adam

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.

For Trubisky, it also seems like he is not trusting what he is seeing, which leads to delayed or bad decisions.

I was exactly the way, I was stoked that we were about to select Watson and then heard Mitch's name. I have backed him so far and will continue to but the writing is on the wall, it's Year 3, if I had that many years to learn my job I would unemployed.

Hicks did not need surgery and can return Week 15 against GB:

Some good news:

The offense needs to play angry, get pissed off because you are being disrespected. The O-Line needs to start steamrolling some people. I agree 110% on Burton and Miller, you can add Shaheen to that. I think Nagy is coming around, you are seeing more of Montgomery and less of Davis. Now he needs to stop giving it to Cohen up the gut and save him for plays where he is guaranteed to have a little space.

It depends if they did surgery or not. If it was just a dislocation, then he can be back in 8-10 weeks. If there was surgery involved with any torn ligament or tendon, then he would more than likely be out until spring. Since they didn't put him on IR or IR and return, that makes me think they are looking more at 6-8 weeks. His loss is big but if we have Nichols back, that should help compensate for the loss of Hicks. I am just hoping whatever was bothering Burton, Smith, and Miller is gone. Those guys are all needed in order for us to win games. I think we match up pretty well with New Orleans, especially if Bridgewater plays. On a side note, media is already pitting NE vs SF in the SB, yet they fail to mention those two teams have played teams with a combined record of 16-44 (Bills 4-1 are the only team with a winning record to play either of those two). So there can definitely be teams at 4-1 or 3-2 that are better, but they just played a tougher schedule.

Looks like Gabriel, Nichols, and Larsen all practiced today. Trubisky threw and did not have a pitch count, so that's a good sign. Nagy didn't have much on Hicks, so I am assuming he is gone until mid-December at the earliest. Long definitely confirmed to be on IR for the season.

Hopefully they bring up Bars and try Coward at Guard. Check out this review of Coward's play against MIN when he came in at RG. He looked like the best O-Lineman immediately. Pretty impressive:

Watson was my choice and it still burns me that we didn't select him. I think Mahomes is great but so many of his plays are to wide open receivers or where the receivers make ridiculous catches. That formula seems like it will eventually dry up. I would probably take Watson over Mahomes even today. I like Watson's mobility and if he can add 5-10 lbs onto his frame and keep his quickness, he will only be that much better. Trubisky is definitely #3 in the 2017 draft, and we are going to see these comparisons ad nauseam for the next 15 years unless Trubisky improves or we get a new QB.

The offensive drop off is actually quite shocking considering what other teams have done with backup QBs (CAR, NO, etc). That tells me it's more than just Trubisky. The scary part is Pace has locked up a couple guys with huge contracts and they have yet to live up to their price tags. All we need is for our offensive players to do what they did last year with just a little improvement and this magically becomes a 10-11 win team. Right now we are so inconsistent it seems like we are headed for an 8-8 or 9-7 season and just miss the playoffs.

Yeah, I definitely didn't see anything beyond 9-7 last year. 12-4 was amazing. All I was pointing out was as much praise as Pace has received for drafting guys like EJack and Cohen, a bunch of draft picks that we held onto for a while have faded or never lived up to their draft status. I think we are just seeing a bunch of players underperforming. Even Jackson thru 5 games has done nothing impactful. He has 0 INTS, 0 Sacks, and 0 Forced Fumbles. He was due for regression to the mean, but he has goose eggs across the board. If you only knew Jackson from 2019, would you be giving him top 5 Safety money? Right now, no way. Even on something like passed defended, he had 15 in 14 games last year, thru 5 games he has 2. His counterpart, HHCD has had 2 PD and 2 INTs, a TD, and more tackles than EJack. You could say HHCD is actually playing better than EJack from that a numbers perspective. How about Fuller, he had a huge year last year. This year, QBs are completing 79.5% of passes thrown his way (up 23% from 2018). QB's have a 90.4 QB Rating throwing at Fuller. Prince has been equally soft, allowing 77.3% of passes thrown his way. QB's have a 120.6 QB Rating throwing at Prince. Those are our starting CBs. Not good. For all the flak Buster Skrine takes, he has actually been our best CB. QB's only complete 52.2% of passes thrown at Skrine with a 76.9 QB Rating. For 2020 draft, I would like to see Pace just pick BPA from a guy with a great college pedigree from a high performing school. Those guys tend to have the best chance at succeeding in the NFL.

This one has some O-Line ranks broken down by various stats: https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol/2019 PHI is 3rd in Power Runs and 1st when they run between C and G. They are also 10th in pass blocking. In comparison, the Bears are 31st in Power Runs, and are 27th or worse in 3 of 5 running areas. 66% of our runs are Mid/Guard and we are 27th in that area. Our best is off the LT, where we are 10th, but only have 8% of our runs there (which is 8 total carries for the season - so small sample size). So PHI may be more like 5-10 range, but we are still 25th or worse as a unit.

One other note, SF is 5-0, but has played some of the worst teams in the league and just played the Rams without Gurley. They are beating the teams they are supposed to beat, but the media is already crowning them NFC Champs. The combined record of their opponents is 6-21 (and that's with the Rams 3-3 in there). Our opponent's record is 14-14 and we took flak for an easy schedule? The more this season plays out, the more I think we will be ok. Teams are going to start beating on each other, and our next 5 of NO, vs LAC, @PHI, vs DET, @LAR doesn't seem as tough as it looked before the season. NO w/o Brees, LAC has not looked good, PHI got de-pantsed against MIN, DET is DET, and LAR has not been the same team since we dominated them last year. If we can get our running game going and Trubisky plays efficient, we can win these next 5.

DAL lost to an 0-4 Jets; PHI got beat handily by MIN; SEA barely beat CLE, CAR beat TB, and SF dominated LAR. So it looks like we are going to be in a playoff race with every team in our division, SEA and CAR. PHI and LAR both look to be fading. I would rather see DET win and give GB their 2nd loss. That would put DET in the lead in the Division and knock GB back to a tie with MIN and CAR at 4-2. That would only put us a half game back for a WC berth and 0.75 back from DET as the Division leader. 1. SF 5-0-0 2. NO 5-1-0 3. GB 4-1-0 vs DET 4. DAL 3-3-0 WC1. SEA 5-1-0 (2-1 CONF) WC2. MIN 4-2-0 (3-2 CONF) 3. CAR 4-2-0 (2-2 CONF) 4. DET 2-1-1 (1-0-1 CONF) @GB 5. CHI 3-2-0 (2-1 CONF) 6. LAR 3-3-0 7. PHI 3-3-0

Watson vs Mahomes in KC. Watson wins the game but throws 2 INTs and 1 TD, but runs for 2 more. He ends up with a 77.5 QB Rating. Mahomes only has 54.3% Completion %, throws for 3 TDs, but also has 1 INT and 1 fumble lost. He ends up with a 96.5 QB Rating. Two of Mahomes' passes accounted for a 1/3 of his yards, so his remaining 17 completions went for 175. The biggest difference was Watson had a running game, Hyde had 26 carries for 116 yards. Neither QB had a 300-yard game, which is actually shocking based on their averages. KC has lost two straight at home; when is the last time that happened? Mahomes had a crazy throw deep into double coverage, but somehow Hill came down with it and stretched out for the TD. If Trubisky throws that, its a great catch by the receiver. If it is intercepted, it is a bonehead decision. Lol. These guys are definitely better than Trubisky, but I didn't see that many wow plays like the media makes them out to be. I don't think Trubisky is that far off these guys as long as he has some consistent O-Line play. Hopefully that comes sooner than later.

I would love to keep Trevathan, but with our current cap, the only way we could do that is if Floyd was not on the team in his 5th year option year.

Philly's O-Line is a top 5 unit and ours is bottom 5. Howard would be lucky to have 2.0 YPC behind how our line has looked thru 5 games. Just considering that huge difference, it is easy to see that Montgomery is the best back out of the bunch, followed by Howard, then Sanders.

I thank Kyle for all he has done for the organization and city, but he's done. Never seem to recover from the injuries. This is one of those additions by subtraction as anyone in place of Long will be an upgrade at this point. I wish Kyle the best and would expect him to retire. I am also glad the team made the move and didn't continue sending him out there just for the sake of it. They need to treat all underperforming guys like this, whether it's injury related or not. Don't make decisions solely based on the cap hit.

I definitely like the O-Line picks, but we will probably need either a CB or ILB earlier than a 6th. I would not draft Neal, he looked terrible against UNLV and his INTs scare me. Otherwise, it looks good to me. What do you think about Burrow (LSU) or Ehlinger (TEX)? Both have started 3 years (more than Trubisky), both should be mid-round picks, and have faced some tough competition. They faced each other earlier this year and both threw for over 400 yards and 4 TDs.