Silver linings?

[Nelly]

The misery is over. In the spirit of the holidays, what silver linings are you taking away from this wretched ass season? Here's mine.

1. Inside linebacker. Roquan picked it up at the end before getting hurt, cementing his status as a top tier inside backer. Much more than that though was Nick Kwiatkowski who was nothing short of a revelation when asked to step in. Then with both Smith/Trevathan hurt, Kevin Pierre-Louis played great. Kwit/Pierre-Louis make Trevathan thoroughly expendable.
2. Defensive backfield. I'm hoping we can re-sign Skrine, who was great. Toliver handled himself well when asked to step in. Eddie Jackson was good playing out of position. Deon Bush is a player. We just have plenty of talent here.
3. Trubisky's growth toward the end. He improved with some numbers but mostly due to the two games against Detroit and Dallas. Ignoring numbers, he found his legs again, felt the pressure better and seemed to be more consistent with his mechanics which led to him delivering better throws. It's not fully where he needs to be but it's something.
4. Anthony Miller/Allen Robinson. Robinson cemented himself as a top tier WR again and Anthony Miller proved he could be a dangerous slot weapon. We can count on these guys next year, now need to put a quality TE and another fast receiver out there with them to complete a good group of receiving weapons.
   
5. Oakland lost their last game, ending at 7-9, to give us a slightly better 2nd rounder.

Anything else?

 

[Jiddy]

#3 just makes me sad.

All of this just makes me sad.

All we can hope is that we actually score some touchdowns on a regular basis next season...whoever the f*ck is playing for us....The past season and a half has been pitiful. Start scoring touchdowns. That's the silver lining. Everything else is kind of moot.

 

[BearsWillWin]

Start scoring touchdowns.

This about sums it up for me. If you wanna win games....score.

 

[averagejoe]

Was great to see we have effective depth on defense.

Hopefully this means the brass improves the offense. I think we have to go through 1 more year of Trubisky, so hopefully we shore up the O-line and get an elite TE. Pace better get a quality QB (or 2).

 

[richig07]

Everything went about as bad as it could have and we still finished 8-8... not 5-11 or 4-12. We were in every game until the end outside of two. Just two games away from 10 wins and the post-season.

If we just had an offense that wasn't a circus act (not even league average) there is next to zero doubt that we finish with double digit wins. If we had an offense that was league average? You're in serious contention.

This is also with our D being pretty damn beat up with key injuries. Hicks missed the majority of the season, Trevathan half of it, Roquan a quarter of it, etc.

That is where my optimism for 2020 comes in. We don't need a barrage of things to go right in order for us to be back playing in January. We literally just have to "not be such a laughingstock" on one side of the ball.

I truly think that can be done by tweaking one position at QB... but you all already know my Trubisky thoughts.

 

[NCChiFan]

I agree with 1. Cut Danny loose, we have three other terrific, better than average, starting caliber ILB's.

I'll add some other final thoughts. O line has got to be fixed. The play this year was aweful, in ALL aspects. Lazy Leno was a turnstile at LT, and couldn't run block. Daniels played like a rookie and got played like a rookie by nfl DT's, Whitehair was average at best. RG play was pathetic, and RT play was average at best. The Bears can't run with bad run blocking, bad technique, missed assignments, just aweful. Which completely messes with the passing game, particularly play action. And also with blown assignments your QB has no time to throw, or is running for his life.

TE: Another position that has got to be fixed. At this point, cut your losses and get rid of Shaheen and Burton. Burton never recovered from surgery. Nagy's O scheme requires a TE who can run routes and catch. Can't tell you how many times I watched a Bear TE motion to block backside on running plays and totally miss the block. I don't even know how this is possible.

Fire the person in charge of implementing the Wr screen play. (In fairness, I think they did)