Once in a while, I find myself eating at a place like Small Cheval. It boasts one of the best burgers I’ve ever had. Whenever I go, I leave thinking to myself “I should come here more often.” But if I did that, would it be as special? (Michael: Hey! I went there last night. And I totally agree. It had been a few months and you know what, it was more special because of that.)
I found it quite interesting that shortly after reports surfaced of a “strong sense” the Bears would be targeting a veteran quarterback who could push (or even possibly supplant) Mitch Trubisky this season, a report that the team was also targeting free agent tight end Austin Hooper popped up. That’s not a coincidence, right? Rumors about the Bears being willing to upgrade the quarterbacks room followed by buzz that the team would target the top tight end option in free agency dropping that close together feels a little too on the nose.
In 2018, free agents came to Chicago because (1) there was plenty of cap room to be spent, (2) they were hyped about what Matt Nagy brought to the table, and (3) because there was a buzz building around Trubisky. After all, Nagy was coming from a system so renowned, that players talked it up amongst each other when they were with their previous teams. And at the time, Trubisky’s arrow was pointing up. Before PFF tweaked its grading formula for reasons that have gone unannounced, Trubisky had a higher rookie season grade than Deshaun Watson. Things have been uneven since then, and it wouldn’t be a shock if the Bears had to recalibrate their sales pitches to respective free agents this offseason. Then again, they were going to have to do it anyway because the Bears are in a different situation now than where they were back in 2018. Some of that is good, as they have some recent success to fall back on when they try to entice free agents. But it is far from a perfect situation.
Allow me to circle back to the tight end stuff for a moment, because I understand the cause for concern that would come if the Bears ended up shelling out big money to Hooper (or someone else) in the tight end market. For starters, cutting Trey Burton right now is a virtual non-starter — if only because saving $1.05 million to take on a projected dead money hit of $7.5 million isn’t smart football business. But if Chicago was to part ways with Burton before the start of the *2021* league year, the Bears could create an estimated $7.1 million in cap space, while sustaining a dead money hit of just $1.75 million. Big difference there as far as cap ramifications are concerned.
SHOT:
CHASER:
This isn’t to suggest that there’s some magic cure-all to the running game if the Bears ran more from the shotgun formation. But this should provide some perspective to a vocal portion of the fan base that wanted to throw it back to 1996 and run it out of the I-formation 40 times per game. There needs to be balance in the offense for it to be successful. You know who else was good running out of the shotgun formation? Jordan Howard. And this dates back to the John Fox era, which was when the Bears ran out of the shotgun 13 percent less than league average *DESPITE* Howard averaging 6.5 yards per attempt from the gun. I don’t ask for much, but I have simple requests such as (1) learn from the past, (2) learn from your mistakes, (3) use the data at hand to put your best players in the position to be successful. Sure, the Bears need to scheme and block better in order to run more efficiently. But also, it would be nice if they used some of the numbers on hand to improve their chances.
Matt Nagy making the media rounds:
Oklahoma receiver CeeDee Lamb has #skills:
https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1233246033934766081?s=20
https://twitter.com/thecheckdown/status/1233243666883301377?s=20
Ducks throwing dimes:
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1233192148276797441
Seeing new QB drills was kinda neat:
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1233225336424484869?s=20
If you blinked ,you missed it:
I don’t think Chase Claypool is going to end up as a tight end any more:
https://twitter.com/JimNagy_SB/status/1233171228644593670?s=20
The Bears’ current long snapper is set to become a free agent when the new league year begins in March. I’m just saying:
Speaking of guys who are free agents in March:
Rebellions were built on hope:
NEWSLETTER
