GunnerBill

My annual start of the season reminder..... Do not take anything said in the GameDay thread too serious.... it is the one thread I don't hold myself to. Now..... lettt'ssss gooooooo Buuuuffffffaaaaaaalllllllllllooooooooooo!

Because he was disappointing all summer. I fully expected him to be inactive.

I suspect a bit of both. I think with where they are DB wise the experience of Lewis and Hamlin would likely have counted against him for that final jersey - but with the rehab that probably capped it.

That can all be true and other dysfunction be more of a reason the Bears sucked last year. But his intention from the off in this article is clear - Poles screwed the pooch on Williams and everything thereafter is on the two of them. Shane Waldron is clearly one of the heavily relied on sources and he has a reputation to rehabilitate. I think Caleb was a diva last year. And his issues were a problem with the Bears. But one among many. The organisation was a disaster top to bottom. I think it still is to be honest. They are hoping a bit like McDermott did here that hiring Ben Johnson just straightens stuff out.

So who starts at corner? Ingram or Strong? The rest I think are all the expected inactives.

The Harris contract was the most baffling deal in free agency to me.

Sure. I just don't think he was interested in speaking to anyone who disagrees with his narrative. And when you think about the number of people let go from the Bears over the past 12 months: from coaches, to support staff, to players, to personnel guys... it wouldn't be difficult to find 32 people with axes to grind. Again I am not doubting that his sources are honestly sharing their truth of what happened and what it felt like. I am doubting that is a fully rounded view of what went on in Chicago last year.

He has a ton a sources he is relying on. I am not doubting any of those sources are genuine. I am doubting that he was ever looking for dissenting voices though. I agree with @FireChans he starts with his story then works to find the sources who will back that up.

I disagree. There is still a lot of good journalism out there. And I say that as someone who got disillusioned with the profession and quit a long time ago. I think the coverage at The Athletic in particular is excellent. Real journalism requires some sort of third party editorial supervision and standard. What Ty is doing isn't worthless, but it isn't what I personally class as proper journalism. And the nature of the model he is running with his blog is that it requires the sensationalism to get eyes and, ultimately, buys. Do I think there is truth to Caleb Williams being an over-sensitive man child who wasn't a great teammate or student in 2024? Absolutely. Do I believe this piece is a fully rounded exploration of how last year went down for the Bears and their QB? No.

This is absolutely what Ty does. He can write and I don't think he makes ***** up. But he decides the narrative first and then finds the sources that fit the narrative. There is no attempt to find balance. It is why the blogging game is much more his bag now than proper traditional journalism. As someone who has done that job - written articles and subbed articles - you wouldn't get these pieces published in say The Athletic. He has found his niche and I hope for his sake he is making some money from it.

My bad, I misread your line. Agree someone ran the route wrong. Has Worthy been a deep threat? He was increasingly towards the end of 2024. Early in the year, yea he was more of a gimmick guy. KC losing him is a significant blow if he misses any serious time.

His name is Kelce. Nobody "ran the wrong route". They were supposed to pass each other, sure. I'd need to look again at where the depth issue was or was it a defender disrupting a route. But regardless even if the error is his a small error and four snaps does not, in any world equate to "he stinks."

How did we learn that when he went out on the first series?

My immediate reaction will be elation and then emotion. I am a happy crier. So probably some tears. For me personally who started rooting for this team in year 2 of the drought it will probably feel a bit like the culmination of something too.

There was lots of tight formation stuff from Greg Roman - which Brady already does use - where Ladd was the widest wide receiver but still essentially in the slot. They were using Keon in some of those looks last year pre-injury when he looked like he might be about to breakout. Post injury there was less of it for whatever reason.

Just watched... thoughts.... - Justin Herbert played great and I thought Greg Roman called a great game. In particular his designed plays against the Chiefs man coverage and all out blitz were excellent; - I thought even without Rashawn Slater the Chargers line held up reasonably well. That is going to be critical to them having success this year; - Losing Worthy early was clearly a huge blow to Kansas City. I think when all 3 are available Rice, Worthy, Brown has the potential to be the best 1-3 receivers Mahomes has had in his career. Brown - JuJu - Thornton however is a bottom of the NFL group (and I also think Pacheco is one of the weaker starting running backs, his limitations are now very obvious); - Goes without saying Jawaan Taylor in particular had a rough night on the Chief offensive line. Hope those refs have set a standard for the season his false starts, because he has gotten away with too much for too long; - I thought the Chiefs defense really struggled. The lacked pressure up front and McDuffie apart do not have the peices on the backend to do the match coverage stuff Spags wants to do. The only points where they look like making plays are when they are running the uber aggressive looks and as I said above by and large Roman and Herbert had the answers.

Eagles. Im safe.

It's Pete Carroll. He drafted a running back in the top 10. Of course they are gonna play Navy style football lol.

Gunner's first morning after thoughts of the year.... - having picked the Eagles in both survivor pools fresh from being out week 1 with the Bengals last year that was a nervy watch! - I said in February I thought Howie Roseman was the most important man in the Eagles' Superbowl win and I think you saw a bit on defense last night how much the Eagles success is about talent. Down a number of their guys they really didn't stop Dallas at all until the 4th Quarter. - I know AJ Brown has missed a lot of camp with a hamstring and he didn't look fully healthy but him getting one catch bears watching. He is going to demand a bigger role in that offense and take the one strike to Dotson out the Eagles really struggled to get their receivers going at all. - For Dallas rough night for CeeDee Lamb who dropped three very catchable balls that would have changed the outcome of this game in the second half. - Dallas got away from the run that they had been having success with after the Miles Sanders fumble. In their final 17 offensive plays just three runs. I think in the cold light of day they may wish they'd stayed with it as their offensive line was winning that particular trench battle! All three balls Lamb should have caught. I don't put that on Dak at all.

This is definitely right. Amari Cooper was a good NFL receiver. But he had the ability to be even better and never achieved that.

Yea I don't think his leg lasts a full season now. But if Bass isn't ready to go and you need someone to kick the first couple of weeks.... it makes sense.

I actually meant back if a shorthand for cigarette packet but that was starred out!

Ha. No. I was looking for something else at the weekend and just while I was around on Spotrac I happened to look and a bit of back of a packet math(s) I had them about $5m over.

This makes the most sense to me. They want JP to replace Carter but don't want to fully guarantee his money.

That was the first game of his first year - 2015 - but it wasn't Kolb. It was Cassel.