Admittedly, the last two weeks have been a struggle. But I’m actively working on pushing through all of the pain and suffering. And, frankly, writing has been helpful in many ways. As have our interactions on social media platforms. Heck, even you folks in the comments have been supportive in lifting my spirits. I’m so thankful. Let’s talk football.
Sigh. It’s a bummer that we won’t see Justin Fields on Sunday because of a hip injury that took him out of action for this week’s game against the Vikings. However, it was the right thing to do. Sure, Head Coach Matt Eberflus probably could’ve (and should’ve!) done more to protect Fields last week instead of playing him while the Bears were on the short end of a blow-out. But deactivating Fields for this week’s game feels like one of those “better late than never” things.
I found myself crunching some Fields-centric numbers yesterday and this is what the calculator spit out:
Fields is far from a finished product. And that’s good because it gives him something to work toward this offseason.
With Fields on the sideline, the Bears can go full steam ahead with their tank plans. But where does this team rank among the worst of all-time? It’s not a question I really want to dive into deeply (c’mon, now … these last two weeks have been a drain for me) but I had fun sifting through this:
I remember this summer holding court with my pops and the neighbors after a cookout we had. Drinks were flowing. And I was asked what to expect from the Bears this year. My response was something to the extent of “I don’t think they’ll be good, but I think they’ll be more interesting to watch than they were in 2021.” To an extent, I feel as if I nailed that prediction. Seven of their losses have come by 8 points or fewer, so we can say this team has been competitive. It isn’t hard to imagine upgrades in talent and self-improvement from Fields (as well as other returning players) turning some of those one-score losses into wins next year.
Another thing that made Chicago’s football team more interesting this year than it was last year was opening-drive scoring. The Bears have scored on their first possession in 12 of their 16 games to this point. Only four of those were opening-drive touchdowns, but it says something about Offensive Coordinator Luke Getsy’s game scripting that this rag-tag collection of offensive talent was able to put up points early. I’m taking it as a positive sign moving forward.
If Getsy wants to get a chuckle out of us, he’ll run this play with Nathan Peterman tomorrow:
Fun fact: Cairo Santos is 7-for-7 on opening drive field goal attempts. I know the extra point misses have been a bug-a-boo. But his 91.3 percent success rate on field goals this year is better than it was last year (86.7%). So I guess it’s not all bad.
Not-so-fun fact: Since missing a PAT and a field goal against the Lions in Week 10, Santos is 7-for-9 on field goals (77.8%) and 9-for-11 (81.8%) on PATs in his last six games. Those numbers are a bit concerning. Before that Lions game, Santos had nailed all 13 of his field goal attempts. And if you take out the flash flood rain game in Week 1 in which he missed a pair of extra points, Santos had been perfect on all 13 of his PATs. What a weird year for Chicago’s kicker.
Because you’re probably curious, parting ways with Santos this offseason would create $1.775 million in cap space (at the cost of $1.5 million on the dead-money hit). And for what it’s worth, a post-June 1 cut would create $2.775 million with just a $500,000 dead cap hit this year. Santos hasn’t performed poorly enough to nudge me toward banging the drum to replace him next season. After all, Santos has hit on 90.6 percent of field goals and 92.7 percent of extra points since returning to the team in 2020. That’s a three-year sample of good kicking and we shouldn’t take that for granted. HOWEVA, I wouldn’t be mad if the Bears brought in some camp competition this upcoming summer to shake things up. But we can examine that deeper this offseason.
After seeing the Bears add “illness” to Kyler Gordon’s injury designation (he already had a groin issue that had him questionable to play vs. the Vikings), I want to see him in bubble wrap for the season finale:
If you’re going to tomorrow’s game, be ready:
The NFL is double-dipping on a Saturday in Week 18:
Indianapolis was reportedly one of the places the NFL was looking at as a possible landing spot for a neutral-site AFC title game. But because the venue was booked, the folks in Indy had to turn down the opportunity:
Do you know what would make a great neutral-site host for the AFC Championship Game? Soldier Field.
The Bulls and Blackhawks won their respective games on Friday. But it was Zach LaVine who was the star of stars last night:
Yes, the Dodgers cut ties with Trevor Bauer. No, I don’t believe the Cubs should go after him.