adam

I have no complaints about Howard, he was the lone bright spot on a terrible team in 2016 and 2017. It just seems like that was his ceiling and the team wanted a little more dynamic play out of a guy with that many touches. It will be interesting to see what Howard commands on the open market after this season. As good as Howard was in 2017, 2018 was somewhat disappointing and was masked by how well the team played overall. I don't know if we could get by with the same stats if the defense wasn't so good. Howard was 22nd in YPG at 58. Only 3 players had over 175 carries and less than 4.0 YPC (David Johnson, Peyton Barber, and Howard) out of 20 RBs. His 3.7 YPC was good for 37th among qualified RB leaders. If you like advanced stats, using DVOA, Howard was 36th: https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/rb So if the team feels like RB1 was a weak spot on the roster, and Montgomery is an upgrade there, I am all for it.

Sorry an Army term, I meant a replacement. He backfilled Callahan as HHCD backfilled Amos. The last "starter" hole was RB. There has to be a little more to the Howard story than we know. I don't think he was happy with his role and I don't know if the coaching staff believed he was the right fit for what they were trying to do. That's not to say Howard is not a good RB. There have been rumors about him "not fitting" into the system since last year. So we don't really know what Nagy and the offense had to do to accommodate Howard's skill set or lack thereof. However, we will see if they are right this year. If not, we are screwed. Philly has a whole bunch of different guys. Josh Adams, Corey Clement, and Smallwood are all on the roster with Howard. Now with Sanders too. So it will be interesting to see who is left standing after final cuts and if Howard is RB1 or RB2.

I updated the first post to make it more readable. We have a good haul and the competition should be fierce. O'Donnell should be worried. There are few punters in there that can kill it. I would not be surprised if one of them made the team over him. Remember, the one consistent with our bad kicking has been POD holding. Could be a coincidence or maybe there is something to it.

True, I understand both sides. Seattle started with 5 picks, kept trading down and ended the draft with 10. However, how many of those 10 are actually going to help them, or help them more than the original 5, or 4 if they traded up. There are definitely two theories to drafting, more picks are better and higher picks are better. At the end of the day, neither matter. Picking the right player is the key. Cleveland has had more top 50 picks than any team in history over the past decade and have just started to turn things around due to picking the wrong player. After free agency, we literally had one hole, and that was at RB. We got HHCD and Skrine to backfill the only other starting spots. Every other player after that point is a luxury, and that is why we went BPA in the 4th. I thought Philly's draft spoke volumes about Howard; Miles Sanders at #53 (2nd round) said a lot. A Philly Exec literally said: "Miles is a guy, he can play all three downs". So is Howard now relegated to short yardage and obvious rushing situations? Seems like it to me. Admin note - Please keep the personal attacks to yourselves - we can agree to disagree - everyone is entitled to their opinion regardless of how right or wrong they are or you think they are. It is ok to be critical of the team and of each other, just do it in a constructive manner. This team is in a place it hasn't been in a long time, let's embrace this period and keep an open mind. Bear Down!

It's a university in Montreal, Canada. Betts was the top ranked prospect in the CFL.

I assume we will still sign a QB and maybe a ILB.

So far, looking good: UDFA's Offense: 1. Sam Mustipher, OL, Notre Dame (Hiestand connection) 2. Alex Bars, OG, Notre Dame (Hiestand connection) 3. Blake Blackmar, OL, Baylor 4. Marquez Tucker, OL, Southern Utah 5. Joe Lowery, OL, Ohio University 6. Emanuel Hall, WR, Missouri (Highest rater player not drafted per NFL.com - 4th round projection) 7. Thomas Ives, WR, Colgate 8. Dax Raymond, TE, Utah State (#1 UDFA TE available) 9. Ian Bunting, TE, Cal 10. Ellis Richardson, TE, Georgia Southern Defense: 11. Mathieu Betts, Edge, Laval (Montreal, Canada) 12. Chuck Harris, Edge, Buffalo 13. Jonathan Harris, DL, Lindenwood 14. Lawrence Marshall, DT, Michigan 15. Dylan Carroll, DE, Grand Valley State 16. Clifton Duck, CB, App State (KR/PR) 17. Adarius Pickett, DB, UCLA 18. Justin Simmons, DB, Limestone College (Furrey connection) 19. Jordan Powell, S, Widener Special Teams: 20. John Wirtel, OL, Kansas (LS) 21. John Baron, K, SDSU (#2 UDFA Kicker available) Rookie Mini-Camp Invites: 1. Tommy Doles, OL, Northwestern 2. Chris James, RB, Wisconsin 3. Spencer Schnell, WR, Illinois State 4. Joe Walker, WR, Delaware 5. Ron'Quavion Tarver, WR, Utah State 6. Pace Temple, WR, Butler 7. Quentin Moon, LB, Western Illinois 8. Doyin Jibowu, DB, Fort Hays State 9. Zuril Hendrick, CB, Edinboro 10. Casey Bednarski, K/P, Minnesota State 11. Emmit Carpenter, K, Minnesota (#4 UDFA Kicker available) 12. Alex Kjellsten, P, McNeese State

A great UDFA. The roster is becoming super competitive.

Trading up doesn't mean you lose the trade. If you go off draft trade value alone, we won the trade straight up: The Bears gave up #87 (155pts), #162 (26.2pts) and a 4th in 2020 (42pts), which equals 223. The Pats gave up #73 (225pts), #205 (9pts), which equals 234. So technically the Bears got the better of the deal by a 6th round pick. Also, consider that next year's draft capital is worth a round less than this year's. That was not even taken into consideration with these values, making the deal even better for the Bears. I watched some more video of Montgomery, and he is nothing like Howard. Montgomery has the most broken tackles of any RB since they started recording the stat. That is insane. If you watch his tape, you will see why. This guy is not Howard 2.0.

After signing HHCD and Skrine, the only starter that would not be returning in 2019 was RB, and we addressed that with Montgomery. If you have not seen some of the videos, this guy is not only a great player, but a super high character guy. Our RBs are the new Run DMC: Davis-Montgomery-Cohen. Then you add Whyte to that group and you have a pretty diverse backfield. Whyte can also return kicks. Ridley was definitely a BPA signing, and I love it when we can do that. Just think of what our WR Corps looked like a few years ago. We now have Robinson, Gabriel, Miller, Ridley, Wims, Hall, and Patterson. Shelley dropped due to an injury, but he is not a 6th round talent. He could easily make the team and push for the Slot CB position. Denmark is a physical freak who was converted recently. I see him being stashed on the PS. Overall, it's hard to complain with getting Montgomery and Ridley (both top 50 prospects) without a pick in the top 70, and then getting Shelley as well. Looks like we got 3 players that could help right away.

I am shocked we got Montgomery. We had to trade up to get him but we kept our 4th rounder this year. He is a better version of Howard who can catch out of the backfield.

Detroit - Pick 8 - TJ Hockenson, TE - A good player (1 of 2 TE's drafted in the first round from Iowa), but not a top 10 pick. Lol Detroit, another TE, why didn't they just keep Ebron? Green Bay - Pick 12 - Rashan Gary, DE - A good player, but didn't they sign a couple of Edge guys? Seems like an odd pick considering their free agency and with Rodgers' age. Then they draft up to pick Darnell Savage at S. Another good player, but not someone worthy of the 21st pick or moving up to get. You would think that a team with 2 picks in the first 21 would get two impactful players, yet I don't see that here. Gary may only be a rotational guy and Savage is undersized for a Safety. Vikings - Pick 18 - Garrett Bradbury, C - The least flashy move was probably the best. Bradbury is good and it makes sense to shore up the middle of your O-Line with a non-mobile QB like Cousins. The best pick from the NFC North outside of the Mack deal. So what did you think about the draft so far? I thought the Raiders picks outside of Abram were borderline comical. They traded Mack and Cooper, and BeastMode retired, and you added Clelin Ferrell at #4 (DE to replace Mack?), Josh Jacobs, RB at #24 to replace BeastMode, and Abram at #27, which was their best pick. I would still take Mack over all 3 of those guys today.

Here are some of the final mock draft predictions for the Bears 3rd rounder: CBS - Miles Sanders, RB, Penn State WalterFootball - Dexter Williams, RB, Notre Dame WalterFootball (Charlie) - Devin Singletary, RB, Florida Atlantic Draftsite.com - Beau Benzschawel, OG, Wisconsin BleacherReport - Amani Hooker, S, Iowa BleacherReport (Miller) - Joejuan Williams, CB, Vanderbilt Drafttek - Damien Harris, RB, Alabama 247 Sports - Dawson Knox, TE, Ole Miss NFL.com (Reuter) - Justin Hollins, Edge, Oregon PFF (Renner) - Tytus Howard, OT, Alabama State Draftwire - Miles Sanders, RB, Penn State

All SF has to do is rescind the tag. Gould can sign the franchise tag at any time and they will have to pay him that ($5M) for the season. Are any other teams in need of a Kicker with the cap space? I would offer a take it or leave it offer of a 7th rounder and be done with it.

Where do you get that Nichols is below average? I agree that we have a need across from Hicks, but Nichols seems like a solid rotational player to fill in for Goldman and Hicks, and get some occasional reps in across from Hicks. In less snaps than Goldman and RRH, Nichols had comparable, if not, better raw numbers. Goldman - 552 snaps, 3 sacks, 5 TFL RRH - 353 snaps, 3 sacks, 3 TFL Nichols - 328 snaps, 3 sacks, 5 TFL, 2 FFB

$17,622,024 (16th) according to overthecap.com, and with no 1st or 2nd rounders, that is really like 20M+ relative to other teams.

For injuries, we had Trubisky hurt and missed a game. ARob missed some time. Mack and EJack did as well. Long and Shaheen both missed half season plus. So even though we didn't have any season ending injuries, we did have some key guys miss some time.

GB plays both KC and LAC on the road in back to back weeks, then comes home to play CAR before their bye. They could easily lose all 3 of those.

Here we go. We need to go into the bye at 4-1 or 5-0. The next 11 are tough. I am hoping 6-5 in that set, but 5-6 looks more realistic. Back to back Thursday Night games are in interesting. The Cowboys will also be coming off a Thanksgiving game like us and traveling to Chicago. We will be coming home from Detroit. So I think we have the edge there. The only back to back away games are Week 2 and 3 with Week 3 being a MNF game against Washington. That gives us an extra day of rest which helps on the back to back away games. Week 1: Green Bay Packers (NFL Kickoff Game) - W (after last year, I can't see us losing this game, HHCD Revenge Game) Week 2: at Denver Broncos - W (Vic Fangio Revenge Game) Week 3: at Washington Redskins (Monday Night Football) - W (I can't see us losing to WAS, HHCD Revenge Game #2) Week 4: Minnesota Vikings - W (At home, we are in Cousins head) Week 5: at Oakland Raiders (London) - W (Khalil Mack Revenge Game - Carr might die) Week 6: BYE Week 7: New Orleans Saints - L (Saints are not as good on the road or on grass, so we could win this one, Hicks/Pace Revenge Game) Week 8: Los Angeles Chargers - W (This is a tough matchup, but I think we win this one at home) Week 9: at Philadelphia Eagles - L (Philly is a tough out at home, Jordan Howard revenge game?) Week 10: Detroit Lions - W (Lions are bad) Week 11: at Los Angeles Rams (Sunday Night Football) - L (We beat them last year, so we could win here as well) Week 12: New York Giants - W (Giants are terrible) Week 13: at Detroit Lions (Thanksgiving) - W (Lions are bad) Week 14: Dallas Cowboys (Thursday Night Football) - W (We get Dallas at home after they travel from DAL to CHI) Week 15: at Green Bay Packers - L (Split home and away, but we will have extra rest coming off a THU Night game) Week 16: Kansas City Chiefs (Sunday Night Football) - L (This might be the game of the year and SB preview, at home so we could win here) Week 17: at Minnesota Vikings - L (Split in Division, no other reason for the loss) I have us at 10-6, splitting with MIN and GB in the Division and sweeping DET for a 4-2 Division Record. However, 12-4 is just as realistic as I don't see us losing 3 straight to end the season. So flip GB and MIN and we are 12-4. I still say 10 is our basement and 12 is our ceiling. Trubisky will need to take a huge step forward and the defense will have to be close to what it was last year for us to win more than 10.

Depends on how far we move back, it could be a late 5th or early 6th.

I am thinking Patterson will get some carries as well (2-3 a game). So that's 30-50 carries there. I really think Davis can handle more than he had in Seattle, definitely 150-175. After his lack of use during Philly, it will be interesting to see how Nagy uses Cohen this year. My gut says we still draft a RB, but it won't be with the 3rd round pick. I am thinking that the 5th rounder would be a good spot if it is the right value. However, if a high rated RB falls into the 3rd, its hard to see us passing on him. Hopefully Pace just goes BPA and takes the best talent on the board.

I would not be surprised if Pace moves a pick from 2020 to pick up another pick this year. The nice thing is we have options and some cap flexibility to continue to re-sign 3-4 of our core players every year.

It was 10, but we lost the 5th for Callahan, so now 9 if you count the conditional from OAK.

The good news is we have 10 draft picks next year. We can easily flip one or two to move into this draft (if needed), or wait and use them all next year to restock some of these role players.

Punter and LS back in the fold. So RB (Howard), S (Amos), CB (Callahan), and K (Double Doink) are the only starters that didn't return out of the starting 25 on Offense, Defense, and ST. We also already signed Davis, HHCD, and Skrine to replace three, so Kicker is the last starter needed.