NEWSLETTER
All of my favorite football songs are playing in my head. The themes from SNF and MNF. Bear Down Chicago Bears. All of those musical ditties from NFL Films. It’s (exhibition!) football time!
• Let us allow Secondary Coach Deshea Townsend to ring in the preseason with a juiced up rendition of Mic’d Up:
• Townsend has one of the most important jobs of any Bears coach on staff. His responsibilities include putting out the best group of cornerbacks in a season where there are more than a handful of players jockeying for two starting spots.
• Fresh faces like Desmond Trufant and Thomas Graham Jr. want a cut of playing time. So do returning corners Duke Shelley and Kindle Vildor. Where does CFL standout Tre Roberson fit? What about the Artie Burns reclamation project? Xavier Crawford has made some splash plays, so where does he stand? It’s a fascinating room, to say the least. I just wish I felt better about more than Jaylon Johnson. But that’s why we play preseason games, to allow for opportunities to breakout.
• We’ve got a big day ahead of us:
A huge day for QBs making their NFL playing debuts is on tap:
1 PM: Justin Fields
7 PM: Trevor Lawrence
7:30 PM: Zach Wilson
8 PM: Jordan Love
8:30 PM: Trey LanceLet's do this.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) August 14, 2021
• Here’s hoping your chores are done so you can cram your faces with preseason football. And not just regular, run-of-the-mill exhibition games. Nope. We’ve got debuts of the 1st (Lawrence), 2nd (Wilson), 3rd (Love), and 11th (Fields) overall picks in the 2021 NFL Draft. It’s like a dry run for Opening Week. So let’s take this out for a spin, shall we?
• This is the guy we’re all waiting to see today:
• The Bears’ preseason plan figures to feature plenty of Justin Fields today, and I’m overjoyed. Bonus points if they can get him in with some of the first-teamers. Because, eventually, this will be Fields’ team. So why not get him some burn with the guys he’ll be throwing to later this season.
• Seeing Fields connect with Darnell Mooney and Allen Robinson II will be awesome. And when that time comes, I’ll be ready. However, I think it is neat how Fields has been throwing to the likes of Chris Lacy, Rodney, Adams, Riley Ridley, and Jon’Vea Johnson and elevating their profiles in the process. The best quarterbacks can make receivers look better than you would otherwise expect. Fields has thrown some darn good balls to some off-the-radar pass-catchers in practices. Now, I’d like to see it in a game.
• Don’t get me wrong. I love competition. But I feel so much better not having to worry about a kicking carnival stealing headlines at Halas Hall. One reason there is a level of comfort that hasn’t been felt since Robbie Gould was unceremoniously let go is because of Cairo Santos. Fittingly enough, it was a missed kick that put Santos on the straight and narrow. Go figure.
• Remember when Santos missed a 46-yarder against the Falcons in Week 3? Santos tells Larry Mayer (Chicago Bears dot com) that moment was a game-changer for a player who remembers how misses ended his time with Tampa Bay and Tennessee:
“I thought about this with the Bucs, with the Titans. So, there we go again; I missed a kick in Atlanta.
[But] I just kind of accepted it, as if it’s meant to be. [I thought] ‘I’m going to keep grinding, so if I get another chance here in this game, I’m going to attack that kick to make it. If I’m done, I’ve got to move on.’ I felt like I started playing looser and put everything in God’s hands and went one kick at a time and here we are.”
• Santos didn’t miss a kick for the rest of the regular season. And had it not been for that late TD, the only points the Bears scored in their playoff loss to the Saints before then came off of Santos’ foot. Having stability at kicker could go a long way for a team that desperately needs to put points on the board.
• When the Bears activated Eddie Goldman from the Reserve/COVID-19 list, waiving receiver Thomas Ives was the corresponding move to make room on the roster.
• Sure, I’ll try one of these at Soldier Field later.
Big news for @longsnapperipa and @TightHeadBrew! Longsnapper IPA will be at Soldier Field this year starting tomorrow for the whole season. #crushable #craftbeer #drinklocal #beer #thisdoesntsuck
— Patrick Mannelly (@PatrickMannelly) August 14, 2021
• Now I’m thinking about the importance of pacing myself. This could be the first of 24 games the Bears participate in this season. So, with that in mind, a reminder to drink responsibly.
• I know money plays an obvious role in these things, but to hear players give tangible reasons as why they want to be Bulls is a refreshing reminder of how it’s just different to win in Chicago. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?
Lonzo Ball and DeMar DeRozan Explain Why They Chose the Bullshttps://t.co/fOxLGm0MGx
— Bleacher Nation Bulls (@BN_Bulls) August 13, 2021
