BigSlick

I think the Bears don’t have enough depth anywhere where I’d be against drafting best-player-available with their own pick, depending on what they do with the Panthers pick. If that player so happens to be a Tackle - great! You can add a great talent you don’t need to immediately start and who will almost certainly see the field given the likelihood of injuries. There are a handful of non-QB positions that have priority: Dline, Center, WR. I think you try to address those as much as you can while not neglecting who is on the board that you feel is an impact player. If there’s someone you feel is spectacular there (and probably not a DB bc at this point you’re pretty stacked with young talented guys) just get him.

“First overall” always sufficed to me, but it may be too many letters? I dunno, whatever

I think much worse for him is that he's a tiny little man surrounded by the largest and fastest human beings on the planet.

The Panthers blunder in trading up for Bryce Young and in doing so giving away one of the best receivers in the league along with what may be the 1st overall pick in the next draft for a guy who may very well just can't play pro football because of physical limitations may end up one of the most disastrous moves in NFL history We complain about the Bears, deservedly - but my god. What the hell is going on over there.

Yeah I find him utterly, utterly unimpressive as a pro prospect. I really hope he isn’t in a Bears watchlist. im fully expecting the Bears to get trounced next weekend… under Eberflus they’ve been horrible after bye weeks, they’ve never won back-to-back games and I feel like they really caught the Lions and Jared Goff by surprise in their first meeting, which will not be duplicated. the Bears coaching staff is actually quite good at landing a first punch. Getsy scripts good initial drives, Eberflus’s defense typically starts off strong, and then after half time things fall apart. The other team gathers itself, adjusts, and the Bears have no counterpunch. im not hopeful the Bears will even have the opportunity to deliver a counter in this one. It’ll say a lot for Fields’s progress if they do.

Those Josh Lucas interviews are utterly fascinating. I've never heard an NFL executive be as open and honest as he was in talking about their process and reasoning for each decision they made. Every Bears fan should listen to them.

The best GMs negotiate against themselves

The Trubisky pick occurred when I was barely paying attention to football and every time I'm reminded he was a 2nd overall pick I'm utterly stupefied

I don't know if I agree. If Fields puts together 5 games of the caliber of the Detroit game (which isn't perfect but is overall, a B+ game in my estimation) or better, I don't think I draft a QB even if Carolina finishes last in the league. Anything short of that? Well, I probably go Williams/Maye. Part of the reason I'd go that way is that inconsistency is such a problem for Fields - and if he can show 5 good games in a row, that goes a long way for me thinking he can put together longer stretches of strong play and not just a blip here and there. Like - I feel like one has to view drafting a QB rather than utilizing the immense amount of value you can acquire when trading the 1st overall as a bit of a loss. It's not something you want to do - you're squandering so much potential value in terms of blue chip players you can use with it. However, that's also somewhat counterbalanced with the money you're saving on QB for several years. There's so many things to consider. My evaluation also is that this team isn't that far away from contention. That may come at odds with many Bears fans opinions at this point. A new QB puts the team squarely back (stays?) in rebuilding mode. Montez Sweat is 28 years old in 2024. You'd be completely wasting his prime years. You're probably not having Jaylon Johnson when you're competitive again. Where will DJ Moore and Kmet be at? Lots of players that may not be in their prime or gone by the time you're good. Etc.

I see no reason to not wait until we see the remaining 5 games (which I'm sure Kyle will ridicule, but so it goes) before making a full evaluation. But, because I guess I am compelled to play the Fields Homer/Devil's Advocate at the moment - he has gotten progressively better each year. This is passing over the last 3 years. His QB rating has moved from 73.2 to 85.2 to 92.3 He's improved by 10+ points each year. His completion percentage has moved up every year. His Int% has dropped each year. His QBR (and I have only the vaguest notion of how its calculated) has waffled though - gone up, and then down. His adjusted passing (all graded with 100 as an average around the league) has all shown positive movement over the last 3 years as well: Of course, he's topping out around 100 (average) in many of these categories, and sub-100 by large margins in other categories (particularly sack rate). The data says he's a slightly above average QB at this exact moment. You may leverage that and say it'll keep going up over the next few years or you think he's topped out at his talent level. Both are reasonable conclusions to make.

I hate that I'm actively hoping for Harbaugh, because I know the second he'd get here I would complain about his antics

I truly hope that Poles and co are completely ignoring whatever the media and fans are saying because it shouldn't factor into his decision making one iota. Make the right decision to build the best long-term successful football team you can. Ignore everything else. And I think there's a real argument that even if you have a somewhat dim view of Fields (though not Kyle level negative), that you may end up with a better football team if you stick with Fields for the next two years and use the 1st overall to trade down, gather up more picks, and pick up more studs. I have to admit I find it rather tempting myself. Depends on what you can get for that 1st pick but if I can get 2 more 1st rounders and a 2nd and whoever knows what else, you can end up coming home with MHJr., a stud Olineman, and a stud at any position you like. A rookie QB on the other hand would be coming in with less talent but in a significantly better situation than Fields did in 2021-2022. You have an Oline that is at least serviceable and with 2 very good young pieces, a phenomenal receiver, and a strong tight end. The coaching though...well that remains to be seen. Getsy i think has to go at bare minimum - who else do you find?

Hilariously, on the season, the Bears have gained more yardage offensively than they've allowed on defense (3,879 to 3,822). I don't know the last time that's been the case....2018 maybe?

I really can't see a coach sabotaging their QB or team this dramatically except in extraordinarily rare circumstances involving the most depraved sociopathic coaches (who do exist). It's simply way too detrimental to their own career. Anyone caught doing this would never work again in the NFL. 2) is more believable than 1) to me, and I could even see Eberflus endorsing a gameplan like that. But no, I don't think any coach ever calls plays in order to see their players fail or get injured.

Speaking of, I'm surprised there were no running back screens in the middle of the field - the classic "let em through, run where they ain't" style blitz beater. Of course, Justin and the offensive line aren't always amazing at executing those plays, and they can get horribly blown up, or god forbid, intercepted by defensive linemen.

That parity of talent level is true of every position except QB - where the variation in quality of play determines much, though far from all, of the difference in quality between teams.

I will say this: I think we make a little too much of the power of OCs to make an offense look bad/good and don't put enough emphasis on the players on the field executing. There are very few OCs that are just so inept or so stubborn they don't know what to do if the opponent is blitzing. Football may feel like chess, but it's still a sport, a professional sport with world class athletes going at each other. There's only so much the OC can do to influence things, strictly with playcalling. And of course, there's a lot we don't know. How many of those 18 wide receiver screens were dialed up by Getsy or were checked to by Fields? We have no way of knowing. I'm gonna be the annoying person but....I still don't feel confident in making a call on Fields until I watch the next 5 games. The last two have provided more data, some good, some bad. The evaluation process continues.

My problem with Poles is far more related to his choice of head coach than talent acquisition. maybe people are a little hyper fixated on the misses but through two drafts I’m….significantly more pleased with Poles’s talent acquisition than with any GM we’ve had in the past 20 years? Velus Jones is a miss. Chase Claypool was a gambling risk that missed, hard. The rest of the drafts? Pretty strong, and looking better and better with the play of Dexter, Roschon Johnson and Tyrique Stevenson of late. And the Sweat trade seems to have made sense, though it cost assets.

I’m not so sure that it’s a foregone conclusion that Poles is going to draft a QB.

lmaooooooo

I....wouldn't hate Harbaugh as a hire. It may be a circus over there but I feel at least pretty confident he could put a decent offense together?

Fields did not play well but I'm utterly baffled that Luke Getsy's plan to beat the blitz was....189 wide receiver screens It is possible (likely?) that Getsy saw that Fields was not getting the hot reads right on the Vikings blitzes and just gave up - which would be pretty damning for Fields. Either way - Fields was playing exceedingly poorly against the blitz, he held onto the ball too long and he didn't even really gash them on scrambles when he broke free. The Vikings then dropped 8 and rushed 3 on the Bears final drive for no reason. An insane amount of bad coaching in this game.

Weird game. Fields wasn't amazing, maybe a C- to C game - and lots of his faults showed, he wasn't great at reacting to the blitz, held the ball too long, and fumbled too much. BUT, he came up big at the end, and was able to gut out a win that should have been a blow out. Very little downfield passing, and hard to tell if that was by design or because Fields simply couldn't read the field great. Too many wide receiver screens. The run game was barely there. I'd probably sit Herbert for however long it takes for him to get healthy - Johnson looked way way better. Defense was stellar. No complaints there. Pass rush is much improved and the DBs are finally coming down with the ball. JJ needs to get that INT that would be a pick six but thats really just nitpicking. As a previous poster predicted - Fields has played between OK to Good but nowhere close enough to make a decision easy for the front office - not bad enough to cut bait and not good enough to feel secure at the position. How fun!

It's crazy to think that this team is two plays away from being 5-6 and being firmly in the playoff hunt and playing for a .500 record. The story around this team and the excitement levels around them are completely different if Fields doesn't fumble in the Denver game or Tyler Scott makes that catch last week. (Of course they were 1 play away from losing that Panthers game, so there's that) But of course thats football and there were tons of easily avoidable coaching mistakes that led us to where we are now. I'm not here to say they should be 5-6, just that they easily could have been. And feelings around Fields and the team would be very different.

This is an absurd comparison. He had 100+ yards rushing and hit a 39 yard touchdown on a dime that Bagent completely lacks the ability to complete. The type of game they were playing was also incomparable (both in good and bad ways) : there were almost no wide receiver screens and quick slants/outs. It wasn't the same type of game. Fields had a good game, in a way that Bagent would have been unable to duplicate - particularly because the traditional run game wasn't there on Sunday. Against one of the best teams in the conference, on the road! We don't need to play the make believe game.