For those of you who are overly eager for football, just know that college football is coming to help hold you over:
OK, so it’s just Northwestern football. But it’s better than no football … right?
Pretty neat to see pass-rusher Robert Quinn join linebacker Roquan Smith and running back David Montgomery on the NFL’s top 100 list. There are few things that’ll make someone feel as good as getting the love and respect from their peers. And for us, seeing three Bears crack the top-100 makes me think this might not be the lost season that some are forecasting. Especially if Quinn, Smith, and Montgomery play as well as their contemporaries think they will.
It has been a turbulent offseason for offensive lineman Teven Jenkins, who slid down the offensive line spectrum from starting left tackle in January to backup right tackle in June. All for August to roll around to present an opportunity for Jenkins to play his way into the starting right guard position. And maybe getting to this point has something to do with perseverance. Montgomery knows a little something about that. So him providing a window to how Jenkins has been handling this experience (via NBCS Chicago) gives it some credence:
“He doesn’t complain,” Montgomery said. “He comes to work every day. I never heard him say anything negative in any way necessary. Every time I talk to Teven, it’s always, ‘I’m trying to get better, trying to improve myself so I can be the best version of myself.’ That’s super refreshing to see from somebody who kinda handled the level of adversity that he did handle his first year.”
Montgomery went on to say he is “super excited for Tev … to kind of prove everybody wrong.” Find you a friend who is as hyped for your revenge SZN as Montgomery is with Jenkins.
One thing I hope we don’t lose sight of in a “rebuilding” Bears season is the human element. Yes, there are swaths of players who are here now who won’t be here for the next great Bears team. But there are years (and this is one of them!) where we all need the reminder that playing for a championship isn’t the only thing to play for on any given game day. Players are suiting up to impress the Bears enough to convince management to let them stick around. They’re putting out tape for the NFL’s other 31 teams. And they’re doing it for pride. Oh, and themselves, too. There isn’t a player among the 85 left at Bears camp who isn’t playing for something. It’s one of those factors that has made this camp so interesting to me.
Maybe Monty needs to give the rest of the Bears offensive line that kind of love. Especially if they come across this post from Bleacher Report, which lists the Bears’ offensive line as one of the losers of training camp in 2022. B/R’s Alex Ballentine writes things could be worse for this unit than they were last year based on what the group has put out there to this point:
The Bears have shuffled around their offensive line throughout training camp trying to find the right combination. Most recently, they shifted 2021 second-round pick Teven Jenkins from tackle to guard.
While new head coach Matt Eberflus said he had a “good first outing” at his new position, the same can’t be said for the unit as a whole.
As Warren Sharp of The Ringer noted, second-year quarterback Justin Fields has not enjoyed good protection in the preseason. He’s getting hit or sacked on 33 percent of his dropbacks and is only averaging 4.9 air yards per attempt after averaging 9.8 last season.
It appears they’ll be suiting up 2022 fifth-round pick Braxton Jones at left tackle with Jenkins playing right guard and second-year tackle Larry Borom getting the nod on the right side.
There’s a lot of youth on the offensive line who have room to grow, but the early returns aren’t good and they could struggle early on.
On the one hand, I think Ballentine nails an important point. This offensive line is loaded with youth, which makes it easy to believe the best still may be yet to come. But on the other hand, I don’t want to put too much stock into Fields’ air yards throwing numbers when he was limited to 10 snaps on Thursday and has been playing without his starting center. And I’m not totally convinced Larry Borom will be starting at right tackle. Although, Riley Reiff working with the second-stringers during practice makes me wonder if Borom might end up as RT1 by default. This line has a bunch to sort through in the coming days and weeks leading up to the regular-season opener.
I’m not sure the answer to the Bears’ offensive line questions are still hanging out in free agency waiting for a call from GM Ryan Poles. But it is still worth pointing out that the Bears are $15,953,425 under the cap, per OverTheCap.com’s latest calculations. Only seven teams have more spending room than the Bears. Of course, Chicago could roll it over into 2023. As things currently stand, Poles’ Bears are $100,474,528 under the projected cap for next season. Giggity!
This is art:
Between Vic Fangio, Chuck Pagano, and Sean Desai, the Bears have had defensive coordinators with intriguing perspectives beyond football. And once in a while, it would really shine through in their weekly press conferences. And reading through these passages highlighted by the Sun-Times’ Jason Lieser makes me think we’ve got another coach with a unique amount of depth in DC Alan Williams:
Losing to the Bears in a preseason game has Pete Carroll working the Seahawks extra hard in the days following the loss:
An old friend finds a new home:
And convenient, too, seeing that the Bears and Niners square off in 20 days.
This play is the Mitchell Trubisky experience in a nutshell. And it was so hypnotizing, I couldn’t stop watching it:
A reminder that all ACL injuries and recovery timetables aren’t the same:
The Cubs didn’t complete the sweep, but Seiya Suzuki hit his 10th homer. And who doesn’t love watching dingers?
For the listening pleasure of hoop heads among us:
NEWSLETTER
