adam

The O-Lines do make a huge difference. What is weird about Shanny's perception vs reality is he has yet to have 1,000 yard rusher in SF as the HC (in 4 years) and is 28-33 as a HC with what looks like to be his 3rd losing season out of 4. Every team has injuries, but SF and Shanny seem to get some of the biggest benefit of doubt with them than any other team in the league.

I agree that you play to win until officially eliminated because you can't predict the order of the wins and losses as they come in. PIT and TEN got their Week 4 game postponed, then DEN, DET, GB, and NE had byes in Week 5. TEN started 5-0, and is 4-4 since without a break. Obviously, PIT won 11 straight and has now dropped 2 straight and don't look particularly good for the best record in the NFL. GB has now played in 9 straight weeks, and that will eventually catch up to you.

Trubisky posted the Bears' highest QBR for the season at 67.8, and yet it's only the 24th highest for an NFC North QB this season. Rodgers has 11 games better, and Stafford and Cousins both have 6. That is how far the QB position has come back down to earth after 2018. Trubisky only had one start better than 67.8 in 2019, the Week 14 win against Dallas (83.3). In 2018, Trubisky had the top 2 NFC North QB performances, 4 out of the top 5, AND 6 out of the top 10 with 6 games with an 83.0 or higher. He had 9 starts with a QBR of 68.0 or higher in 2018, and 2 since.

I don't know how much better he would be. Would he be better, yes, not by much. Is he more mobile than a traditional pocket passer, yes, but it's not like he is elusive or truly a mobile QB. Speaking of that vaunted SF offense, their starting QBs have 4 of the lowest QBR's for a game this season.

If the Bears win out and ARZ loses one, they would have the same record, conference record, but the Bears would have the tiebreaker with common games. ARZ wins against NYG, losses to LAR, DET, CAR, and one remaining against LAR, max 2-3 in common games, or at worst 1-4. CHI wins against NYG, DET, CAR, losses against DET, LAR, 3-2 in common games. If MIN loses to CHI and CHI wins their remaining games, MIN can finish no better than 8-8. The Bears have to beat the Vikings this week in Minnesota, or none of it will matter. The team that loses is basically eliminated based on tie-breakers and would need ARZ to lose their remaining 3 AND the winner of Bears-Vikings to lose their last 2 to get in. Here is the remaining schedules: ARZ - PHI, SF, @LAR MIN - CHI, @NO, @DET CHI - @MIN, @JAX, GB

After seeing what Philly did to NO, an ARZ win is not a lock for next week. SF always plays them tough and the Rams are still in it from a bye perspective.

Trubisky would have to be willing to take a lot less (under $10M to fit him under the cap).

Who is taking on $36M for Brees? If they cut him that is over $22M in dead money. They are 100M over the cap, so even if they cut him, that saves just over $13M. They would have to do that with another 6-8 starters, then have another 4-5 to restructure just to make it under the cap with a roster of about 40 players.

I am torn on this. On one side I like the fact that he made the changes, but on the other side, it seems like either complete stubbornness or stupidity that he waited so long to make such an obvious change (on the playcalling). For the first time, in what feels like a year, they were actually playing to Trubisky's strengths, cutting the field in half, and making some easy throws.

Monty is excellent if he is not hit in the backfield. He just has a few habits he needs to break. One is when he catches a swing pass, he immediately does a little stop step like he thinks he is going to take a hit, even when he is open, so he loses all his momentum.

I thought the Bears had cap issues, but the Saints are close to $100M OVER the cap. The Eagles are $70M over, the Falcons $38M, Steelers $32M, Packers $27M, Rams $25M, Chiefs $24M, Raiders $15M, Texans $14M, and Vikings $11M. I honestly have no clue what the Saints are going to do. They can't cut enough guys. They are going to have to trade a ton of guys like Thomas and group him with a bad contract, and then give them away for basically nothing.

He also lost his receiver on the dropped TD pass. The TE was wide open but he was looking right into the sun. So the sun was better at coverage than Jackson was. I don't know what it is but he hasn't been the same since 2018. With his huge deal, I wouldn't mind moving on from him this offseason.

The Bears scored in the 3rd quarter. 33-7, and the Texans coming out in their first drive chewing up the clock with a bunch of runs.

There it is.

That's partly on Watson, who seems like he is holding onto the ball forever.

Yeah so you are basically swapping Fuller+Hicks for ARob. That doesn't seem like a good trade-off for a comparable cap hit. ARob is going to get paid, I just don't think it's with the Bears.

I know, on both sides of the ball. The blindly obvious things they should've been doing all year.

Wow, Bears send Smith on a blitz and him and Mack converge on Watson in the end zone for a safety, a play after Nichols gets a huge sack when Watson holds onto the ball too long. Probably the best back to back plays for the defense in 2 months.

Bears can't do anything after a Mack fumble recovery, then the teams swap TD drives. Bears 14-7. On Texans TD drive, Jackson loses his man and it's an easy TD pass for Watson.

Wow, Monty with an 80-yd TD run, O-Line with great blocking. The defense did enough to force a punt on the first Texans' drive, and actually brought pressure on 3rd Down that ultimately led to the incompletion. However, the pass hit Jackson right in the hands. Another missed INT. It didn't matter this time though.

I think you move on from Leno, Massie, Skrine, and Graham, then have Fuller and Hicks both restructure to save a couple of mil without pushing too much into future years.

I hate to see anyone injured, and hope he recovers, but this is an early Christmas present.

Yep, him too. There are a lot of GM candidates out there, almost hard to whiff on a good one this offseason (unless you are the Bears).

I wouldn't say Floyd is everything we wanted him to be, but he is light years ahead of Quinn who got lazy once he got paid. The scheme really makes a difference, but so does having arguably the best interior lineman and perennial DPOY on that line. There is a huge difference between having to worry about interior pressure vs edge pressure. With Mack on the other edge, you can always chip with the TE and RB as well as shift protection to that side. However, on an interior guy like Donald, you basically lose the RB chip and any TE help. It is interesting to look at what Quinn did with Donald, from 2014-2017 he basically averaged 10 sacks per 16 games with Donald (9.7 to be exact) and Floyd is on pace for 9.2. Floyd has consistently been an underachiever even before Mack on the Bears. I think the change of scenery has pushed him so he can get a nice hefty contract. I bet he does and I bet his performance dips once he gets paid.

So there seems to be 5 very solid QB prospects this year. Trask reminds me of Big Ben, 6'5" and 240 is a tank back there. Mac Jones has really impressed with a crazy completion % with the average over 12. Trask has a ridiculous QB-INT ratio, 38-3 is mind boggling good. All these guys are at least 6'3", all have better comp%, AVG, and TD-INT than both Mahomes and Watson, which is impressive. The assumption is Lawrence goes #1, but looking at the raw numbers, he has the worst comp% of the group, lowest average, and is in the middle of the pack for TD-INT. His biggest factor is his size at 6'6" and experience. I will need to watch some tape on these guys but I would not be disappointed if we got any of them. I feel like at worst you are looking at a decent NFL starter. Trevor Lawrence - 69.2% Comp, 20-3 TD-INT, 9.7 AVG, 2431 yards - 38 G, 6'6" Justin Fields - 78.1% Comp, 15-3 TD-INT, 10.3 AVG, 1407 yards - 31 G, 6'3" Mac Jones - 75.7% Comp, 27-3 TD-INT, 12.2 AVG, 3113 yards - 26 G, 6'3" Kyle Trask - 71.4% Comp, 38-3 TD-INT, 10.1 AVG, 3243 yards - 24 G, 6'5" Zach Wilson - 73.0% Comp, 27-3 TD-INT, 11.1 AVG, 2964 yards - 28 G, 6'3" Patrick Mahomes - 65.7%, 41-10 TD-INT, 8.5 AVG, 5052 yards - 32 G, 6'3" Deshaun Watson - 67.4%, 41-17 TD-INT, 7.9 AVG, 4593 yards - 38 G , 6'3"