Bears Teaming Up To Stop City Violence, Watching Potential Future Bears, and Other Bullets

Seeing the Chicago Bears team up with the Blackhawks, Bulls, White Sox, and Cubs in an attempt to work on an important project warms my heart:

This is the first time all five major pro sports teams in Chicago have worked together to take on a social issue as important as this one. And it’s great to see this kind of initiative. I hope it pays off.

Onward …

  • The Bears and Packers were the only NFC teams without Pro Bowl representatives. And as much hand-wringing (deservedly so, mind you) over the Bears letting Robbie Gould and Alshon Jeffery walk away, they aren’t alone in making regretful decisions. Buffalo Bills safety Micah Hyde and Los Angeles Chargers cornerback Casey Hayward were both voted to the Pro Bowl team on Tuesday. Hyde played 63 games for the Packers from 2013 to 2016, while Hayward lined up at cornerback for Green Bay from 2012 to 2015. This is Hayward’s second consecutive Pro Bowl trip since leaving the Packers. Considering their needs in the secondary, those two losses sting.
  • And yet, the Bears somehow landed four alternates. Good for them.
  • Akiem Hicks believes the Bears’ record could be behind his second consecutive Pro Bowl snub. “It was a hard-fought battle, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t enough to get us there,” Hicks told the Mully and Hanley Show on WSCR-AM 670. “What we’re going to do next year is just win more games. How about that? That might help.”
  • Can’t hurt, could help. I like that Hicks is already thinking about the team being successful in 2018. Yes, the schedule ahead of them will be difficult … but nothing in life that is worthy anything comes easily.
  • Ideally, Chicago has Pro Bowl talent in the pipeline. Perhaps they can even go after some in free agency. Bleacher Report’s Sean Tomlinson underscores each non-playoff team’s biggest free agent target for the offseason to come. For the Bears, Tomlinson has wide receiver Jordan Matthews as a priority. Matthews never really got it going in Buffalo and a knee injury ultimately ended his season. He had a decent run in Philadelphia when he averaged 75 catches and 891 yards while scoring 19 touchdowns. Matthews won’t turn 26 until July, so the former second-round pick could still have some upside if his knee recovers fully.
  • At this point, I’m open to any kind of help the Bears can scrape together for Mitch Trubisky in 2018 and beyond. Over at CBS Chicago, Chris Emma writes the rookie quarterback seems to be leaving a lasting impression on the Bears’ head coach. For what it’s worth, came away feeling that a mutual respect has blossomed between the rookie signal caller and the veteran head coach. It’s nice that Mitchell respects his elders and it’s also a bit refreshing that Fox seems to be open to this young quarterback thing. However, doesn’t it feel like this thing is coming to an end soon?
  • Looking for something to watch on TV tonight? Say no more, friend:
  • Hub Arkush of Pro Football Weekly wonders if the game-planning pieced together by Fox and the team’s offensive staff is holding Trubisky back. One week after the running game opened passing windows that allowed Trubisky to thrive against the Cincinnati Bengals, the play calling didn’t seem to do Trubisky many favors. Before we give a blanket “yes” answer, I feel as if it needs to be pointed out that the inconsistencies in the game-planning/play-calling might be more damaging than anything else. The variance from week to week doesn’t seem to do right by the quarterback. To Arkush’s point, using Jordan Howard better would really go a long way toward opening things up, establishing an identity, and fielding a representative professional offense.
  • Trubisky’s 73.4 overall grade via Pro Football Focus rates as average, but he ranks 24th or lower in six different categories. He also ranks in the bottom half of the league in “big-time throw percentage” … but also attempts a relatively low percentage of turnover-worthy throws. I’m still encouraged by his 111.1 deep rating, which ranks fifth behind Kirk Cousins (111.6), Matthew Stafford (113.9), T.J. Yates (116.7) and Alex Smith (131.0). Other than Yates (a small sample outlier) that’s some pretty good company for Trubisky.
  • JJ Stankevitz’s trip to the film room features a breakdown of what might have been Trubisky’s worst interception. The cringe-inducing pick that gave many of us flashbacks to the Jay Cutler era came with safety Quandre Diggs sitting in a place where he knew where Trubisky was going to go before Trubisky seemed to know where he was going. Ugh. I’d rather not re-visit this. Don’t do that again, good sir.
  • Despite the red-zone INT, the Bears have been successful executing in that part of the field … they just need to get there more:
  • written by

    Luis C. Medina, who you can find on Twitter at lcm1986, has been covering the Chicago Bears at Bleacher Nation since 2017. Since then, he has written about 3 head coaches, 5 play-callers, and 11 starting quarterbacks. Previously, Luis wrote about the Cubs and MLB at BN (2015-16) and worked in the Chicago Tribune sports department (2011-16). He also co-hosted a Cubs postgame show, Outside the Ivy, in 2019.

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