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Positivity


dll2000

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I am an anxious person and a worrier, though I shouldn't be.  If my faith was stronger I wouldn't worry so much.

What I am not is super negative.  When I coached or played I always believe I am going to win.  Even if it is irrational.  Especially pre season before reality becomes more and more evident.  Last year I had pre season super bowl hopes and by second or third game I knew we were going nowhere.

But it is preseason again and I think board is overly negative.  

I think last year was kind of a perfect storm of badness.  We thought our young players were going to be much better and they weren't or they got hurt and our established players were going to be same or better.   Well they were worse.

Pretty much everyone save Robinson had a disappointing year for them.

I think ALL of that happening again is not likely.

Reasons for optimism: 

1) Many think Cohen is garbage now.  But two years prior he was one of Bears main dynamic play makers.  He was guy you always had to be aware of.  I think there has been more good Cohen than bad Cohen.  He can be a dynamic wild card again.

2) Nichols showed a lot of ability his rookie year that he did not show in 2nd year.  He got hurt early and never really excelled.  I think the talent is there.  It is very possible we see the Nichols we expected last year

3) Daniels.  Ditto.  Looked like he was going to develop into a perennial all pro and then pretty much stinks up the place at center.  Recovered some at guard and actually had some good games.  But this guy is still a great talent.  I think there is no reason to give up on him.  

4) Whitehair.  Whitehair can play much better than he played in 2019.   He has played better.  He wasn't bad, but he wasn't stud he usually is.

5) Long is finally gone.  He was a good player and dynamic personality.  But Long has been eating quality reps at RG forever living off early success and not producing except for in flashes and small samples.  Last season he was just awful.  With him gone we can finally get some at least average play at position from start to finish.

6) Leno had a really down year and so did Massie.  If Bears can upgrade one of those positions or they can play at their best it would make a huge difference.  With interior of line stinking, which was thought to be strength, the whole thing was just awful.   

7) TE room in 2019 was insane.  Our best line up was a cut player and an undrafted rookie. Even if its those two again, they will be better with actual offseason practice reps.  Combination fo TE and OL problems made offense doomed.   Add in sub par QB play and it was seemingly historically bad.

8) Hicks got hurt.  That could happen again.  But combination of him getting hurt and offense being awful really wore down our defense.   With him back that is huge for the team. The domino effect of him going down was really devastating for the defensive side of ball.

9) Roquan Smith - needs to get his head right.  He can be a dynamic playmaker if protected and is an excellent blitzer.  He has shown that in spurts. 

10) MT.  I just don't believe he is as bad as he looked last year.   I think he is not a difference maker himself at this point, but the kind of perfect storm of declining play or injuries on the front end of offense really effected his play.  

Conclusion: 

I think defensive can still be elite or really good.    I think the offense can be much improved with just an addition of a very good OT and a player moving to RG or an adequate RG.  I think MT is not as bad as he showed.  I don't even think a great TE is necessary though that seems to be conventional wisdom.  They are hard to come by.   Just better physical play up front, not whiffing and blocking right people will make a world of difference.   

If every player who had basically a career bad year just gets back to their best the team will be significantly improved on that alone.   They still went 8-8 though it feels like it was more like 2-14.  They won 8 games because they have some elite players who still made elite plays despite all the generally crap play.

 

Edited by dll2000
typo
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Ryan Pace shot his shot with Mitch and he missed. That was always going to be a massive setback.

I am excited about getting a new QB, even if it is in 2021.

I would be even more excited if a new GM was the one making the pick.

 

But optimism will remain muted because of the current QB situation.

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24 minutes ago, beardown3231 said:

And Mack evidently was hampered by neck and back injuries. I'm hopeful he can return to form.

The whole defense probably had more injuries because they were on the field 75% of the game, they were crazy lucky in '18 though. That stat should go down.

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1 hour ago, abstract_thought said:

It's more likely that 2018 was a magical blip on the radar type year given the amount of luck the Bears had with injuries, turnovers, and defensive touchdowns.

Barring unforeseen moves, it's tough to see this defense getting better. They'll likely lose Amukamara, HHCD, and Trevathan and replace them with budget players.

That's really question isn't it?   Was 2019 reality or was 2018 reality?  Or were they two ends of two extremes and answer is somewhere in the middle.  

Every year is a different team, but still a lot of players are same.  

 

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1 hour ago, WindyCity said:

Ryan Pace shot his shot with Mitch and he missed. That was always going to be a massive setback.

I am excited about getting a new QB, even if it is in 2021.

I would be even more excited if a new GM was the one making the pick.

 

But optimism will remain muted because of the current QB situation.

Eat at Arby's

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57 minutes ago, The_Romen said:

The whole defense probably had more injuries because they were on the field 75% of the game, they were crazy lucky in '18 though. That stat should go down.

And subsequently, the number of turnovers dipped. They'll never get to 2018's number but 2019's was abnormally low also. I can see them being in the middle in 2020.

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2 hours ago, abstract_thought said:

It's more likely that 2018 was a magical blip on the radar type year given the amount of luck the Bears had with injuries, turnovers, and defensive touchdowns.

Barring unforeseen moves, it's tough to see this defense getting better. They'll likely lose Amukamara, HHCD, and Trevathan and replace them with budget players.

I don't think losing Prince will do much and I am guilty of previously thinking that they needed to do everything they could to keep him past this season that just ended.. but as the season went on I thought his play steadily declined and Bears could stand to upgrade at the #2 CB now.

HHCD to me was more of a luxury signing, and while he was good, I don't think he will be missed much since Eddie will likely move back to his natural position now, where he was way more effective in 2017 & 2018.  I have confidence in the staff to find a fairly affordable and effective starter at the SS spot.

As for Trevethan, I agree that his loss would hurt the most.  He is the leader of that defense and I don;t care what people say, Kwiatkoski is not a better option than him, nor is Pierre Louis a suitable stop gap.  Let's not forget that we cannot be sure if Roquan Smith will be able to play a full 16 games in 2020 due to his off the field stuff that no one really has any idea what's going on.  Simply put he cannot be counted on.

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12 minutes ago, topwop1 said:

What was it I said that you are quoting me on from September 2018?

 On 9/10/2018 at 8:38 AM, topwop1 said:

Fuller is a guy who the Packers offered 4 years and $56 million dollars to which the Bears could have easily declined to match.  Amukamara is also a former 1st round pick, and while he's getting older he can still ball.  I'll chalk last night's game to rust.  We can't let one bad game against one of the GOATs change the perception here.

Counterpoint:   WE'RE DOOMED AND ALL IS LOST TAKE UP GOLF

 

It was after the week 1 Packers loss last year.  Hilarious thread actually, we were super down but saw some upside... right after that post someone said we might go 8-8 in 2018! How far we've come to go right back where we were. 

 

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29 minutes ago, WindyCity said:

Positive Thoughts

-The defense will continue to be good.

-The offense cannot be as bad.

-We are 1 year away from a new QB and that always comes with hope.

For the sake of this thread and positivity, good point!

For the sake of reality, we said the offense "would definitely improve in 2019, even if it's slightly" and how'd that work out?

Edited by beardown3231
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