2022 Dynasty/Fantasy Preseason Week 2 Game Report: Bears 27, Seahawks 11
ESPN’s backup/fired MMF crew on the call here for a Bears v. Seahawks preseason game, a battle of two teams fighting for the #1 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. And…man…was this bad. I mean, the ESPN MNF crew. I can’t believe ESPN keeps hemorrhaging subscribers every quarter for like the last 2-3-5 years.
Steve Levy is good. At least they have that…but he’s much better at hockey coverage. Louis Riddick is someone I wish would stop not-getting-hired for GM jobs, so he’d be gone from this…I don’t need anyone always excited about every player they semi-scouted for 15 minutes this offseason (i.e. went to the Senior Bowl and talked to friends on the sidelines and occasionally watched a drill). But Riddick is so good at this, ESPN effectively fired him from MNF so they could pay a zillion dollars to Buck-Aikman/not to listen to Riddick anymore either.
Riddick actually said in this game -- (paraphrasing) You know, it’s gonna be good for Seattle…they’ve been run by Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner having so much influence, now it’s all about team and that’s gonna be good. There are so many things wrong with that statement that I’m not going to comment on it because Riddick doesn’t deserve any more of my keyboard time. Denver seems pretty happy with Russell Wilson’s influence right now…
And who was the new guy taking over for the booted-Griese? Bristol, Connecticut’s Most Wanted, Dan Orlovsky. Imagine Tony Hawk, Eminem’s character from 8-Mile (before he won the rap battle), and a chatbot uploaded with/filled with football cliches were all thrown into a blender and made into a living person in a skinny suit and sneakers…you got Dan Orlovsky, whose main goal of the night was to convey that Justin Fields needs to make good habits translate onto the field, in order to be as great as he can. Should he drink a lot of water and stay hydrated too? Is he the first guy in the building and last to leave?
And whomever the new sideline mannequin wired for text-to-speech capabilities was…no thank you.
I can’t wait until this group, except Levy are gone…actually, he needs to go get ready for hockey. Wait, that means we get even worse…Troy Aikman every Monday. Can anyone not formerly of the Dallas Cowboys get a broadcasting gig? Anyone?
As far as the game itself, Seattle actually played with huge energy. I was surprised by how fast their defense was. Seattle came to play, but it’s just Seattle’s QBs are much worse than Chicago’s, and that’s saying something. I can’t hardly scout offense (or defense) when Jacob Eason is in.
Dynasty/Fantasy Player Notes…
-- This game was so bad that there was not much to glean for FF purposes. I mean, once Jacob Eason took over for Seattle…I might as well have stopped watching because he’s incapable of normal QB play, so all the young Seattle WRs that I wanted to watch got nothing good. Seattle has nothing/veteran RBs down the depth chart, so nothing interesting there…ditto Chicago. Let me start with the one thing that caught my attention/I spent the most time watching…
Seattle has two rookie OLs…1st-round LT Charles Cross and 3rd-round RT Abraham Lucas. They both played a lot of this game. Cross looked really good in run block situations but struggled on and off in pass protection because he’s not that fluid backpedaling. If you didn’t know draft stock, and you just watched this game…you woulda assumed Abraham Lucas was the higher drafted of the two, and the better of the two.
If Seattle goes with a heavy run game, and they will, then Cross and Lucas are gonna help…along with if Gabe Jackson returns to form at all at RG. There’s a little hope for a heavy Penny-Walker run-run-run game (and then punt a lot).
-- Seattle’s starting (for this night) defense was very fast and aggressive…and it was mostly not their expected starters. Good news for Seattle, I guess -- but really bad news for the Bears…who played their 1st-team offense and once again Justin Fields is sleep walking around and overwhelmed by the defense. Fields is gonna bring down the entire season. How fast Bears management admits this error is the big question.
There are so many football people who get suckered by QBs who look good in controlled, non-contact 7-on-7 and 11-on-11. Of all my 2021 QB draft class ‘hot take’ scouting, Fields being a washout is the take I’m most confident in.
Seattle’s defense will be better when rookie CB Tariq Woolen (2 tackles). He’s gonna have to go through growing pains, but it will be worth it. Artie Burns is a veteran, but he’s a veteran at sucking…so I don’t know why Pete Carroll is so worried about Woolen struggling as a rookie if pressed into starting. He will. So what? Artie Burns getting his last name prophesied every week by WRs is better for business because he’s bad, but is a veteran? Well, you know Pete…the youngest acting 119-year-old coach in the league.
Rookie edge Boye Mafe (5 tackles) played a pretty energetic game, but he was in with the 2nd-team defense of this not-starters starting group for this game. He doesn’t seem to have caught Carroll’s attention yet.
-- This Chicago offense was so sluggish, and the Seattle defense was energized…so watching the Bears run game was fruitless, and that’s probably the FF-concern going forward with this Bears offense this season.
Khalil Herbert (1-7-0, 2-2-0/2) ran with the 1st-team the entire time and looked OK, under the circumstances.
Rookie Trestan Ebner (9-32-0) ran with the 2nd-team in/not Fields offense…and he look a lot less sure/confident than he did Week 1. I don’t know if Seattle’s defense rattled him or what, but he looked like a rookie #3 RB for sure…not a surprise #2 RB. And then he hurt his knee and left. Not sure how bad it was…whether day-to-day or a week+.
-- Two Bears WRs notes…
1) Justin Fields is bad…but he’s gonna throw a lot to Darnell Mooney (1-6-0/2) because he’s his BFF/bailout throw.
Mooney is a fantastic NFL WR…he deserves better, but between his talent and over-targeting this might be as nice as many think for FF after all.
2) Velus Jones (1-4-0) had a nice punt return here and looked OK running some routes. He looks OK, but he doesn’t stand much of a chance of mattering with Fields’ issues + everything aimed towards Mooney.
-- Seattle WR notes…
Again, it’s hard to assess the young talent because Jacob Eason is useless to help try and assess real WR work/potential. So…
Rookie WR Bo Melton (4-18-0/11) didn’t enter the game for a while, that I noted, and then saw a ton of targets…many of them uncatchable. I wanted to see more work from Melton after his positive prior week…but I got nothing here.
Rookie WR Dareke Young (0-0-0/1) worked ahead of Melton, with the ‘starters’ some…he just looks like a create-a-lab WR body, but only saw one useless target.
My guy UDFA rookie Kevin Kassis (4-37-0/5) did make some hay with the bad QB play…real hay. Several tight window catches on miss-fired passes. He can get open off the snap well, a Welker-Beasley type WR. When Seattle cuts him, some WR deficient teams should pounce.
They won’t.
Despite every preseason game getting the mandatory (in the 2nd-half) plea of how ‘these players are playing to impress 30 other teams’ -- are the other teams really watching? They can’t hardly scout their own drafts properly with 4+ clear months to prep pre-NFL Draft. You think their scouts are deftly watching 15 other games/30 other teams worth of 4th-quarter WRs working with Jacob Eason on a week-to-week basis?
-- Bears IDP notes…
Another solid game from UDFA ILB Jack Sanborn (7 tackles). He’s going to force his way onto that 53-man. A spot may have opened up when Caleb Johnson went down clutching his knee. No report back yet (as of this writing) but it didn’t look great.
