Bear Hands

It’s good to see they’re not settling at CB. Our S and NB look respectable IMO for Evero’s packages but we need some outside capable guys and the defense we deploy is DB heavy. Important to get right and churn out who wasn’t working. The OL and OLB signings sound interesting.

They should be the people we stay the furthest away from honestly. Our discards from previous regimes who were discarded again.

Tyler Badie is an interesting option at RB if we decide to unload Miles Sanders. Pass-catcher, great speed, was in a tight battle in DEN.

I honestly think there will be better WR on the wire. Toney doesn’t seem to be worth it. He’s in Claypool territory. Just isn’t working out anywhere.

That flip job was one of the most impressive you'll find historically. Also, the draft picks they've landed have been money, beyond just Stroud. Stingley, Pitre, Dell, Nico, Scruggs, Harris, Anderson. Difference makers at every phase of the game. But at the end of the day, the coaching & QB combination elevates all and they found guys who do just that.

Shows how bad we've been when we're familiar with so many of the initial cuts today haha.

He has a bit of tunnel vision in his critiques for a lot of players. He caught a bit of the lightning in a bottle thing for the crappy ex-QBs turned analyst. I’m kind of indifferent, some of his vids are pretty shortsighted in respect to play designs and he makes a lot of assumptions that are easy for a casual viewer to think are right bc he says so. This is funny: https://x.com/icecoldfootball/status/1826371588469805370

That’s fair. I’m definitely more out than in, but we’ll see/no reason to hate it if he stays. If they keep him, best case, maybe he becomes decent depth over time.

I personally think he's one of the worst OGs we've ever had aside Nate Chandler to play substantial regular season snaps. We have a good swing lineman in Brady at LT, LG..not to mention, Yosh can and has played LT, RT, and LG effectively in the NFL. Extremely poor performance, one alright preseason game stretch, long term hammy injuries, freak injury last season, again terrible play, with a staff that didn't draft him. I don't see how he's valuable compared to some of the UDFAs/late signings.

My 2 cents- WR: I could see us cutting all but (4) Diontae, Thielen, Legette, & Mingo. I don't think ISM makes it unless they really think his ST are that much a benefit compared to many other likely dudes on the wire. Coker could sneak in, but I think we target the waiver wire. Agree w/Persn that we keep 4 Zavala gets cut. Raym or Anderson make it instead We keep 5 safeties, Alex Cook makes it. Where the space is made - Cherelus or Davis get cut in the front-7.

I’ll respectfully disagree to the point rookie receivers struggle more these days. I’d say that’s absolutely not the case anymore, and has been this way for a minute with modern offenses. The last handful drafts have been fire with impact rookie WRs making impacts left and right, all over the map and quickly. Chase, Lamb, JJ, Waddle, Puka, St Brown, Olave, Dell, JSN, Nico, Reed, Watson, Devonta, G Wilson, London, Higgins, Pittman, Addison, Doubs, Douglas, Pickens, Aiyuk, there’s been impactful guys coming in with swift, high snap count roles in just a few years time. This is separate from the XL talk, he’s got great potential, but he’s more in the DK or Deebo framework needing a bit of refinement to nail down his forte. Those guys still find their way as well. The crazy thing was that last year was the draft many claimed was WR starved and it was historic production wise.

If it's the right play I'm thinking of, it was Pistol w/2 H-Blockers. So that's a 12-personnel pistol package -- Had Dionte & Mingo, Matthews & Sanders blocking each side of Bryce. It was a clean pocket until Branson Deen shed an Icky block with a spin. Got Bryce a bit jittery even though I think he had space to move left.

There's no real critique to have yet either way. After scoping things out -- Initial snaps yesterday were Dionte (X), Thielen (Slot), Mingo (Flanker), & Sanders (In-Line/Flex TE), Chubba (RB) Matthews & Sanders in 12 personnel w/Dionte & Thielen. We brought in XL in a condensed set +motion with Dionte. I imagine that's similar to the script we'll see early on in the year. (4th down completion) And then had XL at the X with Dionte at Flanker, Thielen slot, Sanders inline for the big Thielen completion. That was a nice play design. More spread gun. Seems like our primary 11 personnel is: Diontae (X), Mingo (Flanker), Thielen (Slot) 12 personnel (w/Tremble out): WR: Diontae & Thielen (Sometimes XL if we need speed), TE: Sanders & Matthews Condensed (or) Spread Pistol and Gun Packages: If 3 WRs, XL is in Mingo out. Diontae & XL rotating spots. If 4+, XL looks more slot/presnap motion type. Some decent potential in the offense.

Got around to watching highlights today. Looked promising. Sound play designs. Still see anxious feet by QB1 but he's looking more confident. The first Sanders completion was really nice.

Tutu Atwell sounds like he could be had on the trade market with Wittingham and Robinson coming along in LA behind Puka and Kupp. He fits the young shiftier type we don’t really have. That could be worth pursuing.

It's all about setting expectations. It was known going in he's got the potential to be a solid X but had some pretty obvious humps ahead (not ones he can't overcome, just acknowledging where he's at). So the comments about those expressing reality seem rather annoying. No crap, every player requires patience and development... After BTJ, the remainder big body X-receivers that could play early were basically Coleman, AD, & for us we saw XL in that tier and apparently liked him the most. The big humps to expect - right now: He doesn't have short area quickness or RR skills to beat guys in zone coverage. He's a man beater. So he needs time to learn the upper body nuances at the spot and how to get open quickly without presnap work. Factor in that he's older, so you want swift development. All in all, it's a high reward with him working out but we've tried this a few times. High upside, less sure thing, so yeah, many will stay pessimistic until proven otherwise.

Coker has shown some ability so would be interesting to see if he could grow.. but I don’t mind looking elsewhere entirely after our top 4, especially being #1 on the waiver wire. Young dudes like Charlie Jones could be cut in Cincy, Skyy Moore in KC. Or even middling journeymen like MVS or maybe even Robert Woods. See who gets free and feel the situation out.

Traded into the first for the guy. You'd like to think he makes a year 1 impact like most modern WRs do. Sucks we can't find one the plentiful ones who've worked out from the get-go but this was a guy many analysts and us saw from a ways away he didn't have the short area burst or refined rr skills to come in at an outside capacity as an X. There-in lies his upside, but out of the gate, he's easing in and it should be the expectation he's not doing a ton year 1. Look at recent years, Flowers, Puka, Dell, Jayden Reed, JSN, Watson, Doubs, Rice, heck guys like Douglas and Wicks. If we drafted Polk or Ladd it would be a different story, but we also wouldn't have the big play big man ceiling that we have in him.

Great - he was a good signing. Just as solid of a swing depth piece as BC.

He'll get a high target share. It's a matter of how well this offense works with the run game, OL, and Bryce to actually open up a passing game.

Same here - my dad just straight up gave them up this past year. We’re on the north Panther. They only made it to a few games anyways the past few years because they peaced out of Charlotte. But we were there every game from Clemson until around my college years 06-10ish. I slowly faded out as I moved for jobs, but came back for a ton of games during Cam/Luke years. Think my last Panthers game was Thanksgiving 2018. I was looking at the Bears schedule and my pops was like “how about I fly in for the Panthers game” and I was like, nah, let’s do the Rams at Soldier Field haha.

My fam is from Chicago, Bears fans, but my parents lived in Charlotte when the Panthers began, so grew up going to every game. First and only team I’ve been a diehard fan of. Now I live in Chicago (north burbs), and I gotta be honest, knowing I’ll be here growing my family, it’s hard not to look at migrating to the Bears side haha. The Panthers franchise is in wretched shape.

I'll be honest, didn't even turn our game on once I found out the starters and some backups were even out. Bears-Bengals first half was it for me this week lol.

Disagree with the approach.