Schedule info

[AZBearsFan]

3 of our 8 road games come after either the bye or a mini bye, including maybe our two toughest road games (@SF, @GB). I like that. 

[TankWilliams]

Apparently its the easiest opening 10 game stretch out of any team, so the Bears will hopefully get into a good rhythm before the brutal end of the schedule.

[dll2000]

12 minutes ago, TankWilliams said:

Apparently its the easiest opening 10 game stretch out of any team, so the Bears will hopefully get into a good rhythm before the brutal end of the schedule.

Good starts are huge.  They build confidence and incentives to work harder.  

That winning feeling becomes addictive.   But AZ has been weirdly immune to that in current QB era (his name is escaping me at moment) and Philly had kind of an epic collapse last year if I recall.  

[dll2000]

Last year at this time it was well Chiefs, Chargers and Lions are going to smoke us.   MN will probably beat us twice even with a horrible defense (which they didn't end up having).  Who knows about Packers and Love? Maybe Love sucks.  

It was all about Justin Fields looking better and taking next step as QB. 

This year I look at that schedule and obviously we aren't going undefeated and reality may be closer to a bit above .500.    

But I just don't see out and out convincingly better teams on schedule like last year.  Lions and 49ers, okay.  I think GB is better overall, but not by that much.  I think MN is worse.   I know teams emerge once games are played and are better than you thought or worse. 

We aren't necessarily much better than a lot of teams on schedule, but talentwise we aren't so much worse anymore.

Big difference for me mentally is I am not worried about QB position.  I don't have any feeling that Caleb may not be the guy.  I know he is still a rookie QB and I think will have too many turnovers and struggle at times just like vast majority of rookie QBs do.   I am pretty confident from tape he is a franchise NFL QB.  His floor is very high IMO.    I feel very similar about him as I did about Joe Burrow coming out.  Their games are different, but I am talking about my confidence in them working out.  I could be wrong.  We will see in a few years.  

I thought Justin Fields would turn into a good QB and he didn't.  But I also knew he needed to get there and be developed.  I think Bears did just about everything wrong there.

I think it will be much harder to screw up Caleb. He is not nearly as far off as Fields was.  And he is getting all starter reps from jump.  

Finally.  You guys don't have to hear me ***** about him watching and taking mental reps from some journeyman vet all offseason.  I don't have to hear me ***** about it all offseason.  

Finally.

 

 

[StLunatic88]

I gotta be honest, this is a really crappy job of scheduling by the NFL. We go a full month away from Soldier Field, followed by 3 straight home games and then followed by another 3 straight on the road. Thats just bad.

I think everyone agrees that we feel good about opening week at home, but going to Houston week 2 is probably a tough one, especially since we will see them in the HOF game (just weird). And while I think we are better than Indy, going on the road with a pretty young/new team is going to be a test for a while. Catching the Rams at home is nice, feels like they havent traveled well in a bit, and we better be taking care of business against Carolina for the next decade.

The next stretch is a crap shoot to me, a trip to London can always throw everything off, especially against JAX who is very used to being over there. Atleast we get them on their first game, not the second when they are settled in. And even with the BYE, I dont like following up at WAS who is likely going to be on a revenge mission. The who knows what ARZ will be this year. They surprised last year with how competitive they were, but do they have another leap, or is that just what they are? 

Then back home, Its nice getting a few NFCN home games first. hopefully we can set the tone there. But that second 3 game road trip will probably be brutal; to DET then SF and MIN to finish. Its also tough to be getting all four MIN and DET games in a 5 week span sandwiching the Niners. 

I think its finally the downfall of Seattle, especially this time of the season when they are usually falling apart anyway. And of course we have to end in GB yet again. But its better than starting AND finishing with them.

That opening group of games, should be 3 wins but could be 4. The first road trip is the worst group of teams, but its messy so 2-1 would be great but not expected. The November Home games should be 3-0 (they are big on protecting home field) but should be atleast be 2-1 with a NFCN split there. I wouldnt count on a single win for the second road trip, we would have to get lucky and steal one. The end of the season will be more about who is healthy, but we should at least split DET/SEA, and then Week 18 is a complete crap shoot.

Right now, Id be expecting 7 wins, with 5 of them coming in the first 10 weeks. Then it comes down to how healthy they are. 

[AZBearsFan]

20 hours ago, StLunatic88 said:

I gotta be honest, this is a really crappy job of scheduling by the NFL. We go a full month away from Soldier Field, followed by 3 straight home games and then followed by another 3 straight on the road. Thats just bad.

I think everyone agrees that we feel good about opening week at home, but going to Houston week 2 is probably a tough one, especially since we will see them in the HOF game (just weird). And while I think we are better than Indy, going on the road with a pretty young/new team is going to be a test for a while. Catching the Rams at home is nice, feels like they havent traveled well in a bit, and we better be taking care of business against Carolina for the next decade.

The next stretch is a crap shoot to me, a trip to London can always throw everything off, especially against JAX who is very used to being over there. Atleast we get them on their first game, not the second when they are settled in. And even with the BYE, I dont like following up at WAS who is likely going to be on a revenge mission. The who knows what ARZ will be this year. They surprised last year with how competitive they were, but do they have another leap, or is that just what they are? 

Then back home, Its nice getting a few NFCN home games first. hopefully we can set the tone there. But that second 3 game road trip will probably be brutal; to DET then SF and MIN to finish. Its also tough to be getting all four MIN and DET games in a 5 week span sandwiching the Niners. 

I think its finally the downfall of Seattle, especially this time of the season when they are usually falling apart anyway. And of course we have to end in GB yet again. But its better than starting AND finishing with them.

That opening group of games, should be 3 wins but could be 4. The first road trip is the worst group of teams, but its messy so 2-1 would be great but not expected. The November Home games should be 3-0 (they are big on protecting home field) but should be atleast be 2-1 with a NFCN split there. I wouldnt count on a single win for the second road trip, we would have to get lucky and steal one. The end of the season will be more about who is healthy, but we should at least split DET/SEA, and then Week 18 is a complete crap shoot.

Right now, Id be expecting 7 wins, with 5 of them coming in the first 10 weeks. Then it comes down to how healthy they are. 

To me it’s really hard to project anything and feel real good about it one way or the other because we don’t really know anything about how well CW is going to acclimate to the NFL. If he comes in like rookie Trevor Lawrence we might win 5 games but if he comes in like rookie Burrow or Stroud we could win 12 games too. Because of that I have almost all of the games as toss ups at this point. If the latter or even close to it I don’t think any of our games are unwinnable, and if CW lives up to the hype even most of the way I think our offense should be able to do a whole lot which changes the entire equation. 

[StLunatic88]

19 minutes ago, AZBearsFan said:

To me it’s really hard to project anything and feel real good about it one way or the other because we don’t really know anything about how well CW is going to acclimate to the NFL. If he comes in like rookie Trevor Lawrence we might win 5 games but if he comes in like rookie Burrow or Stroud we could win 12 games too. Because of that I have almost all of the games as toss ups at this point. If the latter or even close to it I don’t think any of our games are unwinnable, and if CW lives up to the hype even most of the way I think our offense should be able to do a whole lot which changes the entire equation. 

I agree with you, but I have been told for months now that CW is "for sure going to be atleast as good as Fields has been" already.....

[beardown3231]

20 hours ago, StLunatic88 said:

I gotta be honest, this is a really crappy job of scheduling by the NFL. We go a full month away from Soldier Field, followed by 3 straight home games and then followed by another 3 straight on the road. Thats just bad.

I think everyone agrees that we feel good about opening week at home, but going to Houston week 2 is probably a tough one, especially since we will see them in the HOF game (just weird). And while I think we are better than Indy, going on the road with a pretty young/new team is going to be a test for a while. Catching the Rams at home is nice, feels like they havent traveled well in a bit, and we better be taking care of business against Carolina for the next decade.

The next stretch is a crap shoot to me, a trip to London can always throw everything off, especially against JAX who is very used to being over there. Atleast we get them on their first game, not the second when they are settled in. And even with the BYE, I dont like following up at WAS who is likely going to be on a revenge mission. The who knows what ARZ will be this year. They surprised last year with how competitive they were, but do they have another leap, or is that just what they are? 

Then back home, Its nice getting a few NFCN home games first. hopefully we can set the tone there. But that second 3 game road trip will probably be brutal; to DET then SF and MIN to finish. Its also tough to be getting all four MIN and DET games in a 5 week span sandwiching the Niners. 

I think its finally the downfall of Seattle, especially this time of the season when they are usually falling apart anyway. And of course we have to end in GB yet again. But its better than starting AND finishing with them.

That opening group of games, should be 3 wins but could be 4. The first road trip is the worst group of teams, but its messy so 2-1 would be great but not expected. The November Home games should be 3-0 (they are big on protecting home field) but should be atleast be 2-1 with a NFCN split there. I wouldnt count on a single win for the second road trip, we would have to get lucky and steal one. The end of the season will be more about who is healthy, but we should at least split DET/SEA, and then Week 18 is a complete crap shoot.

Right now, Id be expecting 7 wins, with 5 of them coming in the first 10 weeks. Then it comes down to how healthy they are. 

Washington is going to be on a revenge mission for what?

[dll2000]

1 hour ago, StLunatic88 said:

I agree with you, but I have been told for months now that CW is "for sure going to be atleast as good as Fields has been" already.....

That’s not a high bar.  

[dll2000]

1 hour ago, beardown3231 said:

Washington is going to be on a revenge mission for what?

Wrong answers only.  

Go.  

[Bigbear72]

1 hour ago, beardown3231 said:

Washington is going to be on a revenge mission for what?

Right. Everybody beat the hell out of Washington last year.

[Bigbear72]

4 minutes ago, dll2000 said:

Wrong answers only.  

Go.  

Revenge for the team not mourning the death of Butkus enough to fold like lawn chairs during the game. It was incredibly disrespectful to Butkus.

Edited May 17 by Bigbear72

[dll2000]

4 minutes ago, dll2000 said:

Wrong answers only.  

Go.  

McCaskey was real leaker of Gruden emails.  

[AZBearsFan]

4 hours ago, StLunatic88 said:

I agree with you, but I have been told for months now that CW is "for sure going to be atleast as good as Fields has been" already.....

Depending on what the source means by that I don’t think that’s unrealistic. To me, that would mean Williams is expected to be, as a floor, an inconsistent passer who struggles at times to move the ball but has some flashes of absolute brilliance. The flashes won’t likely be the same kinds of flashes (more arm than legs), but I think that’s a fair bare minimum floor expectation for 18 in year 1 with his pedigree.

With that said, I do have higher expectations for Williams year 1 than what I saw from Fields in year 3. Right out of the box he has a much more polished passer tool kit (quicker release, better pocket awareness and poise, more touch, significantly better willingness to use the MOF), superior weapons, an upgraded OL and a more accomplished play caller. He’s in a really good position to do more, even as a less experienced player.

TBF if Fields was still our QB my expectations for him this year would be higher than last year too with the non-QB upgrades that have been made. 

[soulman]

Avoiding major injuries on offense will play a big part in the eventual results.  If the OL and WR core stay healthy for most games I can see us doing better than the 8.5 win Vegas Line.  The OL now with more experienced OC and hopefully an entire camp to gain cohesion should be as good as any OL we've seen since the mid '00s.  The receiver core including TE are as good or better than anyone else.

Few rookie QBs have CW's skill set and fewer yet have ever been drafted into a situation this well set up for success including the coaching staff he'll be working with.  On top of that is his pride in his game and drive to be the best.  Even as rookie he wants to top what Stroud accomplished last year and I don't doubt he'll work his *** off to do it.  The table is set.  He just needs to do the work.