The old adage Fool me once shame on you, fool me dozens of times I must be a Chicago Bears fan. Seems appropriate. I hope I'm wrong with Fields (nothing against the kid), and they fool me yet again, and he is the real deal.
Fields and Dalton? I fully expect Foles and Dalton with Fields holding the clipboard. Nothing better than two immobile QBs in the same formation, FUCK YEAH BABY! EXPECTATIONS SUBVERTED! Man, I cancelled that shit after the Saints game.....yet now that the season is nearly upon us, I know full well I'm signing up again. Even though I know full well this year is a learning/transition year with 8-9 as the probable end result. I don't know if I can handle the final year of the Rodgers farewell tour as I'm sure he's going to light it up yet again. I've just got a bad feeling about this, injuries piling up, redshirt year for Fields, Nagy / Pace not feeling the heat......it's going to be.....mediocre overall with a few ass whuppings by the hated Packers. Just like, most years in the past forever.
I'll get the half-empty part out of the way. If Erin plays, the packers are going to stomp this team twice. The rest is half-full. Everybody is banged up right now. Remember Rashad Coward, the turnstile that couldn't block anybody? He's getting 1st team reps with the Steelers. JJ Watt and AJ Green already injured with Cards. Falcons put their starter at LT on PUP. Ravens got a ton. Everybody's got a ton. It's the nature of the game and it will probably be worse this year with 17 games now. Luckily for the bears, nobody of significance will miss extended time that we know of (would be nice if Jenkins' back tightness could end). So the puffery shit I agree with 100%. This is still the happy/positive time of year when nobody knows if the kids who just got drafted suck or not yet. I want to take a big victory lap over the article on NFL.com talking about how Zack Wilson absolutely sucking/looking with the Jets in practice--but he deserves a chance--even if he proves to be what myself/many think of him: a gimmick college QB who dunked on cupcakes and struggled/looked average with a sprinkle of decent when any increased level of competition lined up against him. But I'm not writing Fields off. Because with this shit--you truly never know. I remember how people wrote Mahomes off because he was a turnover prone gunslinger from Texas Tech--which is a university for gimmicky/air raid college offense that doesn't fit in the NFL. Fields gets the same chance as anyone else, and if he does suck--Pace is toast. Not the result desired, but a team will have to reset before it can try to be good again. And if that can't put you in a better mood, well...get baby to do the extra special stuff then make ya a sammy. Idk.
That's literally how I made myself feel better after the Trubisky pick - if I'm right and he's awful, at least Pace is gone. If I'm wrong, we've got a great QB. Neither happened. Thankfully, you're right - this time, even the Bears couldn't keep Pace / Nagy on if their SECOND franchise QB pick falls through. ... Right?
As an impartial observer, I can't see how there would be any way possible they would survive if Fields is a bust. In fact, if they don't play him despite passing Dalton early on in camp.. Then struggle in the first few games.. Fields might survive them and still become the QB you all hope for. That does come from experience. Baker is entering his 4th year and outlasted (3) coaches (Hugh Jackson, Gregg Williams and Freddie Kitchens) and the GM that drafted him, and now is looking for a very big payday as a "franchise" QB. He isn't proven 100% yet, but he has done enough this past season to believe he is well on his way to proving it. Even a little progress and he will be considered a franchise guy. I still believe in Fields, so maybe you will get your cake and get to eat it too.
They knew Jenkins had back issues going into the draft and traded up/took him anyways. Can this franchise not take a pre-injured left tackle prospect in my lifetime in the 1st round? Or is that too much to ask for? Edit** This really makes Morgan Moses not signing here look bad. The only OL that's been signed is an undrafted kid they signed right after draft but cut a couple weeks later--Gage Cervenka, who is a run mauler/weak pass protector Center. Also from the AM670 interview, Justin Fields will get a lot of reps in the Miami game this weekend, Kindle Vildor--not Desmond Trufant starts CB2, and Duke Shelly is the starting nickel.
Knew about his injuries and immediately made him their starting LT with no contingency plan. You're right, it definitely feels like groundhog day. We've done this before. Christ.
Seriously....Pace/Nagy look awful during all of this. There were options in free agency...plus you had Leno under contract. This pick has Gabe Carimi written all over it. I hope I am wrong.
Just when you thought the O-Line couldn't turn into anymore of a cluster fuck....here we are. I see this as twofold, there's Jenkins and there's the overall roster management. Jenkins already feels scarily like Chris Williams. A big part of me is just waiting for them to say the back isnt healing on its own so they're gonna fuse a disc then he never plays again. Its pretty incredible to me Nagy saying they knew about this before they drafted him, but to what degree are we talking about here? Pat and dline were you aware of this? A lot of us were high on this pick. I read a lot of scouting reports on Jenkins, i never heard about any red flags re the back. He was a full participant at rookie minicamp wasn't he? I'm not quite ready to shit on Pace for this pick yet, its early and there are still unknowns to me. Where i will take a giant shit on Pace(once again) is for his now legendary approach to roster building. This bellend couldn't build a fucking 5+ lego set. Its one thing making the Jenkins pick, its another entirely to give yourself ZERO fallback options. I would loathe to keep Leno around another year but in this case you can justify it at least. Motherfuckers you had Morgan Moses in the building IN JUNE how does he leave??!! Between this bullshit and cap decisions like cutting Kyle Fuller while keeping Jimmy Graham this may be Pace's worst offseason yet and boy is there competition for that title. At this stage in the shitfest if i was Nagy i would be making the decision that our brand new QB wouldn't be seeing the field until months into the season, and even then only on the proviso of the O-Line looking like it won't get him killed. Assuming that is that Dalton & Foles & *insert panic signing backup QB here* haven't already been killed and there's no one left. But no, what has Nagy done instead? Announced that Fields while see significant playing time against the Dolphins in PS week 1. Same Dolphins who the Bears are practising with this week and one report from yesterday of Bears O vs Dolphins D was, and i quote, "sack city". Fuck you Nagy. Fuck you Pace.
That's really it for me. I'm not upset they took a chance on a guy that could be a really good NFL player. I'm pissed they did so, apparently knowing he has back issues, and then handed him the starting LT tackle job with no plan B whatsoever. Ditto.
You had me until this line. Not saying you, but lots of bears fans all of a sudden are fans of Charles Leno on reddit and CCS, and I don't get it. He was due to make 12 and change million/be middle of pack for LT salaries. Look what he got on the open market--under 5 million and making less than what the bears gave Germaine Ifedi. Lack of depth? Bad contingency plan drafting a pre-injured Jenkins? We agree all day. Keeping a bum--who otherwise would be a 12 and change mil bench player had Jenkins been healthy? After financial moves made to cut salary by Pace after he fucked the cap? That's not feasible. And this is more a topic I don't put stock in--but had you have kept him, he wouldn't have been some mentor. He'd be playing for his job/salary. We've seen the best of Charles Leno. It was above average in 2016 and 2017 with sprinkles of 2018. Moving on was the correct move then, and still is now. The guy was a flat-out liability and needed replacing 2 years ago. 28th ranked OT per PFF in 2020 (below 25th in 2019--can't find exact number PFF just ranked top 25 and he wasn't there), and top 5 in penalties for OT position in 2019 and 2020--for 12 and change mil? No. You can't keep that. I believe the contingency plan is fucked and at this point--all I can hope to assume is Pace is monitoring who other teams will be cutting/releasing because he has his eyes set on a guy or two. Or. Jenkins won't be out indefinitely the way he seemingly is now. Looking back? No. Just checked out his tenure/blurb on Oklahoma State's website. Started all games last year before he bounced around due to injuries to other players and ended up at RT. 2019, 12 game starter with 9 games at RT and 3 at LT due to injuries. 2018 started all games, bouncing between LT and RT due to injuries. 2017 as a freshman didn't start until late in season when someone got injured. Checked NFL.com, Profootball Network, Walterfootball, and SI's scouting reports of Jenkins. The only mention of injuries was what I mentioned above--someone else got hurt and Gundy moved Jenkins around where he was needed. Did this happen after the 2020 NCAA season? Details still unknown at this point.
I sure hope this is the case and it's not just limited to a guy or two, otherwise as Ev might say he's a wankering bellend.
Yes im certainly not all of a sudden a Charles Leno fan. In a list of contingencies keeping Leno would've been at least Plan E or F to me. But there has to be some kind of contingency if your gonna draft someone you know is injured. They knew Jenkins was injured yet they released Leno within like a week of the draft and have showed no other contingency plan since, that is shockingly dumb even by Pace standards. And just to be clear i dont consider hoping a 5th round rookie will come in and immediately look NFL calibre to be an acceptable fallback. But ultimately i don't consider this to be about Leno. If its about anyone its prob about Ifedi. IMO Ifedi is prob the reason Moses isnt here. Moses knew he was only landing one of those 1year prove it deals this year which is prob why the word was he was insisting whoever he signed for made him a starter. Or at the very least first crack at the starters job. Unfortunately Pace had already lost control of his FA boner and grossly overpaid Ifedi to stay and be his starting RT. Ifedi is being paid over $4mil this season when he should be making 1-2mil in backup money. After that Pace could neither afford to pay Moses what he was looking for or guarantee him a starters spot. More horrible roster management from the GM, but personally if Moses was on the team right now i would feel a lot less worried about the O-Line.
