Support For PiƱeiro, Strong Words For Whitehair, Remembering Mackmas, and Other Bears Notes

Brett said it best in today’s Cubs Notes when he wrote: “Another day of changing the title of this daily post, and another day my heart breaks for the victims, their families, their friends, and their communities.”

The push notifications sharing news of another mindless act of violence is always jolting, and even more so when you have close friends in the area. I’ve never been more relieved to see a Facebook notification that a friend was “marked safe.”

Onward to Bears things.

  • In case you missed it: The Bears have settled on a season-opening 53-man roster. That is, of course, unless something changes after someone unexpectedly pops up on the waiver wire. Things could change between now and the time I finish this post. But in the meantime, this is what you’ll get.
  • Don’t expect the Bears to browse through the rummage on the waiver wire for a kicker. Head Coach Matt Nagy named Eddy PiƱeiro as the team’s Week 1 kicker. Our journey has ended with PiƱeiro getting the gig. That means our Obsessive Kicker Watch posts have come to an end. At least, for now.
  • Let the public backing of the kicker begin:
  • If you thought the Bears’ search for a kicker was wild, things could be worse. Imagine trading a draft pick for a kicker you would cut just three weeks later:
  • It’s almost as if Bears GM Ryan Pace knows what he’s doing sometimes.
  • Speaking of which, let’s take a moment to celebrate the biggest trade in franchise history:
  • The Khalil Mack trade was a game-changer for the Bears, obviously. We saw how his presence transformed a good defense and turned it into a great one, and how having an elite defense can push a team with fringe playoff hopes into a legitimate Super Bowl contender. But for me, as a fan, the Mack trade reinvigorated my Bears fandom. And judging by the reactions we received from you readers, commenters, Tweeters, Facebookers, etc., I was not alone. It was a great day for the Bears and an amazing one for us as a Bears fan community. More of those, please.
  • There must be something about September 1 that gets the juices flowing at Halas Hall. The Bears made Cody Whitehair’s contract extension officially official. Here are some words:
  • Whitehair hasn’t missed a game since being drafted in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft. He was one of the NFL’s 10 best centers, with his best performance coming in 2018 when he was named to the Pro Bowl. Moving forward, Whitehair will play guard ā€” the position he was originally brought in to fill. It’s not as if Whitehair will go into this willy nilly. Whitehair was a guard by trade and played the position out of necessity in 2017 when everyone around him was getting injured.
  • A strong stamp of approval from Matt Nagy:
  • I want this Cody Whitehair signature blocked tattooed inside my eyelids:
  • https://www.instagram.com/p/B136bhiFXVN/

  • Books, magazines, computers, and fancy trash cans are among your Deals of the Day today.
  • I’m curious to see what happens with Kylie Fitts:
  • Fitts was a sixth-round draft pick with a unique prospect pedigree. My tendency is to bet on players who were as highly regarded as Fitts, a top-100 high school prospect who ranked among the 12 best players at his position as a preps star and landed at a power conference school. Unfortunately, he hasn’t shown it on the field just yet. It doesn’t mean he won’t, but it is evident he has some work to do.
  • A busy day for the Texans was headlined by this wild trade.
  • Or let’s look at it this way:
  • The rich get richer:
  • Baseball Twitter was super lit this morning:
  • 48-hour sale at Fanatics, with a ton of Cubs, Bears, and Bulls gear on deals here.
  • Yes, we cover the Bulls now at Bleacher Nation.
  • Proof:
  • Way to go, new Bulls guy!
  • 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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