NFL Rules Shakeup, Tomlin on Fields, Trubisky’s Linsanity Run, and Other Bears Bullets

Mike Tomlin

The Bachelor’s season-finale had a couple of jaw-dropping moments. Once the group chat catches up, it is going to be lit.

  • What better way to start Bears Bullets than with breakfast anecdotes? I think I’m going to enjoy D’Andre Swift’s time with the Chicago Bears (beyond the obvious reasons). At a minimum, I’ve found another breakfast enthusiast to cheer on:
  • For me, breakfast can be frustrating. Over the last year or so, I’ve struggled to eat early in my day. And that has stifled my love for breakfast foods. But recently, I’ve found myself making all sorts of breakfast eats — and at different times of the day. For instance, I put giardiniera on an egg sandwich that I had for lunch. I also did breakfast for dinner with a scrambled egg on top of a fried chicken cutlet in a biscuit sandwich. I’m here to throw down on breakfast.
  • We’ve got a bunch of NFL nuggets and tidbits to discuss.
  • The NFL banned hip-drop tackles in the latest step toward making defense harder to play at the highest level. It also led to this reaction by former Bears safety Adrian Amos:
  • Patrick has more on the other league-wide rule changes in Around The NFL.
  • And, yes, that includes that new kickoff rule. I’m a fan of these changes. But I’ll miss the element of surprise that is going away with the elimination of the unexpected onsides kick.
  • John Breech, who writes about the NFL for CBS Sports, notes that the NFL moving the trade deadline back a week means that it’ll coincide with Election Day. Making the connection made my shoulders tense in a way that I’m not comfortable with and I hope everyone is on their P’s and Q’s on that day.
  • Expansion of the NFL international package is here:
  • ICYMI: The Bears are scheduled to host a game in London this season. They’ll still have eight home dates at Soldier Field in 2024. But I’m sure the team is miffed about losing a ninth home game worth of revenue.
  • Here is Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin gushing about former Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields:
  • After reading so much commentary diminishing Fields’ skills, ability, and upside over the last few months, it was nice to read someone with a more optimistic appraisal of the situation. Fields has yet to consistently reach the heights that his talent flashes, which is among the reasons he was traded away. But Fields isn’t as bad as his loudest detractors would suggest. As is often the case, the truth lands somewhere in the middle. Ultimately, I’m happy Pittsburgh is where Fields lands. A stable environment with a highly regarded head coach is exactly where he needs to be.
  • Seeing the following tweet had me thinking about the six-game run Mitchell Trubisky had in 2018 from Weeks 4-9:
  • If you missed it, that six-game heater had Trubisky averaging 285 passing yards per game as he threw 17 touchdowns and just 4 interceptions to go along with a downright nifty 114.8 passer rating. That feels like as close as Bears fans have come to any sustained success at the quarterback position since the Jay Cutler era. What a sad Bullet this has turned into.
  • KICKER WATCH! The Green Bay Packers are signing former Vikings kicker Greg Joseph to a one-year deal, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Joseph, 29, made 80 percent of his field goals in 2023 and has been true on 82.2 percent of his kicks over the last three seasons while in Minnesota. However, he hasn’t come close to being as good as he was in 2021 when he nailed 86.8 percent of his field goals. Special teams has long been a bug-a-boo for the Packers. And a missed field goal in a playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers probably helped lead to this deal going through.
  • Hard Knocks Watch: Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio writes about a proposal that could have HBO’s series featuring four teams from the same division. Who’s down to watch an in-season behind-the-scenes look at the Bears, Packers, Vikings, and Lions as they battle it out for NFC North supremacy? Even I would find myself mildly intrigued by the situation.
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  • Eli nails it when he says the Bulls aren’t competitive — they are a crapshoot. This franchise needs to wake the heck up after suffering the worst lost of the year:
  • Over at BN Blackhawks, Tab is on prospect watch as the OHL Playoffs are on the horizon.
  • The latest in the gambling scandal that has roped in Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara:
  • written by

    Luis C. Medina, who you can find on Twitter at lcm1986, has been covering the Chicago Bears at Bleacher Nation since 2017. Since then, he has written about 3 head coaches, 5 play-callers, and 11 starting quarterbacks. Previously, Luis wrote about the Cubs and MLB at BN (2015-16) and worked in the Chicago Tribune sports department (2011-16). He also co-hosted a Cubs postgame show, Outside the Ivy, in 2019.

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