Week 13: Bears at Eagles Friday 2pm on Prime

[Geographyhater8888]

14 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

Poles hasn’t lucked his way into this, but he’s incompetented his way into this and deserves nothing more than praise for doing the bare minimum and not saying no to an obvious choice to coach this team. The best thing that can happen is that Johnson takes more control of personnel decisions moving forward. 

Loveland, Burden and Trapilo have Ben Johnson stamped all over it. His reputation around the league is a great recruitment tool. Thuney waives his NTC to play with BJ and Dalman took a pay cut with a better offer from Seattle, at least that was reported. 4/5 starting lineman were basically brought in or discovered by BJ. I’d bet anything he as much or more say over the roster than Poles. Kevin Warren assisting Poles in the HC search could be interpreted as diminishing his power. 

Edited November 30, 2025 by Geographyhater8888

[gflore34]

13 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

Poles hasn’t lucked his way into this, but he’s incompetented his way into this and deserves nothing more than praise for doing the bare minimum and not saying no to an obvious choice to coach this team. The best thing that can happen is that Johnson takes more control of personnel decisions moving forward. 

I'll give Poles credit for playing the media during the coaching "search".  They were relentless in their criticisms and he made them all look like fools the minute Ben Johnson was available.  Poles knew BJ would be hot commodity and he, basically, had him in the fold before anyone else had a chance.  One of the few times I can remember the Chicago Bears completely punking the media.

[BigbadB]

1 hour ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

He acquired the only play maker on Carolina DJ Moore and fetched their second round pick. That played a role in their 2-15 record with the Help of Bryce Young. He gets credit for that. His round 3-4 picks and trading pick 32 for Chase Claypool are his biggest offenses, especially in a strategic tank year where if Claypool is worth half a sh1t maybe the Bears net an extra win, have the third pick and no haul. Too much investment in pass catchers. 
 

But Darnell Wright was the right pick then and certainly is now. He deserves all the credit for that. 

While DJ was the the legit playmaker, they were already getting picks for the McCaffrey trade. So they were getting 3 picks within the first 4 rounds of the '23 draft for that trade. they finished 7-10 (including 5-4 to end the season) in 2022 and were also getting the top pick in the draft with the Bears trade. 

The preseason predictions for the Panthers in 2023 was between 5 and 7 wins, and that was after they drafted Young. At the time of the trade, those predictions may have been better with a better veteran QB leading the way. I'm just saying no one expected the Panthers to be a 2 win team, and it took a miracle play at the end of the season to make them the first pick in the draft for the Bears.

 

[Geographyhater8888]

17 minutes ago, BigbadB said:

While DJ was the the legit playmaker, they were already getting picks for the McCaffrey trade. So they were getting 3 picks within the first 4 rounds of the '23 draft for that trade. they finished 7-10 (including 5-4 to end the season) in 2022 and were also getting the top pick in the draft with the Bears trade. 

The preseason predictions for the Panthers in 2023 was between 5 and 7 wins, and that was after they drafted Young. At the time of the trade, those predictions may have been better with a better veteran QB leading the way. I'm just saying no one expected the Panthers to be a 2 win team, and it took a miracle play at the end of the season to make them the first pick in the draft for the Bears.

 

Fair point. I think poaching DJ still helped whether or not it was with the intention of weakening the panthers offense for a higher pick. They did finish 5-4 to end the season, with Sam Darnold. He’s pretty good. Poles has made many boneheaded decisions but I’ll give him credit for identifying what the Panthers didn’t that Bryce Young is a bad quarterback which contributed to the Panthers 2-15 mark. My gut tells me BJ has more power than Poles. 

Edited November 30, 2025 by Geographyhater8888

[BigSlick]

30 minutes ago, Wilson A2000 said:

Both Wrights, Trapilo, Dalman, Benedet, Monangai, Swift, Williams, Moore, Jackson, Thuney, Burden, Odunze, Loveland, Byard, Brisker, Stevenson, Gordon, and Sweat have all been hits. We can finally say Poles has had a lot more hits than misses. Every GM is going to have misses, but he’s finally hitting on many more.

I’ve been a bit of a “Poles Defender” but I think we can all agree this past offseason was historic. Whatever his misses going into the 2024-2025 offseason, he seemingly hit on basically every move he made: got the right coach, immediately fixed the offensive line, and hit on damn near every draft pick (at least, every pick except Shemar Turner is a contributor in their rookie season, which never happens)

the only misses are his FA pass rushers who horsefeathers sucked and died again. 
 

it is the kind of offseason that can keep a guy his job for another 5 years. 

[Wilson A2000]

1 hour ago, BigSlick said:

I’ve been a bit of a “Poles Defender” but I think we can all agree this past offseason was historic. Whatever his misses going into the 2024-2025 offseason, he seemingly hit on basically every move he made: got the right coach, immediately fixed the offensive line, and hit on damn near every draft pick (at least, every pick except Shemar Turner is a contributor in their rookie season, which never happens)

the only misses are his FA pass rushers who horsefeathers sucked and died again. 
 

it is the kind of offseason that can keep a guy his job for another 5 years. 

Eberflus, Turner, Claypool, Taylor (where he was drafted), Everett, Shelton, Pickens, and Davis were the relatively big misses that I can remember, but yes lately Poles has been on a roll

Edited November 30, 2025 by Wilson A2000

[Wilson A2000]

1 hour ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

Loveland, Burden and Trapilo have Ben Johnson stamped all over it. His reputation around the league is a great recruitment tool. Thuney waives his NTC to play with BJ and Dalman took a pay cut with a better offer from Seattle, at least that was reported. 4/5 starting lineman were basically brought in or discovered by BJ. I’d bet anything he as much or more say over the roster than Poles. Kevin Warren assisting Poles in the HC search could be interpreted as diminishing his power. 

I think Ben wanted Jonah Jackson too

[NorthsideAvenger]

31 minutes ago, Wilson A2000 said:

Eberflus, Turner, Claypool, Taylor (where he was drafted), Everett, Shelton, Pickens, and Davis were big misses that I can remember, but yes lately Poles has been on a roll

Claypool, Eberflus and Davis (and maybe Ryan Bates) are the only three I will give Poles crap about. The draft picks are always hit and miss. As for Shelton, I am not going to give him crap because Dalman has good, imo.

[Geographyhater8888]

3 hours ago, NorthsideAvenger said:

Claypool, Eberflus and Davis (and maybe Ryan Bates) are the only three I will give Poles crap about. The draft picks are always hit and miss. As for Shelton, I am not going to give him crap because Dalman has good, imo.

Every round 3-4 pick has been a miss, not just as an NFL caliber starter but even a quality depth piece and or a low end starter. That’s his biggest failure. The free agents I can excuse because quality free agents didn’t want to sign with a 3-14 team with no contention window to play for a coaching staff (forced on him) with a bad reputation around the league. Orlando Brown for example took less guaranteed $ than what Poles offered him to play for the Bengals.

Edited November 30, 2025 by Geographyhater8888

[Banedon]

5 minutes ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

Every round 3-4 pick has been a miss, not just as an NFL caliber starter but even a quality depth piece and or a low end starter. That’s his biggest failure. The free agents I can excuse because quality free agents didn’t want to sign with a 3-14 team to play for a coaching staff with a bad reputation around the league. Orlando Brown for example took less guaranteed $ than what Poles offered him to play for the Bengals.

Something tells me there will be a lot more free agents interested in Chicago this offseason.

[Wilson A2000]

I don’t know how the Bears get so many picks when their line is near the bottom in pressure % and sacks. Just a bunch of really good ball hawks.

[raw]

4 hours ago, CubinNY said:

Poles hasn’t lucked his way into this, but he’s incompetented his way into this and deserves nothing more than praise for doing the bare minimum and not saying no to an obvious choice to coach this team. The best thing that can happen is that Johnson takes more control of personnel decisions moving forward. 

While I agree Ben taking more control of personnel is ideal, and I know Poles will never get credit, but I feel like everything he did led to this all being possible. He didn't HAVE to gut the roster and bottom out, but without that, we don't get the trade that led to Caleb. Half the (stupid) fanbase thought he should have traded again and kept Fields, he obviously should get credit for NOT doing that, even though it all seems like the biggest possible no-brainer at this point. 

I think at the very least, we gotta respect his ability as a salesman. He sold Warren/ownership in getting rid of Flus, mid season, for the first time in franchise history. He sold Ben on this being the best job out there. Ben obviously chose the Bears, but Poles could have easily gotten impatient waiting for a HC and I think it's pretty clear he identified Ben pretty early on as his guy. 

I tend to believe there's some truth to the theories that Poles was kinda forced into (though he didn't fight) the Flus hire. I tend to believe there's some truth to him wanting to get rid of Flus before 2024 and wasn't allowed to by ownership. And I could buy an argument that Ben knew the Poles/Bears' interest and turned down jobs last year waiting for the Bears job. Ben also could have demanded to bring in his own GM and didn't. 

Basically, there's nothing with the way things are right now that proves to me that this wasn't Poles' vision the whole time. Maybe Warren made the purses open. Maybe Warren is co-responsible for everything. Maybe Poles could've/should've gotten things to this point sooner and more efficiently, but you can't convince me that the end goal wasn't elite QB prospect/play + big time offensive HC, and that's what we potentially have, regardless of how it got here.

[NorthsideAvenger]

1 hour ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

Every round 3-4 pick has been a miss, not just as an NFL caliber starter but even a quality depth piece and or a low end starter. That’s his biggest failure. The free agents I can excuse because quality free agents didn’t want to sign with a 3-14 team to play for a coaching staff with a bad reputation around the league. Orlando Brown for example took less guaranteed $ than what Poles offered him to play for the Bengals.

I don't really care about missing on 3-4 rounds and beyond. Its missing on the 1st and 2nd, I care about. 

[Wilson A2000]

 

[raw]

YOUR CHICAGO BEARS NOW HAVE HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE IN THE NFC!

[minnesotacubsfan]

#1 BABY!!!

[Soul]

LOL

of all the crazy aşş şhit.  Bears #1 seed in the NFC.

[BigSlick]

1st in the NFC Chicago Bears.

Packers week just got crazier 

[Banedon]

Everything's coming up Milhouse!

[Banedon]

With this Carolina upset, it's fun to revisit the results of the Carolina-Bears trade in 2023:

[bukie]

Bears 9-3, 1 seed in NFC

Niners 9-4, 7 seed in NFC.

[NorthsideAvenger]

Stay hungry, Bears.

[Wilson A2000]

34 minutes ago, Banedon said:

With this Carolina upset, it's fun to revisit the results of the Carolina-Bears trade in 2023:

Let’s thank Lovie Smith and that miraculous final drive of the Texans 

[Soul]

7 minutes ago, Wilson A2000 said:

Let’s thank Lovie Smith and that miraculous final drive of the Texans 

I will always believe it was his final gift to Beardom 

[Derwood]

This is all great, but now we've all moved the goal posts of expectations such that going 10-7 (for example) will feel like a failure