Rants and Raves 2024 Edition

You guys know I was a Fields fan and although i wanted them to draft Caleb, it was with a degree of reluctance cos i do think a team can win with Fields.

All that said, there's simply no way you can watch those two play and not know that the Bears made the right choice by going with Williams. The eyes have it, he's just superior as a passer in pretty much every way and its taken just 5 games to demonstrate it behind a shitty O-Line too i might add. I've been particularly impressed with how much they've put on him pre snap and how well he's handling it.

Jayden Daniels is someone im never gonna lose sleep over tbh. Firstly cos its not one or the other, both can have very successful careers and quite possibly will. Second i don't get to do all the research some of you college guys do, i put most of my time into Williams so its not like i was even in a position really to pound the table for Daniels. From the limited stuff i saw tho i don't know how you actually go Daniels over Caleb with the first pick, not when you're the guy pulling the trigger. The hindsight heroes will do their thing but that doesnt interest me. Interesting that pat was high on Daniels, that sure looks like some good scouting now.

 

Justin won't win you a game throwing the ball. We saw it for 3 years. We wanted him to. Pittsburgh is finding out the same right now. Instead, he's doing the same thing--putting up big stats when the game is meaningless and losing games.

I was also taking a shot at the rat faced methhead. Would have gone for the kill shot/been a lot crueler until baby shared about her late son so respectfully for her/her fam, and to clean it up, in an incredibly short period of time he went from 'Justin is just getting started' to wanting to trade for Caleb and Rome. What changed in a couple of weeks? I don't know. I didn't choose to pursue a career path in psychology of hillbilly family drug addicts and how their brains form "logic"--for GROSS lack of finding a better term.

I didn't agree with Baby's assertion of JJfuckface. I thought his deleted post was a cry for help. Even uneducated, hillbilly methheads deserve help now and again. I'll suggest the SMART program next time one of his meth-induced tirades or gidiot family gatherings (Thanksgiving is weeks away) involves law enforcement and bond court.

That's the nature of the entertainment beast. The loudest, proudest idiot is going to say asinine things, and clicks/reactions will be generated in the same, shit 48 hour news cycle. Oh, and now there's new jackasses on top of the existing jackasses who need to also do it in a podcast. So misinformation/bad opinions/contrarians who need attention are just fucking everywhere.

And to clarify, I liked Daniels, but not over Caleb. I had him as QB2 this draft class, had him above Drake Maye who--well...looked like ass minus 1 game in preseason and the second coming of Mac Jones, but the prognosticators insisted on trying to shove that guy down my throat as an elite college QB which he just wasn't. I saw Maye and thought he was a 3/4 rounder who should be sitting on the sidelines holding a clipboard then I saw Daniels and asked why nobody is talking about him.

But I like what the commies are doing. I'll give Kliff this, for now at least he is making JD's life easy. Look at passing flow charts, and those who suggested by week 7/8 Kliff may be figured out. Kliff cuts JD's field in half, and the vast majority of JD's throws are on one side of the field with a handful per game usually to his left side while Caleb's pass charts are all over the damn field. See below

These are from Week 5, but the remainder of the weeks look just the same, minus JD's game against Arizona where the left side of the field saw a couple handfuls. You can tell Waldron's staff trusts him whereas Kliff doesn't have the same level.

Like Ev, I'm not losing sleep over JD. I believe in Caleb, believe he's getting better and better, just want Poles to shore up a bottom 3 OL in football. If the bears picked 3rd in the draft this past april then I would have probably found new hobbies for this fall.

 

Hey Pat. I was wrong telling JJratface to take his post down. That's censorship and I don't agree with it at all. I could have, and should have, just scrolled by.

He is certainly entitled to offer a helpline to all Bears fans who want to commit suicide, and who am I to try to influence the topic? It might have been quite entertaining to see the fallout from his post.

I kind of miss the days when random members would stumble onto the Chicago Bears board and try to show how clever they are. Haha

 

The Jayden Daniels > Caleb talk is asinine and a product of the hot take, inflaming the audience media culture we live in. I'm very pleased with where Caleb is after 5 games. Far more than I was for Fields or Mitch at the same point. Because as Ev said, he totally passes the eye test and when you factor in what he has to overcome with the OL, the guy has actually exceeded my expectations thus far. I don't give a shit about JD. If he ends up a HOFer, great. Dude could come crashing down to earth eventually, we have no idea. I don't really care. As long as Caleb works out that's all that matters.

@Ev, do you think Bears will have a home field advantage this Sunday? Or have the Jags somehow converted enough Brits to their cause by sheer number of games they play there?

 

Jayden hasn't played any world-beaters unless the defenses of the Giants and the Browns scare you. The Bears faced two top-five defenses.
I watched his 2024 highlights, and it just seems pretty much everything he throws is to the right unless they move the pocket to the left, so they are giving him half the field. He does like to tuck and run far too often and that will give defenses headaches, but IMO that isn't sustainable.
Both have done well against the blitz and have similar stats
Daniels this year is 17-23 203 yds 2 TD and 0 int.
Williams last two games 17-19 200 yds 2 TD 0 int.
I love how Caleb has progressed even though the Bears are throwing everything at him from the start, and that isn't something every rookie QB can handle or even tolerate. IMO It seems Daniels is still on training wheels.

 

Daniels isn’t the top rookie Quarterback, he would be the league MVP right now unanimously. He’s setting a pace that is better than any other quarterback in league history. If Daniels keeps playing the way he is he will be the Goat by the end of his rookie season. Nobody could have predicted these crazy numbers that Daniels is getting.

 

Its a good question blang. Short answer: I think so. But i doubt it will be like 2019 when Bears fans took over the stadium that day. The "home team" Raiders came out the tunnel for kickoff and got their asses roundly booed ha.

The Bears fanbase over here is massive. Maybe the only ones who could even claim to be on a par would be some of those other 80s OG teams like the Giants, Dolphins or 49ers. But even then. Maybe the Jags are creeping up there im not sure.

Its said this project to create a real Jags fanbase here is def working(maybe slower than they expected but hey maybe if the team didnt stink every year) and i've always believed they at least wanted the potential option of moving a team here. And i watched them play i think the Bills last year on tv and it looked like there was a noticeable amount of teal in the crowd. So we'll see, but i still expect the Bears to be the home team.


Getting the evening flight down there today after work. We're going for dinner at The Shard with some old friends friday night which will be very cool. Sat night i really want to go to the Bears pub, that was an absolute riot in 2019. I still remember the wise ass Packers fan that came thinking he'd do a spot of trolling. The boos blew his hair back and he last all of 5 seconds heh. Note to self: Try not to spill your pint all over Staley The Bear this time.

 

Have fun stay safe, and for the love of Staley, don't spill that pint all over him.
This is the play I couldn't find before from the all-22 of that DJ TD. Where Mitch or Justin would have drawn that safety coverage by staring DJ down, Caleb sends him in the other direction, and leaves him one on one. That's growth right there.

 

Going into the bye, I’m actually feeling good for a change, contrary to decades of rooting for this team and knowing they’re toast by this time of year 13/15 years. This time of year I’d usually provide a draft update of some sort but there’s not many good OL prognosticated to be in the teens or ideally 20s. There are 2 IOL a few great OT, but I’m not allowed to have nice things, and I don’t think the bears have a shot at any of them. Which is a problem because Davis, Jenkins, and Shelton can all go. DE/DT seems more likely based on tons of talent coming out, so 2 DT from Michigan, there’s a NT from Kentucky, another NT from Ohio State and a couple 5 techs from Oregon and Bama. DE has an array of 1st round guys from Georgia, Bama, Ped state, and Ol’ Miss, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas A&M. Paraphrased from cbsucks’ lists.

I hope Waldron and Caleb keep spreading the targets around, nice to know the 5th highest paid TE in the league can have a stat line that reflects that. Nice to see Keenan get reps, even though he’s more part timer. Nice to see smarter running lanes, just need to see less toss plays.

Bears/commies just got flexed to prime time in 2 weeks. Flus has 2 weeks to devise a plan to confuse a rookie whose field is constantly cut in half by his OC.

Tons of trades have flown around. Erin and Davonte are back together. A bunch of teams need RBs, so at this point—deal Khalil Herbert. You’re not using him, he’s a FA, and he’s not going to get enough on the market to merit a comp pick better than a 4/5/6/7 you can get for him, conditional pick or straight up.

No team with any brains is going to trade a competent OL. Doesn’t apply to us here, but I’ll suggest for the dumber among this fanbase to abandon that idea. And yea, Vegas appears to be selling off—but no—I don’t need Cody Whitehair back.

Also, social media/reddit are running wild with the idea, which i vehemently disagree with and thank y’all for not suggesting—but—don’t trade for Hassan Reddick. He’s on the wrong side of 30, and holding out of his 15 mil salary this year (backloaded and this is the poison pill year when Philly gave him 3/45 mil, his dead cap is 24 mil) because he wants a new deal and a raise. Thats not adding it doesn’t behoove the jets to trade him back to the nfc, as their conditional 2026 pick going to Philly in the return turns into a 2nd rounder, so if the jets consider it—I’d expect them to try and minimize that bite from a lost 2nd rounder, and it just so happens—we’ve seen Ryan Poles be stupid with 2nd round picks before. I hope dearly that Poles stays consistent in steering clear of older guys, which he has, sans pursuing Matt Judon earlier in camp.

Also, Pittsburgh doesn’t want to give up a 4th round pick so quickly. Tomlin is pulling Fields for Russ after going 4-2. Jjfuckface is notably nowhere to be seen to defend his guy who weeks ago ‘was just getting started,’—like we didn’t hear that at all for years.

 

Other than 1 season Swift has struggled to stay healthy all the way. Keep Herbert for the RB depth, we'll need that if we make a run for the playoffs Realistically we aren't going to get much on the open market. Probably best we'd do is a 6th.

It just sucks that this is true. I'd be willing to deal a 3rd or 4th if it meant getting an average G or C. But it's a fantasy.

Let's just hope Russ is so bad that Tomlin has no choice but to go to Fields after 4 or 5 games.

 

I was just thinking, "man, it is odd to be in the bye week and NOT looking at the draft". It's been a while since the prospects for this team were trending the right way.

Social media is killing me with all the "well the Bears beat up on bad teams". That's a true statement, but as of just LAST year and the year prior we WERE one of those bad teams. To be able to not just win, but win convincingly is a big change.

I'm fine with trading Herbert, they aren't using him and he's not in the plans. I think Hoge and Jahns floated the idea of trading Davis, but said we need him for depth, but IMO if we could get even a 7th for him you jump all over that. Here's a dude brought in to be a starting guard and he's been benched for performance reasons, on a line this bad.

Sad that I'm hoping Russ is absolutely washed, but the problem is even in Denver when he was "washed" he was still 1000x the passer Fields is. It's more likely Russ gets injured again, after all, he's getting up there.

 

One thing that's on my mind, besides the OL, is Santos the weakest link on this team? Are we going to miss out on the playoffs because he can't hit more than a 53 yarder? The rest of the league has kickers routinely lining up for 55-60 yarders and making them. Santos would have been a great kicker 15-20 years ago but he's definitely towards the bottom now.

 

Jayden seems to be a one read, see it throw it QB, and they run a lot of bunch/mesh formations. On his deep balls there is no anticipation and gives the safeties time to close. His ball is very accurate, and he's done very well against the blitz 37/47 122.7 passer rating, but if they run an empty backfield you gotta blitz that shit right up the middle.

The difference is they are now closing games, hell the last two years if the Bears were up by a Carolina/Washington caliber team by two possessions it wasn't a matter of IF the sky was falling, but more a question of when.

 

Finally got round to re-watching the game. Very interesting.

- Thought Caleb played even better than it seemed in the stadium. The pick aside, he played with real command. Highly accurate on a lot of tight window throws, did a GREAT job getting thru progressions and scanning the field, frequently got the ball out right on time and frequently threw with anticipation which is exactly the kind of thing Fields frustrated you on. Also i think of all those bad throws Cutler would make throwing off his back foot with a terrible base. Caleb's base is stronger than the rock under Edinburgh Castle, its immaculate. Just great stuff from Williams. And to be seeing so many of these positive signs this early. Its as remarkable as it is deserved for our long suffering fanbase.

- Keenan Allen had an outstanding game. Caught every target that came his way and many of them were tough contested catches. His hands were amazing in this game. People have lauded Caleb for the throw on Keenan's first TD. IMO its a good throw but not a great throw. The ball actually got way outside Keenan's frame behind him, a lot of receivers drop that ball. The ball came out when he was around the goalline and with little reaction time he made a full pivot with arms stretched to snag it. That was straight all-pro level play.

I'd also note that on the double fake TD down the middle to Kmet, watch Allen's role, its small but crucial. He's going hard on that orbit motion, really selling that fake. Its believable to a D and when the fake happens they're already a fraction behind on the second fake. Its why the pass itself was so easy. It was started by Allen not dogging his part when he knows he's not getting the ball.

- After YEARS of being terrible at this im in a state of complete shock at how competent this team has become at running screens! And not just one type, they're running all kinds of RB screens and they're.....highly effective?!! Im not always a fan of some of the personnel groupings/playcalls on WR screens, they feel like they've been much less effective. But the RB screens holy hell. I think Caleb deserves credit on this, he does them so smoothly, but ultimately are crediting Waldron with this?!

- Despite all i've said, the Jags were noticeable in this game. Man they are bad, particularly on Defense. Im not taking anything away from Caleb here cos he's doing well what he's doing well. But i am keeping my feet on the ground here. There's a lot of encouraging steps, but there's also much better teams on the horizon. The interior OL is still a big problem and those teams are going to highlight that in ways the Panthers & Jags don't.

 

You guys know how i hate kickers, but honestly i have no problem with Santos. Zero. I can totally live with Santos not being able to make a 56yarder cos i know the guy is really good inside that. His only 2 FG misses this season have been off a too long attempt and a Kmet snap. The guy is totally fine and hell no i don't want to go thru the post-Gould wilderness years again where we have the likes of Connor Barf and Codey Parkey literally causing L's with multiple missed kicks in a game.

 

Oh and meant to say, the 2 block Navy Bears endzones they had in London, way better than Soldier where the endzones are just grass coloured except for the word Bears. They need to have the endzones at Soldier with that block Navy look.

 

Well we may be better this year but I'm worried we're still the 4th best team in our division.

 

Based on the NFCN games today? Yeah, the Bears are getting better but the entire division is a juggernaut. The goddamn hated pulling out that win against the Texans pisses me off the most.

We'll find out for sure the back end of the season when we have to play the division. We get to frontload the bumslaying this year.

 

Jayden Daniels seems pretty doubtful at the moment to play this week, so they flexed the game just to have it be Caleb vs. Marcos instead heh.

Man, if this ever wasn't a Bears game to lose. Road game, after the bye, the other team missing their starting QB, coming off some big momentum. This game will really tell me if this team is any different.

 

Im concerned that Tyrique Stevenson, Gordon, and Brisker all on it, with Stevenson being limited in practice. I expect a lot of Terry McLaurin on the slot, as per Rotowire, out of 49 targets (35 catches) on the year, only 10 have been when he’s lined up in the slot, 8 of them receptions. If I were an OC looking to attack this defense, I know where I’d line him up, especially if Josh Blackwell is the starting nickel because Kyler has not practiced all week.

Why are idiot fans hoping the bears make a big splash trade? Myles Garrett and Max Crosby aren’t happening, and neither fix a bottom OL in the league.

On an unrelated note when it comes to the division, I don’t care if it’s a ‘fluid offensive consultant’ role where he offers ‘defensive perspectives’ to help LaFleur, I don’t like Robert Saleh to the packers.

I also don’t buy the rumors the Vikes want to trade for Stafford. Why trade up for McCarthy, find out your coach is the guy who can make Sam Darnold finally look like a real NFL starting QB, just to trade major assets (at least one 1st) for a guy under contract till 2027? Dont know much about their GM, Kwesi Adolfo-Mensah, but through observation—he’s calculated and has quietly build a good team that’s atop the division almost midway through the season when everybody thought the Vikes would be the cellar dwellers. Doesn’t seem like his MO. Seems more like something Jerry Jones would do.