AugustUpdate Camp News |
Staff Rankings
| Config Cheat Sheet
| STOMP
Draft Strategies | Depth Charts | Mock Drafts | SOS | Tools | ADP
Diehards Staff Experts Poll | Draft Simulator | University Videos
Draft Strategies | Depth Charts | Mock Drafts | SOS | Tools | ADP
Diehards Staff Experts Poll | Draft Simulator | University Videos
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 | |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Go To: FlashUpdate / August Update Main Page
| Chicago Bears | ||||||
|
Go To: Off-season Team Review
| ||||||
| Most Recent News Updates: | ||||||
| CHI -- Fields Likely To Continue Running Heavily (9/01/00:47 CT) | ||||||
| CHI -- Bears Release Peterman; Bagent Set To Be QB2 (8/29/13:24 CT) | ||||||
| CHI -- Report: Bears Not Interested In Taylor (8/28/10:24 CT) | ||||||
| CHI -- QB Walker, OL Leatherwood Released By Bears (8/27/19:41 CT) | ||||||
| CHI -- Herbert Still The Frontrunner To Be RB1; Moore Everything Bears Hoped For (8/27/16:12 CT) | ||||||
| CHI -- Fields Effective On Limited Snaps in Loss To Bills (8/26/18:42 CT) | ||||||
| CHI -- Fields Will Start Exhibition Finale; No. 2 Reamins Uncertain (8/25/16:22 CT) | ||||||
| CHI -- Bears Place WR Pettis On IR; Waive WR Reed (8/25/14:04 CT) | ||||||
| CHI -- Fields, Starters Will Make An Appearance Vs. Bills On Saturday (8/24/15:01 CT) | ||||||
| CHI -- Bears Willing To Go With Youth Behind Justin Fields (8/22/17:48 CT) | ||||||
| CHI -- Rookie RB Johnson Shines Vs. Colts (8/20/00:02 CT) | ||||||
| CHI -- Fields Won't Play This Week (8/17/19:33 CT) | ||||||
| CHI -- Fields, Offense Show Promise In Exhibition Opener (8/15/00:01 CT) | ||||||
| CHI -- Fields Will Start Exhibition Opener Vs.; Titans (8/09/17:07 CT) | ||||||
| CHI -- Claypool Suffers A Hamstring Injury In Practice (8/09/13:52 CT) | ||||||
| CHI -- Foreman, Herbert Battling For Starting RB Job (8/08/01:01 CT) | ||||||
| CHI -- Initial Issues And Injuries Of Note (8/08/00:00 CT) | ||||||
Current News Updates
9/01 According to ESPN's Dan Graziano, we shouldn't be surprised if quarterback Justin Fields keeps running. ... Graziano reports that he asked a Bears official if the team wanted Fields to run less this season to avoid putting himself in harm's way. The response was, "Well, we want him to get hit less," which indicates it might not be as simple as running him less. In watching the 55 sacks that Fields took in 2022, it seemed like a lot of them were the result of indecisiveness in the pocket, which is understandable for a young QB and should be something that gets better this year. The acquisition of D.J. Moore has been a major improvement for the receiver room, and that upgrade plus another offseason of work should help this passing game evolve. But Fields isn't just a good runner -- he's a historically special runner at the QB position, picking up 1,143 yards on the ground last year. Look for the Bears and Fields to keep finding creative ways to use his running ability as an asset that keeps drives alive and occasionally leads to a really big scoring play.8/29 Undrafted rookie Tyson Bagent appears to have won the No. 2 quarterback job in Chicago. Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the Bears are releasing Nathan Peterman. They previously released P.J. Walker, which leaves Bagent as the only quarterback on the roster behind Justin Fields. Peterman can re-sign to the Bears practice squad and could be back on the active roster once the team makes other roster moves in the coming days. For now, though, Bagent finds himself as one of the unlikelier success stories of the 2023 preseason. Bagent went undrafted out of Division II Shepherd University and wasn’t on too many radars before a series of good performances opened the door to his rise up the depth chart this month. ... We'll be posting complete moves as they're reported through today's 4 p.m. ET deadline on our NFL Roster Cuts page. 8/28 There have been a number of rumors surrounding the Chicago Bears being interested in trading for disgruntled Colts running back Jonathan Taylor. ESPN's Adam Schefter appeared on ESPN 1000 in Chicago and those rumors to rest. “They’re not in on Jonathan Taylor,” Schefter said via Brendan Sugrue of USA Today's Bears Wire. He made it crystal clear that if a trade materialized it won’t involve the Bears. “All I can tell you is the Bears won’t be trading for Taylor. ...” The Bears have cap room and draft capital to make it happen but seem to be satisfied with the running backs on their roster: Khalil Herbert, D'Onta Foreman, and Roschon Johnson. 8/27 The Bears made three moves Sunday, and two of the names were familiar. The team announced they released quarterback P.J. Walker, waived offensive lineman Alex Leatherwood and waived/injured offensive guard Gabe Houy. Walker signed with the Bears in March after spending the previous three seasons with the Panthers. He appeared in 15 games with seven starts in Carolina, throwing for 1,461 yards with five touchdowns, 11 interceptions and a 63.9 passer rating. The Raiders selected Leatherwood with the 17th overall pick in 2021. He started all 17 games as a rookie before being waived last Aug. 31. The Bears claimed him, and he appeared in four games last season, seeing action on 32 snaps on offense and 11 on special teams. 8/27 As ESPN.com's Courtney Cronin notes, Khalil Herbert remains the front-runner for the role of lead running back, but the Bears have utilized both D'Onta Foreman and Roschon Johnson with the first-team offense throughout camp. Chicago's by-committee approach could bring more balance to a backfield where all three rushers are capable of handling a considerable rushing load, along with Travis Homer, a change-of-pace back and special teams contributor. ... Also according to Cronin, the Justin Fields-to-D.J. Moore connection appears to be everything the Bears hoped it would be when they traded the No. 1 overall pick to Carolina for a No. 1 wide receiver. 8/26 Justin Fields played three drives in his second appearance of the preseason during Saturday's loss to the Bills. And on the final one he completed a 40-yard pass to D.J. Moore. Fields came out of the game with the ball at the Buffalo 9-yard line so rookie quarterback Tyson Bagent could try to finish the drive in his attempt to earn the backup quarterback job over P.J. Walker. “Coach (Matt Eberflus) had a play count for me,” Fields said. “That was just the end of my play count. I definitely wanted to stay in and finish the drive. But I can’t, because of the head man out there. Got to listen to him.” Fields went 2 of 6 for 51 yards in his longest stint of the preseason. He also ran for 16 yards on three carries for the Bears (1-2). Bagent didn’t get the ball in the end zone on the drive after Fields left and the Bears settled for Cairo Santos’ 34-yard field goal. Later in the second quarter, however, the undrafted rookie from Division II Shepherd scrambled 8 yards for a TD and cut the Bears deficit to 14-10. Bagent also directed a third-quarter drive for Santos’ 51-yard field. Bagent finished 7 of 14 for 43 yards and ran four times for 23 yards. Walker played most of the fourth quarter and was 6 of 11 for 71 yards with a TD pass of 5 yards to Robert Burns. ... Chicago opens the regular season at home against Green Bay on Sept 10. ... You can access complete stats for Saturday's Week 3 exhibition finale via our exclusive Fantasy BoxScore. 8/25 The Bears will be starting Justin Fields at quarterback against the Bills in Saturday’s preseason finale, but they’re keeping the rest of their plans to themselves. HC Matt Eberflus declined to reveal how the rest of the playing time will be divvied up. The team has Tyson Bagent, Nathan Peterman, and P.J. Walker on the depth chart behind Fields. “I’m not going to answer that,” Eberflus said, via Josh Schrock of NBCSportsChicago.com. “That’s still a competition though, as we’ve said all along, and we’re open to that. That’s exciting. And that was created. It wasn’t like we created it — when I say we, the coaching staff. That was created by pure competition. Like I said, if you keep an open mind and you let things play out, then good things will happen. A lot of times I’ve seen that coaches predetermine things a lot of times and we just based it on performances and we’re going to continue to do that and let the competition play itself out. ...” Eberflus said last weekend that Bagent, an undrafted free agent, could beat out the more experienced Peterman and Walker for the No. 2 job. With this season’s change in rules allowing for teams to designate an emergency quarterback if they have three on their 53-man roster, a good performance on Saturday would help his chances of sticking through Tuesday’s cuts at the very least. 8/25 The Bears on Friday placed receiver Dante Pettis on injured reserve and waived/injured receiver Joe Reed. In his first season with the Bears last year, Pettis appeared in all 17 games with seven starts, catching 19 passes for 245 yards and three touchdowns and averaging 9.1 yards on 18 punt returns. Reed signed with the Bears in January. He was selected by the Chargers in the fifth round of the 2020 draft out of Virginia, appeared in 11 games as a rookie – all as a reserve – and averaged 20.7 yards on 21 kickoff returns. 8/24 Justin Fields will get one more dress rehearsal before the start of the regular season. The Bears did not play Fields in their second preseason game, but HC Matt Eberflus said on Thursday that Fields will get the start in the team’s final exhibition contest. The Bears host the Bills on Saturday afternoon. Eberflus said, via Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times, that Fields and other starters will play a “selected” number of snaps this weekend. As Profootballtalk.com suggests, the makeup of the team’s offensive line will impact that selection. Right tackle Darnell Wright, right guard Nate Davis, center Cody Whitehair, and left guard Teven Jenkins have all been dealing with injuries this summer, so the Bears will have several spots to consider as they map out the plan for Saturday. 8/22 When Tyson Bagent signed with the Bears as an undrafted rookie quarterback out of Division II Shepherd University, he appeared to be merely a camp arm who might make the practice squad if he showed enough promise. But after Bagent’s strong performance in Saturday night’s preseason game, HC Matt Eberflus said Bagent might not only make the roster, but even be the No. 2 QB behind Justin Fields in Week 1. Eberflus said he can’t rule out Bagent beating out both P.J. Walker and Nathan Peterman and taking the Bears’ second-string job. “I think everything’s open right now. I really do,” Eberflus said. “You never put a ceiling on any player. You’ll see guys, they get into a game and they start rising up.” Asked specifically if Bagent can beat out Walker and Peterman, Eberflus repeated that he’s open to anything. “Everything’s open right now,” Eberflus said. “Everybody can look at the roster and see who’s in a competition. Those are all going to be open. If you close your mind off to that, then you might be missing on something. So you have to let it play itself out. ...” As Profootballtalk.com notes, Fields didn’t play on Saturday and Bagent looked like the Bears’ best quarterback of the three who did, going 9-for-10 with no turnovers and also running for a touchdown. Neither Walker nor Peterman has looked good enough in the preseason to cement the backup job. Bagent is no lock to make the 53-player roster at all, let alone move ahead of both Walker and Peterman to get the No. 2 job, but he has done enough that he’s right in the thick of the Bears’ backup quarterback competition. 8/20 Like his former Texas teammate Bijan Robinson the evening prior, Roschon Johnson's burst through the line was something to behold and his refusal to let the first tackler take him down was inspiring during Saturday's game against the Colts. The Bears rookie demanded notice when he did the heavy lifting on a monstrous 17-play, 92-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter that ate up nine minutes, 25 seconds of game clock. He gained 32 yards on seven carries in the drive and added a catch for 11 yards. On 14- and 10-yard runs, his vision, quickness and elusiveness were apparent, and on just about every touch, his ability to fight for each yard was likewise evident. With Khalil Herbert and D'Onta Foreman, the Bears have a thunder-and-lightning combo. With Johnson, they could've found a rookie in the fourth round who has a little bit of everything and might well provide more than just backfield depth. 8/17 Justin Fields will not play Saturday against the Colts, HC Matt Eberflus announced Thursday. Fields played seven snaps in the first preseason game, and he could play the final preseason game against the Bills on Aug. 26. But the Bears held joint practices with the Colts this week, and Eberflus and the coaching staff felt Fields got enough work for this week. All three of Fields’ pass attempts in Saturday’s preseason game against the Titans were behind the line of scrimmage, but he ended up with 129 yards and two touchdowns as DJ Moore went 62 yards on a screen pass and Khalil Herbert took a checkdown 56 yards. Fields passed for 2,242 yards and 17 touchdowns with 11 interceptions in 15 games last season, while running for 1,143 yards and eight touchdowns. With Fields sitting out Saturday, PJ Walker, Nathan Peterman and possibly Tyson Bagent will see more snaps this week. 8/15 Saturday's exhibition opener against the Titans marked the first opportunity for Bears fans to get a glimpse at the revamped offensive unit Chicago put together this offseason, making high-profile moves to surround quarterback Justin Fields with viable receiving options -- something he largely lacked in 2022. Though the first-team offense was only on the field for two drives, Fields took full advantage of his short outing to show off. There has been much anticipation for the pairing of Fields and D.J. Moore after Chicago traded away the No. 1 pick for a package that included the veteran wide receiver, and it took only three plays before they connected for the first time for a 62-yard touchdown pass in an immediate manifestation of the budding chemistry between the new teammates. And the offense wasn't done making splash plays, as Fields tossed a short pass to running back Khalil Herbert, who weaved his way down the field, breaking tackles for a 56-yard score on the next drive. Fields finished his outing with a perfect 158.3 passer rating, having completed all three of his throws for 129 yards and the two scores. As NFL.com suggested, it was only a small taste of the Bears' offensive possibilities, with other weapons not even entering the equation, but it bodes well for the potential of the passing game in the team's 2023 campaign. 8/09 Justin Fields will start the Bears’ preseason opener Saturday against the Titans. Head coach Matt Eberflus wants to see that the quarterback has shown improvement since last season. “When you’re looking at the quarterback position, the operation [is] No. 1,” Eberflus said Wednesday, via TheAthletic.com. “Can we get in and out of the huddle crisp and execute the play if we have any run-to-pass or pass-to-pass [or] run-to-run stuff going on?We’ve got to make sure we look at that. Can he make all the protection calls that he needs to make, make the adjustments? Just the operation. That’s what we’re looking for.” Fields played 18 offensive snaps in the first preseason game in 2022, followed by nine in the second preseason game and 30 in the third. Eberflus wasn’t revealing their exact plan for Fields or the team’s other starters on Saturday. 8/09 Chase Claypool left practice Wednesday after stopping in the middle of a route with what reporters at the practice believed to be a hamstring issue. Claypool stayed outside to watch the rest of practice rather than leaving the field in order to get further evaluation and head coach Matt Eberflus had nothing specific to say about his condition at this point. “We’ll see,” Eberflus said, via multiple reporters. Claypool joined the Bears in a midseason trade with the Steelers last year, but his production was underwhelming. With his contract up after this year, Claypool will need to show signs of his earlier production if he’s going to land the kind of deal he’d like. 8/08 There is depth in the backfield, but who will emerge as the lead rusher -- Khalil Herbert, D'Onta Foreman or Roschon Johnson? According to ESPN.com's Courtney Cronin, Foreman and Herbert have split first-team reps, while offensive coordinator Luke Getsy has experimented with using both backs as pass-catchers, a role neither has occupied much throughout his career. All three are efficient rushers, but the determining factor in who's No. 1 likely comes down to pass protection, a skill Herbert has focused on getting better at this offseason. Though Foreman and Herbert have the most experience, Johnson might carry the most potential as a three-down back. ... For what it's worth, Pro Football Weekly's Hub Arkush, appearing with the FootballDiehards on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio over the week, told listeners he believes Foreman is clearly the favorite to start. ... We'll continue watching for more. 8/08 As On Tap Sports put it, "Entering the 2023 NFL season, there might not be another player with as much anticipation and expectations attached to them than Justin Fields. ..." Indeed, the third-year quarterback is projected to take a massive leap in his third year. The team has invested heavily around him and now is the time for an ascent in his play. A healthy Darnell Mooney, Chase Claypool's midseason arrival in 2022, adding D.J. Moore in the trade for the No. 1 pick, and drafting Darnell Wright, among other moves, are likely to improve Fields' play after an awful supporting cast in 2022. From a fantasy perspective, there's already plenty to like: Fields became one of the league’s most dynamic offensive players last season when he rushed for 1,143 yards and eight touchdowns — leading the NFL with 7.1 yards per carry -- laste season. In addition, there's ample motivation for Fields as the Bears will choose whether or not to exercise the fifth-year option on the quarterback’s contract next spring. ... Meanwhile, Khalil Herbert opened camp as the leader of a backfield committee that also includes D'Onta Foreman and rookie Roschon Johnson. For now, we like them in that order, but it's a situation worth watching.
| ||||||
 Team Review
Grade: D-
Key Acquisitions: CB Kyler Gordon, S Jaquan Brisker, DE Justin Jones, LB Nicholas Morrow, WR Byron Pringle, WR Equanimeous St. Brown, C Lucas Patrick Key Losses: LB Khalil Mack, DT Akiem Hicks, WR Allen Robinson, LB Danny Trevathan, DT Eddie Goldman, RB Tarik Cohen Hitting on the word count for the Chicago Bears might require some discussion of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Conversation about the great Walter Payton. Maybe some talk about how Chicago-style pizza isn't actually pizza at all (it's delicious, but it's also a casserole). Because where fantasy football is concerned, the Bears are a hot mess. As a rookie, quarterback Justin Fields struggled in a big way. But there's a new coaching staff in the Windy City now, and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy told the Athletic that he thinks bigger and better days are ahead for the former Ohio State star. "I've been super impressed with him. I really have," he said. "There's no one in this building that works harder than him. There's no one that cares more than him. We're off to a great start. He's really accepted this challenge. We're asking a lot of him to learn a lot of new things. He's been a pleasure to work with." Fields' ability as a runner offers at least some intrigue to fantasy managers, at least in dynasty formats. But it's awfully hard to get excited about Fields for 2022 given the utter lack of any passing-game weapons. Allen Robinson is no longer in town. The team's top wide receivers in Darnell Mooney, free agent addition Byron Pringle and rookie Velus Jones. Getsy said he expects one of those players to break out in 2022. "Of course, everybody wants Davante Adams. Who wouldn't want Davante Adams, right?" Getsy said about his former pupil. "That's part of it. But Davante wasn't Davante until he became Davante. I think the system will enable some of these guys to play at their potential. And so we'll see what we can do. We'll give them an opportunity to show me what they got." Ooookay. That leaves the lone bit of light shining through the darkness in Chicago -- running back David Montgomery. Montgomery struggled along with the rest of Chicago's offense, failing to hit four yards a carry for the second time in three years. But head coach Matt Eberflus told reporters that he expects the 24-year-old to thrive in Getsy's offense. "I think the sky's the limit for him and everybody else," Eberflus said. "We don't put ceilings on our guys. If the guy can climb all the way and go all the way up, man -- go. We encourage you to do that, and we'll keep feeding you. That's the process of our whole football team. We never put a ceiling on anybody." Two years ago, Montgomery rushed for over 1,000 yards, topped 50 receptions and finished the season as a top-5 fantasy back. That's going to be hard to repeat with defenses focusing on him, but Montgomery has second starter fantasy value in the upcoming season. | ||||||
|
2023 Off-Season News & Views
Click here for Complete set of News & Views
Click here for earlier off-season items |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||