Jeff Hughes | February 14th, 2019

Scheduling Notes

Two things have leaked regarding the 2019 Chicago Bears schedule: (1) Packers are rumored to open the season on Thursday night at Soldier Field. (2) Bears will be in Detroit on Thanksgiving Day…again. What do these two reports mean, if anything?

That’s 1/8 of the schedule not being played on Sunday. And with the Chiefs, Rams, Saints, Eagles, Giants and Cowboys on the schedule, don’t get used to that Sunday routine. This team is going to be in primetime a lot. And anybody who knows me knows I really, really, really hate it.

The league should stop putting games as important as Packers at Bears in Week One. They won’t but they should. What’s becoming obvious is teams are no longer considering the preseason a viable method of preparation and it seems most don’t start playing decent football until midway through October. (The Pats waited until January last season.) I’d like to see the NFL use the first four weeks of the season to play exclusively the non-conference schedule.

I know the league’s instincts will be Chiefs at Patriots as the Sunday night opener. But if the league were smart, they’d put the Browns in that spot. Elevate that franchise. Excite a fan base that hasn’t seen a relevant primetime game in years. (And a game as potentially important as Chiefs at Pats should be played on Thanksgiving night.)

Coaching Staff Complete

From Pat Finley in the Sun-Times:

Bears coach Matt Nagy finished up his round of hires Friday, promoting two coaches to finish up the team’s defensive staff. Sean Desai, a Bears defensive quality control coach for the past six seasons, will serve as the team’s safeties coach. Deshea Townsend, who was hired to coach the Bears’ defensive backs last month, had his title changed to secondary coach. Bill Shuey, who spent last season as a defensive quality control coach, has been named defensive pass analyst/assistant linebackers coach.

I have absolutely nothing to add to these two paragraphs.

Thomas Jones Made a Movie

I’m not going to watch it. Because it looks horrible. However, the movie writing debut of my former moniker – HughesReviews – will be in this space next week! Stay tuned!

Don’t Interrupt Pearson at The Goat!

You go to get a post @SundaySpin bloody mary and a news conference breaks out. pic.twitter.com/S2E5W4BHnG — Rick Pearson (@rap30) February 10, 2019

Nagy Celebrated at Bulls Game

Pretty cool for him…

3 Around the League Thoughts

John Elway’s never-ending quest to find a quarterback has now entered the “Joe Flacco Phase”. Is Flacco an upgrade over Keenum? Does it even matter? This Broncos roster is the third best roster in their division by a SIGNIFICANT margin. They need the future at that position.

Why didn’t the Oakland Raiders go and make a deal with UNLV to play the 2019 season in Vegas? Isn’t it way more important for the organization to start developing their fan base in a new city than playing a lame duck season in Oakland? They’re not going to be good either way. Why not make the forward-thinking move? (Oh, because the league has an empty suit commissioner.)

Antonio Brown is a game-changer at wide receiver but he’s a pain in the ass. I still don’t want to see that pain in the ass end up in the NFC North.