1. LOS Mitch. He'll be making short passes. His few deep throws will likely be off target. 2. Defense letting them March down the field. Soft coverage guarding the deep ball that a recovering 50 year old Brees completely excels at. 3. Montgomery. He'll probably do good. 4. EJ and the chirping. He'll have more screen time celebrating and chirping than tackles. 5. QB pressures. There will be a lot, mainly when Mitch is on the field though. Been an odd day... Had some drinks.
I don't share the same enthusiasm/optimism others have about this match-up... 1) Stopping Kamara and/or Latavius Murray is the top priority. Like we saw earlier this season--Brees can't chuck the ball deep anymore--but he's especially effective in the short passing game, especially with Kamara, who is among the best 2-way backs in football. Murray has beaten this team up before. People who think Brees' washed up/old probably didn't see him carve up Carolina's secondary last week. 2) You're the underdog--so you need a broken play like a PR/KR for TD, pick 6, strip-sack, trick play, or blocked kick/punt to help. If Ejax wants to earn his paycheck this week, many of us wouldn't complain. Also--score TDs, not FGs. 3) I get Duke Shelley isn't perfect, nor is Kindle Vidnor--but for the life of me, I can't understand why the fuck people make a fuss about Buster Skrine being out and how it's somehow a detriment to the defense. Spoiler: it's not. Do these people really think Erin wouldn't have carved his ass up last week/picked on him/run specially-designed plays with LaFleur to put Adams on him? 4) Chuckles needs to call a good ga--fuck. 5) Don't chirp, assholes. 6) Noquan may be out. So that'll be fun watching Brees pick on poor Josh Woods. But hey--JJ may be back. Vidnor to slot. 7) Can Artavius Pierce get some carries instead of Patterson? How about Spencer Ware? 8) Can someone cheap shot Gardner-Johnson? Come from his blindside and ring his fucking bell and send his ass to concussion protocol?. I hate when the bears talk--but quite possibly the biggest shit talker in the NFL--who's punked you a couple of times going back a couple of years--I'm more tired of him. I get he's like Andrew Shaw to the Blackhawks. You hate him when he's on the other team but when he's on your team he's the man. Cole Kmet sounds like he wants to hit someone 9) Maybe don't wait until the 2nd half to complete a pass to your best WR. 10) Don't get overly cute when you don't have to or need to. 11) I got Saints 38-20 with a shitwad--sorry--game crippling stupid throw/INT sometime in the 3rd before Taysom Hill/Sean Peyton start trolling. Then goodbye, Mitch. 12) Fire everyone.
I'm not even worried about this game. Couldn't care less. Things to watch for the offseason: 1) If Chuckles is gone, then who? Jim Schwartz? 2) How many picks will Pace trade up from 19? Will he move into the top 10? Will we have a first round pick in 2022? 3) With Foles almost certainly back, we will have to target another FA assuming Pace doesn't draft a QB. Stay far away from Cam. Fitzmagic might be a decent option if he's available really cheap. 4) Re-sign Santos. 5) WR will probably be a need in the draft with A-Rob gone and Miller clearly nothing more than an inconsistent #3. Patg, anyone we could target in the mid-rounds? 6) If we can get anything, i.e. 7th rounder, for the following players then they should be traded immediately to create cap space: Trevathan, Quinn, Mack.
On paper, this is looking like a disaster. People point to the last game and how close it was, but these were two different teams. The Bears Defense had been playing well, the Offense had Nick Foles instead of Trubisky, and the Saints were a much less solid team. Roquan played in the last game as well. There are really two ways this game goes, a close loss, and a blowout loss. I'm really struggling to see how, outside of any given sunday, this team could win as they just don't match up well. Worse, despite how much Foles sucked, his play was more or less consistent. Trubs lights up shitty defenses, and then *shits the bed* against good defenses, and the Saints for the most part are a pretty good D. The good thing about this game will be to see exactly how improved the Oline is. This game is a moral victory to save people's jobs. But it's playoff football I guess?
See, CCS is beating their meats to the idea of switching back to a 4-3. Absolutely not. Trevathan and Noquan both can't play Will at the same time and there are no true Mikes anymore. 5-techs are nicer than 3 techs because you get 2 of them shooting gaps with a guaranteed 1 on 1 provided you have a competent nose tackle--unless you have a guy like Tommie Harris (pre-injured) that just wrecks everything including doubles--and those guys are few/far between. One name that makes sense here short term wise is Wade Phillips. Not in love with him, but those of us wanting to see blitzing would get a lot of it. Because let's face it--no good DC candidate comes here short term. Don't fucking start with this shit... We better have a fucking 1st round pick in 2022. If whomever making the decisions has/grows a brain, you'd have two 1sts. Can't really see 2 vets, but I guess. Fitz is smart enough to pick up Nagy's offense and look competent some of the time. He's also a bear-y enough player to also look like hot garbage. He'd fit right in. 5--Outside of a few NW games, I haven't been paying that much attention to college ball. I know the big names, and think the kid from Minnesota, Bateman is entirely underrated. Probably is a 1st rounder though because he's one of the 2 good ones out of 6 with size you'd prefer to replace ARob. 6--I think Kyle Fuller is the biggest trade piece you have, unless you want to part with Noquan.
Obviously. But the latest rumors are that Deshaun Watson is very unhappy with the FO in Houston and may soon demand a trade. This is how it all began with the Cutler trade: disgruntlement, rumors, and then it was a reality. Granted that occurred in March/April if my memory serves, not in January. Houston does seem to have a knack for making dumb trades, although Bill O'Brien is gone now. Would you be willing to do two 1st rounders for him? I think I would, assuming that was the final price and nothing more. And I hate the fact we've squandered so many picks the last few years. But this may be too good of an opportunity to pass up.
Not be a wiseass/dodge--because I think Watson should have been a bear in 2017 and not Mitch. But why would the bears want Watson now? They had every chance to take a look at him then draft him in 2017 and didn't. How does Ryan Pace make this move and not be flayed alive? Why would Watson waive his no-trade clause to come here? He has not been shy about his feelings about the bears and their process with him leading up to that draft. I think they have a better chance prying Matt Stafford away from Detroit if we're talking big-swing at a QB, fully aware how improbable inner-division trades of this magnitude are.
Because even Pace must know what a catastrophic mistake he made the first time around. This would be a chance to get it right. True. But maybe being courted and wanted now could make a difference. All I'm saying is that the Watson situation isn't something we should dismiss.
While I like Watson, Pace should double down on his mistake of not drafting him with a single pick by trading away even more picks? Given his age and ability, there are all kinds of crazy rumors about how much would have to be traded for him, but I'd assume at minimum a "Jay Cutler/Khalil Mack" esque trade of two firsts + some change. That is a lot for a guy who isn't Patrick Mahomes. He's miles better that Mitch no question, but is he franchise changing? He didn't bring enough to take the Texans anywhere. And yes, he put the Bears on full blast which I'm sure would weigh in his decision. Which means that in two equal trades, the Bears would lose out, so they'd really have to offer even more. It's possible, but given the cap and needs of this team, I don't see it happening at all. That plus I'm sure Pace heard the things Watson said, and he strikes me as the big ego kind of guy that would care that he had been put on blast.
