Mercifully, we have made it to the final Friday of the 2024 calendar year. Thank you for your readership, as well as your comments, reply posts, questions, concerns, and contributions to the BN Bears community. The next Friday Bullets post will come in 2025. Hopefully, it will be a better year for all of us.
The Chicago Bears went out with a whimper in their last home game of the year. What a shame. This fanbase deserves better. In case you missed last night’s game, Patrick’s instant player grades post and my post-game recap are all you need to read to catch up. Oh, and the rest of this set of Bullets. Do you want more from last night’s game? Patrick tried something new with threading his game-thoughts. You can catch them here on Twitter or here on BlueSky. Maybe that is something I’ll try down the line. Having one streamlined place for thoughts during a game seems like a good idea and it reads really well and clearly, so it might be worth a shot. The most interesting stuff from Thursday’s Bears game was arguably the stuff that came out before kickoff with the report that the team is interested in discussing its head coach vacancy with Pete Carroll. I hope the Bears unearth a head coach who can unlock Caleb Williams’ full potential. But I am not sure that Pete Carroll is that coach. He could be. I just don’t know if he is. Then again, I’m not sure the Bears know who that is either. I suppose that is why they’ll go out on a full-blown search once this season ends. Every time Thomas Brown declines going for it on 4th-and-short, I feel a heaping amount of regret for suggesting he could coach his way into the head coach conversation. Maybe Brown will get to that point one day. But it shouldn’t be in Chicago. The best thing for him moving forward might be to get an offensive coordinator position for a veteran, defensive-leaning head coach who will allow him to build his résumé. A valuable lesson we have learned from the Thomas Brown Interim Head Coach experience is that the game and clock management problems that were a staple of the Matt Eberflus regime were not limited to the former head coach. Stepping back and looking at the four-game sample has me thinking that Brown is in over his head. © Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images Caleb Williams’ stats while Thomas Brown was calling plays from the booth: 64.1 percent completion rate, 275.7 passing yards per game, 5 TD, 0 INT, 99.2 passer rating. Caleb Williams’ stats in four games since Thomas Brown began calling plays on the field as head coach: 63.1 percent completion rate, 195.3 passing yards per game, 5 touchdowns, 1 interception, 91.6 passer rating. I’m not totally sure what to do with this data other than share it here and chew on it until I figure out what to make of it. Cole Kmet before being named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week had 29 targets, 26 receptions, 289 receiving yards, and 3 touchdowns in six games. He was averaging 11.1 yards per catch and was on pace for a 74-catch, 819-yard, 8-touchdown season. Since then, Kmet has 24 targets, 19 catches, 182 yards, and 1 touchdown in 10 games. That comes out to a 32-catch, 309-yard, 2-touchdown season. Forgetting about your highly-paid and productive tight end is inexcusable. Jake Curhan had two costly penalties on TNF, including one that wiped a touchdown off the board. I realize that Teven Jenkins has his faults, but the drop-off from him to Curhan was notable last night. If anybody needs me later this morning, I’ll be looking at free agent offensive linemen who will be available in 2025. One of the few highlights from last night included Bears defensive end Darnell Taylor notching his first sack since Week 1:DT makin' plays on third down ??: @NFLonPrime pic.twitter.com/iXf9J8uUV6
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) December 27, 2024 Taylor’s 71.5 pass-rushing grade ranks 31st among the 114 edge defenders who have played enough snaps to qualify for Pro Football Focus’ leaderboard. Taylor will become a free agent this offseason. And while he hasn’t produced a ton, he has had some nice moments and is the type of player who could be a nice rotational defensive end or situational pass rusher with proper coaching and development. Fellow defensive end Montez Sweat quietly had a good game as he contributed a sack, tackle-for-loss, and two quarterback hits. Sweat hasn’t played up to his potential this year and I imagine playing through injuries had something to do with the drop-off in his performance. Zacch Pickens, a third-round pick in 2023, was a healthy scratch on TNF. To be clear, I don’t mind picking developmental projects on Day 2 of the NFL Draft. Sometimes, you have to roll the dice with size, skills, and projectability as you hope that your coaching staff can mold these prospects into useful football players. But it looks like Bears GM Ryan Poles is 0-for-3 on third-round picks with Amegadjie, Pickens, and Velus Jones Jr. looking like whiffs. Velus is already gone. Maybe a new coaching staff can get Zacch and Kiran back on the right track. It was nice to see Gervon Dexter Sr. return to the lineup. The defensive tackle, who missed two games due to a knee injury, collected a pair of quarterback hits to bring his team-leading total to 18. Dexter’s growth as a second-year player has been a welcome sight. © Talia Sprague-Imagn Images Bears punter Tory Taylor boomed seven punts, racked up 327 yards, and landed five boots inside the 20. Hang a star on that performance for Chicago’s best rookie performer in Week 17. Tyrique Stevenson could be a hybrid of Chauncey Gardner-Johnson and Patrick Beverley if he could ever get together for long enough to where his presence as a general nuisance and football athleticism matter. I couldn’t help myself here:[image or embed]
— Bleacher Nation Bears (@bn-bears.bsky.social) December 26, 2024 at 8:20 PM Now that we are two years into the Amazon/TNF experience, I can confidently say that I am not vibing with Kirk Herbstreit as the lead analyst with Al Michaels. There was a point in Thursday’s game in which Herbstreit was questioning Caleb Willliams’ work ethic … only to circle back and say that there is nothing to prove that his work ethic should be questioned. So … why bring up a silly narrative that you can’t prove back to life? Amazon can do better than Kirk who is a better fit for college football anyway.HAPPY FRIDAY! Check Out BN Fantasy / Subscribe to The BN Newsletter
Another MLB insider connects the Los Angeles Dodgers to a Seiya Suzuki trade. (BN Cubs) Over at BN Blackhawks, Tab Bamford has a 2025 NHL Mock Draft with updated first-round projections. Elias Schuster has the details of what might be the worst collapse you’ll see from an NBA team this season. (BN Bulls) Read More Details
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