another spot.

Wow, this one is shocking.

Looks like Horsted and Adams may make the roster.

List of cuts: Ridley (4th round pick, another WR whiff for Pace, add that to White, Wims, Miller, etc) Nall (Herbert and Williams pushed him out, thought he might stick due to ST duties) Vaughters (Ogletree bumped him off) Snowden (thought there was a chance, hopefully he sticks with PS) Wheatley (OL) Graham (shocker, I thought he would be the last CB, must be going 5x Safeties with Christian playing hybrid big Nickel) Eiselen (C/G) Johnson (WR) Kamara (OLB) Johnson (K) Redmond (OL) Archibong (DL) Harrington (TE) Lacy (WR) Hambright (OL) Artavis Pierce (RB) Ruffin (DB) Coulter (WR)

I don't mind him as the HC, but we really need someone else calling the plays. He thinks he is smarter than he really is. Play design is important too and from what we have seen, his plays are very predictable. How many times did we see Patterson up the gut on 3rd and short? Wims in the game, run play, etc, etc.

I like him too, I hope he sticks, has a ton of potential and flashes a ton of playmaking ability.

Yep, how many times did ARob catch and get down? It felt like almost every other reception he would have to immediately drop down or be decapitated. Byrd had Newton throwing to him, so his stats are just as impressive considering Newton couldn't physically throw more than 10 yards down the field.

in comparison, another NFL team has these guys as their top 4 WRs: Tyrell Williams, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Quintez Cephus and Kalif Raymond

Horsted looked great, going to be a tough cut. He has clearly beat out Holtz and Holtz was primarily a blocking TE. I would rather have James anyway. I like our TE room, Kmet/Graham/James/Horsted is an extremely solid group. Foles is O-Line dependent, given time, he is one of the best QBs in the league, without it, one of the worst. I have really liked both Adams and Tonga as well. How about James and Ogletree making the 53-man roster, not playing in the final preseason game, and were late FA adds. Those are some solid depth moves that don't get a lot of notice. In some cases I almost prefer Ogletree over Trevathan. Peters will be fine, he just needs some more conditioning. He has a few weeks to get there. Ifedi is also coming back from injury, so I didn't expect much from him either. I expect they will add someone once Jenkins is put on IR. He has to be on the 53-man roster first. Otherwise, Simmons will take that spot.

Mooney put up 61-631 as a rookie with no preseason, which is pretty amazing. I figure he will be closer to 75-800 this year. If Byrd does close to what he did last year with NE, 47-604, that will be very solid numbers from a WR3/4. Goodwin really stretches the field, his career Y/R is 16.6, which is sort of what you want out of your other WR3/4. Remember those two are replacing Miller/Wims. If they combine for 60 receptions, they will exceed the production of Miller/Wims/Ridley combined. 60 receptions from those two doesn't seem like too much to ask. In regards to Byrd, they have Harry and Meyers and signed Agholor and Bourne. Bourne is a better run blocker than Byrd, so that makes sense.

Horsted with 3 TDs, two highlight reel style. Fields had the throw of the game threading the needle on the run to Horsted in the end zone. Roberson with pick 6. Will be interesting to see who makes the final roster.

Fields gets the start with the starting O-Line. We will see how they hold up and will get to see how Peters looks at full speed. Mostly backend roster and bubble players tonight. I would like to see better tackling and better special teams play overall. Go Bears!

Every year is a new season. Right now, name a better top 4 from top to bottom with ARob, Mooney, Byrd, and Goodwin. Byrd was WR1 in NE, and Goodwin was a solid WR2 in SF 2 years ago. Ultimately you are replacing Miller and Wims with Byrd and Goodwin, that is a huge upgrade IMO.

Preseason is such a weird period. I want to see improvement and success but nowadays it seems like it is more for conditioning the vets and evaluating the roster competitions. They also don't want to give any tape that can be used against them, so you are not going to see much besides basic routes and vanilla coverages. There is zero correlation between preseason and regular season success. I believe the 0-16 Lions went 4-0 in the preseason. So it is probably best to take both the highs and lows with a grain of salt.

Good question. I don't think not playing him was due to a trade. They have a week to get this resolved.

So no ARob, no Mooney, no Kmet, Goodwin, or Monty. That is likely your top 5 skill position players. So it does make sense that the offense was bad. By the time Fields came out, he was playing with the 3rd-4th string skill position players. I am now more concerned about the defense. They allowed 31 pts in the first half, and then the defense pitched a shutout in the second half. The depth played better than the starters. Our Special Teams coverage units are a mess. If McManis is still available, I would be reaching out immediately. My concerns going into our last preseason game: 1. Defense Overall 2. Tackles 3. Coverage Units 4. Secondary 5. Quinn/Goldman

First Half Summary: Defense sucks. If they don't get better, we may not win a single game. Soft coverage and missed tackles. There was zero resistance against a Mitch Trubisky led offense. Scary. Dalton is terrible. I get that ARob and Monty are out, but man, the O-Line played OK, but he couldn't do anything once there was pressure. I hate that he got an entire half to look like shit. He had one big pass and that was all Adams catching the ball off the DBs helmet.

WELP, our defense sucks balls, WTH. They couldn't stop anything. What an embarrassment. 3 TDs in 19 minutes against Mitch Trubisky?

First drive, with Dalton, another 3 and out. He couldn't get the ball over the DLineman on a check down to Williams. Then stays in the pocket too long on 3rd Down and has to throw it away. It is hard to see Dalton being better than Foles from last year. Defense looks terrible on the first drive. They let Trubisky walk down the field with quick slants and never jumped the routes. That was odd, I don't know why they are not taking that away as that is all Trubisky can hit. Then on the TD run, Quinn and Jackson whiff on tackles. Not a good start by either unit.