lostfan

Trubisky's game was bad - really disappointing to see him not getting better at making reads, still staring down Robinson, and the inexcusable throw to Amos at the end of the game when it was obvious Robinson never open - but the penalties on offense made it worse than it is. By the time he started to settle down in the second half, the OL was canceling out all the forward progress with penalties (Trubisky was part of this too, two delay of game penalties on the same drive). 1st and 40 is simply not a thing that should happen in a professional football game. The lack of preparation by the entire offense, and Nagy in particular, was inexcusable. All offseason and preseason Nagy raves about David Montgomery, then he gets a few carries in the first half and looks legit, then Nagy just... ignores him the rest of the game, and abandons the run game completely. They were never down by more than a TD at any point and the clock wasn't an issue so there was no reason for him to do that. This was the worst coached game Nagy has had so far.

lol well at least you actually said this out loud. 90% of the time when I talk to people about this people dance around actually saying that's what they're saying, or try to deflect or say something unrealistic like imply they should be paid relative to how good they (the person making the statement) think the QB is (which is not a thing at any position except for guys like Aaron Donald or Ezekiel Elliott).

Yeah but again Russell Wilson's career is on a HOF trajectory, if you're using him as a measuring stick then nobody has a QB worth paying

The one accountable for that is the GM who gives him all that money but it doesn't really change the overall thought process involved for anyone else. I don't even think Cousins is the most extreme example, I think that's actually Joe Flacco. Ravens tried to extend him, he turned it down, then he literally led them to a Super Bowl and put them in a position where they HAD to give him a huge deal, then he reverted to form the next several years and tied up their cap. (If Jimmy Garoppolo doesn't pan out he'd probably be the best example but it wouldn't be fair to include him before he's had a chance to prove anyone wrong.) The only real alternative to not paying these guys is to let them walk in FA and start over, and most of the time where fans are mocking whichever team extended their guy that's just not a realistic option. Like why the fuck would the Lions let Stafford walk, or the Cowboys let Prescott walk? We're not talking about, say, Matt Schaub here.

I feel like we (meaning, the broader NFL fandom) have a carbon copy of this discussion every time a QB gets a contract extension. It's just supply and demand. Of guys where there's a consensus among all fans and they are actually "worth" $5 million or more there MIGHT be 5 or 6 guys and they are all perennial Pro Bowlers or first-ballot Hall of Famers, if that's the standard (nobody ever actually says this but it's always implied) then that's absurd, almost everybody will be recycling QBs every year. Of course that's not how it works though, you have a QB who meets a baseline of competence, where at any given time about 20-25 guys starting in the NFL will meet that standard. The other third or so of NFL teams is looking for a QB and as any Bears fan (or Browns fan) knows, that is an awful place to be in. It takes a sustained multi-year effort to put the QB in a position to succeed, and then a fair amount of luck. If you don't pay them then another team will and you're back in the draft starting over hoping you find Aaron Rodgers when even the Packers didn't find him that way.

In Gabriel's defense that wasn't really his fault. Once Trubisky had his breakout the defenses took away a lot of his deep routes and forced Trubisky to adjust underneath (his completion percentages deep are below average for a few different reasons, the rest of them are excellent). A lot of that was the limitations of Jordan Howard and the predictability of having Cohen in there.

And I'm not trying to sell a house I just moved into, so not really too worried about it. (That and we just put solar panels on it)

I had a house built last November and to save money I didn't have the basement finished or the deck added. I just did a VA streamline (after 7 months) and got to skip 2 mortgage payments in a row, so after I get my escrow refund that's gonna be about $10k to spend. It's been driving me crazy that I have a sliding door in the back of my house that I can't use, it's like a big part of my house is missing, but thanks to this unforeseen mini-windfall I can go most of the way to the ~$14k or so the deck will cost. Ordinarily I would've just taken that money and put it back on the mortgage but thinking about it, that doesn't really make any sense, plus the deck is gonna go right towards equity on the house so it's basically the same thing as if I had just built the deck on my original purchase in the first place, but with a lower mortgage payment.

Yeah and this isn't the John Fox regime, they are usually pretty forthcoming about these things

Fucking Johnny Knox getting beat on a slant and letting Cutler take the blame for the turnover AGAIN putting Cutler in a position he never should've been in

He's got Alexei Ramirez syndrome. He'll have a screaming one-hopper far away from him headed to the gap and he'll make it look routine then the next play will be fairly routine and you're like "WHAT WAS THAT"

It is in fact the specific reason WHY I don't visit game threads.

Yes football fans are dumb as shit and the vast majority do not actually understand what they're watching or care to learn. But at a certain point in the offseason that's all people do because they get bored and try to force discussion.

This makes me think of the Bears fans on Twitter who keep mocking the "Trubisky can't throw to his left" takes. Nobody's been seriously saying that since the middle of last year at the latest.

I remember watching Anderon in his rookie year thinking he was gonna be as good as he looks now. Then he looked average to below average the next couple of years before finally finding it.

Sure, but if you pay a free agent $22 million a year it's not the same is it?

For all the discussion last offseason of collusion and the disparities between the marquee free agents and the number of teams actually interested in them, it really just comes down to this right here. Baseball teams are a business, and they don't really have any incentive to spend money to win games the way you would in, say, the NBA or the NFL.

I was on WSI before I was here, I really don't even know how or why I found it. I spent most of my 20s obsessively posting on sports message boards, that was my thing before social media. I never liked the vibe over at WSI and the mods there really got off on suspending people for the sake of doing it, once I found this place I never looked back. The constant repetitive b****ing that happens here does get annoying at times but that's sports fandom. I just wish I was here during 2005.

I love the guy. But I'm just like bro go chew some CBD gummies or something damn.

I'm a big fan of Kyle Long, he's probably my favorite player, but yeah he really doesn't need to be so extra all the time. Dial it back now and then, nobody will think less of you. Dude is a teddy bear once he leaves the field though.

Yeah I've noticed that. Since McCarthy got fired and there was that big article about the Packers (that had a lot of quotes from pro-Favre ex-players with a clear anti-Rodgers agenda for some reason) and now there's an attempt to force a narrative.

This is definitely what Evan Silva did with a recent Tribune article, which had a balanced take on Trubisky (discussing both how good he looks and the times he's struggled) and he more or less fabricated a quote from Nagy that he is frustrated with Trubisky and is simplifying the offense for him. However, with only a few exceptions, this is all the NFL media is or ever will be.

I really kinda wish Bears fans collectively would stop getting defensive about every bad Trubisky take by the national media. The NFL is the best source of content slop(like Game of Thrones was but on steroids), and it doesn't have to be good content, just be there to get clicks. The vast majority of people who consume it are by and large people who don't actually watch the players/teams being discussed (and are also mostly morons), and this also includes many of the actual reporters/pundits. Unless Trubisky wins MVP this season there will be dumb external takes - we really should've learned this from the Cutler saga - the only thing that matters is whether he's good enough for the Bears to win games.

It's crazy to think about what Eloy is doing and where his ceiling is as a player and then think Robert's probably going to be a lot better.

I was looking for the soccer thread and couldn't find it. This team is so awesome to watch. They are like the 90s Bulls.