Two words. Matt Forte. I think you’re completely and utterly wrong if you think Matt Forte hasn’t outperformed Jay Cutler.
Compared to the Bears offensive players not named Matt Forte, sure, he’s a “monster”. Compared to the rest of the NFL, not even close.
One thing is clear to me. There is absolutely no point to me pointing out he’s currently the 12th best QB by rating, or that he’s 18th in yards, 26th in completion percentage, 12th in yards per pass, or 15th in TD’s. It won’t matter one whit to you.
We’ll find out how good Forte is the next 6 weeks. Also, this is hilarious for someone who’s gone out of his way to discredit Forte at every step prior to now.
All that with singularly the worst group of WRs in the league. Those rankings strengthen my point frankly.
“Discredit?” He’s a damn running back, not a politician. I, unlike some, consider little things like stats and actual production, and Forte’s stats this year are outstanding. He’s averaging 5 ypc, and is a major factor in the passing game. I don’t think he’s a great back, but you can’t ignore his production this year. He’s really picked it up the last couple years.
They’re certainly not good, but “worst in the league” is a bit much.
You think they’re worse than the Jaguars’ receivers? I don’t think you’ll be trading Devin Hester for Mike Thomas anytime soon, or Johnny Knox for Jason Hill.
I’ve done some thinking and yes, there are worse WR groups than the Bears. You are correct that the Jags have a worse group than the Bears, though I’d trade any of ours for Mike Thomas in a blink. The Browns are similarly terrible (only 5 WRs on the roster?!?) yet Greg Little would be a upgrade for the Bears based on upside alone. The real worst WR group in the league resides in Washington even with a shocking 9 of them on the roster.
Still, that group is AWFUL for the Bears and when you compare the passing games of teams with similarly weak WR groups Cutler was killing it.
Is that “by comparison to prior Bears receiving corps, this group is awful”, or “this group’s badness is an awful thing for the Bears”? Because I’m having a hard time thinking of a time when the Bears did have a strong group of receivers.
(OTOH, the fact that Sid Luckman still holds most of the franchise passing records is a general indictment of the Bears’ passing game over the past 60 years.)
Washington is only worse if you don’t count Santana Moss. He has more 1,000 yard seasons than every Bear, Jaguar and Brown combined. Jabar Gaffney is also a somewhat solid pro who will post 1,000 yards this season if Grossman keeps his job. Anthony Armstrong posted 870 yards last season as a rookie (in NFL terms), though he’s regressed this year.
It’s in comparison to any respectable WR group in the league. By any measure it’s a disaster, and Knox’s sissified playing style is directly responsible for Cutler’s injury it seems.
The last reasonably average group of WRs for the Bears was 2007 with Muhammad, Berrian, Olsen and a experimental Hester. Of course Olsen was a rookie, Hester was still listed as a DB back then, Muhammad was on the verge of falling off a cliff and Berrian was about to get wildly overpaid by the Vikings. They were vaguely promising in 2001 with Marty Booker, Marcus Robinson, David Terrell and Dez White but they couldn’t keep Robinson healthy and Terrell and White hadn’t yet had time to prove their incompetence. Back in the Jim McMahon years our WRs were particularly terrible
In the bizarre '95 season where Erik Kramer set the Bears all-time record for passing yards in a season he actually had 2 1000 yard receivers. I challenge anyone to name them without Googling.
Yeah, that was the same thinking that led me to originally dismiss them as better than the Bears. When kenobi 65 framed it as who I’d trade for straight up I immediately classified them as the worst. Today, with a healthy Moss, they would probably be out of the bottom 5 but I don’t think I’d want to trade for a single one of them long term.
I couldn’t get them, and I was living in Chicago at the time. I vaguely remembered the first one, though the name I was remembering was Chris Chambers…at least I got the initials right!
So the Packers could clinch the Division next week. That would require the Bears and Lions to lose to the Chiefs and Saints respectively and the Packers to beat the Giants.
Well the NFC North went 1-3 this weekend. The Packers handled the Lions on Thanksgiving, but both the Bears and the Vikings lost in games outside the division.
The Vikings showed a bit of life after going down 17-0 to the Falcons, so they haven’t quit yet. But at 2-9 and not much to play for, it’ll be a tough end of the season. Still, it was nice to see Percy Harvin being a playmaker, Ponder not throwing an int., Jared Allen being the longsnapper, and a not horrible run defense. But that secondary needs a ton of work, Gerhart isn’t special at all, and I’m thinking Frazier isn’t a very good coach either. I fear it’s time to start hoping for Matt Kalil to protect Ponders’ backside or Justin Blackmon to catch passes. I’m not sure there is a DB out there worth a top 5 pick.
The Bears miss Jay Cutler. The defense came up with some nice stops in the red zone, but it wasn’t enough. Those three picks by Hanie killed them. It’s not a catastrophic loss, being out of division and with the Giants sucking and the Lions collapsing. It was a nice play by Lance Louis though. I love fat guys running.
The Lions fall apart. Again. It was against the Packers, so it’s not a shock, but they killed themselves, which is becoming a problem. They’ll likely lose Suh for a couple games at least, and I’m not sure Schwartz can help the players cut down on the penalties and mistakes. I don’t foresee an epic collapse after the 5-0 start, but something has to change in Detroit if they want to end their playoff drought.
The Packers win again. They got a lot of help from Detroit in that game, but sit atop the NFC by a wide margin. I’m always leery of overconfidence and enuui setting in, and there are still some holes (we miss you Nick Collins!), but I really like how this team is put together, how young they are, and how well they are playing. They’re clearly the best team in the NFL right now.