We’re so close to real football, you can almost taste it.
Also, if you’re looking for a review of the last game (and Darrell Taylor) look no further:
Chicago Finalizes Their 53-Man Roster
We’re so close to real football, you can almost taste it.
Also, if you’re looking for a review of the last game (and Darrell Taylor) look no further:
There is a selflessness to being a sports fan.
For a few hours each week, I allow my emotional existence to be impacted by a collection of individuals with whom I have zero personal connection. They don’t know me. They don’t care about me. To paraphrase a great Jerry Seinfeld bit, the only thing linking us is the laundry the fellas wear.
But emotions are only involved when there are expectations, and it’s been five years since I’ve had any expectations when it comes to the Chicago Bears. After sitting in the building and watching Cody Parkey shank away the 2018 season, Noah and I drowned our grief at the Lou Malnati’s bar. There was immense sadness, but that sadness was accompanied by hope. 2018 was a site to build upon, and 2019 would be the erection of a championship tower. I predicted the 2019 Bears to go to the Super Bowl, but Mitch Trubisky had other plans. (Those plans, it would turn out, were that he would play the quarterback position badly.)
Ryan Poles made two moves over this last week, trading for a pair of defensive linemen in Darrell Taylor and Chris Williams. To the outside observer, these would be considered minor moves, depth moves, backend of the roster stuff. But they struck me, symbolically, as the moves of a GM who thinks his roster is close to competing for a title. And I happen to think he’s right. The 2024 Bears have a terrific defense and the best collection of “skill” players in organization history. This is a team that should win double-digit games and be in the tournament come January. And one has to look no further than last year’s NFC playoffs to understand that every team in the tournament has a prime opportunity to play on the final Sunday.
Offense (25)
QB (2): Caleb Williams, Tyson Bagent
RB (4): D’Andre Swift, Khalil Herbert, Roschon Johnson, Velus Jones Jr
FB (1): Khari Blasingame
OL (9): Braxton Jones, Teven Jenkins, Coleman Shelton, Nate Davis, Darnell Wright, Ryan Bates, Kiran Amegadjie, Matt Pryor, Bill Murray
TE (4): Cole Kmet, Gerald Everett, Marcedes Lewis, Brenden Bates
WR (5): DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, Rome Odunze, Tyler Scott, DeAndre Carter
DE (6): Montez Sweat, DeMarcus Walker, Darrell Taylor, Austin Booker, Dominique Robinson, Jacob Martin
DT (4): Andrew Billings, Gervon Dexter, Zacch Pickens, Chris Williams
LB (5): Tremaine Edmunds, TJ Edwards, Jack Sanborn, Amen Ogbongbemiga, Noah Sewell
CB (6): Jaylon Johnson, Tyrique Stevenson, Kyler Gordon, Terrell Smith, Josh Blackwell, Jaylon Jones
S (4): Jaquan Brisker, Kevin Byard, Jonathan Owens, Elijah Hicks
Special teams (3)
Tory Taylor, Patrick Scales, Cairo Santos
If there was any drama in the 2024 53-man roster, injuries robbed us of almost all of it. Ian Wheeler goes from a Hard Knocks hopeful to being placed on season-ending IR alongside Dante Pettis, who’s been the Bears WR #5 thus far this preseason. I don’t love that Chicago hasn’t seen anything from 31-year-old DeAndre Carter this offseason, but with $375,000 in guaranteed money there’s no other WRs left to roster so I think he makes the team. That leaves three spots on the roster up for debate — OL#9 (assuming 9 OL), TE #4, and DE #6.
For OL#9, I picked Murray based on how early Chicago seems content to put him in the preseason games and the performances he’s shown us so far, but if someone else has outdone him in practice the coaching staff will likely roll with the hot hand. For TE#4, Shane Waldron uses too many TEs to not include a 4th TE & I think Bates offers Chicago a young player with production that can grow into a role as a blocker and seam-runner.
DE#6 is a stretch, but I went with Martin for now. The 53rd man on any roster could be anybody — especially given the changes to special teams that the new kickoff rule necessitates — and there’s always a chance that the Bears choose to find their 53rd player amongst cut candidates as opposed to choosing either Daniel Hardy, Jacob Martin, or Micah Baskerville.
As players go I prefer Baskerville, but in moments of ambiguity I defer to the easiest option available: guaranteed money remaining on their contracts. Jacob Martin has just over $600,000 guaranteed dollars while Baskerville and Hardy have none. Both of the latter would immediately be candidates to join Chicago’s practice squad while Martin would be lost as soon as you cut him. Thus, I think Martin is a safe pick for this spot (even if the spot itself may not be filled by a current Bear).
I do wonder if the Darrell Taylor trade signals trouble for Martin — with reports out of Seattle suggesting that Taylor plays much closer to 245lbs than his listed 265lbs, the Bears will now have two lighter ends and may not feel the need to carry three. Maybe special teams skill decides this choice, and that could lead them back to Travis Homer (who I’m cutting otherwise because he’s expensive and has disappointed me this offseason) or someone else they’ve liked this offseason. We’ll have to wait and see.
If you want more analysis, check out the latest in Bear With Us.
Your Turn: Who do you want to see make the team? Why or why not?
I took a twenty-year sabbatical from the world of fantasy football, returning in 2022 and stunning the fantasy world with a third place finish that season in the Thomas H. Bowden league. (The league is named after one of our original members who passed on 9/11.)
In 2023, my expectation rose, and my draft haul of Tyreek Hill, Davonte Adams, Deebo Samuel and Michael Pittman suggested those expectations would be met. But this is a keeper league. And I kept Justin Fields. I also took an earlyish-round shot on a tight end I thought was going to have a monster year: Darren Waller. I finished in third place once again, but most of that was luck.
Other than listening to The Fantasy Footballers podcast – a delightful show I make part of my daily NFL season routine – I do zero research before the draft. But I’m still asked to discuss the Bears on fantasy podcasts around the country. This year, the Bears are fantasy relevant, and those requests have tripled. (My acceptance rate has not.) Here are some thoughts I have shared.
D’Andre Swift is being under drafted.
Most platforms have Swift being taken as the RB22-25, behind the likes of Rhamondre Stevenson, Najee Harris and Aaron Jones. But there are three reasons I’m targeting Swift.
(1) The Bears did. This was a player the franchise identified and acquired extremely early in free agency and for good reason. He is going to be a focal point of this offense.
(2) Preseason usage. One screen. 50 yards. No snaps since. If the Bears are planning to platoon Swift and Herbert evenly, they sure aren’t suggesting that with their summer snaps.
(3) Receiving game. Shane Waldron’s two backs in Seattle last year – Walker and Charbonnet – caught 62 balls for 468 yards. And neither of those backs presents the threat in the passing game that Swift does.
Another Back I Love: Isiah Pacheco. It has been a long time since Andy Reid has fielded a proper three-down back and I think Pacheco is destined for that kind of season.
Nobody is playing.
Tonight @ 8PM, plus Jeff’s Hard Knocks liveblog
I’ve been in preseason mode for too long, so I fully intend to get back to more weighty written content in the next coming weeks. For now though, one last lightweight review of Saturday’s game as told through tweets and a podcast.
Check this out — recorded right after Bears-Bengals joint practices yesterday. Talk about an exciting takeaway.
Two takeaways in two minutes after watching the entire #Bengals practice in Chicago.
1) The obvious became more obvious.
2) Was it good Bears or bad Bengals? pic.twitter.com/CWBdM2RSjJ
— Jeremy Rauch (@FOX19Jeremy) August 15, 2024
Your Turn: What are you looking for from today’s joint practice session with Cincinnati?
My analysis of the lifeless, tedious, horrifyingly boring first episode of Hard Knocks was met with Twitter outrage! Why? Because a lot of sports fans are children. “HOW DARE YOU NOT LIKE THE TV SHOW ABOUT THE TEAM I LIKE!!” So let’s see how many followers we can lose this week (and then gain back in the following days).
