Bears 12.0

[Stratmaster]

I liked the approach to the running game. Aggressive and up the field. A big improvement over the previous regime. Other than that, can't really make any assessments.

[fleet]

Oh my goodness. That being said about Jones, if there was much of a difference in performance level between Ozzy and Benedet, it didn’t stand out. Bates and Newman appeared competent basically

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[Chi town]

Was enjoyable to see competent coaching. Like Ben Allen and Randle El.

- Booker has gotten stronger. He popped. Let’s see if he can do it in real games.

- Burden is going to play. Guy is a great athlete and great at getting open. He makes it look easy.

- Trapillo didn’t give up any pressure. Looked way better than Jones.

- Hyppolite can fly but I think that will work against him early overpursuing

- Momamgi and Wheeler looked good

- Walker looked great at WR. Kid has swag too.

- Reed looked very decisive and he has a big arm. Back shoulder throw on 4th was dumb… Walker had a TD had he led him.

[dice]

it makes sense that the biggest issue of caleb's rookie season is still an issue in training camp before his second season. obviously not ideal, but despite the delusional homer-level fans who convinced themselves that the coaching staff and offensive line were responsible for all his problems last season, i don't think anyone reasonable expected him to have that part of his game completely cleaned up this year.

the mysteries are whether he can be better on that front this year than he was last year, and whether he can get to a point where his talent and johnson's scheming are enough to overcome any shortcomings that persist

1. This was something that should have been scouted. Nobody put a gun to Ryan Poles' head to draft Caleb

2. The OL absolutely did him zero favors which is why they replaced 3, maybe 4 of that grouping. A certain QB in New York has a stacked OL in front of him right now and will look miles better than he ever did here because of it

3. Neither Waldron nor Ben Johnson have developed a QB before - that's on Ryan Poles. Ben's a great playcaller but Goff had already established himself in the NFL

Caleb's not playing today. It's a move that's many fans and media members are critical of considering where he's at in his development. Blind faith hasn't served the Chicago Bears fan well when talking about the QB position.

I agree with almost everything here except the part that Goff was already established. A big reason why BJ gives me hope is because Goff was at the stone cold bottom of his career in terms of play and confidence after McVay gave up on him. Goff was teetering the line of becoming a career backup in his last year in LA/1st year with Detroit. His revival from bust to legit QB is what really turned things around in Detroit, and that was all under BJ developing the offense/reviving Goff.

I just hope Caleb doesn't need to hit rock bottom before turning things around.

QBR season before BJ arrived:

46.7 caleb
45.5 goff

63.3 for goff in 1st season w/ BJ

[fleet]

Ben had something to do with developing Tannehill. If you will.

[Dresden]

I just watched the first half. Wasn't too impressed with Bagent or the offense, although they did have one nice drive. Defense was at times good, at times bad. We seemed to be getting a lot of pressure on the QB, but when you blitz in preseason, it's to be expected.

[Dominator83]

Not sure in what world Caleb is too good to need pre-season reps. If anything he needs the most reps in the league. This offense is gonna suck

[Chi town]

Not sure in what world Caleb is too good to need pre-season reps. If anything he needs the most reps in the league. This offense is gonna suck

He got them in the scrimmage Friday.

Lots of teams doing this now.

[Betta Bulleavit]

Not sure in what world Caleb is too good to need pre-season reps. If anything he needs the most reps in the league. This offense is gonna suck

Has it been noted that he won’t play in the preseason at all?

Idk, it’s always a great debate. Does a guy need a bunch of preseason reps against 2nd and 3rd teamers and does the potential gain outweigh the injury risk involved with playing said guy? I tend to lean slightly in the direction of increased reps for a guy like Caleb. But if you play him, you pretty much have to play the whole 1st unit.

[nomorezorro]

even if you think exhibition game reps are substantially more valuable than practice reps for whatever reason, a QB is probably getting an entire preseason's worth of snaps in, what, the first half of the first regular season game? seems like he should get up to speed pretty quick even if he doesn't play a down before week 1

ultimately i have a very hard time buying that it matters either way

[fleet]

I suspect this has nothing to do with efficiency. Ben just felt like Caleb wasn’t ready for live bullets at this point. There’s clearly value in quality reps in a game V quantity in practice that is available all throughout a week. The Bears could have easily done both. Caleb is just not ready for whatever reason according to Ben’s development plan. He doesn’t skip steps.

[sco]

I suspect this has nothing to do with efficiency. Ben just felt like Caleb wasn’t ready for live bullets at this point. There’s clearly value in quality reps in a game V quantity in practice that is available all throughout a week. The Bears could have easily done both. Caleb is just not ready for whatever reason according to Ben’s development plan. He doesn’t skip steps.

I tend to feel the same. I don't think he wants Caleb to look terrible if he can avoid it. The fact that so many other 1st teamers sat out changes my view a little.

My enthusiasm from the game came from Booker's play. I had wondered if he had improved over last year...hadn't heard much out of camp on him. Good play aside, Booker looked great last preseason too. I would be thrilled if this level of play carries over.

I'm rooting hard for Wheeler to make the final squad. He did look really good.

[fleet]

Bagent has the arm strength of a toddler.

Braxton played today and looked brutal. Watch him on the TD pass. Barely touched the edge.

Booker is having a good day.

I thought Bagent had good zip on his throws, especially since he was under duress all night behind a line allowing pressures. Even still, he could have been more accurate. Then again 68% ain’t bad. Should have had 2 TD passes instead of just 1. A quality throw was dropped.

[Betta Bulleavit]

I suspect this has nothing to do with efficiency. Ben just felt like Caleb wasn’t ready for live bullets at this point. There’s clearly value in quality reps in a game V quantity in practice that is available all throughout a week. The Bears could have easily done both. Caleb is just not ready for whatever reason according to Ben’s development plan. He doesn’t skip steps.

I tend to feel the same. I don't think he wants Caleb to look terrible if he can avoid it. The fact that so many other 1st teamers sat out changes my view a little.

My enthusiasm from the game came from Booker's play. I had wondered if he had improved over last year...hadn't heard much out of camp on him. Good play aside, Booker looked great last preseason too. I would be thrilled if this level of play carries over.

I'm rooting hard for Wheeler to make the final squad. He did look really good.

Given that none of our starters played yesterday lends itself to the idea that this decision was more philosophical than an evaluation of readiness. It’s highly likely that BJ is simply prioritizing depth at this moment. That is to say, he and Allen are probably set on who the starters are going to be in most spots and are more concerned with the guys that are going to be backing them up.

[fleet]

Not sure in what world Caleb is too good to need pre-season reps. If anything he needs the most reps in the league. This offense is gonna suck

If Caleb gets sacked 50 times, but his deep ball accuracy improves, the offense will still be somewhere around mediocre to sub par. But it won’t truly excel unless Caleb can start reading the rush and getting rid of the ball in the pocket. That whiffed block by Braxton Jones would have caused Caleb (last year’s version) to eject the pocket instead of throwing the TD pass that Bagent threw.

[CBS7]

My whole thing is if there is irrational exuberance out there for Bagent, there is also irrational negativity. There is no empirical reason to place limits on Bagent as far as have been placed by some people for some reason. My take is, they haven’t seen enough to be so definitive

I dunno. Is "he's a backup QB at best and that is likely all he will ever be" really irrational?

[fleet]

My whole thing is if there is irrational exuberance out there for Bagent, there is also irrational negativity. There is no empirical reason to place limits on Bagent as far as have been placed by some people for some reason. My take is, they haven’t seen enough to be so definitive

I dunno. Is "he's a backup QB at best and that is likely all he will ever be" really irrational?

I urge you to look at the names of quarterbacks that start NFL games. All of them. And you still haven’t seen enough to limit him yet. Maybe you will fairly soon to have a better idea.

[CBS7]

My whole thing is if there is irrational exuberance out there for Bagent, there is also irrational negativity. There is no empirical reason to place limits on Bagent as far as have been placed by some people for some reason. My take is, they haven’t seen enough to be so definitive

I dunno. Is "he's a backup QB at best and that is likely all he will ever be" really irrational?

I urge you to look at the names of quarterbacks that start NFL games. All of them. And you still haven’t seen enough to limit him yet. Maybe you will fairly soon to have a better idea.

To me, this is the same argument as "if Purdy can't do it, why can't Bagent?"

Is it impossible? No.

Is it extremely, extremely unlikely? Yes.

Its also fairly likely that we never find out for certain.

[dougthonus]

I urge you to look at the names of quarterbacks that start NFL games. All of them. And you still haven’t seen enough anyway to be so definitive.

"The you haven't seen enough" approach implies as a starting point that all possibilities are similarly equal. The reality is that being viewed as "not draft worthy" is already an absolutely massive amount of evidence that goes well beyond anything you see on the field. Nothing has changed since that point that should change your mind.

It's like buying a power ball ticket, and someone telling you that you probably won't win, then going "well we haven't seen the drawing yet". That's true, and someone will win the powerball occasionally, but we know enough to take a highly confident guess about any individual ticket.

[fleet]

I suspect this has nothing to do with efficiency. Ben just felt like Caleb wasn’t ready for live bullets at this point. There’s clearly value in quality reps in a game V quantity in practice that is available all throughout a week. The Bears could have easily done both. Caleb is just not ready for whatever reason according to Ben’s development plan. He doesn’t skip steps.

I tend to feel the same. I don't think he wants Caleb to look terrible if he can avoid it. The fact that so many other 1st teamers sat out changes my view a little.

My enthusiasm from the game came from Booker's play. I had wondered if he had improved over last year...hadn't heard much out of camp on him. Good play aside, Booker looked great last preseason too. I would be thrilled if this level of play carries over.

I'm rooting hard for Wheeler to make the final squad. He did look really good.

Given that none of our starters played yesterday lends itself to the idea that this decision was more philosophical than an evaluation of readiness. It’s highly likely that BJ is simply prioritizing depth at this moment. That is to say, he and Allen are probably set on who the starters are going to be in most spots and are more concerned with the guys that are going to be backing them up.

Ozzy and Braxton played. Burden and Loveland played. The definition of starter is insignificant. Caleb Williams could have benefited from the reps. Unless he is just not ready on Ben Johnson’s terms to have played.