It is CubsCon Friday. So if you see me at Lizzie McNeill’s tonight, I give you permission to dap me up, shoot a head nod my way, and even give me a hug. But just read the room before you go in for the hug. I’m looking forward to seeing you tonight. We’ll be in the corner figuring out trade-back options with the No. 1 pick.
I’ll likely find myself digging through Kevin Warren stories until he is introduced at his Tuesday press conference. And that is probably a good thing. The Warren hire is so different from what we expect from the Bears. So it makes sense to want to cram your eyeballs with everything Warren while you can. It feels rare when a high-profile Bears hire doesn’t have previous franchise connections. Even GM Ryan Poles (a Bears undrafted free agent signing way back when) and Head Coach Matt Eberflus (ties to former Bears assistant Rod Marinelli) were connected to this franchise. Hiring Warren meant the Bears went off the board. I’m digging it.
Jon Greenberg (The Athletic), Chris Emma (670 The Score), and Dan Wiederer (Tribune) have stories I’ve found interesting.
I love seeing tweets like these:
It is great when fun facts are actually fun:
Technically, the Bears won their title in the calendar year of 1986. I always like bringing that up because that happens to be the year I was born (it wasn’t until July, but let me have this please). This conversation was often a point of playful debate between my girlfriend and me.
LeBron James appears to be on board with the Warren hire:
Hey Bron, we’ve seen you catch lobs for years. Want to switch it up and catch passes from Justin Fields during the NBA’s offseason?
I suppose this is one way to frame it:
Even still … I maintain that just because the college game is happy to see him go doesn’t mean he isn’t a fit at the NFL level. Clearly, he has done it in the NFL before. Perhaps his style isn’t a great college fit.
This slipped past me earlier in the week, but it sounds like the Bears had a vent session during end-of-season meetings. (NBCS Chicago)
Not unsurprisingly, the defense feels as if it lost something with the departures of Robert Quinn and Roquan Smith via trades ahead of the deadline:
“Obviously, the team hasn’t been the same since we traded Roquan and Rob, we haven’t won since then,” said Justin Jones, via The Athletic’s Kevin Fishbain. “That speaks to how much of a leader Roquan and Rob were to our defense and everything. You can see the shift in production. Obviously, defensive stat production, sacks, TFLs, pass breakups and interceptions. It all took a toll. But there’s no replacing that.”
Fishbain explores what happened to the Bears’ defense, which was looking good when everyone was healthy and before the trades. And I would encourage you to read his story at The Athletic for more detail and depth. For me, I’m trying to move through this without looking back at the past too much. If anything, I’ll take with me that the Matt Eberflus/Alan Williams defense can work with an upgrade at talent. No, guys like Roquan and Quinn don’t grow on trees. And I know GM Ryan Poles has so many other holes to fill. But if he can upgrade the front seven and improve pieces on the offense, then the Bears – as a whole – will be in better shape.
Also: Just know that everything won’t be fixed this offseason. Even with the draft capital and the $100 million+ in salary cap space, it is impossible to properly plug every hole. Then again, urban wordsmith Jay-Z once said “difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week” and I think about that line often.
A casual Jalen Carter highlight share:
The Packers just hired Erin Roberge as an assistant athletic trainer, making her the franchise’s first female full-time athletic trainer. (WBAY)
Oh, hey! Bleacher Nation covers the NFL now. Not just the Bears, but the NFL as a whole! You can find BN’s NFL coverage on Twitter and Facebook.
Good to see Brian Flores get a head-coaching interview again:
How can you not be romantic about baseball?
The feeling is mutual, Vooch:
NEWSLETTER
