I’ve got family in town for a few days, which is nudging me toward making dinner tomorrow. Yours truly has been craving home-made meatballs lately, so it’ll be a spaghetti and meatballs kind of night. My friend Jim’s recipe is the goods. Hope the fam likes it!
- Friday marked the end of an era of Chicago Bears football:
- President/CEO Ted Phillips’ time with the Chicago Bears is over. And seeing the tweet above got me thinking about one of my favorite bits from The Simpsons:
- Phillips was the Bears’ CEO/President from 1999 until Friday. And while the longevity is impressive, being in an NFL organization’s top role for 20+ years and making just six playoff appearances isn’t acceptable. In all fairness, it’s not as if Phillips was making draft picks, trades, free-agent additions, or coach hires. But when you’re the top dawg, it means you’re overseeing all of that stuff. In the end, I’m just glad change is coming. Fresh faces, clean slates, and new ideas. There isn’t a better time for it.
- We’ll be entering the final rounds of the 2023 NFL Draft two weeks from today. Thinking about that stops me in my tracks. Maybe it feels this way because we’ve had our eyes on future draft boards since early November, but it feels like this pre-draft process has taken forever. But it is finally coming to a close and we’ll soon add more fresh faces to a Bears team that certainly needs ’em. Frankly, I’m just glad we’re doing it together. There is nowhere I’d rather be. Well, maybe at a Taylor Swift Eras Tour show — but that is coming to Soldier Field in June and I’ll continue to exercise patience on that front.
- If you’re still in a place where you’re wanting to learn about any and all prospects, Trevor Sikkema’s list of top-5 players at each offensive position over at PFF seems like a good place to start your crash course.
- Diante Lee (The Athletic) builds a draft board featuring prospects who play premier defensive positions — edge rusher and cornerback. Considering the Bears’ needs to fill holes along the defensive line and at one particular spot in the secondary, I think you’ll find Lee’s findings worthwhile. Ultimately, reading through led me to the conclusion that I believe Chicago can find strong starters at DE and CB on Day 2 should they decide not to try to find that player on Day 1. There is a bunch of value at both of those spots, which is something I bet GM Ryan Poles and his staff is thankful for.
- BearsWire’s Ryan Fedora unearths one thing to like about each of the Bears’ free-agent additions. Trying to do this at this time last year would’ve been a chore. There simply wasn’t enough movement. And every new free gent came with a “but…” attached. However, after spending gobs of cash to make noteworthy upgrades at linebacker, the interior offensive line, and special teams, finding things to like about the new guys isn’t like pulling teeth. That counts as a step in the right direction in my book.
- History has a weird way of repeating itself, but I hope it doesn’t in this case:
- Learning from your past is cool. Remembering the Bears trading a first-round pick for Rick Mirer being as bad in hindsight as it was in real-time isn’t. But you can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been, so take in this history lesson while you can.
- I love when a random old school football highlight makes its way onto my timeline:
- If you stayed up late, then the Cubs made it worth your while:
- The Bulls season came to an end last night with another disappointing defeat. Now, it is time for the heavy lifting to begin:
- A Blackhawks tank watch finale: