adam

So much drama for this game. Will Trubisky start? Why is Trevathan not on IR and taking a 53-man roster spot? Is Ryan Pace an idiot? Will Pineiro miss another FG and blame the hash? How many penalties will Leno have? How many yards off will Kyle Fuller play? How many times will Montgomery be hit in the backfield? How many Cohen runs up the gut are we in store for? How many dropped passes will Bears receivers have? How many helmets will be removed on the field after a special teams tackle? Will Mack register anything on the stat sheet? How many times will Floyd disengage from the blocker? To hurt the Raiders draft position, the Bears will win this 19-16 in an extremely ugly fashion, Club Dub will be back open and everything will be back to normal.

It's really easy to make an average QB look like crap. Mitch is an average QB with some mobility. This year, he never used his mobility which killed off one of his best attributes. Then if you add bad O-Line play, zero production from TEs, no running game, AND WR's dropping passes. This is what you get. My problem with Mitch is when he has all of that working, he misses the throw or misses the read. In Year #3, he should be able to overcome bad play from other players, and he has shown time and time again that he is incapable of doing that. Make a damn play. The same goes for the receivers dropping passes, make a damn play, every ball doesn't need to be perfect, if it hits your hands, you need to catch it. For the O-Line, at least make the defender run around you like a tackling dummy and not through you. Our TE's are so bad, it might be better to go with Montgomery and Cohen in the backfield and 3 WR's. It will be telling on how the season progresses at QB. If Mitch doesn't play against the Giants, he is done as a Bear. If he plays, then the team is sticking with him for 2020.

The draft is really a crapshoot, you have to trust your scouts and assessments, but if you look at just first round picks, you have about a 33% chance to hit on it. Check this out, using AV (Approximate Value), here are the players that would be considered "starters" or better from 2016-2018's first rounds: 2016: Goff, Wentz, Bosa, Elliott, Ramsey, Buckner, Conklin, Stanley, and Decker. 9 out of 32. The Bears had 3 players in the top 23 of the entire draft (Howard, Floyd, and Whitehair). 2017: Ramczyk, McCaffrey, Garrett, Mahomes, Watson, Trubisky, Watt, Adams, and Jarrad Davis? 9 out of 32. If you use AV, Pace killed this draft. Of all the players drafted in 2017, Pace drafted 3 players in the top 15 (Trubisky, Jackson, and Cohen), which is pretty impressive. However, there is no one else worth a damn in this draft (Shaheen is a total bust). Only Shaheen, Forrest Lamp, and Obi Melifonwu have had an AV as low as Shaheen's thru 2.5 years in the league from the 1st two rounds of this draft. 2018: Barkley, Nelson, James, Vander Esch, Mayfield, Smith, Edmunds, Ward, Chubb, and McClinchey. 10 out of 32. It is still pretty early to judge this year group, but only 6x Pro Bowlers from this group (as rookies). Others are standing out this year (in Year 2) like Jackson and Ridley. Daniels, Nichols, and Miller show up as 37th, 48th, and 55th for AV respectively. So again, 4 players in the top 55 of the entire draft is not as bad as I thought it was. What it seems like is Pace is a completely boom or bust type drafter. He gets Cohen but also gets Shaheen. For every Jackson, there is a Bullard. For every Smith, there is a Trubisky.

Mongo: Here is what I am tracking: Floyd - lost 2016 4th (-1) Whitehair - gained 2x 2016 4th's, gained 2017 4th (+3) Kwiatkoski - lost 2016 6th (-1) Trubisky - lost 2017 3rd, 4th, 2018 3rd (-3) Shaheen - lost 2017 7th; gained 2017 4th, 6th, 2018 4th (-1/+3) Jackson - lost 2017 6th Miller - lost 2018 4th Mack - lost 2019 1st, 6th, 2020 1st, 3rd; gained 2020 2nd, 5th (-4/+2) So we gained 8 picks between Whitehair, Shaheen, and Mack and lost a total of 12 for a net of -4. For round totals: 1st - Lost 2 (-2) 2nd - Gained 1 (+1) 3rd - Lost 3 (-3) 4th - Lost 3, Gained 5 (+2) 5th - Gained 1 (+1) 6th - Lost 3, Gained 1 (-2) 7th - Lost 1 (-1) So we essentially lost 2x first-rounders and 3x 3rd rounders to gain a 2nd rounder. So a net loss of 4 picks in the first 3 rounds in a 5-year span. We started with 15 picks from 2016-2020's drafts in the first 3 rounds and will end up with 11 and Mack. The crazy part is we parlayed a ton of draft capital moving down twice for Whitehair, and for Shaheen. Pace almost has to do the same thing in 2020 and take some later picks and recoup some draft capital with the 2x 2nd's. Since those are more valuable, the Bears could end up with 2x late round 2nd's while recouping a 3rd and 4th rounder this year. They also have the Amos Comp pick and their 5th rounder. There is a conditional 5th with the Raiders and since they are doing so well, you have to think that was met. That would make it 2x 2nd's a 3rd (via trade), a 4th (via trade), 4th Round Comp (Amos), 5th round, 5th Round Comp (Mack). So there is potential for 7 picks in the first 5 rounds.

3 weeks later and nothing has changed.

What an absolute sh%& show. Has there ever been a Bears team this talented underperform sp badly? It's really bad right now. 12-4 to 6-10 (at best) is where we are headed. Instead of a top 10 pick (which we could've used on a QB), we won't pick until the early 40's. There are a lot less players to build around as the core than we thought just a few short months ago. It was nice to see Jackson with some impact plays, but then gets beat flatfooted on play-action for what was ultimately a decisive play. Fuller had a couple of nice plays, but then also got beat on several plays badly. Roquan had his best game of the year and really stepped up, which was great to see. Our pass rush is abysmal, Mack is the highest-paid non-factor player in the league right now. I didn't even know Floyd played. I wonder what the excuse is today? Every other game that was lost late in the game, the defense let up the deciding scoring drive. This time, they let in a TD late, yet they were barely on the field, so they can't say they were tired. Josh Reynolds is apparently the second coming of Jerry Rice. Trubisky is done. Wow. I thought one of us called for this a few weeks back. Make it injury-related so all parties somehow save face. Nagy can point to Mitch's injury for the struggles. Mitch can say he was playing hurt, and Pace can say that you can't predict injuries when evaluating talent. Then they can part ways with him in the offseason and let him resurrect his career somewhere else. I have never seen a player at a press conference so beat down after a loss in the middle of the season on a bad team. He was borderline in tears. If it was truly injury-related, he wouldn't have been acting like that. To me, that is someone who was told that there weren't getting it done and they were moving on from him. I would be shocked if he plays another down for the team. The team will say Daniel gives the team the best chance to win with Mitch not at 100%. Watch, that's my prediction. The offensive play calling can't be any worse than having a monkey press a button to call a play in Madden. Loggains looks like a genius compared to Nagy right now, he just didn't have the players. They need a new playcaller and a run game specialist, otherwise, teams will continue to keep two safeties in coverage and dare them to pass. Teams are getting pressure with 4 and do not need safety help to stop the run. Talk about a recipe for disaster. We lead the league in dropped passes, and most are right off the hands or chest of the receiver. Someone make a play. You see highlights of receivers making these awesome contested catches all over the league every week and our guys can't catch balls that hit their hands. This is why you play in the preseason, to refine the timing of routes and little nuances with coverages. Team discipline is at an all-time low. I thought it was bad with Trestman, but Nagy is just more relatable to the players than Trestman was. That's it. Neither held players accountable for their actions. Patterson takes his helmet off on the field, he should sit the rest of the game. There has to be consequences. When Leno was getting all those holding penalties. Sit him for a half or a game. They will get the point. Pace needs to be held accountable for this roster construction and Trubisky. He went all-in on Trubisky and Mack and it failed miserably. Pace needs to go. His strategy for drafting and roster construction didn't work. He locked up mediocre players to large deals that are borderline unmovable (Leno, Massie, Skrine, Burton, etc). He has drafted like crap. Technically to sustain success, you need a minimum of 3 starters per draft: 2019 - Montgomery 2018 - Smith, Daniels, Nichols 2017 - Jackson 2016 - Floyd, Whitehair 2015 - Goldman That's 8 players in 5 drafts, when it should be 15.

So the offense looks better than previous games on the first drive, drive stalls at the 30 and Pineiro, on cue, misses the FG. Ugh. Trubisky had 1 good pass to Gabriel for a first down but then on 3rd Down, had the dump off, by tried a pass down field that was over thrown.

We could use some insurance right now after releasing Davis and Montgomery banged up. Whyte was at least familiar with the offense and provided some special teams utility in the return game.

Right now we are ultimately chasing MIN, and have to pass DAL/PHI, LAR, and CAR. With a CAR loss and if we beat LAR, we would be tied with those team and would only trail the 2nd NFC East team and MIN with 6 to play. MIN would have a 2.5 game lead on us with 6 to play. If we win during their bye, we would be 2 back with 5 games left (1 against them). MIN / CHI BYE / vs NYG (W) @SEA (L) / @DET (W) vs DET (W) / vs DAL (W) @LAC (W) / @GB (W) vs GB (L) / vs KC (L) vs CHI (L) / @MIN (W) (10-6/7-5) / (10-6/9-3) This is what needs to occur for us to catch the Vikings. Very unlikely, if Denver could've pulled out that game, things would've been much more interesting. We essentially have to go into Week 17 no more than a game back and the same conference record, then beat them in Minnesota. Anything more than 1 more loss from the Bears ends their season.

We needed MIN, CAR, and DAL to lose. Well DEN is up 3 against MIN, CAR is being shutout by ATL, and DAL is up by 10+ against DET. So CAR is definitely a loss, MIN can still lose, and it looks like DAL will win easily. Let's go Broncos! How about the epic QB matchup with Jackson and Watson? Jackson has 4 TDs and is borderline unstoppable. Watson? Not so much. Thru the mid-4th, he is 18-29 (62%), 169 yds, 1 INT, 6 sacks, 1 FL. Watch the media on Watson, they will point to a bad O-Line, etc, etc. Nothing like Trubisky gets when he has a game like this. The funny thing is, Watson has had several games with less than 200 yards passing and several multi-turnover games but was at one point in MVP talks.

Yeah true, but you hate to lose a draft pick regardless of what round for nothing.

This sucks. One of the loopholes to the Practice Squads. As long as players are signed to 53-man rosters, you can lose your PS players. We just lost Whyte. Surprised we didn't put Trevathan on IR immediately and brought Whyte up. He was a 7th Round Pick.

It must have to do with compensation, otherwise, it makes no sense to keep him on the 53-man roster.

The whole time it played out it looked like Garrett said, "you want to take my helmet off, watch, this is how you do it", then keeps pulling at the facemask until it is off, which could've seriously injured Rudolph's neck. Then once he had the helmet, he was like "oh, you want your helmet back, here you go", then smack on the top of the head. That was a #1 in the NFL draft, in the last seconds of a game where your team is up by 2 TDs and your team just sacked the QB on the plays before this one.

I agree with this as well. Odd that he didn't get anything other than a fine. Garrett just went waayyyyy overboard.

Dude, the helmet is metal, and that neck cushion is more inside the helmet than on the bottom where the metal is the strongest. Look at this helmet, the edge of the helmet hit the top of his head. With enough force, that could've easily knocked him out.

Burton to IR, finally making some moves, a little late, but I guess late is better than never:

Tony Dungy was on the "Under Center Podcast", which is a pretty good listen. He said that the 2nd year is always a tough year for a new coach as teams will have adjusted to your first year and would start to take away what you like to do. Nagy has been slow to adjust to that and players are underperforming. About Club Dub, a bunch of pro sports teams do a little celebration after wins, the Bears are one of a few teams that actually show it publicly. Maybe the best would be to keep it private going forward.

I can't imagine Trevathan coming back this year, so it's odd that they haven't done it to free up a roster spot. If we somehow miraculously made the playoffs, I can't see how he would be back in 6 weeks from that injury.

Montgomery might not play either with a sprained ankle in practice on Wednesday.

Wow, what a crazy play. Suspended indefinitely. Rudolph is an idiot as well, but man, Garrett went way over the line with the helmet hit to the head.

Mongo, I made your post into the game thread. If we can't get to Goff with multiple O-Line backups and with how shaky has he been, without Cooks, we are toast. I feel like they are going to use a bunch of screens and quick throws to Kupp (who was shutdown last week). Last year Goff threw 4 picks and was sacked 3 times. We will need a few turnovers and several sacks this week to have a chance. Hopefully, Trubisky can have a solid game against the Rams Defense who has a familiar face in Mathews on the edge. Mitch only threw for 110 yards and threw 3 INTs last year. Howard ran for over 100, so Montgomery needs to have a big game. I have a feeling we win this one by at least a TD, I am thinking something like 20-12 in a game of field position.

For me it comes down to his health. If he is not near 100%, we are one injury away from being right back where we are. If healthy though, he is a top 10 QB.

I agree, it's kind of mind-blowing that you didn't think it would be a good idea to bring all the QB's in for a private workout when you have the #3 pick, and that you didn't even meet with Watson at all. Pace's record stands on his own and I don't know why he is getting more time than Emery did when he has technically been a worse GM.

So it looks like the league set up a tryout for Kaepernick on Saturday. Kind of odd, but the Bears need to send someone there just to kick the tires.