There’s no need for a fancy intro paragraph today — Justin Fields did things with his feet last year that the NFL had never yet seen from a Quarterback and everyone on this site lived each moment more than once.

Justin Fields scored THREE times from 50+ yards on the ground in 2022, which no other QB has done in their *total career*.

That doesn't count the 53-yd TD @ MIN that got called back, nor his 60-yd scramble @ DET.

I get "QB rushing is unsustainable", but Fields is different. pic.twitter.com/dmKlMyBzeU

— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) May 29, 2023

In doing so Fields put the league’s defenses on notice and, by the end of the season, so consistently drew extra attention that he opened up seams for his teammates to take advantage of.

Unfortunately for Fields, those teammates were Dante Pettis, Michael Schofield, Larry Borom, and plenty of others that simply didn’t have the talent to make the most of their opportunities. Even still, we saw early glimpses of how attempts to contain Fields might backfire in 2023 — that’s what we’ll go over today. Let’s dig in.

The Passing Game

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We’re officially 2 weeks out from the start of Bears’ training camp, and that means we’re 14 days away from obsessively scrolling Twitter (and other social media platforms) for updates on Chicago Bears’ practices. With that in mind, let’s spend the next two weeks re-familiarizing ourselves with the Bears’ new additions so that, come camp time, we know the names to watch for.

To start, let’s look at…

Tremaine Edmunds

Backstory: Edmunds was the 16th overall pick of the 2018 draft and, ironically enough, was constantly compared to Roquan Smith pre-draft due their differences in style & perceived value. Edmunds had the size, length, and speed that made linebacking coaches salivate but whose instincts needed serious development whereas Roquan was seen as the ready-made modern WILL LB prototype despite being undersized.

It’s a bizarre twist of fate that the Bears effectively traded one standout first-round linebacker for another (while netting draft picks in the process) in their journey from Roquan to Edmunds, but based on Matt Eberflus’ penchant for size and length in his coverage linebackers I can’t help feeling like Edmunds will get featured within Chicago’s defense in ways that Alan Williams didn’t want to feature Smith.

I’m not normally one for paying Linebackers at the rate you could pay a formidable defensive lineman, but physical freaks like Edmunds  always command a hefty price tag — just watch him move in open space and you’ll see rare physical gifts on display. Suffice it to say, you can’t teach those traits — when pursuing a ball-carrier side-to-side, he’s a nightmare.

#Bears new LB Tremaine Edmunds is an EXPLOSIVE mover.

Watch him plant, drive, and track down the RB to make this stop on 3rd down. For a 6'5, 250lb man to do that? Sheeeeesh. pic.twitter.com/SBRzIjzBoA

— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) March 14, 2023

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As Jeff has posted (and posted and posted and posted and posted) about, today I start as the Editor in Chief of DaBearsBlog! I’m truly honored that I get to work hard writing stories, peeling apart football games, and covering every inch of the Chicago Bears with this community. Let’s get started!

For those I haven’t met yet, I’m Robert Schmitz. I’m a Texan that’s cheered for the Bears my entire life — my Great Grandfather Clarence Schmitz played for the team in the 1920s (or so I’ve been told) and since then my family has bled Navy and Orange, to the point that our fandom has driven my Cowboys-fan Mother crazy. We still huddle around the TV every fall Sunday to watch the games and I doubt that’ll change anytime soon.

I’m an analyst that loves the controlled chaos of football’s every play — eleven of the best athletes on the planet move in concert to advance an oblong leather ball while eleven more superhumans move to stop them. Some of the best minds in the world pour decades of their life into plotting, planning, and scheming up new ways to move this ball 10 yards at a time down a 100-yard grid so that they can score 6 points and ask Cody Parkey to get them a 7th.

It’s a bizarre game, but it’s a beautiful game — I love it. I want to study it and learn more about it, and that’s exactly what we’ll do throughout this football season at DBB.

I laid out my “vision” for DBB’s future a few weeks ago, but practically speaking it’ll look like the same daily posts that you’ve come to expect. Our topics will run the Bears’ gamut — player profiles, postgame notes, opinion columns, basically anything other than Haikus will land on the site at one point or another. Jeff, Andrew, and JW will still contribute as they have, so there’ll be a bevy of perspectives to see the game from. And with Jeff still around, maybe I shouldn’t count out Haikus just yet.

We’re only just 16 days away from the start of Bears’ training camp, so it’s about time we get this show on the road. Tomorrow I’ll have something put together about Jaylon Johnson and his case for an extension, but for today I’ll leave you with a question:

Do you think the Bears will win more than 8 games in 2023? Why or why not?

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For 18 years, this website has operated with a singular editorial voice. And it is time to acknowledge that voice has gotten stale.

Maybe it was writing the 50th haiku of this calendar year. Maybe it was waking one morning, realizing I had nothing for the site, and just embedding some random tweet. Whatever the case, it has become clear to me that this site I love so much is in desperate need of a new vision and a modern approach. Enter Robert K. Schmitz, who will become our second editor-in-chief on July 10th.

I have admired Robert’s work, mostly on Twitter and YouTube, for several years. He possesses a unique voice, detailed and passionate, and has mastered multiple formats with which he delivers that voice. His tape study videos are the best I’ve seen. His engagement with fans is measured, balanced and often quite funny.  He’s not a “hot take” guy. He’s not one of these Bill Simmons rip-offs, writing columns like How the Chicago Bears are Like Your Ex-Girlfriend. He’s not someone who approaches sports with a mocking tone. For a long time, I debated bringing him onto the DBB roster, but I always thought a lateral move was beneath him. Now, it’s his show.

But I’m not going anywhere. I am simply moving upstairs. I’m a McCaskey now. The Blogger Emeritus. I will continue to operate the DBB Twitter handle. My game previews, which are about 3% football content these days, will still arrive each Friday during the season. And when I have something interesting to say, I’m still going to use this platform to say it. But the content on this site, day-to-day, will be completely under Robert’s control. In order for him to make DBB his own, I must give him full autonomy. (And I must admit, I’m incredibly excited to watch the Chicago Bears without a notebook in front of me.)

I’m 41 years old, and I’m both a young and old 41-year-old. I still have the passion and enthusiasm I had when I was a kid, especially when it comes to the Chicago Bears, to the cinema, to learning and writing. But I’m also an antiquated curmudgeon, set in my ways, unwilling to adapt. In order for DBB (the site) to maintain its relevance moving forward, it cannot continue to be led by someone who has no interest in All-22 tape or the NFL Draft. Robert’s arrival is not about me stepping away from the site. Robert’s arrival is about ensuring DBB, this passion project, continues to grow.

The future is bright around here.

It is called Letterboxd, and I was unaware of it until very recently. Letterboxd is a website/app that enables individuals to catalogue all the films they have seen and review each. And as movie critic bylines are disappearing in newspapers around the country, and reliable sources for movie opinions with them, Letterboxd is actually starting to assert some influence in the industry. Without these critics, and reliable box office reports, studios are looking to Letterboxd to crowdsource film response.

But Letterboxd is truly a product of the social media era, a period that has intellectually enriched the intellectually impoverished. All you need is a viable email address and suddenly you have the right to dispute Adam Jahns’ reporting on Twitter, criticize Steve Martin’s banjo playing on Facebook and take umbrage with Paige Spiranac’s commercial viability on Instagram. You’ve never had a source in the NFL. You’ve never owned a banjo. You’re broke. But these platforms provide you equitable status, even though that status is entirely unearned. If HacksawRidgeFan232 wants to criticize Rear Window on Letterboxd, who’s to stop him?

A very similar thing is happening with regards to the NFL Draft.

Yes, there are some very talented evaluators working out there in the Draft Industrial Complex. Dane Brugler’s “The Beast” is a marvel of craftmanship and a testament to Brugler’s passion and diligence. Robert K. Schmitz isn’t working for a major outlet, but it’s only a matter of time. He’s sort of the anti-Beast, establishing with short Twitter videos a pointedly economic methodology for presenting prospects. And Lance Zierlein is a personal favorite. He’s created what essentially serves as a Draftopedia Brittanica, a resource at NFL.com that I wear out in the month of April.

When it comes to evaluations, these individuals do yeoman’s work. But when it comes to the establishment of draft value, their opinions don’t really hold water.

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The #Bears “Critical Factors” for WR scream Jayden Reed (Michigan State WR) if they take a WR late:

– Great footwork
– Arsenal of releases at the line
– Contested catch ability that defies his size

Can play outside & inside, versatile. Tough blocker. I love this guy. on! pic.twitter.com/weVyfU6zu3

— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) April 12, 2023

All options (pick at nine, trade back) and all positions are on the table for Ryan Poles in a few weeks. Schmitz has been an invaluable Twitter resource for looking at how this crop of prospects fit the Bears.

I’ve come to really like Maryland OT Jaelyn Duncan.

He’s got similar charm to 2022 OT Abraham Lucas (now starting for Seattle) in that he’s an elite mover while still showing enough power to anchor vs bull rush & displace in the run.

He needs polish, but the tools are obvious. pic.twitter.com/9Q0RKuNQIA

— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) April 3, 2023