adam

I totally forgot Goodwin and Byrd, who both are WR2 or WR3s on some teams. Byrd was a WR2 with a terrible QB last year in NE. Goodwin led SF in 2017 in receptions and yards (had 447 yds more than their next best receiver - Kittle).

Great points, I agree. Also, if you look at our top end players, if Kmet takes a step forward, we really have an elite offense: ARob, Monty, Kmet is a very solid set of #1s, then you have Mooney, Williams, Graham as the #2s. That is 6 solid players, and not even counting Cohen or Miller. Last year the Bears had 5 players with over 40 receptions (ARob, Monty, Mooney, Miller, and Graham). So we have 8 players that have the potential for 40+ catches.

Hopefully that translates to the field. Better blocking, less drops, more broken tackles, etc.

After watching some Monty highlights and offseason work, I really like where our RB room is at. Monty is a true RB1 and then you have Damien Williams as a very solid RB2, Tarik Cohen back, and some fresh speed with Khalil Herbert. I was looking around the league, and it was hard for me to find a comparable group. Most die off after 2-3 RBs. Here are the 5 best groups (not individuals): LV has Jacobs, Drake, Riddick CLE has Chubb, Hunt, ? BAL has Dobbins, Edwards, Hill NO has Kamara, Murray, Montgomery LAR has Akers, Henderson, ? None of the players listed had more yards than Monty last year. Thoughts?

A somewhat interesting nugget came out about Moses. It sounds like he was asked to play LT and wanted to stay at RT, so he signed with the Jets. Several interesting takes. LT's make a lot more than RT's, so I wonder if it was for the same amount, so he didn't want to switch without a raise? Was he depth at LT and wanted to start? My assumption is Jenkins at LT and Ifedi at RT with Borom backing him up. So LT makes sense if you were bringing him in as insurance and depth. I don't how much the Bears could gauge on the progress of Jenkins without pads and basically 3 weeks of walk-throughs.

He was pretty good in 14, 15, and 17 where he had over 100 tackles, would be a very solid depth piece if healthy.

I heard on a podcast that Goldman has lost some weight and is in great shape (apparently). Also, Trevathan commented on him:

We are pretty thin at TE, so this is interesting.

ARob is a year younger, so I would go with him. He is also already familiar with the system, etc, which is a fairly big deal. ARob has also done more with less considering who has been throwing to him over his entire career compared to Adams and Rodgers.

Next year is going to be interesting for WRs. Only Mooney, Ridley, and Newsome have contracts past this year. The Bears have a ton of free agents after this season and only $37M in cap space, so it is going to be interesting. Offense: ARob - extend Miller Goodwin - extend Byrd - extend Wims Graham Holtz (RFA) - extend Daniels - extend Mustipher (ERFA) - extend Williams Bars (RFA) - extend Hicks Nichols - extend Vaughters (RFA) - extend Iyiegbuniwe - extend Jones - extend Woods (RFA) - extend Gipson - extend Trufant Bush - extend Houston-Carson - extend Burns Roberson O'Donnell - extend Scales - extend That is 17 extensions, which is hard to see that happening. So we have to clear more space: Potential Cap Casualties: 1. Quinn - $3.1M Dead Cap, $12.9M savings - Cut 2. Trevathan - $2.4M Dead Cap, $3.5M savings - Cut 3. Dalton - $2.5M Dead Cap, $2.5M savings - Cut 4. Cohen - $1.75M Dead Cap, $4M savings - depends on how he looks post ACL. If he is worse, then you have to consider cutting him at that salary. 5. Goldman - $2.95M Dead Cap, $8.8M savings - huge cap hit and he is another guy to watch this season. He may end up as a cut if he doesn't perform well. Those 5 would clear over $31M, but then make 2-3 starter holes depending on who you view as a starter.

Yeah, typo, it is the 11th slot. The fact that we got him outside of the top 10 is huge. Also consider Trubisky got $29M for 4 years and Fields will only get $19M. Trubisky's signing bonus was more than Fields entire contract, think about that.

Offset language is what ties up rookie deals, so it is nice that the Bears didn't try to get cute with Fields. They are only paying him his slot (#11), which is a steal. What the Vikings will pay Cousins this year for 11 games is equal to 4 years of Fields. Crazy.

Fields signs rookie deal, no offset language, which is nice.

For Long, it is tough to come back when you get out of shape. He hasn't played in a few years and retired with injuries, so he probably won't play very much this year. Monty added 1.5 mph to his top speed, which would shave a few decimals but not 1.5 secs from his 40 time.

A lot of nuggets coming out of the presser today: "The first time Justin Fields threw a deep ball to Darnell Mooney, Mooney says he was smiling midway through his route." "He threw a pass today against the Cover 2...it was beautiful" - Damien Williams on Justin Fields #Bears C Sam Mustipher said he has put on 10 pounds. He has been working out with Olin Kreutz this offseason.

If that is the biggest criticism of Desai, I will take it. I am not worried about that side of the ball. Gain Goldman, lose Fuller, Jackson in more space, no Skrine, defense will be better.

So Brett Favre was drafted by ATL, then traded to GB before his run there, then trade to the Jets. So since he was not drafted by the Packers, I didn't count a player like him. People do not give ATL enough flak for trading Favre. The following year he threw for more yards than Chris Miller and Wade Wilson combined, who were QB1 and QB2 for ATL.

It was almost like someone else was drafting. He hit two huge need areas with trade ups (Fields and Jenkins), then got value and filled other holes the rest of the draft. I would not mind a draft like this every year. Get your guys at the top, then get value the rest of the draft.

It's gonna be a tough game for sure, but it won't be a blowout. I like how we match up against the Rams. We have better RBs, Rams have a slight edge at WR depth and TE is pretty even. QB will come down to whether we start Fields or Dalton. On defense, with Goldman back, the DLine is close to even, we have better Edge with Mack, Rams have better CBs, but the Bears have better ILBs and Safeties. Both of these teams are playoff teams, so this will be a good test to see where each other are at.

Quinn absolutely underperformed and the only reason he got any pressure or even close to the QB because they were running away from Mack. Quinn did worse than Floyd and couldn't get off a block to save his life. He looked old and slow to me.

I would love to sign Moses, he is a top 10 RT and was graded as the 15th best OT in the league last year. This would be a huge get for Pace and would be a huge upgrade at RT. With Jenkins at LT and Daniels, Whitehair, Mustipher up the middle and Ifedi as the Swing Tackle, we would have a very solid line and Borom can continue to develop and won't have to be rushed into action. I hate PFF but:

The Bears are still sort of in a win-now mode (with the aging defense), and in a weird way, I think Fields gives them the best chance to win with his ability to get out of the pocket. Dalton is not very mobile and took 24 sacks and ended up 19th in sacks in only 9 starts with the vaunted Dallas O-Line. Trubisky was sacked 18 times in 9 starts with the Bears O-Line. Fields has much better pocket awareness than Trubisky and way better mobility than Dalton. That makes me believe Fields will be in sooner than later. The latest for me was Week 2 at home against the Bengals, but I have a feeling he will be named the Week 1 starter after the 2nd preseason game.

The Rams have a new QB (Stafford) who will be in an entirely new system for the first time in his career. The Rams also have a new Defensive Coordinator, so it seems like the only place they can go as a defense is down. I expect a close game, and I would not doubt if Fields starts (if he is ready). From all reports, Fields is a quick learner and motivated to be the best. We are not going to be stuck on 102 like Trubisky for 4 years. No one really knows how Stafford will play that early in the season on a new team. Trades like his are super rare, I don't think there has been a QB of his caliber traded this late in his career from his original team since Joe Montana. Here are the 5 most recent QBs I could find that went to a new team after 6+ years with their original team, and how they fared in their first game in the new uniform: Tannehill (6 yrs) - Game 6 - 2019 - @ DEN, 13-16, 144 yds, 0 TD, 1 INT, 78.1 Rating (did not start) Palmer (7 yrs) - Game 7 - 2011 - vs KC, 8-21, 116 yds, 0 TD, 3 INT, 17.3 Rating (did not start) Culpepper (7 yrs) - Game 1 - 2006 @ PIT, 18-37, 262 yds, 0 TD, 2 INT, 49.6 Rating Bledsoe (9 yrs) - Game 1 - 2002 vs Jets, 26-39, 271 yds, 1 TD, 2 INT, 73.8 Rating Moon (10 yrs) - Game 1 - 1994 @GB, 20-37, 166 yds, 0 TD, 3 INT, 32.0 Rating I have no clue if this correlates to anything, but it is pretty notable that they combined for 1 TD and 11 INT in less than 5 full games appearing for the first time with their new teams. Will Stafford be that bad? Probably not, but in September, Week 1, he was outplayed by Trubisky, ended up with 1 TD, 1 INT, and a 77.2 QB Rating with a loss. In his career against the Bears, he was 11-9 with 32 TD and 23 INT and an 86.3 Passer Rating. In 12 seasons, he only faced a Bears team that ended the season with a winning record 3 times and was throwing to Megatron for 7 of those seasons. He is going from Golladay, Jones, Hockenson, Amendola, Swift, and Peterson to Kupp, Woods, Higbee, Jackson, Akers and Henderson. So there is not some massive skill position bump, LAR has a slight edge in WR depth and RB but Hockenson is definitely better than Higbee.

Chris Simms liked Mond more than Lance and Fields coming out, but this is absurd. Here is his bottom 5 of his top 40: 36. Marcus Mariota, Las Vegas 37. Kellen Mond, Minnesota 38. Trey Lance, San Francisco 39. Justin Fields, Chicago 40. Case Keenum, Cleveland He said, "It’s about what you can do for me this year." So tell me how Mond, who is behind Cousins is going to be anywhere near as valuable to the Vikings this year as Fields is for the Bears? I know he is just sticking to his original rankings, but man, he is going down with the ship here. Fields, at worst is a top 25 QB this year. There are some bad starting QBs out there, and there is no way Fields can come out and be worse than every starter and 6 backups. https://nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com/2021/05/24/rookies-justin-fields-trey-lance-kellen-mond-lead-off-chris-simms-top-40-nfl-quarterback-rankings-now-on-chris-simms-unbuttoned-and-pro-football-talk-live/

If I had to lump games into wins, 50/50, and losses today: Wins: 7 - 2 - CIN, 4 - DET, 5 - at LVR, 8 - SF, 13 - ARZ, 15 - MIN (MNF), 17 - NYG 50/50: 6 - 3 - at CLE, 6 - GB, 12 - at DET (THU - Thanksgiving), 11 - BAL, 16 - at SEA, 18 - at MIN Losses: 4 - 1 - at LAR (SNF), 7 - at TB, 9 - at PIT (MNF), 14 - at GB (SNF) To me, the win range is 7-13, so 10 seems about right with the team splitting the 50/50 games. The only reason I have the Thanksgiving game as a 50/50 is it's on a short week after a game against Baltimore. BAL is a 50/50 because the Bears will be coming off a bye. So those can swing both ways pretty easily. LAR is hard on the road, week one. TB, PIT, and GB on the road will be tough. Seattle and Cleveland are beatable teams, but a little harder on the road. I have at MIN in Week 18 as 50/50 because it will depend on playoff status at that point. My prediction 10-7, last wild card team (Seed #7).