Audibles From the Long Snapper: Training Camp Begins Edition

It’s starting to get real.

Finley: Focus on Running Backs

The Sun-Times scribe wrote an excellent “five questions” preview for Bears camp. It was so good I scrapped the idea of writing of my own. (I shouldn’t have been alone.) Finley takes on the big, obvious questions (Trubisky improvement, health, kicker…etc.) but it was his focus on the backfield that caught my attention. I urge you to go and read the entire piece HERE.

4. How much did they upgrade at RB?

In his three NFL seasons, Jordan Howard posted more rushing yards than all but two players: Ezekiel Elliott and Todd Gurley. Still, he wasn’t a fit in Nagy’s offense.

“When you have a running back that doesn’t excel at running routes and creating mismatches on the perimeter in the passing game, it makes you predictable,” Bears player personnel director Josh Lucas said in June. “One of the reasons we moved on from Jordan.

The Bears got little back when they dealt him to the Eagles in March: a sixth-round 2020 pick that could improve to a fifth-rounder. They believe their two new running backs — third-round pick David Montgomery and signee Mike Davis — can fare better than Howard.

The Bears will search for the right timeshare in the preseason. Tarik Cohen will continue to be the Bears’ dynamic, do-everything weapon. Nagy and Pace praised Davis’ offseason work, but the well-rounded Montgomery is the likely favorite to lead the team in rushes.

“It’s hard to always predict the number of carries in this offense by a running back,” Nagy said. “Who knows? Maybe one guy is hot and he gets 20 carries in this offense. It really hasn’t happened yet, but it can happen.”

My theory: Montgomery is going to be the horse running back in this offense by October.

Bannon: Halas Should Never Have Been

One of the most surprising developments in my Bears news consumption over the years has been how little time I spend with anything coming out of the Tribune. But this excellent piece from Tim Bannon deserves your attention. It’s just…amazing. Here’s the first few paragraphs of the article.

George Halas was late.

The 20-year-old had a summer job with Western Electric, and on Saturday, July 24, 1915, he planned to join his coworkers aboard the SS Eastland to cross Lake Michigan for the telephone company’s picnic in Michigan City, Ind.

But by the time Halas reached the Chicago River dock, the Eastland was overturned.

Roughly 2,500 employees and their families had boarded the ship, and at 7:25 a.m. it began listing and swaying from side to side.

A large crowd of horrified spectators watched as the Eastland — a few feet from the bank of the Chicago River between LaSalle Drive and Clark Street — turned on its side. It was in 20 feet of water, deep enough to drown 844 people trapped or trampled below decks.

It is the deadliest day ever in Chicago and the greatest peacetime inland waterways disaster in American history.

Fishbain Tweets

In his quarterback tiers story, @SandoNFL got more favorable reviews than Mitch Trubisky’s ranking would suggest. A must-read for NFL fans, see how the QBs are ranked with insight from 55 coaches and execs https://t.co/trcQxP6fYn pic.twitter.com/RJ0uDUc57u

— Kevin Fishbain (@kfishbain) July 22, 2019

Eddy Pineiro Highlights (I’m Trying…)

LINKS!

Adam Jahns’ portrait of David Montgomery in The Athletic made me think of Charles Tillman. Montgomery seems to be a truly good man. I hope it’s real. Because if it is, he has star potential in Chicago.
The “Trubisky as MVP” bet that I saw nowhere before my short pod, is now everywhere. Here’s a thing from Fox Sports. It’s a highly unlikely result but the odds are too good to not take a shot.
Dannehy spent time on this a few weeks back and it’s something to watch: the Bears are excited about Leonard Floyd in 2019. And no player needs to have a bigger season on the defensive side of the ball.
JJ Stankevitz writes a nice piece, laying out the options for the Bears at kicker should the Fry v. Pineiro battle turn into a flop.
Clinton-Dix will begin camp on the PUP list but there doesn’t seem to be much concern inside Halas Hall.

Bobby Massie Inks Extension

Many folks around the Bears blogosphere (and beyond) like to DM me when players are negotiating (or thought-to-be negotiating) contracts. There are two reasons for this: (1) They know I have friends inside the building and (2) I’m rarely, if ever, going to publish the information myself before it becomes public. That is why I’m still able to acquire the information I do. But I’m usually happy to confirm stuff.

Here’s what I know about the Massie deal:

During the season, several people inside the the Bears commented to me that Massie was playing at an outstanding level. Offensive linemen are very difficult for the average fan (and folks like PFF) to evaluate because it’s all about assignment football. When the Bears sat down and did their post-season roster evaluation they determined Massie was going to be impossible to bring back should he hit the open market, especially with tackle-needy teams like Buffalo and the New York Jets having buckets of money to spend.
The money isn’t a big deal but it values Massie as one of the best right tackles in the sport. I have news for you. He was every bit that in 2018.
The organization’s attention has now moved to their other in-house free agents: Adrian Amos and Bryce Callahan.
- Amos’ agents are pains in the ass and they passed on an extension last off-season, citing the PFF grades as reason the Bears were low-balling their client. Bears don’t view Amos as a top safety. And they won’t pay him like one.
- Two things on Callahan: (1) He’s switched to Roquan Smith’s agents. (2) He’s got a chronic hip issue that he’s learned to manage over the last few years but that many inside the organization believe leads to his frequent injuries. The Bears want him back. The locker room loves him. But his health history and position make the deal tricky.