Safe travels to all who are traveling this Memorial Day Weekend. And if you have a few pops, don’t get behind the wheel of your car. It has never been easier in this world to find a ride from one place to another. Don’t put your life, or the lives of others, in jeopardy.

Now, some reading material for the weekend.

• From Jahns and Fish over at The Athletic: A thorough look at the relationship between Justin Fields and the folks running the Chicago Bears. Some terrific insights in here on something DBB has pointed out repeatedly over the last year: the fans have fixated over Fields “proving” he was the guy in year two; the Bears never worried about it.
• Giving CHGO a bump here (even though I don’t 100% understand what these guys provide that isn’t available in 12 other places): Here is the OTAs recap video from Hoge and Moreano.
• NBC: David Montgomery says losing “sucked the fun out” of the game for him in Chicago. So he joined the…Lions? Montgomery was no longer wanted in Chicago because he’s actually a limited football player. His new team confirmed this by drafting a player at his position with their first pick in the draft.
• ACTUAL BEAR NEWS: Great video in this article of a bear emerging from under a deck in a New Bedford, Mass home.
• Did you know Richard Dent was now working in the energy sector?
• New president Kevin Warren apparently botched the Big Ten television contract pretty badly before bailing on the conference. (Nothing that happens in college football matters to me, and this is no different.)
• VOTING ENDS SATURDAY FOR MASCOT HALL OF FAME! Let’s get Staley, the legend, into this illustrious club. (I have no idea what other mascots are in.) Click that link, however, because the videos the Bears have been making for Staley have been pretty damn funny.

• Still surprised the Bears managed to get ANYTHING for Adam Shaheen but Dan Wiederer in the Trib has all the details you’d ever need on the trade to Miami. If you’re the Bears, you want Shaheen to have a productive 2020 (if 2020 happens) and turn the seventh rounder into a sixth rounder.
• Is it too early to project the final 53-man roster? Not for Adam Jahns and Kevin Fishbain over at The Athletic. And if you want more Jahns, check out his listing of the most important Bears in 2020. And by no means do I think you should spend money you don’t have but we’re reaching the point where the work being done by The Athletic when it comes to this team is FAR SUPERIOR to everybody else working in the market.
• Five Patriots have now opted out of the 2020 season. Is this a sign of things to come around the league or is Bill Belichick out-thinking everybody (again) and encouraging guys to stay home to execute the tank. If you’re looking to identify potential Chicago Bears opts out, find guys with young families. And hope Nick Foles plays this year.
• IN ACTUAL BEARS NEWS: A black bear took a nap in a pool in Virginia. And I believe I have found my spirit animal, after identifying Olin Kreutz’ a week ago.
• Here’s a link to the letter from Ted Phillips to season ticket holders. If you purchased tickets on the secondary market, from one of these season ticket holders, here’s hoping they’re good, decent people and they don’t screw you.

This is truly the NFL’s off-season and I’m digging it. As you’ve seen, I’m not forcing any content on you. Whatever I find interesting, I’ll share. Once camp starts, the grind starts.

Breer on Trubisky

Albert Breer, writing for The MMQB, breaks down the progress of young quarterbacks across the league in his recent column. Here’s the piece on Trubisky:

The Bears rookie’s strides through May and June came in learning a lot of the basics. Through no fault of his own, Trubisky arrived with relatively little knowledge of defense in general or coverage in particular, and so he’s gotten a crash course in those areas and has made strides there. The other area of improvement came in the basics. At North Carolina, Trubisky got play calls from the sideline, didn’t take a single snap from center and never huddled. Early in OTAs, that was apparent. By the end, he was getting the hang of calling plays in the huddle and taking snaps. And he’s impressed with his accuracy and his movement skills—he doesn’t just run 4.6, he plays at 4.6, which should ease his growth once he gets on the field.

I’m still not convinced Trubisky won’t be the starting quarterback in September.

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