Schedule got released last week. Would've made a thread sooner but Bears haven't yet earned the right for me to drop what im doing just so i can talk about them. Wk 1- @ LA Rams (SNF) Wk 2- Cincy Wk 3- @ Cleveland Wk 4- Loins Wk 5- @ Raiders Wk 6- GB Wk 7- @ TB Wk 8- San Fran Wk 9- @ Pitt (MNF) Wk 10- BYE Wk 11- Baltimore Wk 12- @ Loins (TNF) Wk 13- Arizona Wk 14- @ GB (SNF) Wk 15- Min (MNF) Wk 16- @ Seattle Wk 17- NYG Wk 18- @ Min We all know the final count in January is never what it looks like it will be in May. That said, I can't remember seeing a tougher looking schedule on paper than the one we have here. That is an absolute horror show. That very reasonably looks like a top10 overall pick for the Giants next year which would piss me off greatly. One other thought: Looking at this schedule, i really don't see where you can drop Fields in where he has a run of easier/manageable games to help him in. Like not even two! Even coming off the bye they will face a very good team with a tough, blitz prone Defense. Thats the opposite of easy or manageable for a rook QB. If i was to guess id say if they start 0-3, or maybe even 1-2, you drop him in for the Lions week 4 and then pray the rest of the season. But that is pretty damn early. Bit too early for my liking.
Waaaaaaay too many prime-time games but I get it with Justin Fields. I remember when with Mitch during his rookie year on a CBS 3:45 prime time with Nantz/Romo every shot was on Mitch when--whoever the QB was at that point--sucked. I got 6-10-1 and the Giants having the 8th-10th overall pick of next year (congrats Giants fans). I also see Week 14 getting flexed because people are 'loling' at this sad team even with some nice potential of Fields. If Erin truly holds out/leaves the NFC North with his drama--I'll rethink this because without him--the packers are fucking garbage sans Adams, Alexander, and Zdarius Smtih. Not a 'called it' but I think Fields will be babied until the week after the bye/Baltimore. I think Dalton starts week 1 (ala the giraffe) but fares better and has more leash because 'below average' is sadly better than 'comically bad' on the talent scale. I think Foles starts at least 2 games after the ginger fizzles out, also looking comically bad against the 49ers and the Steelers (save us from the gidiot). I think Fields starts well as Mitch did, looking spry/fresh/promising. Think his learning curve will hit him by next year when he is the starter and that's when we figure out what type of QB he is... Also checked out your LA joe mock draft thread and props on calling Khyrs Tonga in the 7th round.
I actually don't think this looks tough on paper. The Lions may be the worst team in the NFL, the Bengals still suck, Steelers on decline, and Giants are at best average. Not to mention the Vikings aren't going to be any better than last year. 6-7 wins is very likely. As for Fields, I'm going to go out on a limb and say he starts week 1. With a full camp I think he'll outplay Dalton and it will be at a point where Nagy will worry about losing the locker room if Fields isn't #1. Barring injury to both Fields and Dalton, Foles will not take a snap in a Bears uniform again.
Agree to disagree. He is going to take up a roster spot unless Pace clears 10.6 mil in cap (the deadcap cost this year to cut him outright as opposed to 6.66 mil cap hit to keep him--great job there, Pace) and it was rumored he tried to trade Foles but couldn't give him away before/during the draft. I don't know why Pace renegotiated Foles last year, because the 22 mil guaranteed would have been paid and he could have been cut by now and the bears with more cap breathing room--I thought maybe the 10-ish mil in cap room the bears had throughout last season would have gone somewhere important, like Allen Robinson's bonus for a new deal--but that's on me for giving the Bears/Pace too much credit... For now, apparently Jimmy Graham is going to stay, the drafted kids haven't even been signed yet (spotrac says the bears are $980K over the cap presently while OTC says the bears have $282k in cap space) so regardless the exact number, Pace has to move more money around to sign all of them. Think the bears will carry 3 QBs short of someone around the league getting injured and a team looking desperately to give up a 7th rounder. If Nagy/Pace are safe this year--I think we see Foles after Dalton is fully bad, even if it's not for long. I just don't know how he isn't on the team given Pace's fiscal incompetence.
I agree he's going to take up a roster spot but do not seeing him getting any playing time. Pace's mismanagement of Foles' contract aside, I think Nagy saw enough of him last year. He will go down as one of the most expensive third string QBs in history, at least for one season.
Week 12, that is a long long time to sit on your prized new asset, especially the way Bears season is likely to go. Given how quick he pulled the trigger with Foles last season i highly doubt Nagy has that level of restraint. I know Boner Control doesn't. That'll also mean dropping Fields in on a short week which would be far from ideal. I correctly picked Javon Wims in the 7th round of that comp a few years ago and look how well that turned out Seriously tho, given i didnt make some wild swing guess at a trade up and so was completely out of sync from the get go, it turned out ok. Got Jenkins right, albeit a round early. Did also correctly call 2 OTs being taken. With so few picks i had to basically chose between getting an ARob replacement or a slot WR/KR. Went the former, partially on value at the time, tho the latter might have been smarter. With all your college fb knowledge you really should do it next year. Interesting thoughts. The Lions do indeed stink. The Bengals played some good teams close last season and will surprise some people this year. I could see them winning 7 games which puts them at least on a par with us. Steelers look primed for a step back but it might not be huge given their D will still be nails. An away game on MNF feels like an L to me. The Giants, if Daniel Jones can be even mid level they will put up a lot of points and their D was ranked higher than ours last year. They will also prob be playing for a lot more than us in week 16. I wouldn't feel confident calling a win in an of those games tbh. The Vikes i always back us to at least split with because we're one of the few teams who have Dalvin Cooks number and one of many that have Kirk Cousins'.
You guys are unhappy with the extra game? You'd rather teams were still wasting their time in PS for another week? I do find it a shame that this will mean a lot of records become toast, some that have stood for a long time. But they prob said that in the 70s too. Overall im on board with it.
I'm not. But I also think the teams I mentioned are not much better, and mostly worse than us. Plus we always manage to win 1-2 games a year we have no business winning against a decent team. We did last year against the Bucs. We did it in 2017 against a Steelers team that went 13-3. Yes, especially when it's an extra road game (at least for us this season). No I don't want 4 preseason games, I'm fine with abolishing PS entirely, but 2-3 games is fine. More football is not always better. It means more injuries overall and teams who have clinched early now get an extra week to rest their starters. Weeks 17 and 18 are going to be shit for the majority of the league. I've always said one of the reasons for the NFL's success is its short schedule, every game is important. The more you add games, the less important they each matter, further diluting a product that has already been diluted by overexposure (fuck Thursday night), bad officiating, and now allowing mediocre teams (i.e. us) to make the playoffs.
Honestly Chicago being such a big market, they want to get them in prime time when they can sell it, and Fields is that, though I find the idea that they are doing it to pan to Fields every time the Ginger fucks up is amusing. Not that you're wrong, they will do this, it's just nuts to me. I don't know, I think they will bury Fields at the back of the depth chart as #3, but I also think barring an injury to Dalton, Foles stays on the bench. At least, I think this if their seat isn't at all hot. If they are feeling a hot seat, Fields will be #2 and we won't see Foles either. I agree you can't pencil in anything as a Win, but the Bears have a fighting chance to win any of those, Giants, Lions, Steelers etc. Packers with Rodgers even with Fields is probably another sweep for them. Outside of TB, there are other games that shouldn't be straight up blowouts. But a lot depends on how much the defense has left in the tank. And this team did somehow beat TB last year. 3rd hardest schedule by record, and overall given the performance last year and the changes made thus far, I don't see them outperforming last year's 8-8 with a more difficult schedule. I've changed my mind on the extra playoff spot, it really made the Bears playoff spot an absolute joke. They lost to the hated yet again and still backdoored in to get their ass kicked. They had no business even being there. The quality of the extra playoff games weren't good. I don't mind an extra game but we'll see how it goes. If Week 18 now becomes even more meaningless than Week 17 was, I won't care for it. It seems likely bad teams will be fighting for draft position, and good teams will be resting, and more of both. But hopefully I'm wrong.
I'm with Blang. Players are walking zombies and teams are on backups/guys signed off the street at the end of the season, which isn't bad to watch when it's a good team--but when teams are bad? Football gets painful to watch then--not that it already isn't given Matt Nagy's bears. The NFL is reverting back to no extra playoff teams for now, and more games isn't always a great thing. It's all dependent if Pace/Nagy know they're safe or if a fire is under their asses this year--which we won't know until the season's well underway. If they're safe for 2021 regardless of outcome--I can see them playing the "we gotta protect/can't rush Justin Fields" card. If my guess is right with the bye, Fields will still (unless he gets hurt) have 8 games to start... Now if the lockerroom turns? Different story and I can buy Foles being the highest-paid 3rd stringer who won't play. If the ginger is worse than the giraffe, especially early? I think Foles is an option if we're talking week 2-4. Nagy's been asked about him several times--could just be standard coachspeak--but he says Foles is involved in everything and has a chance to go out and win the starter's job. If the LT gets fixed and they can protect a statuesque QB--maybe BDN isn't half bad. Especially right now, May 20th--nothing's set in stone. Things CAN bounce the bears' way. Big-names get hurt, Tom Brady forgets what down it is again, Erin actually leaves the division--one thing that's a certainty with the bears are they are the leagues most consistently inconsistent team so the team we're expecting to slap them around they stubbornly win and when they should be dominating--well, we know the rest. People love the vikings this year for the NFC North especially if Erin is gone. I don't get why.
