John Fox Says These Bears Are Better Than Last Year’s Team and Other Bullets

It doesn’t appear as if any Bears players suffered season-ending injuries during the team’s annual Family Fest scrimmage on Saturday at Soldier Field. I’ll count that as the first win of the season.

  • Bears quarterbacks showed signs of life in Saturday’s scrimmage, and while Dan Wiederer writes there isn’t much to take away from the happenings here, there is a little bit of value in a confiednce boost. Each of the Bears’ three quarterbacks (Mike Glennon, Mark Sanchez, Mitch Trubisky) is new to the team’s offense – which has a slew of new players at skill positions. With all the new bodies in the mix, every bit of progress helps as the team approaches its first preseason game, and eventually, the games of consequence in the regular season.
  • Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times has the rundown of the numbers posted by Glennon and Trubisky on Saturday. The Bears’ starter connected on all five of his attempts for 43 yards and a touchdown, while Trubisky completed 3-of-5 passes for 42 yards. It’s admittedly a small sample size, but I’ll gladly take an 80 percent completion rate from my quarterbacks any day of the week.
  • Finley also highlights Trubisky as one of the three Bears who stood out on Saturday, in part because he showed no signs of intimidation. While there wasn’t much of any pressure to perform in Saturday’s friendly scrimmage, there is always a minimal amount of stress hovering when you’re the Bears’ quarterback. Handling a practice in front of a few thousand fans is baby steps compared to what he’ll try to conquer on Thursday … but every step in the right direction is worth noting for a franchise whose quarterbacks tend to step the wrong way early and often.
  • Joining Trubisky on Finley’s list of standouts were Tarik Cohen (who showed a nice little burst here) and Prince Amukamara, who showed some ball skills on Saturday to go along with an offseason full of veteran leadership, aaccording to head coach John Fox.
  • For what it’s worth, Fox believes the 2017 Bears are going to be a better team than what we last saw in 2016. “We’re just a better football team,” Fox told CBS Chicago’s Chris Emma. “I think we’ve come a ways, and we’ll see where it takes us.” It’ll be hard to be as bad as the 3-13 injury riddled team we saw last season, and you really can’t fault Fox for having some positive vibes with as many new faces are calling Chicago home now. We won’t be able to tell how much better this team is after a handful of training camp practices, but the vibe is different now than what it was when last season ended.
  • Seeing a former New York Jets quarterback hook up with an ex-New York Giants wide receiver is going to take some getting used to, but here’s Mark Sanchez and Victor Cruz connecting for six:
  • Three players have perfect 99 ratings in Madden 18 … but none play for the Chicago Bears (Uproxx Sports). Von Miller, whose Denver Broncos will face the Bears on Thursday in each team’s first preseason tilt, is one of two defensive players with the top rating. The other being Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who is still holding out. And if you guessed that 40-year-old Tom Brady was the third, then you’re probably looking forward to seeing if Madden 18 is worth the hype as much as I am.
  • WR Rating is a Pro Football Focus stat accounts for a quarterback’s passer rating when throwing to an intended receiver. Did you know the Packers have two of the four best players as far as this metric is concerned? I didn’t, but now that I know, I’m reminded of my concerns about the secondary going into 2017. Jordy Nelson (122.6, 2nd) and Randall Cobb (116.2, 3rd) rank among the best of the best, which is of no surprise. Still, the Bears better be on their A-game if they’re going to slow down the Packers’ passing offense.
  • Mike Tomlin will enter his second decade as Steelers head coach, signing an extension that would take him through the 2020 season. Tomlin is 103-57 as Pittsburgh’s head coach, but is winless (0-2) against the Bears. Go figure. He’ll look for his first win against Chicago in Week 3 at Soldier Field. (You can check out the rest of the Bears schedule here, if you’d like.)
  • LaDainian Tomlinson’s Hall of Fame speech was a thing of beauty last night:
  • Los Angeles Chargers. Jeez, that’s still going to take some time to get used to.
  • 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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