I agree that Odunze is not going anywhere. Curious to get your opinion on this, though. Whose long term potential do you like better, Odunze or Burden?
Bears
- Thread starter PowerI66
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Defense and OL depth will be their draft priorities. Unless someone unexpectedly falls into their lap I don't see the Bears drafting any offensive skill position players.
I don't think you can directly compare the two like that because they're different players. Rome is your typical outside WR and LB3 is more of that twitchy slot player. I think they will be evaluated differently as their careers progress.
Oh man, I like both but I will say Burden because of his yards after catch potential. He came on as his rookie season progressed and I see his role getting larger next year.
I think most of those are concentrated in the 4th round. I'm going to guess they combine most of those to move up to a 3rd or 2nd
The Bears have 7 draft picks, they don't have a 6th round pick but have 2 in the 7th. They don't have the draft capital to move up to the 2nd or 3rd round unless they start using future picks.
Guessing they know more than has gone public so I wouldn't be surprised if news on Nagy drops this week.
Well the Titans dodged a bullet by NOT hiring Nagy. I have a family member who is a Titans fan and she was praying they didn't hire him. LOL
The Bears had a great season, relative to their performance in recent years. But, let's not get too far out over our skis here in terms of how great they are relative to the rest of the league.
You know that line that losing teams have when they say that they were in a game until the end and either the other team made "one more play" than they did or "if the ball had bounced our way a couple of times, who knows what might have happened?" I'm not saying that line isn't true (at times), but I am saying that it also works in reverse for winning teams. For example, if the ball had bounced in the direction of the other team or if a questionable official's call, or non-call, had NOT gone the winning team's way, then the winning team would have been the other team.
You can apply that "logic" to a whole season as well as a single game. Given the fact that a substantial majority of the Bears' victories this year were by one score or less, glass empty kinds of fans and pundits might say that the Bears could have VERY easily finished the end of the season at 8-9, 7-10, or worse and not made the playoffs. And they wouldn't be wrong.
Despite the above, I am a realistic glass half full kind of fan. That is to say that I believe the Bears made some great improvement from last season, and they also improved greatly over the course of THIS season. The realism I want to inject here is that only time will tell if the Bears have truly turned the corner from mediocrity to greatness (or at least above averageness). I am hopeful that they have, but only time will tell if this year was an aberration or the beginning of a run of sustained competitiveness at the highest levels of the league. They need more games under their belt to prove more convincingly that they belong in that highest level.
You know that line that losing teams have when they say that they were in a game until the end and either the other team made "one more play" than they did or "if the ball had bounced our way a couple of times, who knows what might have happened?" I'm not saying that line isn't true (at times), but I am saying that it also works in reverse for winning teams. For example, if the ball had bounced in the direction of the other team or if a questionable official's call, or non-call, had NOT gone the winning team's way, then the winning team would have been the other team.
You can apply that "logic" to a whole season as well as a single game. Given the fact that a substantial majority of the Bears' victories this year were by one score or less, glass empty kinds of fans and pundits might say that the Bears could have VERY easily finished the end of the season at 8-9, 7-10, or worse and not made the playoffs. And they wouldn't be wrong.
Despite the above, I am a realistic glass half full kind of fan. That is to say that I believe the Bears made some great improvement from last season, and they also improved greatly over the course of THIS season. The realism I want to inject here is that only time will tell if the Bears have truly turned the corner from mediocrity to greatness (or at least above averageness). I am hopeful that they have, but only time will tell if this year was an aberration or the beginning of a run of sustained competitiveness at the highest levels of the league. They need more games under their belt to prove more convincingly that they belong in that highest level.
50% of all NFL games are one score games, for reference.
Obviously only time will tell if they really turned the corner.
This is the NFL, you do not know year to year for a bunch of reasons but having a QB and a HC make it a hell of a lot easier to sustain some type of success.
As we sit here on 1/20/26 things look a hell of a lot better than almost all years past.
How they handle the offseason will be huge. As it stands now the Bears have negative $4 mil in cap space. DJ is all but gone, Kmet's contract will likely need to be restructured. Even given that I don't see how they can resign both Brisker and Byard unless Byard accepts a team friendly short term deal as he'll be 33 at the start of next season. Given his contract the Bears may be lucky to get a 3rd for DJ, maybe a 3rd and a 5th or something in that range.
I think they sign Byrd and draft a S relatively high.
I think Edmunds is gone as well, he saves them I think $11MM. Edit, overthecap says they would save $15MM.
Of the two Byard will be cheaper, but Brisker is the better long term option in my opinion. Define relatively high. With them having a good year all of their picks are in the bottom quarter of each given round. I can see them drafting a safety, but I'm just not sure it will be a day 1 starter.
Wouldn't surprise me if it was r2 or r3. But I have no clue on strength of the position in draft etc...not there yet.
Agree, ideally you keep Brisker but his FA value is going to be high.
We shall see, there will be restructuring that happens.
This is a good post and I agree with a lot you said here. We can talk about what the Bears need to do to upgrade, etc. Or maybe how the "bounces" of the ball went...or didn't go. Outside of the fact 2025 was a season few people anticipated, including me, I had a concern I have had for years with this team as we look back.
Without question the Bears had an outstanding November and in reality it is what got them where they ended up. The fact is, after they beat the Eagles on 11/28 they really didn't look any better than most teams in the league. The Bears have had some bad records after December 1st for years. This year they lost three out of their last four games and from December 7th they went 3-4 the rest of the way. And two of those wins were miracle type wins. This has to be fixed next year.
Don't get me wrong. I am happy how things went overall in 2025. But by no means am I satisfied.
Had to edit something I forgot. The Bears need to do better within the division. I look at all of the teams that made the playoffs and they all had better division records. The Bears got lucky with things falling the way they did outside division play. It is probably unusual for a team to win two division games and still win the division. It can be done but I am sure it isn't the norm.
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I understand that, and the Bears had way more than 50% of their games (both wins and losses) be one score games. Eventually probability will catch up to them.
Agreed.
8.5 is the average and Bears played in 11 in regular season...for reference.
Caleb Williams will be the most talked about player in the NFL this off-season all over the nation.
Book it!
Book it!
Not if Jarrett Stidham takes the Broncos to the Super Bowl and wins it. LOL!!
Or if Stafford balls out in Seattle and runs away with the MVP. Or when Rodgers announces his retirement. Or when a big player gets traded. Or a big free agent signs with a new team. Or at anytime around the draft.Not if Jarrett Stidham takes the Broncos to the Super Bowl and wins it. LOL!!
Denver took a page out of the Bear playbook by not taking the early points, failing on 4th down, then losing by a 3-point margin. With an inexperienced QB and deteriorating weather expected in the 2nd half, the Broncos decision is a bad look.
Lutz missed two FGs, can't assume he would have made the first one. You're also assuming the game plays out the exact same way with a different score.
The 2 Lutz misses were from 54 and 45 yards where the first one would have been from 31 yards. Even Sean Payton himself conceded to his own second thoughts on the decision.
I was surprised he didn't kick it but at the time the QB was in a groove, had momentum, he figured the way his defense was playing if he could get a 14 point lead that would be monumental, so I get it. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I didn't like the pass play call though...it just seemed like after that the QB just starting playing like all Bronco fans feared he might.
Broncos' Sean Payton regrets 4th-down call in loss to Patriots
Broncos coach Sean Payton said he will find several "regrets'' in Sunday's AFC Championship Game loss to the Patriots, most notably when he passed up points in the second quarter.
www.espn.com
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Those missed FGs came after the wind picked up and weather started to get bad. Everyone knew bad weather was on the way. I liked the way CBS showed the conditions at the beginning of the game and shots of the conditions as the game progressed.
I am in total agreement with johndoe. Payton should have taken the points early. And I said it at the time in a group text.
I don't know why these coaches think they can go for it on 4th downs all the time. We saw what can happen when you don't take early points when they are there. NFL football is beginning to get like a hitter at the plate in baseball. All or nothing.
It's becoming the new thing to go for it on 4th down instead of taking the easy 3. Why get 3 when we can get 6 is the new mentality. Hell some coaches, Johnson and Campbell in particular, will go for it on 4th even when they are well out of FG range just to keep a drive going. Playing the Field Position game is slowly becoming a thing of the past.....slowly I said I know most teams still play the field but I think more are going to start being risky. Make it you're a genius, miss it you're a fool.
It really depends on your personal and how much faith you have in your defense. As I said in my post above I get Payton's thinking that they had momentum and the QB was confident and 14-0 would be almost a lock with his defense and the weather forecast, but I also get his regret. Harvey is not a brusing RB and a QB who hasn't played in 2 years wasn't built for a sneak. FG was the logical play. Even seasoned Vet coaches have brain farts.
I understand it's a "new thing." But, is it the right thing all the time? There are plenty of coaches going for it on 4th down. Andy Reid does it too. But knowing when to go for it or not is what separates some of the coaches. Sean Payton didn't just start coaching in Denver this season. He had to know how the weather in Denver can get and the affect it can have on games. Geez, who would have thought there might be blizzard conditions in the Rocky Mountains on January 25th? It wasn't a guess. They knew it was heading in.
That is what gets me about this whole thing yesterday. Believe it or not, the NFL does get weather reports before games LOL. You look at the first half and 14 points were scored. In the second half, only three. So, it was a good idea to take points early when they were there. You have to know your game plan is going to be adjusted and points will come hard when that kind of weather blows in.
And, like I said before, the wind was more of a factor than the precipitation. Although the precipitation was a major factor as well with rough footing and a slick football.
All in all, watching that game just reinforced my thinking on why I hate domes.
Back-up QB, NFC Champ game, good D, bad weather coming....take the points.
I couldn't even tell you the OC's name. Does it really matter who they have in that position with Johnson calling most of the shots on that side of the ball?
I get it but you would rather not have to hire a new OC when it is working...