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Another Teammate Backed Jordan Howard’s Bears 2018 Playoff Guarantee

By
Erik Lambert
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bears 2018 playoff

The Chicago Bears 2018 playoff hopes still feel like a bit of a wishful thinking. This franchise hasn’t experienced football at that level going on eight years now. It’s one of the longest droughts in team history. Breaking it has been a challenge for GM Ryan Pace, mostly due to the broken down and old roster he inherited back in 2015. It’s been a long painful struggle overhauling the entire system from top to bottom.

At last, though it appears he’s got the ship pointed in the right direction. Chicago has a number of young, talented pieces in place on offense and defense while also adding an influx of intriguing free agents so far this off-season. They already have a top 10 defense and the arrival of Matt Nagy should be a huge boost for their struggling offense.

Could this finally be the year they make a true run at getting back to the postseason? Well, star running back Jordan Howard already made his opinion known. He guaranteed it happens during an appearance on Good Morning Football. Thus far though no teammates have backed up his claim. Until now.

Bears 2018 playoff guarantee gets a boost from Akiem Hicks

Akiem Hicks is the leader fo the Bears defense. No one would dispute that. So when he has something to say, it’s worth taking note. In a giving mood this past Friday, he decided to take questions from Bears fans on any and all subjects, football or otherwise. Things start innocently enough, mostly regarding his average video game skills. Eventually, though somebody brought up the P word. His response? Not exactly cryptic.

There it is. First, the offensive leader says the playoffs are happening in 2018 for the Bears, now the defensive. It’s clear the confidence of this team, even after a difficult season is on the rise. They’re young, athletic, talented and have arguably one of the best coaching staffs they’ve put together in a long time. Of course, doing this means Hicks will have to back up his words. Same as Howard. It should be fun watching those two play this year.

Blessing In Disguise: From One Landry To Another

By
Kyle Yates
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Before free agency even kicked off, Bears fans were clamoring for Jarvis Landry to join the team. Fed up with years of ineptitude at the wide receiver position, fans were clamoring for GM Ryan Pace to be aggressive and go after Landry once he hit the market. Then, the Dolphins threw a wrench in the plans, placing the franchise tag on the talented wide receiver.

However, even with the tag, the Dolphins made it clear that they were open to trading Landry if the price was right.

Following the trade rumors, which involved Jordan Howard, it was apparent that the majority of fans weren’t interested in breaking the proverbial bank for Landry, for a variety of reasons. It seemed that the consensus was to sign Landry if he hit the market, but most didn’t think it was worth trading for a guy that was already going to demand a lot of cash. Pace apparently agreed.

While the Bears may have “missed out” on Landry, it seems like another Landry might be a perfect fit for the Chicago Bears. This time on the defensive side of the ball.

Tank Williams, a former NFL safety turned writer for Yahoo Sports, recently released a mock draft and had Harold Landry going to the Bears at #8 overall.

Harold Landry is a defensive end out of Boston College. Put on the tape of this guy and you’ll watch him destroy quarterback after quarterback. His junior year was absolutely insane, where he amassed 16.5 sacks, 50 total tackles and a whopping 22 tackles for loss. Oh yeah, and throw in an interception in there just for the hell of it.

There was talk of him coming out early and entering the NFL Draft last year, but he decided to stay and play his senior year. At the time, Landry was generating buzz as a top 3 pick in mock drafts before making the decision to stay…and he would’ve been worthy of the selection based on his production.

So, why isn’t he generating the same buzz now this year?

His senior season was marred by injuries. He had an injury in the Louisville game this year that hindered his performance. When he tried to push through the pain next week against Virginia, he aggravated the injury immediately and ended up being shut down for the season. His production was certainly down compared to last year, but he still racked up 5 sacks in 7 ½ games played is nothing to be ashamed about.

So, with all that being said, why are mock drafts constantly pushing him down into the 20’s to teams like the Rams or Titans? Could it be the injury concerns? Could it be the lack of production his senior year?

Harold Landry showed up to the NFL Combine and put on a show. He ran a 4.64 40-yard dash (Leonard Floyd ran a 4.64), put up 24 reps on the bench press, had a 6.88 3-cone drill, which was tied for first among all edge rushers, and showed fluidity in his movements and great acceleration.

Looking at this year’s draft in terms of pass rushers, which is arguably the Bears biggest need now, there’s not a whole lot to be excited about. Bradley Chubb is most likely going to be off the board by #8 and Arden Key from LSU has his own questions surrounding him. The competition for Landry though is UTSA’s Marcus Davenport. Incredibly raw, but has all the traits there. He played against lesser competition and, while he played well, didn’t post jaw-dropping numbers.

As a Bears fan, I’d rather go with someone who has put up the big numbers on defense, shown he’s a man among boys against big competition and has the ability to be a double-digit sack artist in the NFL. The one question Ryan Pace will have to ask himself is if Landry at #8 is too high?

For a player who’s drawn a comparison to Vic Beasley, you take him. No matter where in the draft. We’ll see if Pace has the willingness to pull the trigger.

Cubs Fans Will Love MLB The Show ’18’s Attention To Detail

By
Gus
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All throughout my youth and into early adulthood, I loved to play video games. I was raised on Joe Montana Football, RBI Baseball, and a little gem few people will respect — Bases Loaded. My love (and time) for video games came to a screeching halt three years ago when my beautiful daughter was born because as it turned out, kids take up all of your free time.

Who would of guessed it?

However, now that my daughter is three-years-old and can seemingly entertain herself, I’ve been thinking about buying a console to resume my video game playing career. I’ll be the first to tell you that I know NOTHING about the difference between consoles because all the graphics look the exact same to me. I learned quickly that people are pretty passionate about the age old argument of — PlayStation vs. Xbox. I asked around to get some different perspectives and you would have thought I was asking the difference between Democrats and Republicans. Seriously people, it’s only a video game console.

It’s not that deep.

I’ll probably end up buying a Playstation because I just saw a trailer for one of the platform’s biggest sports games, MLB The Show ’18. The game is set to release on March 27th and has some pretty bad ass features: you can run a franchise, collect cards to build the ultimate team, or try to become a superstar hitter or pitcher in Road to the Show.

The selling point for me however, was the attention to detail that the game’s creators had — specifically with the Chicago Cubs. The game will feature the newest tradition at Wrigley Field (and one of my favorite traditions already), bullpen dance-offs.

To put the video game into perspective, here’s the real life version of the bullpen celebrations.

via GIPHY

The fact that I know every time I smack a home run in The Show ’18 I get to watch my little video game characters bust out their best dance moves may just be the selling point for me to get my video game life on yet again.

Mel Kiper Proves Again He’s a Hack With Bears 2017 Draft Re-grade

By
Erik Lambert
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mel kiper

Honestly, why does ESPN still employ Mel Kiper? That’s a serious question. Scouts and GMs have said for years they don’t have much respect for the guy. Former Bears executive Duke Tobin even insulted outright on live TV in the mid-1990s. There are so many more credible draft experts out there these days. Why does he continue to get so many headlines?

Nostalgia is the only answer that makes much sense because it sure as hell isn’t his draft evaluations. This was a guy who thought Jordan Willis would go in the 1st round last year. Willis fell to the 3rd round. His history is full of wild misfires and misevaluations like that. If Chicago Bears fans want a reminder, they need just get a load of his 2017 draft re-grade.

He went back through the draft and every team, adjusting the initial grades he gave based on updated information. He gave the Bears a C+ last May for their work. How much did it change after a full season? Not at all. It was still a C+. Where it gets hilarious is how he tries to explain his reasoning.

Mel Kiper went full meathead in Bears 2017 draft re-grade

In order to fully appreciate this, his comments will be broken up into sections, starting with his lukewarm take on Mitch Trubisky.

“Trubisky had only seven touchdown passes to seven interceptions and completed just 59.4 percent of his passes in his 12 starts after taking over for Mike Glennon. There’s still a lot of unknown here — we don’t know if Trubisky is the Bears’ quarterback of the future just yet.”

Really? Let’s break that down. In the first four games under Glennon, the Bears went 1-3, turned it over eight times, and were blown out by 13 points or more twice. When Trubisky stepped in they finished 4-8, turned it over 12 times,, and were blown out by 13 or more points twice. Despite experiencing the exact same conditions as the more experienced Glennon, Trubisky was far more effective and that was in the worst possible conditions.

The late gems

“Safety Eddie Jackson and running back Tarik Cohen, both Day 3 picks, were the best players in this class. Jackson started every game and had 70 tackles, two interceptions and two defensive touchdowns, while Cohen averaged 4.3 yards per carry, snagged 53 catches and was an early fantasy darling, though he didn’t put up big numbers down the stretch. He did add a punt return touchdown.”

Seriously, did Kiper even bother to do any research? Like at all? If he had, he’d have noticed there was a reason Cohen’s production dipped. HE WASN’T GETTING THE BALL. Through the first six games, he got 77 touches on offense. That number dropped to 65 over the final 10 games. A drastic reduction in his usage. It’s worth noting that the two games he got decent work he went 44 yards on nine carries and 80 yards on 12 carries respectively.

Paging Mr. Shaheen

“Adam Shaheen is a Division II tight end who faced a steep learning curve, but he had three touchdown catches. It’s notable, though, that Chicago went out in free agency and got a No. 1 tight end in Trey Burton, so maybe they don’t think Shaheen is quite ready for a bigger workload.”

Shaheen already showed he’s ready for a big workload. The previous coaching staff just refused to get him involves until late in the year. In the two games he was targeted most he caught a combined eight passes for 85 yards and two touchdowns. As for the Burton angle, that’s a nice try but no. Burton will play an expanded role of what he did in Philadelphia where he teamed with Zach Ertz, who was a Pro Bowler last year. Matt Nagy comes from the exact same school Eagles head coach Doug Pederson did.

In case you forgot, Mel.

WATCH: Anthony Rizzo Helps Theo Epstein And Jed Hoyer Troll Tommy La Stella

By
Aldo Soto
-

Read about the backstory here and watch the awesomeness below.

Well done, Cubs, well done.

Bears Officially Named Most Injury-Decimated Team Of Past Two Years

By
Erik Lambert
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chicago bears injury

John Fox was guilty of making many mistakes during his tenure as head coach in Chicago. Perhaps the most overlooked was his stubborn loyalty to his strength and conditioning staff since he came aboard in 2015, the same staff he brought with him from Denver. There’s no other way to say it other than the staff failed at their primary job of keeping the roster as healthy as possible. The Chicago Bears injury report proves that much.

Three years straight the Bears were struck by a string of injuries, particularly to their best players. Yet it was the previous two seasons where it got a little ridiculous. Combined in 2016 and 2017 they had over 30 total players end up on injured reserve either before or during a season. Many of them were starters.

Last year was particularly brutal due to the loss of wide receiver Cameron Meredith to a torn ACL and Pro Bowl guard Kyle Long to a multitude of ailments. It’s hard to win football games when your best players aren’t on the field. Now according to an in-depth study, Football Outsiders decided to make it official.

Chicago Bears injury report was by far the worst of past two years

Last year the website implemented a comprehensive system that hoped to turn injury losses into an impact statistic. They dubbed it the “Adjusted Games Lost” rating or AGL for short. In 2016 the Bears blew away the competition with a record 158.8 mark. Did they manage to fair any better in 2017? Not really.

“Last year, Chicago set the new benchmark for AGL in a season. The Bears almost led the league in injuries again, but a 10-game suspension to injured linebacker Jerrell Freeman (removing him from AGL for that period) was enough to give another old-school NFC team the crown. Since there were some changes to the participation rates for questionable players, we recalculated AGL totals for 2016. Those new totals are presented along with the 2017 numbers in the following table. The 2016 Bears still hold the record with 158.8 AGL.”

The 2017 AGL was 118.1, narrowly getting beaten out by the Redskins’ 121.0. The devastation was extensive. Among the key players they lost over the course of the season included Meredith, Long, Leonard Floyd, Kevin White, Willie Young and Quintin Demps among others. The fact they still managed to improve their record from 3-13 to 5-11 is a testament to how productive their rookie draft class was.

Hopes are high that the revamped training staff led by the respected Jason Loscalzo from Washington State can finally stop the bleeding.

REPORT: Cubs Release Veteran Outfielder

By
Aldo Soto
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The Chicago Cubs are putting the finishing touches on their 25-man roster for Opening Day and with it comes the release of veteran outfielder Peter Bourjos.

The 30-year-old outfielder was up for consideration to be added to the Cubs roster as late as this week, when the team was debating whether to have 12 or 13 pitchers on staff. However, on Friday Joe Maddon confirmed the Cubs will go ahead and begin the season with eight bullpen pitchers, leaving guys like Bourjos with no spot to win.

Bourjos left Friday’s game early with a minor leg injury and then Patrick Mooney broke the news of the release.

The Cubs simply have too many good players, so it was a long shot that Bourjos would make the roster out of spring training. He has positioned himself to catch on with another team though, as Mooney mentioned that the right-handed hitter has had a solid spring training.

Bourjos batted .317 and had a .356 OBP with the Cubs in the Cactus League, playing in 17 games.

The eight-year veteran has played with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies and last year played for the Tampa Bay Rays. Bourjos is a career .241 hitter with 42 home runs in just over 2,000 MLB at bats.

Ian Happ Is Not Done Hitting Bombs In Arizona

By
Aldo Soto
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Ian Happ is on a mission to become the greatest leadoff hitter ever. Watch out Ricky Henderson, or I mean, watch out Anthony Rizzo. Happ hit yet another leadoff home run Friday, making that his sixth homer of spring training.

Earlier this week, Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon basically named Happ the team’s leadoff hitter, though the switch hitter won’t be in there every game. You can say how spring training doesn’t really matter and although we have to see the numbers translate to the regular season, Happ just killed it in March, winning the leadoff job and hitting bombs like this.

Not too shabby.

Kyle Schwarber Makes Wild Catch Against Brewers

By
Aldo Soto
-

You can say this for a lot of Chicago Cubs players, but it really has been a great spring training for Kyle Schwarber. The body transformation was shocking, but he’s kept up the power and has been hitting rockets all over Arizona. On Friday though, it was a defensive play that was Schwarber’s highlight of the day, doing a summersault in left field to make a catch against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Schwarber won’t ever be a great outfielder, but much of his struggles have been massively overblown. Even before this offseason, despite being a big dude, Schwarber has always been a pretty athletic guy. With some shedded weight and more work in the outfield, Schwarber will be more than just fine out in left.

We saw that the other day as well, as Schwarber started a beautiful relay to throw out Joey Gallo at home plate on a ball hit down the left-field line.

Could be shaping up to be a special year for Schwarber and it’s even better because you can say that about several players on this team.

Theo Epstein And Jed Hoyer Troll Tommy La Stella One Last Time

By
Aldo Soto
-

Tommy La Stella started the prank war earlier in spring training, but of course he should have known that no one gets the last laugh against Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer. The Cubs got in one final jab at La Stella Friday at Sloan Park, trolling him on the video board with the following message.

And yes, La Stella was well aware.

The mini prank war started when La Stella was parking in the front office’s spaces. That led to Theo and Jed taking his uniform and replacing it with khakis and a polo.

La Stella responded with a bounce house.

By the way, remember when La Stella was refusing to report to Triple-A a few years ago? So yeah the, “good luck in love…and in Iowa,” goes just a bit deeper.

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