Bears thread 13

[Dresden]

"Safety Kevin Byard and cornerback Tyrique Stevenson were two of the three highest-graded defensive backs across the NFL in Week 4, according to Pro Football Focus. Byard was the top guy with a 94.1 grade while Stevenson came in at third with a 93.3 mark"

[fleet]

I didn't get that impression. I thought they were widely praised- Jarrett for his experience and leadership, Jonah Jackson for his previous experience with the Lions. Dayo was the one signing that seemed to generate lukewarm response.

Yeah, agreed. Dayo raised eyebrows in terms of salary vs. his history of production, though funnily enough he's had some decent flashes this season.

The OL signings were generally lauded. Jarett seemed to be "he's old, but he's still very productive."

I looked back at some of the media coverage. ESPN's Seth Walder gave the Jonah Jackson trade and Jarrett signing D's. This is consistent with what I read elsewhere. He gave the Dayo signing a B, so it looks like my memory was off on that one.

Lets leave aside a D line that hasn’t been able to rush the passer, or stop the run atm after years of “building”.

I think if you can scrape together a basically brand new O line in one summer and have it excel, you’d be doing some exec of the year type FO business. Normally this kind of effort doesn’t have a great ending. It should be more organically and competently built through a well executed draft process, and then finished off by one aquisition in FA or so if needed. It should not be done by throwing money at all the positions all at once. If it works right now, good. But it’s got to work no questions asked because it’s already an inefficient reclamation project out of previous failure. Not working is not going to be acceptable given this route taken.

And that’s been a frustration. Nothing is ever going to be perfect. Yet could have easily been a lot better than they will become. Flailing, they missed reasonable opportunities to focus on building a foundation first for years. The coverage of the Bears trade moves this year was mostly positive. IMHO, because finally the Bears were not looking in the trenches as a token effort. It was refreshing. They went back to TE and WR 1,2 in the draft though. But at least one of them was likely drafted over what previous decision-makers were likely comfortable with onboarding. That’s still progress on some level.

[Dresden]

Yeah, agreed. Dayo raised eyebrows in terms of salary vs. his history of production, though funnily enough he's had some decent flashes this season.

The OL signings were generally lauded. Jarett seemed to be "he's old, but he's still very productive."

I looked back at some of the media coverage. ESPN's Seth Walder gave the Jonah Jackson trade and Jarrett signing D's. This is consistent with what I read elsewhere. He gave the Dayo signing a B, so it looks like my memory was off on that one.

Lets leave aside a D line that hasn’t been able to rush the passer, or stop the run atm after years of “building”.

I think if you can scrape together a basically brand new O line in one summer and have it excel, you’d be doing some exec of the year type FO business. Normally this kind of effort doesn’t have a great ending. It should be more organically and competently built through a well executed draft process, and then finished off by one aquisition in FA or so if needed. It should not be done by throwing money at all the positions all at once. If it works right now, good. But it’s got to work no questions asked because it’s already an inefficient reclamation project out of previous failure. Not working is not going to be acceptable given this route taken.

And that’s been a frustration. Nothing is ever going to be perfect. Yet could have easily been a lot better than they will become. Flailing, they missed reasonable opportunities to focus on building a foundation first for years. The coverage of the Bears trade moves this year was mostly positive. IMHO, because finally the Bears were not looking in the trenches as a token effort. It was refreshing. They went back to TE and WR 1,2 in the draft though. But at least one of them was likely drafted over what previous decision-makers were likely comfortable with onboarding. That’s still progress on some level.

So what would you have done this past offseason? You thought you have an all-pro level guard in Teven Jenkins, but he had another injury wracked season in '24. You thought you had the center position fixed with Coleman Shelton (who by the way is now starting for the Rams and doing a fine job). You spent a 3rd round pick on a guy you thought would be a future LT, but he can't stay healthy. You used a high draft pick on a RT. You've used a few later round picks on IOL like Doug Kramer, but none of those have progressed enough to be starters.

Now you have a new coach, a second year QB who set a record for taking sacks last season, and everyone is demanding the off. line gets fixed because we can't have a repeat of '24.

Hindsight is 20/20, but this team had a lot of needs when Poles took over. You can blame him for not using more high picks on o lineman, but we had needs in the secondary (Gordon/Brisker picks), D line (Dexter/Pickens), and WR (Odunze), and that's where most of your high picks went, other than Darnell and Kiran. So he finally went out and spent money to shore up the O line, and PFF, at the start of the season, predicted our O line would be top 5 in the league. It hasn't been so far, but we'll see how they look in another 5-6 weeks.

You can blame Poles for not investing more heavily in the O line in the draft, but I don't know how you can point fingers for what he did this past off season. What would you have done, trotted out the same 5 that gave up 68 sacks last year?

[Dresden]

Ben Johnson on Tyrique's play as of late:

"I thought this was his best game to date," Johnson said of Stevenson's outing against the Raiders. "I don't know if there's any light switch that came on or anything like that. I feel like I see the same approach that I have seen all year long from him over the last few weeks.

"Certainly, I think the confidence level is rising. He knows what he is capable of as a player. The coaching staff hasn't kept that a secret. He's very capable as a coverage defender. I think he can be a complete corner in this league: man, zone, come up and tackle in the run game when called upon. [It] really just seems like he is gaining that confidence every single week right now and becoming the player he is capable of."

[biggestbullsfan]

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He’s gross, but how desperate are we?lol

[dougthonus]

Ben Johnson on Tyrique's play as of late:

"I thought this was his best game to date," Johnson said of Stevenson's outing against the Raiders. "I don't know if there's any light switch that came on or anything like that. I feel like I see the same approach that I have seen all year long from him over the last few weeks.

"Certainly, I think the confidence level is rising. He knows what he is capable of as a player. The coaching staff hasn't kept that a secret. He's very capable as a coverage defender. I think he can be a complete corner in this league: man, zone, come up and tackle in the run game when called upon. [It] really just seems like he is gaining that confidence every single week right now and becoming the player he is capable of."

Stevenson had a nice game against the Raiders. Typically, every time something bad in the secondary happens, I look and it's his guy. I'm not a NFL defensive guru so I can't tell if he was failing in responsibilities or just scheme was bad or whatever, but from my very non professional eye, he always struck me as the worst dude in our secondary.

[panthermark]

I'm glad to see Stevenson playing better. I was really bummed when Smith got hurt in the pre-season as I thought he was the more steady player even if Stevenson had higher highs....but much lower lows.

Stevenson's issues has always been Stevenson. It was never a talent problem it was a "why won't that guy just STFU and play?!?!?!"

[Dresden]

Ben Johnson on Tyrique's play as of late:

"I thought this was his best game to date," Johnson said of Stevenson's outing against the Raiders. "I don't know if there's any light switch that came on or anything like that. I feel like I see the same approach that I have seen all year long from him over the last few weeks.

"Certainly, I think the confidence level is rising. He knows what he is capable of as a player. The coaching staff hasn't kept that a secret. He's very capable as a coverage defender. I think he can be a complete corner in this league: man, zone, come up and tackle in the run game when called upon. [It] really just seems like he is gaining that confidence every single week right now and becoming the player he is capable of."

Stevenson had a nice game against the Raiders. Typically, every time something bad in the secondary happens, I look and it's his guy. I'm not a NFL defensive guru so I can't tell if he was failing in responsibilities or just scheme was bad or whatever, but from my very non professional eye, he always struck me as the worst dude in our secondary.

Not just the Raiders, he also made the takeaway in the Cowboys game that turned the game around, and had an overall very good game against them as well. It seems like ever since JJ was ruled out for the year, Tyrique has taken a big leap forward. We'll see if it continues, but if it does, it's nice knowing we have 3 reliable corners.

[Dresden]

Mark Sanchez was stabbed in Indy while there to cover the game, supposedly in critical condition. Hope he pulls through.

[dougthonus]

Not just the Raiders, he also made the takeaway in the Cowboys game that turned the game around, and had an overall very good game against them as well. It seems like ever since JJ was ruled out for the year, Tyrique has taken a big leap forward. We'll see if it continues, but if it does, it's nice knowing we have 3 reliable corners.

He was terrible in the first two games, so we'll see. He's going to have to play well for a lot longer to get off my list

[Dresden]

Not just the Raiders, he also made the takeaway in the Cowboys game that turned the game around, and had an overall very good game against them as well. It seems like ever since JJ was ruled out for the year, Tyrique has taken a big leap forward. We'll see if it continues, but if it does, it's nice knowing we have 3 reliable corners.

He was terrible in the first two games, so we'll see. He's going to have to play well for a lot longer to get off my list

Of course. We'll see how he does. But it's encouraging. He had the 3rd highest defensive PFF grade among all secondary players last week.

[dice]

last time bears were in a 'game of the week' scenario was 5 years ago wednesday in a matchup of 3-1 teams. 2nd full game of the nick foles experience. empty stadium w/ artificial crowd noise:

Watch on YouTube

[nomorezorro]

I'm glad to see Stevenson playing better. I was really bummed when Smith got hurt in the pre-season as I thought he was the more steady player even if Stevenson had higher highs....but much lower lows.

Stevenson's issues has always been Stevenson. It was never a talent problem it was a "why won't that guy just STFU and play?!?!?!"

this kind of boom/bust CB isn't really an uncommon archetype at the position, particularly guys who are press man specialists who are ballhawks. if you're playing aggressively and you're in a system where you might not have any help in coverage, the plays where you lose a rep can get pretty ugly

riding the rollercoaster is a lot more tolerable when that player is your no. 3 CB (as tyrique was meant to be) than it is when he is your #1 by some margin (as tyrique is now). but as the past couple of weeks show, there is a universe where the highs are good enough to make up for the lows

[dice]

I'm glad to see Stevenson playing better. I was really bummed when Smith got hurt in the pre-season as I thought he was the more steady player even if Stevenson had higher highs....but much lower lows.

Stevenson's issues has always been Stevenson. It was never a talent problem it was a "why won't that guy just STFU and play?!?!?!"

this kind of boom/bust CB isn't really an uncommon archetype at the position, particularly guys who are press man specialists who are ballhawks. if you're playing aggressively and you're in a system where you might not have any help in coverage, the plays where you lose a rep can get pretty ugly

riding the rollercoaster is a lot more tolerable when that player is your no. 3 CB (as tyrique was meant to be) than it is when he is your #1 by some margin (as tyrique is now). but as the past couple of weeks show, there is a universe where the highs are good enough to make up for the lows

the 2 outside CBs are always hoped to be your 2 best. and typically are. kyler actually lost the CB2 outside role to rookie tyrique

[fleet]

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[fleet]

[Dresden]

Considering the Bears have been cleaning house the past 3 seasons that's not particularly surprising.

[molepharmer]

Is this team drafted players that are still on that specific team, or is this team drafted players on any active roster ??? I'd think the later would be more interesting.

[biggestbullsfan]

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[molepharmer]

Vikings vs Browns very even game. Two very good defenses not allowing much of a run game and not allowing the opposing QB much time to throw.