Playoffs? Chicago Bears, now 5-1, emerge as serious postseason contenders Jeff Dickerson - October 18th, 2020
The Chicago Bears need to be taken seriously.
Look, Chicago has flaws -- plenty of them. The overall offense, not good enough. The rushing offense, not nearly good enough. The offensive line, yikes. The quarterback play, inconsistent.
What cannot be disputed is the club's record after six games. Following Sunday's 23-16 victory over the Carolina Panthers, the Bears are 5-1 for the first time since former coach Lovie Smith's final season in 2012.
Entering this season, there were 102 teams that started 5-1 since the NFL went to 12 playoff teams in 1990, and 85 went on to make the playoffs (83.3%), according to ESPN Stats & Information.
I keep thinking the offense has some ceiling left that they could yet reach this season. Foles should incrementally improve with more game reps with this offense... timing, chemistry with these receivers and TEs should improve. He has had only 3 starts with the unit. Keep in mind he didn't even get to practice with the #1s and ran the scout team during practices.
Foles is a very smart QB. Yes he's had his share of bad plays but I believe he is plenty "good enough" to win with if the rest of the unit just does their jobs. Keep in mind that every QB makes some mistakes. I'm a big Mahomes fan and watch every game he plays. Yes, he too makes his share of dumb mistakes too. But the Bears fans seem to over-react to plays where Foles makes any mistake.
The defense seems good. The offense needs to improve. Foles needs to improve. OL too. But I think this is a decent team this year. Love the way they fight and scrap. And there is more talent on this 2020 team than I've seen in recent years. Encouraging. Encouraging for sure.
Not sure they can be real threats with this offensive line. They're so soft it's hard to watch.
Likely you are correct, but the def/st's will keep them in all the regular season games. They should be in the playoffs, and that is all they really needed. They aren't going to likely make a serious run in the playoffs.
Def will be mostly intact.
It looks like they'll move on from ARob, Tru, Leno/Massie and Danny T. Most of that will be dealt w/via the draft.
Not sure they can be real threats with this offensive line. They're so soft it's hard to watch.
Likely you are correct, but the def/st's will keep them in all the regular season games. They should be in the playoffs, and that is all they really needed. They aren't going to likely make a serious run in the playoffs.
Def will be mostly intact.
It looks like they'll move on from ARob, Tru, Leno/Massie and Danny T. Most of that will be dealt w/via the draft.
That would be the worst thing to do is move on with ARob. We have no one behind him even close to his level of talent.
Danny T is washed up Leno and Massie shouldn't of lasted this long. Trubisky? Well, like I said before. He was always a bust.
Likely you are correct, but the def/st's will keep them in all the regular season games. They should be in the playoffs, and that is all they really needed. They aren't going to likely make a serious run in the playoffs.
Def will be mostly intact.
It looks like they'll move on from ARob, Tru, Leno/Massie and Danny T. Most of that will be dealt w/via the draft.
That would be the worst thing to do is move on with ARob. We have no one behind him even close to his level of talent.
Danny T is washed up Leno and Massie shouldn't of lasted this long. Trubisky? Well, like I said before. He was always a bust.
Team has somewhere between -2mil to 4mil in cap next year. Feel free to figure out how you re sign A Rob to the money you think he is worth(15-16mil) let alone what he wants(18-20mil). If they move on from Leno/Massie they'll have somewhere between 2-8mil from Leno and 6-8mil from Massie. That's somewhere between 6-16mil. But they'll also need to get at least one OT out of that + ARob.
There is no money for ARob; and his #'s don't justify anything more then the 15 mil he's getting now. Add in that his role in this offense is really supposed to be the 3rd option, not option 1 or even 2. Beast TE to for teams to adjust to the middle or give up an easy pass is #1, speed WR that forces teams to keep a cap over the top to limit the help to the middle, then ARobs role, possession WR if the other team bottles up the TE/speed WR.
ARob is a legit good WR, and should remain a Bear, but you have to 1 figure out how to pay him(they cannot based on their current cap) and then justify that cost for the role the team wants for that position. Kmet/Mooney are the future of this team.
Not sure they can be real threats with this offensive line. They're so soft it's hard to watch.
Likely you are correct, but the def/st's will keep them in all the regular season games. They should be in the playoffs, and that is all they really needed. They aren't going to likely make a serious run in the playoffs.
Def will be mostly intact.
It looks like they'll move on from ARob, Tru, Leno/Massie and Danny T. Most of that will be dealt w/via the draft.
That would be the worst thing to do is move on with ARob. We have no one behind him even close to his level of talent.
Danny T is washed up Leno and Massie shouldn't of lasted this long. Trubisky? Well, like I said before. He was always a bust.
Team has somewhere between -2mil to 4mil in cap next year. Feel free to figure out how you re sign A Rob to the money you think he is worth(15-16mil) let alone what he wants(18-20mil). If they move on from Leno/Massie they'll have somewhere between 2-8mil from Leno and 6-8mil from Massie. That's somewhere between 6-16mil. But they'll also need to get at least one OT out of that + ARob.
There is no money for ARob; and his #'s don't justify anything more then the 15 mil he's getting now. Add in that his role in this offense is really supposed to be the 3rd option, not option 1 or even 2. Beast TE to for teams to adjust to the middle or give up an easy pass is #1, speed WR that forces teams to keep a cap over the top to limit the help to the middle, then ARobs role, possession WR if the other team bottles up the TE/speed WR.
ARob is a legit good WR, and should remain a Bear, but you have to 1 figure out how to pay him(they cannot based on their current cap) and then justify that cost for the role the team wants for that position. Kmet/Mooney are the future of this team.
Teams in the NFL have had bad projected Salary cap the following year and still find a way to make it work.
You do not let ARob go until you have talent similar to him behind him. Mooney is not anywhere close to ARob in terms of talent. If our plans is to get a new QB then who is he going to throw the ball too? Miller is not the answer going forward. I need to see Kmet light it up before I see if he's the future. Mooney hasn't really shown that as well.
We have money to throw at a second string RB ( 5.75 million a year ) who has had one fluke season and the rest average to bad.
I don't want to see this team go back to the 2015 Bears with below average WR's... We got a guy who would be a starter in most/all NFL teams. You don't let your only good offensive weapon go.