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.

I was texting recently with a popular Bears beat writer recently. I won’t mention his name but it rhymes with the name of my favorite burlesque dancer, Madame Bombs. (The lyricist in me must stress that “Adam Jahns” does not technically rhyme with “Madame Bombs” but once I found that joke I was running with it.) This beat writer and I were both sharing a similar experience. Interest in the Chicago Bears, as we made our way through the early days of August, was almost non-existent. The sites aren’t getting the clicks. The tweets are getting the traction. The podcasts – and his is the best in the business – aren’t getting the ears.

Was it the absence of preseason football? Perhaps. For as silly as those games are, they serve as a sort of lighthouse for a desperate fan base out to sea. We’re not on land yet but we know land approaches. Was it the lack of a fan-attended training camp? Perhaps. Normally, by now, we’ve seen a hundred fan videos of players in shorts and I’d have received a dozen emails with subject lines like “Watch out for Ryan Nall”. In the absence of the season’s build-up, we’re left with two of the world’s great bores: mindless social media debate and baseball.

100%. Surreal. https://t.co/uzxqjrEMlP

— DaBearsBlog (@dabearsblog) August 14, 2020

Today could change that, as the beat writer pointed out to me. Today is the first day the media will attend Chicago Bears practice, the first time Madame Bombs and his cohorts will get to weigh-in on the quarterback “competition”. Today they might be able to tell us if Jaylon Johnson is running with the ones, or who has the leg up at right guard. Today and tomorrow there will be a flurry of Bears coverage with actual observations, information and insight, as opposed to blind predictions, what ifs and rankings of inactive game day quarterbacks from across the league. (As entertaining as that piece was from Fishbain, it left me with a “why did I just read that” feeling afterwards.)

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• 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.

The question was asked and the question was answered.

Reporter to John Fox: Will Trubisky play with the ones this week?

Fox: “We’ll meet on that, we’ll talk and we’ll keep you guys posted.”

— Zach Zaidman (@ZachZaidman) August 21, 2017

The follow-up was asked and the follow-up was answered.

. @MarkPotash : Is there a way to work Trubisky in with 1s without it being an “affront” to Glennon?#Bears coach John Fox: “Probably not.”

— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) August 21, 2017

The Chicago Bears have a chance to do the right thing for the 2017 season. They have a chance to admit their mistake – acknowledge giving Glennon 18 million anything was insane – and take an important first step towards the future of this franchise. They can do it Sunday in Tennessee.

Biggs on Potential Jeffery Trade

While the Cubs were losing Game One of the World Series, rumors were circulating regarding a potential trade of Alshon Jeffery to the Philadelphia Eagles. My opposition to such a move has been stated many times. Brad Biggs addressed the situation in his mailbag this week:

Forget additional draft picks for the Bears for a minute. What would they do at wide receiver without Jeffery? It’s widely assumed at this point that the franchise is going to go in a different direction at quarterback at the end of the season. I imagine general manager Ryan Pace is going to want some wide receivers that can be real assets for his new quarterback. Take Jeffery out of the equation and the Bears are one of the weakest teams in the NFL at the position because they have no idea what Kevin White will be like in 2017. It’s uncertain at this point if White will return from leg surgery to play in December. Eddie Royal is hurt once again and the guaranteed money in his contract is done after this season. Cameron Meredith has been a pleasant surprise with expanded opportunities in the last two months but he’s probably not ready to be a frontline player. I think there is a much better chance the Bears look at signing Jeffery to a long-term contract averaging $14 million per season.

The bottom line to me is trading Jeffery for a mid-round draft pick doesn’t benefit the Bears.

If Ryan Pace doesn’t value Jeffery, Ryan Pace is wrong.

JAHNS ON CUTLER AND FOX

Adam Jahns and I will spend a lot of time on tomorrow’s podcast discussing Jay Cutler so I won’t sample any of that material here. But I did like the frustration emanating out of his lede here:

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BIRKETT ON PRESEASON FOOTBALL

Dave Birkett of the Free Press wrote a perfect column outlining the meaninglessness of preseason football. Here’s the first few paragraphs

Between forced season ticket buys, unwatchable second halves and pointless season-altering injuries, there are few redeeming qualities to preseason football.

But the worst part about the exhibition exercise that the NFL puts its 32 teams through four or, in some cases, five times a year is the overreaction that comes with every game.

Sure, that happens in the regular season, too. That’s the nature of our instant-gratification society.

But you don’t need to be the 2008 Preseason Champion Detroit Lions to know which games matter and which games don’t.

KEVIN WHITE’S MINDSET

Adam Jahns with quotes from Cutler:

As for White’s drop, Cutler sounded almost happy it happened. Such plays lead to more dialogue between him and the second-year receiver.

‘‘He handles it well,’’ Cutler said. ‘‘He’s always the first guy to blame himself, no matter what the situation is, so I just try to keep him positive and keep him going. There’s no point or real time for us to dwell on it. We have to move on, and he does that well.’’

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WANT SOME STATS?

• Offense is currently ranked 27th in the league (yardage) and 28th in the league (points). If you remove the Seattle game, they go to 14th (yardage) and 20th (points). They get even better if you remove the James Clausen bits of the Cardinals game but I think you get the point. The offense has been solid when Jay Cutler has played quarterback.
• Bears have the third best pass defense in the NFL through five weeks. With the players in their secondary, just sit back and applaud this coaching staff.
• Bears have the league’s leading rusher. They are 15th in total rushing yards. When is the last time that happened?

TEN THOUGHTS FROM AROUND THE LEAGUE

• Nick Foles is horrible. When Aaron Rodgers is turning the ball over to your defense at Lambeau Field, you can’t respond by giving the ball right back. Fisher has a team that can contend. He has a quarterback that cannot.
• Seahawks were terrible against the Bears, should have been beaten by Detroit and blew a big lead to Cincinnati. Been saying for weeks this Seattle team isn’t any good.
• I’m not sure the league will be in rush to give Marc Trestman another job. #OrganizationalPoison
• Sean Payton to Miami rumors have begun. You know why? Because Sean Payton’s agent is leaking those rumors to anyone with the ability to text.
• Detroit just manages to be so Lionsy all the time. No team with Super Bowl aspirations goes so predictably winless.  (Will have more on Jim Caldwell in Friday’s game preview.)
• Never thought I’d say this but Peyton Manning’s offense is unwatchable.
• Pats are just rolling through the NFL with ease. Next meaningful game they play will be at Foxboro in the AFC title game.
• Oh wow, Brandon Weeden sucks? How would anyone have known that?
• Stockpiling crappy Tom Brady backups is not an offensive philosophy, Bill O’Brien.
• Guess Bradley / Bortles isn’t going to light the league on fire.

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