Audibles used to be reserved for just links involving the Chicago Bears, but today we’ll branch out beyond the Bears, to the entire league.

• After two games, fans wanted Shane Waldron fires and D’Andre Swift stoned to death. The great Adam Jahns gave the Bears OC proper credit for his excellent work through six games. Kevin Fishbain adds his praise for the running back. I’ve been arguing for years that the first month of the NFL season is no longer relevant when it comes to team form. There is no preseason, and camp is a joke. September is simply about figuring out what your club is and stacking wins.
• Brad Biggs does a nice job contextualizing the Chicago Bears as they come out of their bye week. There are three major tests approaching: continuing Caleb’s growth, beating the weaker teams, and holding their own against the best division in football by a wide margin.
• Mary Kay Cabot on a potential Myles Garrett trade: “Of course, a team can never say never when it comes to trades, and they’d probably at least answer the phone. But unless someone makes them a blockbuster offer that they can’t refuse, it’s not in the cards to part with one of the premier players in the history of the club.”
• Fun interview on Da Site, with Rome Odunze revealing to Lauren Screeden how he got his name.
• Kevin Warren continues to argue for a new stadium on the lakefront, and taxpayer funding will be on the ballot this November. Any citizen endorsing taxpayer money for a sports facility has lost the plot entirely. Every NFL franchise is worth (at minimum) $4 billion, and yet every time a new building is “required” these billionaires walk into the public square, palms facing the sky.

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The Drills.

Justin Fields in first team drill today: 2-for-4. It includes drop by Kmet, big gain to St. Brown, a near-interception by Gordon and a short throw to Mooney.

— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) August 3, 2022

Justin Fields in second team drill today: 3-for-5. It included a quick, short one to Mooney (possible hot read) turned into good gain, a PBU by Brisker (well behind Kmet), a scramble shovel to Harry, a short completion to Mooney and an out-of-bounds deep miss to Montgomery.

— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) August 3, 2022

Justin Fields in third team drill: one completion. It included a sack where he slipped, two busted screens (call them wins for the D), a step up and scramble up the middle and a checkdown to Herbert on 3rd and 13.

— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) August 3, 2022

Justin Fields in fourth team drill: 5-for-7. Ball moved with gains. He capped it with a short TD to Mooney on fourth-and-1 inside the 5 (after a timeout, too). Best passes when to St. Brown during drive. Got a key 3rd-down conversion when Kmet caught deflected pass by Brisker.

— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) August 3, 2022

Justin Fields in fifth team drill today: two big completions to Kmet (tough one through traffic) and Harry (3rd-and-10). It was a two-minute situation. There were sacks. But it still ended with 3 points from Santos.

— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) August 3, 2022

‘Tis the quietest part of the NFL calendar. But we’re a month away from having actual things to write about. Here are some links for your enjoyment.

•  From state media: “His leadership has taken a step,” said veteran guard Cody Whitehair. “And that just comes with him being more comfortable from Year 1 to Year 2, [having] a little bit more experience, seeing things a second time or third time or fourth time, and he’s only going to continue to grow.” Amazing how natural leaders can ascend to the role when they’re not forced to watch Andy Dalton take first-team reps.
• From Courtney Cronin: “At the end of the day, whether I’m going into my second year or my first year, I’ve still got to play football, and I still gotta perform,” Montgomery said in April. “I could really care less about contracts, the contract terms and things, but I’m excited to be here for another year and play with my guys too.” How the Bears handle the Montgomery contract will tell us a lot about how Ryan Poles intends to build this roster moving forward.
• One thing I’ve heard out of OTAs – and was shared in this piece by Adam Jahns – is the staff isn’t quite sure what do with Teven Jenkins. Has he been demoted? It is a hard to make that argument, being that I’m not sure this current regime viewed him as a starter at any point. Until they make their determinations on Jenkins, it is difficult to evaluate with this OL will actually look like.
• If you haven’t seen video of several Bears hitting home runs, follow this link and take a look. I think sometimes we take for granted how otherworldly these athletes are.
• ACTUAL BEAR NEWS: What a headline in the NY Post! “Sloth bear mauls couple to death, spends hours feasting on their flesh.” Bears, man. Don’t fuck with em.

For 18 of the 32 NFL teams, there are 348 days without football.

And that’s just too much time.

Too much time to gallantly scroll the witless wasteland of Twitter, engaging in unwinnable debates about whether a young player might be good in the future. Too much time antagonize other fan bases on Facebook or TikTok or Reddit or OnlyFans because, you know, their team stinks and your team doesn’t. Too much time to bemoan every free agent signing, no matter how little the investment, and study every draft “prospect”, even when 95% of those prospects have no chance of being a viable professional player.

It’s not the fault of the fans. Fans love football. But do they really love football that much more now than they did when the draft was held on weekend afternoons and when free agent signings were only known because you’d read about them in the paper a day or two after they happened? An overwhelming majority of NFL fans are not even on Twitter – a fact often forgotten by those of us who seem to spend our lives on the platform.

Truth is, there is now far too much media covering the sport (and sports generally) and that media is forced to operate on a 365-day calendar. There is no vacation from the clicks business. The newspapers need you to click and they’ve learned mock drafts are click gold. The Athletic needs new subscribers: that is their entire value proposition. CHGO needs to find their foothold in the marketplace. The only way to do these things is constant engagement. The only way to successfully engage is to launch “takes” into the sports atmosphere.

And my god, EVERYBODY HAS A PODCAST. LITERALLY, EVERYBODY. Well, there is one Bears-related entity that doesn’t have a podcast: me. “The Weekend Show” was fun to produce but it was always far more of an audio variety show than an actual Bears pod. (That sometimes sums up this entire enterprise.) I’ve been asked to do a podcast a hundred times. I’ve been asked why I don’t do a podcast two hundred. My answer is simple: I don’t have that much to say. And when I have something unique that requires my voice, I do one of those Twitter audio things and get it done in two minutes. Also, I’m not that interested in the stuff that doesn’t tangibly happen on the field.

You know, those other 348 days.

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Let’s take a look around the internet and see what’s interesting.

• The legend that is Adam Jahns has perhaps the best piece of the off-season – a breakdown of Chicago’s plan to develop Justin Fields. While fans are obsessing over the pieces around the player, the Bears are focused on the player. And that’s the correct approach.
• Bears Care Gala tickets are now on sale and if you have the means, it’s an amazing event. (It’s not cheap.) For a grand you can be seated with a Bears legend AND a current Bears player/coach at the dinner, while also receiving an invitation to the VIP cocktail reception afterwards. It also supports the great work this organization does in the community, mostly under the radar.
• Brad Biggs does a mock draft, including the two second-round selections for the Bears. And apparently, if you follow the twitter mentions, it’s an outlier of mock drafts. (Again, I have no idea when it comes to this stuff. I’ll start my draft research in about three weeks. And that will be plenty. But Biggs gets sauteed for selecting someone called Jobe in the second round.)
  • One thing: I do not believe Poles is targeting any particular positions with these picks. He’ll have a board and he’ll stick with it. He won’t reach at WR or OT because the closet is empty at those two spots. Poles is preaching patience, and his behavior has reflected that.
• Totally missed this excellent Kevin Fishbain piece on the origins of Matt Eberflus in Toledo.
• ACTUAL BEAR NEWS: Bears are starting to wake up from their hibernation and instructions on how to deal with that are circulating from New York to Michigan. I’m amazed by these people who live in places where bears are just hanging outside the local tavern at night. Just seems like a recipe for drunk guys losing bear fights.
• Good piece at WCG, as Jacob Infante breaks down which wide receivers in this draft class fit Luke Getsy’s scheme. If I’m Poles, I’m looking at one thing: speed, speed, speed.
• Missed this whole kerfuffle between Fields and some jackass at Barstool, a company I’ve hesitated to criticize because I really appreciated the work their top guy did to support struggling bars and restaurants during Covid. I get the appeal of Barstool. They speak directly to the kind of sports fan I avoid at bars, and there are A LOT of those guys.
• Speaking of barstools, this is a terrific read in Baltimore Magazine, arguing why sitting at the bar is often the best place to experience a restaurant. “When we go out, we like to sit at the bar,” Cooper, 79, says. “It’s fun to be close to each other. I think bartenders are sort of fun. They give you quite a bit of attention. It’s cozy.”

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So here’s Adam Jahns.

There are 10 games left but there is only one question that should matter to the McCaskeys right now: Is rookie quarterback Justin Fields in the best hands?

My column from Tampa (deals available in the link). https://t.co/URZZQdT2no

— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) October 25, 2021

You can argue the health of the offensive line is important. But really, it’s not. It’s August 6th.

You can argue the depth at corner is an issue. But really, it’s not.

The only thing important right now for the Chicago Bears organization is Justin Fields. And that’s why today’s diary is just this Adam Jahns Tweet, quoting Jimmy Graham, a guy who has been around.

Jimmy Graham on Justin Fields : pic.twitter.com/RAlPlXAjLD

— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) August 5, 2021

If you’re getting sick of Fields-specific posts, I have a recommendation for you: find another blog.

Very little happening. Here are some links.

• Adam Jahns, fresh from vacation, posits what the Bears could look like if Ryan Pace had been perfect when it comes to the draft. (He openly admits that no GM is perfect – or anywhere near it – but it’s still a fun exercise to read.) The truth? Pace didn’t have to be perfect. He just had to get quarterback correct.
• WCG must have an ESPN+ subscription because they let us know who Mel Kiper projects to the Bears in both rounds one and two. (I pay for Jahnsy. That’s enough.) The players? OT Teven Jenkins and WR Anthony Schwartz.
• Patrick Finley of the Sun-Times does a breakdown of the four QBs who should be available day two and beyond. We’ve discussed three ad nauseum. Mond. Mills. Trask. But Finley sneaks in another name: Notre Dame’s Ian Book. His breakdown: “The skinny: Book isn’t a Day 2 pick unless a team overlooks his measurables and sees a two-time captain who had more success than almost any passer in Notre Dame history. He’s probably at the top of the Day 3 quarterback tier, which includes Texas’ Sam Ehlinger — Tom Herman, his former head coach, now works for the Bears — and former Wake Forest quarterback Jamie Newman.”
• ACTUAL BEAR NEWS! This USA Today piece has nice video of a “curious” bear being chased away from a home by two “mighty” guard dogs.
• Nice Brad Biggs piece on lengendary strength coach Clyde Emrich – one of the rare individuals connected to the team’s titles in both 1963 and 1985. Emrich just turned 90. You’ll probably have to pay to read this. But the Tribune is worth paying for because you get Rick Pearson in the deal.
• There is a movie called Thunder Force. It is apparently terrible. And in this terrible movie, a character named “Lydia goes on a long rant about the Chicago Bears’ 1985 season.” Perhaps it’s time to simply retire all things ’85 Bears for the foreseeable future. Haven’t we drained all the milk we’re gonna get from that cow.

Saturday would have been the third preseason game; the final opportunity for those trying to grab the 2-3 spots at the bottom of the roster. Instead Saturday was just another Saturday, and the last time any laymen would have an opportunity to look at the 2020 Chicago Bears before their season opener.

How Different This Summer Has Been

Writing about an NFL team has a seasonal rhythm to it. After the dead period of May and June, July begins a slow, deliberate crescendo to the nervously thrilling first whistle of opening day. In my case, there’s always a boozy, beachy Labor Day weekend that serves as a calm before the season’s storm. Then that Tuesday it’s all day, every day, until the season ends. Not this year, except for the boozy bit.

No fans at training camp has meant no leaked video or secretive email reports. These usually start flooding my email box on the first day of camp and don’t stop. And honestly, they’re pretty helpful. Last year, while many were excited about the prospect of Riley Ridley making a rookie impact, I was getting word early on that the kid was completely overwhelmed by the professional game. Turned out to be the truth.

The media isn’t shown anything of worth anymore and now can’t say much about what they are shown. So we’re left with scraps of reports.

No joint practices or preseason games means there’s nothing to which we can tangibly react, which has predictably taken all the dramatic steam out of the quarterback competition. This summer, for the first time since I started doing this, I was excited for the preseason because it was going to determine the starting quarterback.

Instead the season will just…start. Sunday September 13th will come. We will all wake up, have our breakfast, settle into our routines, and the game will begin. And fans across the league will be surprised by what they see.

Statement from Chicago Bears Players

Like many in the sports world, the Bears took a pause on Thursday to meet and discuss the racial issues facing our country. Their statement:

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• Who provided the most in-depth look at Mitch Trubisky’s competition preparation? Unsurprisingly, it’s a guy I used to drink with in bars when that kind of thing was allowed: Adam Jahns. And in his piece for The Athletic he gives plenty of reason for Mitch loyalists to believe the young signal caller is capable of finally turning a corner. My two cents? I just don’t understand what he’s done to earn another shot. If I’m the Bears, I tell Mitch that Nick Foles is starting the opener but to keep his arm warm in the bullpen.
• This spring I got into a somewhat public Twitter spat with Stacey Dales for having the gumption to challenge an opinion of hers. Now full reporting shows that Aaron Rodgers (a) was pissed at the selection of a first-round QB and (b) is openly discussing the end of his tenure with the organization. I get that some in the sports media get overly protective of those they cover to protect access. But this was dumb argument by a smart reporter. You’d have to know absolutely nothing about Rodgers to think he wouldn’t be offended by the pick.
• Kelly Stafford went a bit ballistic when it turned out Matt Stafford’s Covid-19 test was a false positive. “I have been losing my mind because of how my Family has been treated since my husband was put on the Covid-IR list,” Kelly, who has four children with Matt, said. “Even after we knew it was a false positive, I was approached in a grocery store told I was ‘endangering others,’ my kids were harassed and kicked off a playground, I was told I needed to wait in my car when trying to pick up food, and people closest to us had to get tested just so they could go back to work… and that’s just to name a few things.” Kelly has battled significant health issues and I understand her frustration. But all the things she suggests here are the PROPER PRECAUTIONS TO TAKE with a positive test. If it’s false positive, great. But before that is known, you can’t just pretend it’s life as usual.
• IN ACTUAL BEAR NEWS: Here are some bears “pole dancing” in West Hartford.