adam

After seeing QB's fail all over the NFL in the last 40 years (of me watching the sport), it is clear that you have to have a combination of several traits, and that you can overcome one or two, but once you get to 3-4 shortcomings, you normally eventually fail. 1. Arm Strength 2. Accuracy/Touch 3. Vision 4. Pocket-awareness/presence 5. Leadership 6. Decision-Making/Speed 7. Physical Traits Trubisky can't adjust to a dynamic situation on the fly (#6). He doesn't possess the mental speed to process something new and react immediately. He lacks touch (#2) on most of his throws and has poor field vision (#3). Even if a receiver is his 3rd option and the dude is uncovered at the LOS, he should be able to see that opportunity and take advantage of it. When he is pressured, he has the propensity to move laterally instead of up into the pocket (#4). When he moves laterally, he takes away his ability to scramble for yards. I can't comment about his leadership, but I rarely see him talking to teammates on the sidelines when the defense is on the field. To me, he has 4 negative traits, which basically is impossible to overcome. You would hope some of these would improve by Year 3 but if you watched a game in his rookie year and the Saints game, you would think the Saints game was his rookie season. He can improve some of these, but to me, he is cemented at the career backup QB level. He is not an NFL starter and I don't think he will ever get there. Every game he misses 2-3 throws that are inexcusable, he can't hit the side of a barn after 10 yards. Thankfully barns don't move. He still zeroes in on his first read and will throw it to that receiver into triple coverage. He didn't have any INTs, but probably should've had 1 or 2. The last part is with being a natural thrower. It's almost like people who can't dance (like me), I can do the steps but it looks awkward. That's how Trubisky plays QB, he has the arm strength, can throw simple route trees, can run with the ball when needed with above-average speed for a QB, but other than that, what has he ever proven since college? From the collective groan when we traded up one spot to pick him until today, zero has changed. Watson was the pick and Pace blew it and should held accountable.

I was 10 days ahead of you on this Mad: If you watched Jackson only this year, would you call him a home run? At this point, I don't even know if you extend him and pay him Top 5 Safety money. For what? Cohen has tailed off and has become a gimmick player that Nagy uses in the wrong spots. Floyd is a bust for a top 10 pick (who you traded up for). Goldman is the best player Pace drafted. Technically our best players on offense and defense are free agents. Robinson on offense (who is the only one worth a damn) and Mack, Hicks, and Trevathan other than Goldman. You cannot sustain success like that. Last year we took advantage of a last-place schedule, and got lucky on turnovers and defensive TDs. That well is dry.

Lol, this made me laugh. Thanks for that Bill! I would just be concerned if he missed his target or took a sack!

Just blow this thing up, someone has to be held accountable. Fire Pace, Nagy, Heistand, Helfrich, Tabor, someone. You just got beat by a backup QB, RB, and TE at home, and it wasn't even close. I would put Trubisky and Burton on IR, sign Kaepernick and bring up a TE.

Also, why would we give Eddie Jackson top 5 Safety money? The dude has been a complete ghost this season. Zero impact plays thru 6 games. 19 tackles and 2 PD in 6 games? All Pro my butt. Davis has to be cut, we need th draft pick. I would trade or put Burton on IR, something is clearly wrong with him. I would put feelers out for Gabriel and Floyd too. Does the team do any psychological evaluation before signing players? Burton, Parkey, and now Smith all have been off. Smith is playing nowhere near what a top 10 pick should be playing. Trevathan is running circles around him. This season has been such a gut punch. Confirmed that we picked the wrong QB, and gave up way too much draft capital for mediocre players.

Montgomery had 2 rushes and Nagy didn't take the blame for calling an absolute crap game. He was overrated coming from Reid's coattails and the team road some luck with turnovers last year. Without them, they are a 4 win team. Season is over, NFC is tough, even the WC. We are now 2 games back for a WC spot and 3 back in the division in Week 7. This is not like last year, 11 point loss and never held the lead. The first game under Nagy that we have lost by more than one score and never held a lead. 2 losses at home already. Pace needs to be held accountable for this shit show. Nagy needs to give up play calling duties and just be a rah rah head coach. Worst game plans I have ever seen. With trade deadline coming up, I would take offers for everyone.

Beejesus was that some ugly football. If we can't beat the Saints with no Brees, Kamara, and Cook, we need to blow this team up. What the hell is going on. It's 12-10 at half, and we've had two punts blocked, given up a safety and NO had a short field after a stupid fumble by Miller. My only complaint for the defense who has really only given up a FG is that are playing too far off Thomas, they need to bracket him the whole game and make Bridgewater look somewhere else. Trubisky is done, he is not an NFL QB. It is clear now. He has had several weeks to heal and prep specifically for this game and he looks like absolute crap. Put him on IR, start Daniel and bring Bray up as the backup. Also, we gotta run the rock. Montgomery needs more touches, he is better at evading tacklers than Cohen is. If we lose there is no way we make the playoffs at 3-3 with an incredibly tough schedule to go. Gotta fix something at half and get a win.

He wouldn't pass a physical lol

On a side note, this injury to Mahomes, even though the team is optimistic, is not good. A few players have had it and never seem to be the same. The kneecap becomes unstable and can pop out at any time. He will more than likely have to wear a brace permanently and will probably still need surgery in the off season. There seems to be one ligament that gets torn when you dislocate your knee cap, there is another one that is worse if torn and its believed that Mahomes didn't tear any of the bad ones. So that's good for him. So KC is going to have a decision to make on what to do with Mahomes, and the same goes for Mahomes. I am sure the team wants him back as soon as possible, but he has to take his long term health into consideration. If he is going to need surgery in the offseason, and need 6-8 months to rehab, do you do that now and make sure he is 100% for the next 15 years, or do you risk further injury this season and also risk the injury affecting next season if you want to have surgery in Jan-Feb?

AZ, many people forget that EJack didn't play against PHI. The defense would've been better with him on the field. Pineiro is no longer listed on the injury report, Nichols is back, so the only major injuries are Hicks and Long. Long was a liability on the field, so that should be seen as addition by subtraction. Now if the line can get slightly better, Leno can reduce his penalties, the overall offense should look a little smoother going forward. If Miller is healthy without a harness, he is going to be the weapon like he was last year. Burton has had two weeks to heal more, Shaheen as well. So we need to come out of this bye like bat out of hell.

Davis has been a ghost in this offense and he provides nothing more than someone like Nall can provide (actually think Nall could provide more), so it makes sense to cut him before Week 10 to get back a 4th round comp pick for Amos. If he is on the roster in Week 10, we lose that 4th round comp pick. That is a bigger return than we got for Howard.

No Brees, Kamara, or Cook. If we can't beat the Saints at home without 3 of their top offensive players playing, we don't deserve to win or make the playoffs. We should win by at least a TD now. I am thinking more along the lines of 17-9.

Way too many other issues on the team than RB. This would not even be in my top 10 and I can't see giving up anything for him unless it was something like Davis+7th rounder for Gordon. Even then, he will command a lot more money and we get a ton of savings having Montgomery on his rookie deal. So it would be a hard pass from me.

They are very similar at this point. Both have also missed games due to injury basically every year and both are somewhat mobile QB's that were 1-Read QBs in college. Check out their average stats for their careers, eerily similar, but Mariota has the edge in most by a little other than comp%. Mariota - 62.9% Comp%, 76-44 TD/INT, 212.6 Y/G, Y/A 7.5 (High 7.6, Low 7.1), QB Rating 89.6 (High 95.6, Low 79.3), QBR High 59.4, Low 50.6 (before this season). 11 GWDs, 9 4Q Comebacks. Trubisky - 63.7% Comp%, 34-21 TD/INT, 200.1 Y/G, Y/A 6.9 (High 7.4, Low 5.5), QB Rating 86.9 (High 95.4, Low 77.5), QBR High 70.8, Low 31.6 (before this season). 4 GWDs, 2 4Q Comebacks. Both QB's had Kendall Wright as their WR, so it's the Kendall Wright effect.

It looks like a dislocated patella, which may also mean a torn ligament (depending on severity). If the ligament is torn, it will require surgery as the knee cap will move around and be very unstable. If he has surgery, he will be out for 8-10 weeks at a minimum. If no torn ligament, he can come back with a brace in a few weeks. He was hurt on a simple QB sneak too, but he couldn't bend his leg. The Madden Curse is for real. You hate to see injuries to any player, but this actually hurts the Bears as KC plays GB next week, then MIN the following week. It is highly unlikely that Mahomes will play in either of those games, making KC pedestrian at best. On the other side, Denver looked like absolute garbage. I am surprised Fangio has not gotten fired yet. Even though it's not his fault, that offense is terrible. Flacco should be called Sacco for all the sacks he took. At least Bolles should've surpassed Leno for the most penalties after tonight's game.

I did a little deeper dive into the cap for 2020. It looks like the cap will be at $199M for 2020, and the Bears might have somewhere around $18.5M in cap carry-over (if they want to use it, which I think they will have no choice doing. With 36 players under contract in 2020 + current Dead Money = $205M. So we are over by $6M. So the team is going to have to get creative on some future deals (like EJack's, ie front load a ton of money and use the carryover) or sign some guys to one-year deals (Trevathan, McManis, etc). My assumption is the Bears will cut Long, Amukamara, Patterson, and Davis to create about $24.25M in cap space. With these cuts the Bears would have at least 21 roster spots to fill out the 53-man roster and starting spots of ILB, RG, S, and CB to fill, as well as backup QB and rotational DE (RRH). The bottom line is the Bears will have to use the carryover. With it, plus the other space added from the cuts would create just over $36.75M in cap space ($18.25M in real cap) available to fill 21 roster spots. I figure they will bring back about 12 guys at similar deals (bottom of the 53) at about $11M. That leaves 9 spots for just under $26M. They have 6 draft picks, so say about $5M for the rookie pool, which leaves 3 spots to fill in free agency for about $21M ($2.5 in real cap). So the Bears can essentially use the entire carryover value to sign guys like Trevathan, HHCD, RRH, backup QB or extend EJack, but will have to understand that in 2021, that $18.5M is gone. So free agency would basically be re-signing the same guys back to new deals or picking up 2-3 new pieces for 2020. So we are not as bad off at it originally seemed, but the Bears will have to get creative on how they structure deals and should probably front-load some to take advantage of the carryover money so they can withstand the cap drop after the carryover is gone in 2021. Summary: 1. After rookie pool and draft picks (6) signed, the Bears would have 15 spots to fill on 53-man with $31.75M to spend. 2. If the Bears bring back 12 guys from the bottom of their current 53-man (subs), they would have about $20.75M left to spend on 3-4 key spots (or extensions, ie Jackson). The number of spots to fill and amount of cap will be dependent on how many guys are re-signed. 3. Of the $20.75M, only $2.25M would be real cap, which means the team would have to ensure contracts fit in 2021 and beyond without the $18.5M. With another $10M in cap space expected between 2020 and 2021, the Bears cap would drop from an increased size of $217.5M in 2020 to $209M in 2021 (decrease of 8.5M). The silver lining is the team doesn't have any huge bumps in salary cap hits from 2020 to 2021. So if they can make things work in 2020, then 2021 should not be a problem. 4. The Bears can also restructure a few guys to create some cap space in 2020. Guys like Hicks, Goldman and Whitehair would create about $11M in cap space. 5. Starter and key contributor spots currently open are: ILB (Trevathan), S (HHCD), CB (Amukamara), RG (Long), backup QB (Daniel), and DE (RRH). If two are filled with draft picks (2nd rounders), only 3 would need to be addressed in free agency with about $20M in space. I think this is totally doable.

That dude is hilarious, because he then writes this about signing Hooper in the offseason: http://sportsmockery.com/2019/10/bears-may-have-a-chance-to-end-tight-end-woes-with-austin-hooper/ We are not in good shape. We have a bunch of holes to fill with over 20 free agents leaving and most of the 33 others guys getting raises. The problem is most of our underperformers other than Long are signed thru at least 2020 and some beyond. I am going to make a table/chart to show where we are at. Also, Overthecap is taking all of our available cap space this year and applying it to next year (which the team may not utilize fully), because that would give us nothing to carry over in 2021 and we would have even deeper cuts to make.

If we can't beat the Saints without Brees and Kamara, we might as well do a fire sale and restock with a new QB next year. No excuses if Kamara doesn't play. Just double Thomas and keep the LB's on Murray and we should be good.

With White not being on a roster, we lose the Amos comp pick unless we cut one of our new FAs, and Davis seems to fit the bill perfectly. Underutilized and overpaid, cut him before Week 10 and we get a 4th round comp pick. We still don't have very many early picks next draft, only 2x 2nds, then we don't pick again until the 5th round. So we need to take two surefire impact players or move back and recoup some mid round picks.

Somewhat of an interesting revelation, Miller was still wearing a shoulder harness last game (ripped it off after he had that drop). We might see a better performance out of him this week:

Not that his injury is ideal, but he was already dealing with a knee injury as well and wasn't 100% since he got hurt against Washington. If we can hold serve with him out, we will have a healthy and fresh Akiem Hicks for the last 3 weeks of the season (GB, KC, and MIN), and hopefully a long playoff run.

So you're saying there's a chance? Brees not playing, Kamara may be limited? Early line has us favored by 3, so we are even on a neutral site. For as good as NO's record is, they have been very inconsistent. The team has scored over 30 3x, and 13 or less 3x. No in-between. On defense, the same thing. They have allowed 24 or more 4 times and 10 or less twice. All 5 of their wins have been by a TD or less, so they are in close games all the time. Their point differential is only +6 in 6 games, which is fairly pedestrian. I think we rebound and come out of the bye with a win at home. We need this game a lot more than the Saints do. I am thinking the Bears 16-13.

Someone made a comment about how set we are roster-wise with just the need for a few tweaks here and there due to how well Pace drafted, but after looking at the contracts and players we actually drafted that are starting, we are not as well off as I thought. We now have the 10th oldest roster and several of the older players are locked up for several years, which prevents us from getting younger.

Those calls were brutal calls and have an impact on us and the Vikings. Instead of us chasing a 3-1-1 team for first in the division, we are now chasing a 5-1 team that is also 3-0 in the division. Not that the race is over, but if we are all trying to get to 11 wins, the Packers can get there by only going 6-4. We now have to go 8-2 just to tie them. At this point, we have to sweep the rest of the division and hope GB loses at least one between MIN and DET. That is a tall order for any team. So a WC berth may be the only realistic option, especially with our schedule and injuries.

Hicks can return in 8 weeks, practice in 6. He did not require surgery, so this seems to only be a standard elbow dislocation.