Chicago Bears 2025
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Just a heads up for anyone in the Springfield/Decatur/Champaign area planning on watching the Bears/Chiefs game tomorrow night, it will air on ABC rather than Fox 55.
I'd assume they and the Chiefs starters play roughly the same amount. Same with the Bears 2s against the Chiefs 2s and the 3s for each side against each other.
C Williams is not the answer.
What I saw tonight was more of what we saw last year. Indecisive, always a little late on everything he does. Trubisky all over again, but his nails are prettier…… Athleticism and arm strength to spare, no idea what play to call or where to throw it.
Sadly, (Thankfully) Coach Johnson will be drafting his own hand picked qb next year.
This game showed more of the gap in talent between the Bears and the Chiefs than anything else. KC is a perennial Super Bowl contender right now. Bears are in the first year of a transition that they hope will lead to them being at the same level as the Chiefs in the future. It's gonna be tough for the Bears to compete up front with the o and d lines the Chiefs have right now.
I'd hold off judgment on Caleb until we get into the regular season and see what he can look like under Ben Johnson's tutelage.
Did you find CW in the sack with your woman or something? In the only two quarters of preseason football that he's played, he's been fine. The pocket has held up, he's standing firm in it, he's going through his progressions and he's getting the ball down field to his playmakers. He posted a 116 QBR tonight.
If there's an area of concern, it's not the offense. They'll score plenty. The defense could be a problem.
The front four is extremely thin and they don't generate much of a pass rush and they aren't very stout in the trenches. Then, all of the injuries in the defensive backfield are of major concern. If Johnson isn't ready for the opener, Jefferson is going to go wild. They have a lot to sort through on that side of the ball.
Bagent was amazing. Made all the throws perfectly
IlliniKat91
- Chicago, IL
If you think what you saw last night was what we saw last year, I wonder how well you actually watch football.
The pocket held up. The play calls were better. A team with less experienced got rattled by dudes who have been to four Super Bowls in four years and won three of them. In short, exactly what you need for a team who might have been drinking their own kool aid after a 38-0 preseason win.
This season is going to be like watching Illinois when BB first came in: a lot of promise, flashes, and most importantly, competence as the team continues to grow. Because I believe that's exactly what we need, I'm good with that.
Johnson has made it clear that he has a standard in mind for Williams, and I believe that he'll hold him to it. His response to the question in this video, "Sounds like good protection," is all I need to hear. That's a head coach about to spend two weeks drilling his QB on making the right play, not the highlight reel play, which is exactly what Williams needs imo.
Parsons to Packers.
Great. Just what we needed.
Great. Just what we needed.
sacraig
- The desert
In all honesty, as a Packers fan, I am stunned. We just don't make splashy trades almost ever. But then again, we also don't ever draft WRs in the first round and we did that this year, too.
I remember when the Bears made a big trade for a pass rusher. Worked out for about a year and then became a lot of diminishing returns and the lack of draft capital hurt them.
FlyNavy
- Los Angeles
And the massive contract that hung over the team like an albatross until a couple years ago.
There are injury concerns for Parsons - high ankle sprain last year, back injury that supposedly held him out of training camp this year. If he's healthy and stays healthy, it'll pay off. If not, well...
Yeah, but Packers don’t have Matt Nagy as HC or Pace as GM.
Plus I think the Packers have to eat over $35 million in dead cap money over the next two years for trading away Kenny Clark.
Fair enough though one of those picks they gave up did end up being Josh Jacobs.
I’d argue those two first rounders Pace gave up wouldn’t have hurt as much if not for his terrible track record with other first rounders. In 2015 he selected Kevin White at No. 7. Injuries certainly hurt his career, but not like he showed much when healthy. Guys drafted within 5 spots after White included Vic Beasley (15.5 sacks second year), Todd Gurley (3 1000+ yard seasons), Trae Waynes (decent CB, 3 year starter) and Danny Shelton (run stopper).
In 2016, they traded #106 pick to move up 2 spots to get Leonard Floyd. Two picks after their original draft slot, 5 time pro bowler Laremy Tunsil was selected. Some serviceable players were drafted within 5 picks of that 106 pick they gave up.
And of course we all remember the 2017 fail. Not only did he pick the wrong QB, but unlikely anyone was going to jump up ahead of them for Trubisky. Alvin Kamara was chosen in the #67 spot they traded away and Cooper Kupp at #69. In the #111 spot they could have picked Eddie Jackson without giving up the #197 pick to move up. And with the #70 pick in 2018 draft they also gave up in the trade, SF picked some guy named Fred Warner.
Pace actually made some good picks outside of first round, but it was those misses in first round that set the tone for his tenure.
Pace took Justin Fields one pick before Micah Parsons. That is some weak talent scouting.
Fields is a trickier situation and not sure that is really a fair assessment as it is very unlikely Bears would have been in the position to draft Parsons. They moved up specifically to get Fields and likely would not have done the same to take Parsons. So it comes down to whether it was really necessary to move up to get Fields, whether Mac Jones would have been better pick, or if they would have been better off filling other needs and looking for stopgap QB in free agency/going with what they had while picking up developmental QB later in draft.
It likely was necessary to move up to get Fields. and I think Fields was the better option over Jones — though both in part fell victim to poor coaching/development. That is Pace’s big blunder when it comes to Fields, not having staff and a good plan for developing him. Jones was hurt by Big Bill deciding to not have a real OC during one of his early seasons, but likely not better served with Bears if they made him the choice.
Would Bears have been better off kicking QB problem down the road for a year. and/or picking a developmental QB later? David Mills looks to be the best of the 3 QBs taken in third rounds that year. The 2022 draft was a weak one for QBs unless they would have used one of their seventh rounders for Brock Purdy.
I don’t fault Pace with trading up to get Fields. No, his big fail was not having staff in place to develop Fields and creating offense to take advantage of his abilities.
I guess the other side to that coin is that teams were letting Fields slide in the draft, and that he still hasn't shown that he's an NFL keeper QB. As for the scouting, the Bears were able to spot HOF Brian Urlacher playing at New Mexico, but didn't see anything special in Parsons at Penn St.
Sure, you can argue Fields wasn’t a good pick, but they would not have been in a position to take Parsons. Certainly weren’t going to give up same package they did for Fields to move up to get Parsons. Using that kind of logic, you can say it was weak talent scouting on most every missed Pro Bowler in Pace’s or any other GMs tenure when they took a non- Pro Bowler. I mean they could have presumably traded up to get many of them. And they didn’t trade up to get Urlacher.
And not sure how much Fields was actually sliding. Lawrence and Wilson were pretty much consensus 1-2, and SF fell in love with Lance. After that, not many teams before where the Bears picked Fields had a QB need. Denver was probably most needy and they took Surtain, which worked out pretty well. Sure, someone could have jumped up sooner than Bears to get Fields, so in that sense he slid and there were some questions about him. But I think the “slide” had more to do with draft order and team needs.
Like I said, I really don’t fault Pace for taking Fields. Did he have to move up or move up that high to get him? Maybe not. However, I do fault him for missing so badly 4 years prior on Trubisky and giving up a lot of draft capital for the opportunity to miss on him a pick earlier. He makes right call in that draft and Fields never becomes an issue. And I fault him for not having staff to develop him. But it was never really a choice between Fields and Parsons.
Illwinsagain
- Cary, IL
I am not going to do revisionist history here. I was happy with the Fields pick. Was it a bad choice? I don't know. I don't think he was given the best set of circumstances and I am sure he could have done a better job of overcoming some of those circumstances.
Agreed. I was happy with pick too. They needed a QB. Their options were trade up for Fields, stay put and hope Fields or Mac Jones fell to them, wait and pick one of the next tier guys in 3rd round as a true developmental guy, or completely kick it down the road to 2022 (and that was a bad QB class), Fields wasn’t done any favors by the team put around him and a bad coaching staff. I’m interested to see how he does with Jets.
The question isn't about every GM missing on pro-bowlers, it's about Pace's team not recognizing an exceptional talent - at a premium position. And overestimating the talent of another QB to blow draft capital on - details of the draft notwithstanding for either player. The way the players have turned out is relevant too, as is Pace's firing. GMs not having a bidding war for Fields each time he's released appears to agree about Pace's skill.
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