2023-24 NFL Season Thread

[bmags]

3 minutes ago, CentralChamps21 said:

Man the 49ers are good. I'd make them the favorites to win it all right now. Shows you that if you have a really good OL and skill players, you don't need a superstar QB to win.

Bears need to stop worrying about Fields and very aggressively target OL and WR upgrades (plus the defense).

I agree that the 49ers are incredible. But come on, they just shipped out their 3rd overall pick they gave up the world for to keep Purdy/Darnold. QB play does matter.

They also happen to have the single greatest offensive mind in the league.

Yes, you definitely need tons of talent, but they've had tons of talent for multiple years now and aren't 3 time world champions because of the QB position.

[bmags]

On 10/6/2023 at 9:27 PM, lostfan said:

He's always been accurate and he's always had great ball placement, that's never been the issue with him (except that throw on the run to Herbert last night that was so bad he broke Herbert, but that was an anomaly. 3 yards to the left and that's a huge gain and probably a TD). WHEN he's able to identify the throw, he'll let it rip and the throw is money. He just hasn't always been able to see those throws in time or know what specifically to do on a play.

It's just a relief to see that Fields, at least for now, is not actually dead in the water, and does have NFL talent.

I don't know, he's had some really bad accuracy games. I thought he was horrendous in the Bucs game. That 3rd preseason game he was really off too.

[Dick Allen]

1 hour ago, bmags said:

I don't know, he's had some really bad accuracy games. I thought he was horrendous in the Bucs game. That 3rd preseason game he was really off too.

I was at the Washington game last year, and he did make one beautiful throw for a TD. A few others were so far off, my buddy and I were talking abou how t at least he probably will make a pretty good receiver on our way home.

I know the defenses the last couple of weeks are far from stellar, but hopefully he's turned a corner. If they do get the #1 pick , hopefully it's Carolina's, they have to take Williams. Hopefully Fields plays well enough they can really cash in on a trade. They really could be stacked in a year or two.

[lostfan]

6 hours ago, bmags said:

I don't know, he's had some really bad accuracy games. I thought he was horrendous in the Bucs game. That 3rd preseason game he was really off too.

That's not accuracy, that's timing and lack of anticipation. 

It's impossible to play QB in the NFL without accuracy so that's the easy part (I mean, Trubisky is accurate and so was Grossman), doing it in real time with all the parts moving at NFL speed is the hard part. It doesn't matter if you threw it to the exact spot you wanted to when a DB gets there first. 

[bmags]

2 hours ago, lostfan said:

That's not accuracy, that's timing and lack of anticipation. 

It's impossible to play QB in the NFL without accuracy so that's the easy part (I mean, Trubisky is accurate and so was Grossman), doing it in real time with all the parts moving at NFL speed is the hard part. It doesn't matter if you threw it to the exact spot you wanted to when a DB gets there first. 

I hate this concept. I don’t care if an nfl QB is more accurate than the common high school QB. Trubisky was not accurate beyond 15 yards, not as consistently as any good QB needs to be.

Fields inaccurate games were inaccurate because he was throwing it consistently at his targets feet or behind them. He’s not always this way, but it’s also not that rare. It may be because he’s not anticipating well, the timer getting late and his mechanics break down under pressure, but it’s inaccurate nonetheless.

[lostfan]

1 hour ago, bmags said:

I hate this concept. I don’t care if an nfl QB is more accurate than the common high school QB. Trubisky was not accurate beyond 15 yards, not as consistently as any good QB needs to be.

Fields inaccurate games were inaccurate because he was throwing it consistently at his targets feet or behind them. He’s not always this way, but it’s also not that rare. It may be because he’s not anticipating well, the timer getting late and his mechanics break down under pressure, but it’s inaccurate nonetheless.

My point is one of these is a physical inability to do something and the other can be learned or coached if a player has the aptitude to do that specific thing. We had a huge sample size to know that Trubisky didn't (and it doesn't matter how much physical talent a guy has which is what I think you're saying) and we don't have that yet with Fields. 

 

[chw42]

I'm so glad Love is getting exposed. Seemed like the general consensus was he was gonna be the next HOF QB for the Packers after the first 2 weeks. Turns out NFL teams won't just let you throw screens for TDs forever.

[lostfan]

Watching Jordan Love the past few weeks and I'm bewildered at how the Bears game plan against him let him cook so much. He's been straight buns but they played the most simple defense possible for him, and broke some of those coverages for good measure. 

[The Beast]

12 hours ago, Dick Allen said:

I was at the Washington game last year, and he did make one beautiful throw for a TD. A few others were so far off, my buddy and I were talking abou how t at least he probably will make a pretty good receiver on our way home.

I know the defenses the last couple of weeks are far from stellar, but hopefully he's turned a corner. If they do get the #1 pick , hopefully it's Carolina's, they have to take Williams. Hopefully Fields plays well enough they can really cash in on a trade. They really could be stacked in a year or two.

Here are five takes on the bolded from four different people in my text thread of friends.

First person, first take: As a Bears fan, I am trying to understand what lift they would get from drafting Williams first overall (if Carolina is the top pick). They have Fields for another year at a minimum. The only way I would say to draft him if he's a generational talent and they can get something of value for Fields. They have other needs than the quarterback. Mock drafts seem to have a hard on for Williams at 1 and Harrison Jr. at 2, both to the Bears. When I know they need more help in the trenches and depending on what they got for the number one pick, I would be inclined to trade it again for more picks.

Second person: It depends on how Fields continues to play. If it were me and as long as Fields doesn't regress if I had the number 1 pick, I would trade it down for more picks. Then, my focus would be getting depth at the OL, Edge, Free Safety, interior DL, and WR. This is kind of what I hope Poles does. It depends on where they fall in the draft, what players are available, and who they can pick up in free agency. I did think the OL did very well against a hard Washington DL Thursday night, so that is a step in the right direction, and Jenkins at the left guard looked good in the run game. I hope we can have more wins like that this season and more consistency in there play.

Third person: If the bears have 2 top 5 picks and they don't draft at least 1 lineman, then they will continue to earn top 10 picks for a few more years.

Fourth person: To me it seems like a slam dunk to trade down for more assets to build around Fields. 

First person, second take: I'm with the line of thinking second person has, if Fields is competent and had games like he's had over the last two, I think they need to trade down and build around Fields. There are so many needs on this team besides QB and I think they should let another team pick the next QB at and raid another team for picks. That way they have more assets in the future and aren't barren of draft assets like they were in the Pace years with the Trubisky, Fields and Mack trades. Poles has to understand that he needs more talent up front especially on defense.

[chw42]

8 minutes ago, lostfan said:

Watching Jordan Love the past few weeks and I'm bewildered at how the Bears game plan against him let him cook so much. He's been straight buns but they played the most simple defense possible for him, and broke some of those coverages for good measure. 

Aaron Jones won that game for them. He absolutely toasted our LBs on passes out of the back field. Love also looked terrible on 1st and 2nd down but for some reason we let him sit back there on 3rd with no pressure and he converted almost every 3rd and long. I think you just gotta make Love throw it deep because he's something like 5 for 24 on throws over 20 yards. It's bad.

[Dick Allen]

6 hours ago, The Beast said:

Here are five takes on the bolded from four different people in my text thread of friends.

First person, first take: As a Bears fan, I am trying to understand what lift they would get from drafting Williams first overall (if Carolina is the top pick). They have Fields for another year at a minimum. The only way I would say to draft him if he's a generational talent and they can get something of value for Fields. They have other needs than the quarterback. Mock drafts seem to have a hard on for Williams at 1 and Harrison Jr. at 2, both to the Bears. When I know they need more help in the trenches and depending on what they got for the number one pick, I would be inclined to trade it again for more picks.

Second person: It depends on how Fields continues to play. If it were me and as long as Fields doesn't regress if I had the number 1 pick, I would trade it down for more picks. Then, my focus would be getting depth at the OL, Edge, Free Safety, interior DL, and WR. This is kind of what I hope Poles does. It depends on where they fall in the draft, what players are available, and who they can pick up in free agency. I did think the OL did very well against a hard Washington DL Thursday night, so that is a step in the right direction, and Jenkins at the left guard looked good in the run game. I hope we can have more wins like that this season and more consistency in there play.

Third person: If the bears have 2 top 5 picks and they don't draft at least 1 lineman, then they will continue to earn top 10 picks for a few more years.

Fourth person: To me it seems like a slam dunk to trade down for more assets to build around Fields. 

First person, second take: I'm with the line of thinking second person has, if Fields is competent and had games like he's had over the last two, I think they need to trade down and build around Fields. There are so many needs on this team besides QB and I think they should let another team pick the next QB at and raid another team for picks. That way they have more assets in the future and aren't barren of draft assets like they were in the Pace years with the Trubisky, Fields and Mack trades. Poles has to understand that he needs more talent up front especially on defense.

I think re-setting the clock on a rookie contract is very valuable, and if Fields plays well enough to even consider not drafting Williams if in a position to do so, he will bring a ton back in a trade. You might have some growing pains with Williams but the Bears could get dominant very quickly.

[lostfan]

1 hour ago, Dick Allen said:

I think re-setting the clock on a rookie contract is very valuable, and if Fields plays well enough to even consider not drafting Williams if in a position to do so, he will bring a ton back in a trade. You might have some growing pains with Williams but the Bears could get dominant very quickly.

This scenario gets brought up a lot and here is my take on it

1. It's frankly too early to be talking about this. It's still October and there's still a wide range of things that could happen with this team.

2. That said the scenario is kind of fun to think about because if it did happen then it means virtually every card fell the Bears' way:

• Justin Fields reaches the full potential everyone thought he had
• Because Fields is good, the Bears have a lower draft pick - we don't know exactly where that is but we know they don't have #1 overall
• ...but the Panthers do
• Eberflus and Getsy demonstrate enough competence to keep their jobs

3. This is literally the Holy Grail of rebuilding scenarios, a coup with luck that even Howie Roseman didn't get with the Eagles from the Wentz trade. If you're a Bears fan you're not worried about what happens from here, all your options are good ones. You either trade out of the #1 pick and get a huge haul due to the bidding wars that'll result or you trade Fields (who, in this scenario, is now probably worth at least two first round picks). I do think people are overrating how rare of a prospect Williams is, but that's a separate topic

4. The argument for re-setting the clock on a rookie contract is that once you have to pay him it's more difficult to maintain the rest of the roster, but if you're paying Fields, this is offset by the sheer amount of draft capital you're getting back. You now have (at least) two firsts in '24, two firsts (and the Panthers 2) in '25, and two firsts in '26. At this point you can absorb $40 million, and you don't really have to start worry about roster atrophy from the salary cap for at least 4-5 years.

[Jerksticks]

If Carolina is really the worst and we get the #1 pick, I love the idea of trading it down a few slots to whoever Poles thinks will have the worst record NEXT year.  The opportunity to rinse and repeat for as many years as we can sounds tasty.  Keep stacking the trenches.  It’ll pay off

[Kyyle23]

Love to open the game and see that no lessons were learned from prior games and let’s go empty backfield and get Justin killed

[bmags]

Truly a joy to watch this game. 

[bmags]

I just really struggle believing in fields development when it just never seems like he recovers after bad starts. He just seems to mentally crumble when it’s not going his way in game. 

[Soxfest]

Eddie Jackson hurt again, it’s time to move on.

[SoxAce]

Looks like Fields hurt his wrist. Might be Tyson Bagent time. 

Edited October 15, 2023 by SoxAce

[Kyyle23]

The Bagent era begins

[Kyyle23]

I love this era 

[bigruss]

Welcome to the league kid

[Soxfest]

This is Bears football………QB hell

[bmags]

Just a pathetic coaching staff.

[Flash Tizzle]

3 minutes ago, Soxfest said:

This is Bears football………QB hell

After the first completion, I was thinking here starts the quarterback controversy. But there it was, forced fumble for a TD. Bagent has probably never experienced a pocket collapsing like that before in college

[fathom]

45 minutes ago, bmags said:

I just really struggle believing in fields development when it just never seems like he recovers after bad starts. He just seems to mentally crumble when it’s not going his way in game. 

He has no field vision at all