The Chicago Bears Have FOMO

After another disappointing beginning to the offseason, I was at my wit’s end with the Chicago Bears. I just didn’t know why they did the things they did as it is so frustratingly stupid that I should expect it by now, but yet it never ceases to amaze me. I finally realized that the Chicago Bears issue is that they have a serious case of FOMO (fear of missing out). That is the only way to explain how they run their front office.

They find a player they are interested in and instead of recognizing flaws and positional needs of other organizations, they go in thinking that 31 teams are thinking exactly the same thing they are. This causes panic, and it leads to absolutely awful decisions. When you think that everyone is thinking like you, there is no way to have patience, and this has led to so many issues. But they have one goal, get a guy now, by any means necessary, to avoid having to worry about getting a guy later. Now that guy could be worse at times, but patience could sometimes (often, in fact) lead to getting a better guy later on.

The most egregious example is trading up from #3 to #2 to draft Mitchell Trubisky. I have been on record that I did not mind taking Trubisky as I loved him coming out of college and still believe that he will bounce back this coming season. But trading multiple picks to move up one spot when Trubisky was not the consensus top quarterback was insane. Those two third round picks the Bears gave up turned into Alvin Kamara and Fred Warner.

To regain some draft capital, the Bears traded down in the second round, causing them to miss out on talent like Dalvin Cook and Curtis Samuel. Right before the Bears were set to select, the Rams took Gerald Everett. No telling whether this caused the Bears to panic and take Adam Shaheen with the next pick. It’s not like patience could have helped, oh, except for George Kittle going in the fifth round.

I will admit that looking back on a draft and judging things is unfair, especially one where the Bears snagged Eddie Jackson and Tarik Cohen in later rounds, but let’s remember that offseason. The Bears were going into 2017 with no clear quarterback so they signed Mike Glennon to a 3-year, $45 million deal with $18.5 million guaranteed. Why did they need to rush out and sign Mike Glennon? I don’t think anybody on Earth can explain that one, but they bid against themselves for the honor of bringing on Glennon. He was released after one year.

Oh, and don’t worry, the Bears definitely didn’t learn their lesson as they signed Mike Davis last offseason for two years and $6 million because they just had to have a running back to pair with Tarik Cohen. No offense to Mike Davis, but running backs grow from trees in the NFL. They later traded up to draft David Montgomery and Mike Davis didn’t even last an entire season before being released.

Finally, we get to this offseason. Let’s start with the mildly positives. I like Robert Quinn, and you probably think that his 11.5 sack performance last year is a reason to be excited. That’s nice and all, but Quinn was also a state champion wrestler in high school, and I will always support wrestlers, especially along the lines. Would I have rather had Vic Beasley on a one-year deal? Sure, but that’s nitpicking as pass rushers are something that I am fine paying for, because those guys pay off.

Now things go downhill. Jimmy Graham? Seriously? He’s had one productive year in the last five seasons and that was 2016. He did score 10 TDs in 2017, but considering he barely had 500 yards, it’s tough for me to get excited about that. Jimmy Graham used to be awesome, but unless the Bears can rewind time to 2014, this is asinine. He will compete with the other NINE tight ends on the roster.

And now, the main event. The Nick Foles trade. I mean, I shouldn’t be surprised by this, but there is no way to not be surprised by this. I understand that the Bears wanted to bring in competition for Mitch Trubisky, but there were plenty of reasonable options available. Also, the Jaguars were DESPERATE to get out from under Foles’s terrible contract. Everyone in the world would have assumed that the Jaguars would include a pick just to get Foles off the team, and yet the Bears, negotiating against themselves, managed to give the Jaguars a fourth round pick. It’s fucking insane. And it doesn’t help that Nick Foles sucks, if they really wanted to give up a pick, they could have probably had Cam Newton for a fourth rounder, or they could have gotten Jameis Winston on a one-year deal for the money they are paying Foles. There was just absolutely no reason to pull this dumbass shit, and yet the Bears NEEDED to get a quarterback as soon as possible. It’s so shockingly stupid, yet still right in line with what the Bears always do.

So now they head into the season with major issues at offensive line, tight end, inside linebacker, and half the secondary. The Bears have two second-round picks and then don’t pick again until the fifth round. An extra fourth round pick would be pretty damn valuable for a team in that situation. Unfortunately, Bears fans will never know what could have been.

The Bears let their fear of missing out hurt them yet again in the long run. I guess it’s good they don’t have to worry about missing out; instead they can worry about missing the playoffs.

Anderson Silva And The Art Of Showboating

When it comes to sports, I have a bias towards wrestlers. I loved Robert Quinn coming out of college, because he was a state champion high school wrestler. I loved Ray Lewis for the same reasons. I don't even know what level Deron Williams wrestled at before switching to basketball full-time, but I remember an announcer mentioning it while he was at Illinois, and I still support him, even though he has been rapidly declining. Never is this more true than in the UFC. In my mind, you need to have a wrestling background to be great, because without wrestling, you have no control of where the fight ends up.

I have always underrated Anderson Silva because of this. To be fair, he has gotten a ton better at wrestling, going from childlike to a poor wrestler. He's not going to shoot for takedowns, but his sprawl and underhook defense has gotten a ton better, and really, that's the only aspects of wrestling that Silva is going to need.

It's fair to say that my underrating Anderson Silva was a huge whiff on my sports predictions. It isn't the first, and won't be the last, but even though I have been wrong, it has been a blast watching him fight. Watching him strike from his feet is poetry in motion. It's so ridiculously smooth. There is nothing in this world that I can do as smoothly as he strikes, and that includes seducing the ladies. Win or lose this weekend, Silva's career is winding down, and we should appreciate all of the opportunities we have left, even if he is no longer in peak form.

My only proof that he may not be in peak form is that he is 38 years-old. Outside of that, there isn't much video evidence to suggest he has lost a step. Yes, he lost his last fight, but he got caught while doing what Silva does, believing in his skills to the point where he feels comfortable making his opponent look bad.

We have all been taught that showboating is bad. In most cases, it is. The showboating itself is not bad, but so few athletes can be so great that they are able to back it up. Anderson Silva is one of those amazing athletes who actually benefits from showboating. He demoralizes his opponents and kills all confidence with his showboating. Outside of the first Chael Sonnen fight, he has made his opponents believe that he was better than them in every other fight he has been in. He stands there with his hands down and easily dodges all strikes that come his way. At this point, his opponent feels helpless, and it is amazing how the energy can drain from an opponent who doesn't know what to do. Anderson Silva is the water; his opponents are the helpless swimmer. The harder they work, the more dire their situation becomes.

Don't fool yourselves. Chris Weidman has looked like an absolute monster in all of his fights, but by the second round with Silva, he looked beat. He was putting his head down and charging in for shots like the world's slowest bull. Silva dismissed him, as he should have, because all visual evidence was pointing to him being done. That all changed when one of Silva's dips mistimed into a left hook from Weidman, and all of a sudden, Silva was human again.

Michael Jordan stuck his tongue out, shrugged his shoulders, and shot free throws with his eyes closed. He didn't do this because it helped his game; he did it because he could. And mentally, his opponents were defeated before the end of the first quarter. Silva is that sort of athlete. He has such a myth around himself that his opponents are fighting a mental battle before they enter the cage. The showboating just puts the nail in their mental coffin.

As I said before, Weidman has been a beast in all of his previous fights, and the one time he didn't look like a beast, against Silva, he still knocked his opponent out. If he comes in with proper cardio and has his wrestling working, it's going to take something special for Silva to win. At the same time, I can't shake the feeling that we are going to see that classic Anderson Silva performance of easily rolling away from shots while effortlessly peppering his opponents with pinpoint striking.

I don't know what is going to happen on Saturday, but I know it's going to be special. If I had to make a pick, I'm going with Weidman. I have underestimated Silva throughout his entire UFC career (I thought Rich Franklin would win BOTH times), so why stop now? But this time, I will admit, there is a little piece of me hoping that I'm wrong, because getting another opportunity to see that sort of greatness is something I don't want to miss out on.