Rookie WR Class (Best Ever)?

[adam]

These guys are on fire. 9 WRs already making an impact.

Nabers leads the NFL in receptions.  Whittington is 3rd in receptions amongst WR rookies and he is a 6th round pick. How does LAR do it? Kupp, then Puka, now Whittington.

Thomas looks like a steal at #23. Outside of Whittington, Thomas may end up being the best value WR pick in the draft. 

I am not worried about Odunze because his issue is not skill, it has been target volume. Once his targets go up, he will be right there with the leaders. 

Nabers 35-386-3 (1st)
Thomas 22-397-3 (1st)
Whittington 18-201-0 (6th)
Harrison 17-279-4 (1st)
Odunze 15-206-1 (1st)
McConkey 15-176-2 (2nd)
Legette 13-151-1 (1st)
McCaffrey 10-98-0 (3rd)
Coleman 9-175-2 (2nd)

[adam]

A month later:

Nabers 61-607-3 (1st) +26
McConkey 43-615-4 (2nd) +28
Thomas 42-689-5 (1st) +20
Odunze 34-479-1 (1st) +19
Harrison 33-499-6 (1st) +16
Legette 29-284-4 (1st) +16
Vele 26-281-1 (7th) 
Worthy 24-307-4 (1st)
Coleman 22-417-3 (2nd)

McConkey has been on fire for LAC. With 7 weeks left, there might be 6x WRs with over 800 receiving yards by season's end + Bowers (who leads all rookies with 70-706). Can you name a better WR Class?

[ASHKUM BEAR]

I had Thomas as my top wr for the Bears pre-draft.  I wanted the Bears to trade down some so they could have found a way to draft C Zach Fraizer too.  I think Odunze will be great here, but you have to find ways to get the most talent.  

[adam]

11 hours ago, ASHKUM BEAR said:

I had Thomas as my top wr for the Bears pre-draft.  I wanted the Bears to trade down some so they could have found a way to draft C Zach Fraizer too.  I think Odunze will be great here, but you have to find ways to get the most talent.  

Hell, they probably could've traded down and drafted Thomas, got a 2nd round pick and another pick in 2025. 

[ASHKUM BEAR]

2 hours ago, adam said:

Hell, they probably could've traded down and drafted Thomas, got a 2nd round pick and another pick in 2025. 

Espn did a special on Thomas, that kid has drive and is smart.  He will be a top wr for years. 

[adam]

Revisiting this, man I love Odunze, but geez, they could've had Bowers, Thomas, or even McConkey, who all have over 1,000 receiving yards thru 16 games. Thomas has 10 TDs and McConkey has 7. 

I know that video of Odunze at the combine, redoing the drill over and over sold Poles on Odunze. I really like Odunze, but it is hard to ignore what those other guys have done. Especially Bowers and Thomas with crappy QBs. 

[Stinger226]

46 minutes ago, adam said:

Revisiting this, man I love Odunze, but geez, they could've had Bowers, Thomas, or even McConkey, who all have over 1,000 receiving yards thru 16 games. Thomas has 10 TDs and McConkey has 7. 

I know that video of Odunze at the combine, redoing the drill over and over sold Poles on Odunze. I really like Odunze, but it is hard to ignore what those other guys have done. Especially Bowers and Thomas with crappy QBs. 

The problem would be for them as it has been for Odunze. Target share and inconsistant QB play. With Allen leaving DJ and Odunze will be top targets and we may get a coach that throws to a TE. Another coach may view Scott as a target, he has speed. 

[Mongo3451]

Yeah, we could have had Bowers and a high offensive tackle, Ladd McConkey, a DT and an OG.  Here's to hoping Kiran and Rome become great...🏈

[Stinger226]

1 hour ago, Mongo3451 said:

Yeah, we could have had Bowers and a high offensive tackle, Ladd McConkey, a DT and an OG.  Here's to hoping Kiran and Rome become great...🏈

Hard to judge Kiran with the injury and late start. Next year will be more show  his value. He  was drafted with the prospect of pushing Braxton, and hopefully  being better.  I suspect if they drat Banks one of Kiran or Braxton will move to LG.

[Alaskan Grizzly]

2 hours ago, Mongo3451 said:

Yeah, we could have had Bowers and a high offensive tackle, Ladd McConkey, a DT and an OG.  Here's to hoping Kiran and Rome become great...🏈

I have a strong feeling Odunze will be great. Behind Nabers he’s the best WR in this last draft. IMHO.  I agree we could’ve (and should’ve) done as you suggested with the controversial “haul pick” but it is what it is.

Meanwhile of the six QBs drafted in the first round of 2024 four of them will have teams most likely in the playoffs; McCarthy*, Penix Jr*, Nix and Daniels.  And as an aside, Justin Fields and Pittsburgh will also be in the playoffs due in part to his 4-2 record with them as a starter. 

[BearFan PHX]

This is interesting.

https://www.sportsmockery.com/chicago-bears/new-info-reveals-ryan-poles-2024-draft-was-so-close-to-being-different/

[Stinger226]

Eric Lambert is one of the worst Bear journists on the beat. He has a history of putting out bad info. (Its my understanding) the Bears would have drafted a OL. The only 2 people that knew what Poles would have done is Ryan and Cunnungham. Olu will eventually be a good player but he only started 7 games out of 15 he played. He broke his foot and is out for the season. Poles liked Rome but there is no way Nabors would have ever made it to 9. Alt was the only OL that was taken before 9. 

[BearFan PHX]

2 hours ago, Stinger226 said:

Eric Lambert is one of the worst Bear journists on the beat. He has a history of putting out bad info. (Its my understanding) the Bears would have drafted a OL. The only 2 people that knew what Poles would have done is Ryan and Cunnungham. Olu will eventually be a good player but he only started 7 games out of 15 he played. He broke his foot and is out for the season. Poles liked Rome but there is no way Nabors would have ever made it to 9. Alt was the only OL that was taken before 9. 

Youre saying Zimmerman's tweet didnt happen?

The whole story is sourced, so your complaint about Lambert makes zero sense.

[adam]

I know hindsight is always 20/20, but I keep getting "smartest guy in the room" vibes from Poles. He could've grabbed a Center or a Guard instead of Kiran, Taylor, or even Booker knowing how weak the line was. Kiran was a tackle, who was injured. That is a luxury pick, so was Taylor. That's great when your roster is stacked, but there were players to be had at those picks that would've contributed. Scott instead of Puka. Velus Jones, your 3rd pick ever, is a projected returner who is 3 years older than his competition. How embarrassing.  Passing up on Carter, trading up for Stevenson, and drafting Pickens altogether. What is he thinking?

[BearFan PHX]

28 minutes ago, adam said:

I know hindsight is always 20/20, but I keep getting "smartest guy in the room" vibes from Poles. He could've grabbed a Center or a Guard instead of Kiran, Taylor, or even Booker knowing how weak the line was. Kiran was a tackle, who was injured. That is a luxury pick, so was Taylor. That's great when your roster is stacked, but there were players to be had at those picks that would've contributed. Scott instead of Puka. Velus Jones, your 3rd pick ever, is a projected returner who is 3 years older than his competition. How embarrassing.  Passing up on Carter, trading up for Stevenson, and drafting Pickens altogether. What is he thinking?

I think Poles was sound strategically, and his downfall was player evaluation.

Here he had Ryan Bates, a player he'd long had his eye on, coming to start at center, Nate Davis, a player with excellent film at RG, a first round draft pick coming into his second year at RT, a talented player in Jenkins at LG, and another season out of Braxton Jones while Amagadje, a 3rd round pick works to take his spot. On paper, if all these players were what he thought they were, we were sound on the OL.

The problem was that Bates never got healthy, Davis' attitude remained what it was said he was, Jenkins never got over the injury bug, Wright regressed with Morgan coaching him, Braxton cant handle a bull rush, and Amagadje was always hurt.

Poles and his staff failed at player evaluation in each case, and now we have very little to build on on the OL. Even depth pieces like Pryor, Shelton and Curhan have been awful.

When you look back at Claypool, Velus Jones, Pickens, and others, the pattern emerges: we are not good at player evaluation. Anyone would have known to pick Caleb - that was hardly a test of Poles.

I'd like to fire Poles and bring in a good GM.

 

[Stinger226]

3 hours ago, BearFan PHX said:

Youre saying Zimmerman's tweet didnt happen?

The whole story is sourced, so your complaint about Lambert makes zero sense.

Lamberts source is Zimmerman which doesnt have any substance in his tweet , its his opinion. Zimmerman is just a sports journalist, he doesnt work for the Bears organisation. Lambert likes taking someone opnion and making it out like he talked to Cunningham himself. 

Relook as his tweet and show me what does it mean( my understanding)?  Its not any different from you or me saying the same thing. I looked thru many of his articles and no where does he ever claim a (Bears source). Its just like our opinions. His claim to fame is lifelong Brears fan like us.

[BearFan PHX]

35 minutes ago, Stinger226 said:

Lamberts source is Zimmerman which doesnt have any substance in his tweet , its his opinion. Zimmerman is just a sports journalist, he doesnt work for the Bears organisation. Lambert likes taking someone opnion and making it out like he talked to Cunningham himself. 

Relook as his tweet and show me what does it mean( my understanding)?  Its not any different from you or me saying the same thing. I looked thru many of his articles and no where does he ever claim a (Bears source). Its just like our opinions. His claim to fame is lifelong Brears fan like us.

yeah, and i thought it was interesting. I think that's OK.

Also, you went after Lambert, which made no sense. He was just reporting what Zimmerman said. It's like the clickbait thing a week or two ago. You're not great at critical thinking, so maybe just stop trashing my links

Also the way you parse "my understanding" to mean "my opinion" is dumb. What he is saying is that he heard this, and that is his understanding of WHAT HE HEARD. Maybe he heard misinformation, maybe rumor - I'm certainly not claiming it was more than that. But it 100% doesn't mean his opinion. At the very least it means someone elses opinion that he respects. Given that he hs a lot more connection to Halas Hall than either you or I do, it's at least a rumor.

If you have alternate evidence I am ALL ears - for real. But if you're just gonna trash the guy that wrote the article, then i would offer to you, in symmetry of what you just said - why should I listen to your opinion either?

I don't claim to be a Bears reporter with any inside info. You're surely not one either. I just thought that tidbit was interesting. I still think it is. And I think that's OK.

[Stinger226]

16 minutes ago, BearFan PHX said:

yeah, and i thought it was interesting. I think that's OK.

Also, you went after Lambert, which made no sense. He was just reporting what Zimmerman said. It's like the clickbait thing a week or two ago. You're not great at critical thinking, so maybe just stop trashing my links

Also the way you parse "my understanding" to mean "my opinion" is dumb. What he is saying is that he heard this, and that is his understanding of WHAT HE HEARD. Maybe he heard misinformation, maybe rumor - I'm certainly not claiming it was more than that. But it 100% doesn't mean his opinion. At the very least it means someone elses opinion that he respects. Given that he hs a lot more connection to Halas Hall than either you or I do, it's at least a rumor.

If you have alternate evidence I am ALL ears - for real. But if you're just gonna trash the guy that wrote the article, then i would offer to you, in symmetry of what you just said - why should I listen to your opinion either?

I don't claim to be a Bears reporter with any inside info. You're surely not one either. I just thought that tidbit was interesting. I still think it is. And I think that's OK.

I use to read his articles all the time and started realizing his sources are other journalist that use each other as soruces as inside information. So your saying (my understanding) doesnt mean its an opinion? I dont really care what you want to call it, he thinks he knows what they meant to do, yet there is no source. 

opinion:

a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.

"I'm writing to voice my opinion on an issue of great importance"

Here's another hard hitting rumor from Eric.https://www.sportsmockery.com/chicago-bears/ben-johnson-reportedly-leaning-on-the-bears-to-fire-ryan-poles/

[Mongo3451]

18 minutes ago, Stinger226 said:

I use to read his articles all the time and started realizing his sources are other journalist that use each other as soruces as inside information. So your saying (my understanding) doesnt mean its an opinion? I dont really care what you want to call it, he thinks he knows what they meant to do, yet there is no source. 

opinion:

a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.

"I'm writing to voice my opinion on an issue of great importance"

Here's another hard hitting rumor from Eric.https://www.sportsmockery.com/chicago-bears/ben-johnson-reportedly-leaning-on-the-bears-to-fire-ryan-poles/

Ben Johnson isn't even allowed to talk to the Bears during the regular season.  At least I think that's the rule...

[BearFan PHX]

54 minutes ago, Stinger226 said:

I use to read his articles all the time and started realizing his sources are other journalist that use each other as soruces as inside information. So your saying (my understanding) doesnt mean its an opinion? I dont really care what you want to call it, he thinks he knows what they meant to do, yet there is no source. 

opinion:

a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.

"I'm writing to voice my opinion on an issue of great importance"

Here's another hard hitting rumor from Eric.https://www.sportsmockery.com/chicago-bears/ben-johnson-reportedly-leaning-on-the-bears-to-fire-ryan-poles/

OMG. Im going to have to explain this to you like 10 times before you understand again. Instead ill just try this once more.

"my understanding" means based on something SOMEONE ELSE told him. "my opinion" means one's own opinion.

As I said very clearly above:

"Also the way you parse "my understanding" to mean "my opinion" is dumb. What he is saying is that he heard this, and that is his understanding of WHAT HE HEARD. Maybe he heard misinformation, maybe rumor - I'm certainly not claiming it was more than that. But it 100% doesn't mean his opinion. At the very least it means someone elses opinion that he respects. Given that he hs a lot more connection to Halas Hall than either you or I do, it's at least a rumor."


You are entitled to your opinoin, I am entitled to mine. But you routinely say "the Bears won't do _______" and you don't know, so I dont feel I have to be so careful about how I discuss things either. Every time you do that, i dont jump in and say "you dont know that" I could,m but I dont. So maybe you could extend the same courtesy.

But your first jab was that Lambert isn't to be trusted. But see, that was a really dumb thing to say because Lambert simply pasted ZImmerman's tweet. So surely in this case Lambert is 100% right that Zimmerman said that. And ZImmerman in turn was passing along what he'd heard as well. So yes rumor. Like I said. A rumor I found interesting.

So save your sarcasm and condescension please. I thought the rumor was interesting. I still do. I dont know why you're like this, but I refuse to go back down the road we were in last offseason just because you cant act nicely. i won't go there this time. You do you.

[BearFan PHX]

43 minutes ago, Mongo3451 said:

Ben Johnson isn't even allowed to talk to the Bears during the regular season.  At least I think that's the rule...

I think you're totally right. He cant communicate directly with the Bears for sure.

But he has apparently made generalized statements about what he needs in a team, and that apparently includes being in sync with the GM's contract. So the Bears would have to fire or extend Poles to land Johnson to fulfill that consideration. And that makes sense in general anyway.

Here's Albert Breer repeating what Johnson said, which is where this all comes from I think? If this helps?

https://www.bleachernation.com/bears/2024/12/06/ben-johnson-bears-message/
 

[Stinger226]

1 hour ago, BearFan PHX said:

OMG. Im going to have to explain this to you like 10 times before you understand again. Instead ill just try this once more.

"my understanding" means based on something SOMEONE ELSE told him. "my opinion" means one's own opinion.

As I said very clearly above:

"Also the way you parse "my understanding" to mean "my opinion" is dumb. What he is saying is that he heard this, and that is his understanding of WHAT HE HEARD. Maybe he heard misinformation, maybe rumor - I'm certainly not claiming it was more than that. But it 100% doesn't mean his opinion. At the very least it means someone elses opinion that he respects. Given that he hs a lot more connection to Halas Hall than either you or I do, it's at least a rumor."


You are entitled to your opinoin, I am entitled to mine. But you routinely say "the Bears won't do _______" and you don't know, so I dont feel I have to be so careful about how I discuss things either. Every time you do that, i dont jump in and say "you dont know that" I could,m but I dont. So maybe you could extend the same courtesy.

But your first jab was that Lambert isn't to be trusted. But see, that was a really dumb thing to say because Lambert simply pasted ZImmerman's tweet. So surely in this case Lambert is 100% right that Zimmerman said that. And ZImmerman in turn was passing along what he'd heard as well. So yes rumor. Like I said. A rumor I found interesting.

So save your sarcasm and condescension please. I thought the rumor was interesting. I still do. I dont know why you're like this, but I refuse to go back down the road we were in last offseason just because you cant act nicely. i won't go there this time. You do you.

All you like to do is find stupid shit to argue about. He never lists anyone he talked you, he made the shit up but its facts to you because he gives the impression he talked to someone. WHO did he talk to? If you cant find who he talked to just stop pretending you're smarter than everyone else.

[BearFan PHX]

1 hour ago, Stinger226 said:

All you like to do is find stupid shit to argue about. He never lists anyone he talked you, he made the shit up but its facts to you because he gives the impression he talked to someone. WHO did he talk to? If you cant find who he talked to just stop pretending you're smarter than everyone else.

LOL Im not smarter than anyone else - I posted a link to a rumor and said I found it interesting. Youre the one who had to crap all over it, meanwhile youre constantly telling us "the Bears will ______" or "the Bears wont _______" and most of what you say turns out to be wrong a few weeks later - your track record is absolute crap LOL

Youre a very silly person.

[Mongo3451]

4 hours ago, BearFan PHX said:

I think you're totally right. He cant communicate directly with the Bears for sure.

But he has apparently made generalized statements about what he needs in a team, and that apparently includes being in sync with the GM's contract. So the Bears would have to fire or extend Poles to land Johnson to fulfill that consideration. And that makes sense in general anyway.

Here's Albert Breer repeating what Johnson said, which is where this all comes from I think? If this helps?

https://www.bleachernation.com/bears/2024/12/06/ben-johnson-bears-message/
 

I said this weeks ago.  They need to extend Poles or fire him.  It's the only way it will work...

[BearFan PHX]

52 minutes ago, Mongo3451 said:

I said this weeks ago.  They need to extend Poles or fire him.  It's the only way it will work...

you did, and it's logical. No head coach will come here knowing the GM could be fired and the next one may have a different vision.

Then again, some head coaching candidates may wish to bring their own guy in, or suggest him? I suppose that's the fire him scenario, but it might not happen until after the coach is chosen.

But one way or another, once we have our head coach, there must be a GM whose contract aligns or exceeds that of the new head coach for sure. Anything else would be... Bearish. Ugh. No decent head coaching candidate would put up with that.