adam

I was assuming the Rams were the same team they were the last few years, with Pro Bowlers up and down their defense. However, after looking at their roster, they have really thinned out from what they had a few years ago. Their starting defense outside of Donald and Ramsey is: A'Shawn Robinson, Sebastian Joseph-Day, Justin Hollins, Kenny Young, Troy Reeder, Leonard Floyd, Darious Williams, Jordan Fuller, and Taylor Rapp. Outside of Floyd and Fuller, any other household names? They lost Troy Hill, CB, Michael Brockers, DL, Derek Rivers, Edge, Morgan Fox, DL, John Johnson, S, and Samson Ebukam, Edge, all were key contributors. That's just on defense. Outside of Donald and Ramsey, no other player requires much attention. For the Bears you have to account for Mack, Hicks, Smith, and Jackson. I actually like our defense better. On offense, they lost Austin Blythe, C, Malcolm Brown, RB, Gerald Everett, TE and Josh Reynolds, WR and Cam Akers, RB is out for the year. They added Sony Michel and DeSean Jackson in addition to the Stafford trade. If Dalton is better than Foles, this will be a close game. Turnovers will decide it. If the Bears can get out to an early lead and score some first quarter points, I like our chances. Bears 23-20.

I wouldn't be surprised if they put Ramsey exclusively on ARob and just take him out of the game. That would open things up for Mooney, Byrd, Perriman, and Goodwin as well as the TEs. I have a feeling the TEs will get a ton of catches as Kmet, Graham, James, and Horsted have some mismatch capabilities.

Sunday Night Football Real football is finally here. Last year, the Rams beat the Bears 24-10 in Week 7 in Chicago. The offense had 3 points in that game. Foles had 2 INTs and was sacked 4 times. If Dalton starts, it is hard to see how we passed the Rams in the offseason, as they gained Stafford, and lost Goff and Akers (who didn't play against the Bears). So to me, if Dalton plays the entire game, the Bears lose by double digits. If Fields plays at least a half, we have a shot. Either way, I have this one as a loss. Prove me wrong Bears.

Ary (The Bunny), aka DrunkBomber hasn't been on here in a while, he did post about his keepers on the 23rd and paid, but I don't know if he knows he is still the Commish. I was given co-commish duties last year, but apparently that does not carry over as I have no control over the league in Yahoo. I will email Yahoo to see if I can get co-commish duties thru them so I can set the draft and keepers.

I can see Fields coming in after halftime, especially if the offense is sputtering in the first half. However, if they are down 2+ scores by then, I can also see them sticking with Dalton because that would be a hard deficit to overcome in a half if the defense is not stopping them. The 3 and outs and turnovers will be telling. I don't know how many of those the team can withstand from Dalton.

I proposed the following: 7th at 7PM CT - or 7th at 930PM CT - I am not the commish, I just helped get everything up and running this year, so I don't have control of the league settings.

Hicks was on the last year of his rookie deal after being traded from NO to NE before the trade deadline that year. NE just didn't resign him, because they rarely do, especially someone who didn't play a full season for them. The Bears gave him a 2-yr deal and extended him after one season.

Oh I know, but going from 2x All-Pros to rookies would seem to be a bigger deal than going from Leno to Peters.

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.