Bears 12.0

[Susan]

Hey, maybe we should have traded down for McCarthy and gotten a haul!

McCarthy gets boatloads of faith that I don’t quite understand. Especially coming off a serious injury. If his coach is the reason, well that’s pretty impressive of the coach. Caleb gets close to zero faith, relative to being responsive to his new coach as an article of faith. I think the sack problem and the ball holding is regarded by observers as unfixable flaws to a certain extent, and will be interesting if Ben Johnson is able to approach the thing as well as we hope. But something doesn’t add up. Caleb and McCarthy should be closer, unless I don’t know enough about McCarthy.

Read on Twitter

The Bears wouldn't trade Caleb straight up for Hurts.

But Hurts has elite talent along the OL because Philly has over the years drafted and developed the talent (plus uncovered Mailata)

LT - Mailata (28, drafted in 7th, given 2 years to develop before touching the field, Pro Bowler)
LG - Landon Dickerson (26, 37th overall pick - day 1 starter & 3x Pro Bowler)
C - Cam Jurgens (26, 51st overall pick that played G before transitioning to C last year, Pro Bowler)
RG - Tyler Steen (25, 65th overall pick that was given 2 years to develop before playing)
RT - Lane Johnson (35, 4th overall pick, 7 time Pro Bowler)

If I were an Eagles fan, I'd have trepidation over Johnson's age but considering how much success this group has had over the years, they'd be able to weather that storm.

The Haul was 100% about trying to mimic the Eagles and have enough draft capital to build a team/OL capable of winning a Super Bowl.

[jnrjr79]

An odd way to answer to a direct question. Oh kayy.

Read on Twitter

I feel like you find some conspiratorial angle to everything Bears, lol.

This is pretty clearly an answer that Johnson thinks Caleb will play on time if the receivers are open on time, but has the ability to extend plays if they are not.

[fleet]

An odd way to answer to a direct question. Oh kayy.

Read on Twitter

I feel like you find some conspiratorial angle to everything Bears, lol.

This is pretty clearly an answer that Johnson thinks Caleb will play on time if the receivers are open on time, but has the ability to extend plays if they are not.

I have observed quite a few things that don’t look so good over the years until now, and feel fairly vindicated on that. If people aren’t ready to see those things until the team is in last place, fine. Fans fan the way they want to. Like some parents believe their rotten kids, some parents believe the teacher. I am not a permissive fan that will make excuses for bad teams. That isn’t everyone’s MO. Ben wanted to bring the route running into the quarterback discussion. Fair enough.

[jnrjr79]

An odd way to answer to a direct question. Oh kayy.

Read on Twitter

I feel like you find some conspiratorial angle to everything Bears, lol.

This is pretty clearly an answer that Johnson thinks Caleb will play on time if the receivers are open on time, but has the ability to extend plays if they are not.

I have observed quite a few things that don’t look so good over the years until now, and feel fairly vindicated on that. If people aren’t ready to see those things until the team is in last place, fine. Fans fan the way they want to. Like some parents believe their rotten kids, some parents believe the teacher. I am not a permissive fan that will make excuses for bad teams. That isn’t everyone’s MO. Ben wanted to bring the route running into the quarterback discussion. Fair enough.

He's obviously protecting his player from future criticism by noting a QB can only play "on time" to the extent he's got an open receiver to throw to.

On the broader point, I don't see organizations as these monolithic things. The past failure of Eberflus and coaches prior has nothing to do with Ben Johnson or this particular answer he gave in a press conference to a question. It's like when a broadcast points out some historical stat like "the Pistons have never come back from 2-0 in the playoffs" or something like that. It's trivia, but it has no predictive value.

[molepharmer]

I feel like you find some conspiratorial angle to everything Bears, lol.
This is pretty clearly an answer that Johnson thinks Caleb will play on time if the receivers are open on time, but has the ability to extend plays if they are not.

:dontknow:
I have observed quite a few things that don’t look so good over the years until now, and feel fairly vindicated on that. If people aren’t ready to see those things until the team is in last place, fine. Fans fan the way they want to. Like some parents believe their rotten kids, some parents believe the teacher. I am not a permissive fan that will make excuses for bad teams. That isn’t everyone’s MO. Ben wanted to bring the route running into the quarterback discussion. Fair enough.

To think a QB "playing on schedule" doesn't rely on the receivers being where and when they're supposed to be, is being naive. Johnson is simply clarifying for the media that the initial question doesn't have a simple yes/no answer; more players are involved in "playing on schedule" than just the QB. There are nuances and the answer is more complex despite what some may think. He's trying to educate the media.

[CBS7]

An odd way to answer to a direct question. Oh kayy.

Read on Twitter

I feel like you find some conspiratorial angle to everything Bears, lol.

This is pretty clearly an answer that Johnson thinks Caleb will play on time if the receivers are open on time, but has the ability to extend plays if they are not.

I have observed quite a few things that don’t look so good over the years until now, and feel fairly vindicated on that. If people aren’t ready to see those things until the team is in last place, fine. Fans fan the way they want to. Like some parents believe their rotten kids, some parents believe the teacher. I am not a permissive fan that will make excuses for bad teams. That isn’t everyone’s MO. Ben wanted to bring the route running into the quarterback discussion. Fair enough.

Pessimists eat well when it comes to the Bears (and Bulls)

[fleet]

I feel like you find some conspiratorial angle to everything Bears, lol.

This is pretty clearly an answer that Johnson thinks Caleb will play on time if the receivers are open on time, but has the ability to extend plays if they are not.

I have observed quite a few things that don’t look so good over the years until now, and feel fairly vindicated on that. If people aren’t ready to see those things until the team is in last place, fine. Fans fan the way they want to. Like some parents believe their rotten kids, some parents believe the teacher. I am not a permissive fan that will make excuses for bad teams. That isn’t everyone’s MO. Ben wanted to bring the route running into the quarterback discussion. Fair enough.

Pessimists eat well when it comes to the Bears (and Bulls)

….and have shorter lifespans. But who wants to linger. Go out in a blaze of hate. Eat well my friends.

[Mindcrime]

A little offtopic, but can anyone explain to a European guy what's the deal with rookie contrats in the NFL? For context i'm looking into Shemar Stewart's dispute with the Benaglas and can't get it. You draft someone in the first round wasting a valuable pick - why do you bother arguing over a salary the guy is projected to get anyway risking locker room dissturbance and negative outlook in the process?

[fleet]

A little offtopic, but can anyone explain to a European guy what's the deal with rookie contrats in the NFL? For context i'm looking into Shemar Stewart's dispute with the Benaglas and can't get it. You draft someone in the first round wasting a valuable pick - why do you bother arguing over a salary the guy is projected to get anyway risking locker room dissturbance and negative outlook in the process?

Not salary. The issue is that the Bengals want voidable years in the contract if Stewart violates the contract. The question we are left with is that if Stewart is so risky to want to include voidable years, why did they draft him in the first round where all the first round players receive more guaranteed contracts?

[Susan]

A little offtopic, but can anyone explain to a European guy what's the deal with rookie contrats in the NFL? For context i'm looking into Shemar Stewart's dispute with the Benaglas and can't get it. You draft someone in the first round wasting a valuable pick - why do you bother arguing over a salary the guy is projected to get anyway risking locker room dissturbance and negative outlook in the process?

The Bengals are notoriously cheap.

From what I understand, the Bengals are trying to get rid of guarantees from the deal. Rookie first round pick contracts are 4 years fully guaranteed and them the 5th year is a team option year that is decided upon in the off-season before the 4th year.

And the Bengals just don't give a ****.

[Dresden]

I feel like you find some conspiratorial angle to everything Bears, lol.

This is pretty clearly an answer that Johnson thinks Caleb will play on time if the receivers are open on time, but has the ability to extend plays if they are not.

I have observed quite a few things that don’t look so good over the years until now, and feel fairly vindicated on that. If people aren’t ready to see those things until the team is in last place, fine. Fans fan the way they want to. Like some parents believe their rotten kids, some parents believe the teacher. I am not a permissive fan that will make excuses for bad teams. That isn’t everyone’s MO. Ben wanted to bring the route running into the quarterback discussion. Fair enough.

Pessimists eat well when it comes to the Bears (and Bulls)

That's true, but I have a feeling they will be eating a lot of crow this season.

[Jeffster81]

A little offtopic, but can anyone explain to a European guy what's the deal with rookie contrats in the NFL? For context i'm looking into Shemar Stewart's dispute with the Benaglas and can't get it. You draft someone in the first round wasting a valuable pick - why do you bother arguing over a salary the guy is projected to get anyway risking locker room dissturbance and negative outlook in the process?

The Bengals are notoriously cheap.

From what I understand, the Bengals are trying to get rid of guarantees from the deal. Rookie first round pick contracts are 4 years fully guaranteed and them the 5th year is a team option year that is decided upon in the off-season before the 4th year.

And the Bengals just don't give a ****.

Wow. I just read about the situation, and man eff the Bengals. I hope Stewart waits them out until their rights on him expire and he signs elsewhere (hopefully Balt or Pitts).

[Dresden]

Olin is excited about the Bears new O line: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wSkg3L6gqhw

[dice]

Hey, maybe we should have traded down for McCarthy and gotten a haul!

McCarthy gets boatloads of faith that I don’t quite understand. Especially coming off a serious injury. If his coach is the reason, well that’s pretty impressive of the coach. Caleb gets close to zero faith, relative to being responsive to his new coach as an article of faith. I think the sack problem and the ball holding is regarded by observers as unfixable flaws to a certain extent, and will be interesting if Ben Johnson is able to approach the thing as well as we hope. But something doesn’t add up. Caleb and McCarthy should be closer, unless I don’t know enough about McCarthy.

Read on Twitter

The Bears wouldn't trade Caleb straight up for Hurts

because hurts is older and doesn't have 3-4 years left on his rookie deal

[dice]

I really don’t think he liked what he saw on film out of the receivers last year in their ability to get open. We all saw Keenan and Moore half assing routes time to time. Even Cole Kmet.

A lot of that you can blame on coaching for allowing that to slide.

So, an instance of BJ cracking the whip on route- running. I can understand, but the inquiry was about the quarterback’s ability to run the pass play designs. Anyway… Cole Kmet needs a lot of coaching speaking of that, and some other mistakes, and somehow he’s under the radar

I believe Ben is just reinforcing everything can’t fall on Caleb. Before we point the finger at Caleb let’s make sure the parts around him are making his job easier. All of his answers have always gone back to holding the entire team accountable. He’ll highlight the individual and always brings it back to the “team” in some fashion. He’s been consistent in answering this way.

As far as Kmet, I think if he doesn’t take that leap this year and Loveland is who Ben think he is, it’ll be another Laporta/Hockenson situation where Detroit moved on from Hockenson. This is a make or break year for Kmet.

kmet's very likely a goner. as for pressure, the guy who's got the most on him this year is stevenson. dude's on thin ice. and that 2nd contract for a non-1st rounder is life changing

[dice]

i think you are the only human on earth who thinks the bears approach to investing in their offensive line this season is consistent with their approach the previous few seasons.

acting like draft capital is the only metric for evaluating Where The Team's Priorities Lie is really weird, because it's definitely not the only way teams acquire players! you can quibble with individual moves all you want, but it's hard to look at how the bears have built their o-line and say they didn't care about allocating resources to the position group:

lt - invested a second- and third-round pick into the position despite having an adequate starter in-house on a rookie contract
lg - traded for an all-pro
c - signed the consensus top free agent to a top-5 contract at the position
rg - traded for a guy who was highly regarded enough to earn $17m/year in free agency
rt - used a top 10 pick

Jackson snap counts year by year:
2020 95.9
2021 94.1
2022 75.1
2023 67.7
2024 24.4

Dude's got Tevan Jenkins syndrome.

yet jenkins gets dumped and can't find a contract while jackson gets traded for AND receives a large, nonsensical extension

[fleet]

i think you are the only human on earth who thinks the bears approach to investing in their offensive line this season is consistent with their approach the previous few seasons.

acting like draft capital is the only metric for evaluating Where The Team's Priorities Lie is really weird, because it's definitely not the only way teams acquire players! you can quibble with individual moves all you want, but it's hard to look at how the bears have built their o-line and say they didn't care about allocating resources to the position group:

lt - invested a second- and third-round pick into the position despite having an adequate starter in-house on a rookie contract
lg - traded for an all-pro
c - signed the consensus top free agent to a top-5 contract at the position
rg - traded for a guy who was highly regarded enough to earn $17m/year in free agency
rt - used a top 10 pick

Jackson snap counts year by year:
2020 95.9
2021 94.1
2022 75.1
2023 67.7
2024 24.4

Dude's got Tevan Jenkins syndrome.

yet jenkins gets dumped and can't find a contract while jackson gets traded for AND receives a large, nonsensical extension

I wouldn’t feel any less confident in the line if we were putting Tevin Jenkins out there at RG on a much smaller contract instead of Jackson. For now, Ben Johnson is on his honeymoon, he’s earned the benefit of the doubt on his plan, and that has to play itself out. I have heard it said that Bears are capped for 2026, so this is the team aside from another draft class. Sure, I reckon they can cut some guys next year. It all needs to work how it’s contrived though for the most part.

[nomorezorro]

the bears can open up $60+ million in cap space between easy cuts and restructures next season. they're not really in a place where they're facing a true cap crunch; they're just shifting out of the era when they had basically no financial pressure and could operate with totally clean books without needing to do any tricky cap maneuvering. gonna have to be more selective about who you pay and who you retain going forward, but if there's a free agent they wanna pay $25m next season they can make it happen. things won't get real challenging until caleb comes off his rookie deal (assuming he proves worthy of keeping by then)

the jackson deal does suck either way though

[fleet]

So, an instance of BJ cracking the whip on route- running. I can understand, but the inquiry was about the quarterback’s ability to run the pass play designs. Anyway… Cole Kmet needs a lot of coaching speaking of that, and some other mistakes, and somehow he’s under the radar

I believe Ben is just reinforcing everything can’t fall on Caleb. Before we point the finger at Caleb let’s make sure the parts around him are making his job easier. All of his answers have always gone back to holding the entire team accountable. He’ll highlight the individual and always brings it back to the “team” in some fashion. He’s been consistent in answering this way.

As far as Kmet, I think if he doesn’t take that leap this year and Loveland is who Ben think he is, it’ll be another Laporta/Hockenson situation where Detroit moved on from Hockenson. This is a make or break year for Kmet.

kmet's very likely a goner. as for pressure, the guy who's got the most on him this year is stevenson. dude's on thin ice. and that 2nd contract for a non-1st rounder is life changing

They’re gonna put less pressure on Stevenson mentally. His brain farts and need to make decisions minimized. I don’t know how long a truly good defense can carry this handicap that has a choice not to.

[Susan]

Hey, maybe we should have traded down for McCarthy and gotten a haul!

McCarthy gets boatloads of faith that I don’t quite understand. Especially coming off a serious injury. If his coach is the reason, well that’s pretty impressive of the coach. Caleb gets close to zero faith, relative to being responsive to his new coach as an article of faith. I think the sack problem and the ball holding is regarded by observers as unfixable flaws to a certain extent, and will be interesting if Ben Johnson is able to approach the thing as well as we hope. But something doesn’t add up. Caleb and McCarthy should be closer, unless I don’t know enough about McCarthy.

Read on Twitter

The Bears wouldn't trade Caleb straight up for Hurts

because hurts is older and doesn't have 3-4 years left on his rookie deal

In part, yes but you could magically turn them the same age and contract and teams are taking Caleb over Hurts for the same reason the Bears took Caleb over Justin. It has to do with the long term devaluing of the running game and the search for an elite passer. Historically the teams with the most success year in and year out have been the teams with the elite passing QBs - but IMO we're starting to see a shift with Lamar, Daniels, Hurts, Allen and Fields being the 5 best rushing QBs in the NFL and all are the engines to their offenses and their rushing threat helps play a large part in their offense's success.

The Eagles and Ravens are the best run teams in the NFL in my opinion and they are consistently in the top 4 of the NFL because of their QBs dual threat ability and recently the undervaluing of the running back position. Getting Barkley and Henry for contracts below $10m/yr in FA when solid WRs routinely go for double that.

I'm high on the Jets and bullish on the Bears because there's a simple and clear path to an elite offense with their running game. Getting an elite passing game is freaking hard and the league is only making it harder. To do so without a strong to elite rushing attack is going to be extremely difficult.