OT Bears 2019/20 season and beyond

[Susan]

It pains me to say it, but I don't think there will be a 2020 NFL season. MLB is teetering on the brink after one week. The NFL has more than twice as many players, requires significant time in indoor meetings, has larger traveling staffs and the game itself doesn't lend itself to social distancing. Add to this that many NFL players carry more weight than is healthy, putting them at greater risk if they contract Covid.

I love NFL football and I understand that they thought that the virus would be under control by September, but that assumption has been blown all to hell. The hand they've been dealt sucks out loud. You got to know when to fold 'em, but the NFL doesn't.

Just make a bunch of small bubbles for each division.

The NFL is following the MLB's plan way too closely. NFL is a little better off with less travel and less of a nightlife culture but that's still so many moving parts that it's bound to fall hard.

[Chi town]

It pains me to say it, but I don't think there will be a 2020 NFL season. MLB is teetering on the brink after one week. The NFL has more than twice as many players, requires significant time in indoor meetings, has larger traveling staffs and the game itself doesn't lend itself to social distancing. Add to this that many NFL players carry more weight than is healthy, putting them at greater risk if they contract Covid.

I love NFL football and I understand that they thought that the virus would be under control by September, but that assumption has been blown all to hell. The hand they've been dealt sucks out loud. You got to know when to fold 'em, but the NFL doesn't.

Just make a bunch of small bubbles for each division.

The NFL is following the MLB's plan way too closely. NFL is a little better off with less travel and less of a nightlife culture but that's still so many moving parts that it's bound to fall hard.

16 games vs 60 games in MLB. Not the issue.

75 players on the roster among 32 teams is the issue. Would need at least 6 bubbles.

[Susan]

It pains me to say it, but I don't think there will be a 2020 NFL season. MLB is teetering on the brink after one week. The NFL has more than twice as many players, requires significant time in indoor meetings, has larger traveling staffs and the game itself doesn't lend itself to social distancing. Add to this that many NFL players carry more weight than is healthy, putting them at greater risk if they contract Covid.

I love NFL football and I understand that they thought that the virus would be under control by September, but that assumption has been blown all to hell. The hand they've been dealt sucks out loud. You got to know when to fold 'em, but the NFL doesn't.

Just make a bunch of small bubbles for each division.

The NFL is following the MLB's plan way too closely. NFL is a little better off with less travel and less of a nightlife culture but that's still so many moving parts that it's bound to fall hard.

16 games vs 60 games in MLB. Not the issue.

75 players on the roster among 32 teams is the issue. Would need at least 6 bubbles.

Not to mention they're selling seats.

They're not living in reality.

[Chi town]

Just make a bunch of small bubbles for each division.

The NFL is following the MLB's plan way too closely. NFL is a little better off with less travel and less of a nightlife culture but that's still so many moving parts that it's bound to fall hard.

16 games vs 60 games in MLB. Not the issue.

75 players on the roster among 32 teams is the issue. Would need at least 6 bubbles.

Not to mention they're selling seats.

They're not living in reality.

Bingo

[Dresden]

Ok, this is OT, but hey, the Cubs are 5-2. The bullpen is a disaster, but the starting pitching has been outstanding, and they're getting timely hitting so far. I don't expect them to compete with the elite teams like the Dodgers, but they might actually be pretty good this year.

Hardly anyone posts on this board, so it made me LOL to see an OT Cubs comment. Dresden, you're a madman.

Yeah, if the Cubs can somehow find 3-4 reliable bullpen arms, they can compete with anyone. Big if.

Looks like they may have a few good relief pitchers after all. The pen has thrown a bunch of scoreless innings recently, and Ross has been quick to reduce Kimbrel's role until he gets his act together. 8-2........

[transplant]

Ok, this is OT, but hey, the Cubs are 5-2. The bullpen is a disaster, but the starting pitching has been outstanding, and they're getting timely hitting so far. I don't expect them to compete with the elite teams like the Dodgers, but they might actually be pretty good this year.

Hardly anyone posts on this board, so it made me LOL to see an OT Cubs comment. Dresden, you're a madman.

Yeah, if the Cubs can somehow find 3-4 reliable bullpen arms, they can compete with anyone. Big if.

Looks like they may have a few good relief pitchers after all. The pen has thrown a bunch of scoreless innings recently, and Ross has been quick to reduce Kimbrel's role until he gets his act together. 8-2........

Epstein/Hoyer have assembled a collection of stuff in the bullpen. They've thrown this stuff against a wall and are hoping some of it sticks. I'm hoping it does too.

[Dresden]

Hardly anyone posts on this board, so it made me LOL to see an OT Cubs comment. Dresden, you're a madman.

Yeah, if the Cubs can somehow find 3-4 reliable bullpen arms, they can compete with anyone. Big if.

Looks like they may have a few good relief pitchers after all. The pen has thrown a bunch of scoreless innings recently, and Ross has been quick to reduce Kimbrel's role until he gets his act together. 8-2........

Epstein/Hoyer have assembled a collection of stuff in the bullpen. They've thrown this stuff against a wall and are hoping some of it sticks. I'm hoping it does too.

They gave Kimbrel another chance tonight and he gives up 2 runs in the 9th. He's going to be relegated to non clutch situations from now on I hope. Luckily they had 3 runs to spare, and are now 9-2. They aren't scoring many runs though, and if their pitching starts to falter, they aren't going to be able to score enough runs to win.

[Dresden]

Cubs now 12-3, best record in baseball, their best start since 1970. Holy Cow. Is it all David Ross's influence? Was Joe Madden holding them back this much?

[nitetrain8603]

Cubs now 12-3, best record in baseball, their best start since 1970. Holy Cow. Is it all David Ross's influence? Was Joe Madden holding them back this much?

I'd say sabermetrics. Maddon was a diehard sabermatrician. I think a lot of managers are exposing themselves when it comes to that this year as well, including Dave Roberts. You have guys who gave up 2 runs or less, not in trouble, but the manager yanks the starter. Ross allows sabermetrics to influence him, but doesn't allow it to dictate his decision. He has a feel. So even opening night, look at damn near every other manager in baseball - they pulled their starters quick. Ross checked in on Hendricks and let him rip. By doing that, he's also hiding a bad bullpen and making them better if anything as they're allowed to rest up. Starters are playing, what, 12 games each? Managers are expecting their bullpen to go out there and pitch 50 games in 60 days which is asinine to me.

[Dresden]

Cubs now 12-3, best record in baseball, their best start since 1970. Holy Cow. Is it all David Ross's influence? Was Joe Madden holding them back this much?

I'd say sabermetrics. Maddon was a diehard sabermatrician. I think a lot of managers are exposing themselves when it comes to that this year as well, including Dave Roberts. You have guys who gave up 2 runs or less, not in trouble, but the manager yanks the starter. Ross allows sabermetrics to influence him, but doesn't allow it to dictate his decision. He has a feel. So even opening night, look at damn near every other manager in baseball - they pulled their starters quick. Ross checked in on Hendricks and let him rip. By doing that, he's also hiding a bad bullpen and making them better if anything as they're allowed to rest up. Starters are playing, what, 12 games each? Managers are expecting their bullpen to go out there and pitch 50 games in 60 days which is asinine to me.

Interesting take. It just seems shocking that a team that was not that good the past few years is suddenly playing like the 1984 Tigers. Could just be a flukey start- I hope not. It's fun seeing them win so much.

[Chi town]

Cubs now 12-3, best record in baseball, their best start since 1970. Holy Cow. Is it all David Ross's influence? Was Joe Madden holding them back this much?

I'd say sabermetrics. Maddon was a diehard sabermatrician. I think a lot of managers are exposing themselves when it comes to that this year as well, including Dave Roberts. You have guys who gave up 2 runs or less, not in trouble, but the manager yanks the starter. Ross allows sabermetrics to influence him, but doesn't allow it to dictate his decision. He has a feel. So even opening night, look at damn near every other manager in baseball - they pulled their starters quick. Ross checked in on Hendricks and let him rip. By doing that, he's also hiding a bad bullpen and making them better if anything as they're allowed to rest up. Starters are playing, what, 12 games each? Managers are expecting their bullpen to go out there and pitch 50 games in 60 days which is asinine to me.

Interesting take. It just seems shocking that a team that was not that good the past few years is suddenly playing like the 1984 Tigers. Could just be a flukey start- I hope not. It's fun seeing them win so much.

It sure is.

[Jeffster81]

Cubs now 12-3, best record in baseball, their best start since 1970. Holy Cow. Is it all David Ross's influence? Was Joe Madden holding them back this much?

I'd say sabermetrics. Maddon was a diehard sabermatrician. I think a lot of managers are exposing themselves when it comes to that this year as well, including Dave Roberts. You have guys who gave up 2 runs or less, not in trouble, but the manager yanks the starter. Ross allows sabermetrics to influence him, but doesn't allow it to dictate his decision. He has a feel. So even opening night, look at damn near every other manager in baseball - they pulled their starters quick. Ross checked in on Hendricks and let him rip. By doing that, he's also hiding a bad bullpen and making them better if anything as they're allowed to rest up. Starters are playing, what, 12 games each? Managers are expecting their bullpen to go out there and pitch 50 games in 60 days which is asinine to me.

I'll agree with that take. Darvish had a no-hitter going into the 7th inning and he promptly gives up a homerun to Justin Smoak. Just about any other manager would have pull Darvish after giving up the HR but Ross allowed him to continue pitching.

Sabremetrics is a great tool to use to help put players in the right situation to succeed but it should not be the end all.

[nitetrain8603]

Cubs now 12-3, best record in baseball, their best start since 1970. Holy Cow. Is it all David Ross's influence? Was Joe Madden holding them back this much?

I'd say sabermetrics. Maddon was a diehard sabermatrician. I think a lot of managers are exposing themselves when it comes to that this year as well, including Dave Roberts. You have guys who gave up 2 runs or less, not in trouble, but the manager yanks the starter. Ross allows sabermetrics to influence him, but doesn't allow it to dictate his decision. He has a feel. So even opening night, look at damn near every other manager in baseball - they pulled their starters quick. Ross checked in on Hendricks and let him rip. By doing that, he's also hiding a bad bullpen and making them better if anything as they're allowed to rest up. Starters are playing, what, 12 games each? Managers are expecting their bullpen to go out there and pitch 50 games in 60 days which is asinine to me.

I'll agree with that take. Darvish had a no-hitter going into the 7th inning and he promptly gives up a homerun to Justin Smoak. Just about any other manager would have pull Darvish after giving up the HR but Ross allowed him to continue pitching.

Sabremetrics is a great tool to use to help put players in the right situation to succeed but it should not be the end all.

Correct I'm a supporter of looking at the stats. But there has to be some type of feel to the game that is applied. Especially in a year like this year, you're going to have to realize, your starters are going to be much more fresh than your bullpen, so you need to protect your bullpen.

I'm not even a Cubs fan, but I can appreciate the job Ross is doing.

[ATRAIN53]

I still can't believe they got him for 1/4 of the SIGNING BONUS we gave Nick Foles......

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I really hate Ryan Pace, I hope he's next to go. 5 seasons, 1 playoff game which was a L

This is a charter NFL franchise. Guys like Newton and Rivers should be beating down the door to play here for these fans.

[nomorezorro]

Cubs now 12-3, best record in baseball, their best start since 1970. Holy Cow. Is it all David Ross's influence? Was Joe Madden holding them back this much?

I'd say sabermetrics. Maddon was a diehard sabermatrician. I think a lot of managers are exposing themselves when it comes to that this year as well, including Dave Roberts. You have guys who gave up 2 runs or less, not in trouble, but the manager yanks the starter. Ross allows sabermetrics to influence him, but doesn't allow it to dictate his decision. He has a feel. So even opening night, look at damn near every other manager in baseball - they pulled their starters quick. Ross checked in on Hendricks and let him rip. By doing that, he's also hiding a bad bullpen and making them better if anything as they're allowed to rest up. Starters are playing, what, 12 games each? Managers are expecting their bullpen to go out there and pitch 50 games in 60 days which is asinine to me.

maddon was not a "die hard sabermatrician" lol. he was an early embracer of analytics (and it worked out very, very well for him), but above all he seemed like a guy who liked to try to ~buck conventional wisdom~

toward the end of the run, as the league got more sabermetric-minded, that actually seemed to manifest itself in him doing more and more stuff that wasn't guided by analytics. he gave a few "analytics are ruining baseball" soundbytes this offseason and talked about how the angels were gonna bunt and steal bases at his opening press conference

anyway the cubs are good because they have good players and they have a winning percentage above .800 because they've been lucky

[the ultimates]

I still can't believe they got him for 1/4 of the SIGNING BONUS we gave Nick Foles......

Read on Twitter

I really hate Ryan Pace, I hope he's next to go. 5 seasons, 1 playoff game which was a L

This is a charter NFL franchise. Guys like Newton and Rivers should be beating down the door to play here for these fans.

Neither Rivers or Newton were good last year. I find it very interesting that pundits are overlooking Cam's weaknesses because they really don't match with the type of offense the Patriots have run. Look at their skill positions, their best player is 34-year old Edelman.

[dougthonus]

Random football related thought. I wonder if a team could ignore WRs all together and just get like 10 TEs, if you could get 5 starting caliber NFL TEs, and then play them as wide outs, play them as lineman, do whatever, I wonder how most teams would fair with that.

You'd have no deep threats per se, but on the other hand your TEs battling for jump balls vs corner backs might just annihilate them due to size and strength with their physicality. If opposing teams didn't play any corner backs and played all linebackers, they likely wouldn't have the talent to pull it off, because they aren't built to counter you, they are built to counter the majority of the league.

You'd have all kinds of weird options in the running game just due to the massive amount of extra blockers you could throw out there, and the types of schemes you could put together and line of scrimmage switchers when literally 5 guys on the line of scrimmage could go out wide or could effectively block and could shift around would give a creative person the ability to throw together a playbook like no one has even imagined before and no defense is remotely prepared to defend against.

I don't know, just an idle thought, of course the trick would be getting all those good TEs, and if this failed, you completely and spectacularly screwed your roster. Beyond that, you'd need a GM and coach that agree on this style of play and are willing to go all in and commit to it with an OC creative enough to figure out how to take advantage of an incredibly unique set of skills and situations.

Probably would also be amazing with a QB that can scramble because it would just add one more layer of confusion to the defense.

[MalagaBulls]

Discuss.

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[Kurt Heimlich]

Discuss.

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Completely predictable outcome which doesn't really tell us anything about Trubisky (or Foles) (or Nagy). Trubisky is the mental midget incumbent QB who had to either completely wither away, or have his career backup successor completely go HAM in limited training camp reps.

The story since acquiring Foles has always been this: Give Trubisky one more shot. But if (and more likely...when) he fails at least we have a guy who's proven to come off the bench and produce.

[dice]

Discuss.

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Completely predictable outcome which doesn't really tell us anything about Trubisky (or Foles) (or Nagy). Trubisky is the mental midget incumbent QB who had to either completely wither away, or have his career backup successor completely go HAM in limited training camp reps.

The story since acquiring Foles has always been this: Give Trubisky one more shot. But if (and more likely...when) he fails at least we have a guy who's proven to come off the bench and produce.

question is, has trubisky actually "progressed" in a short training camp

any over/unders on what week the switch to foles is made?