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What Philly has done with him is put him behind the best OL in the league. Also drafted and traded for WRs with 1st round picks. Bears are a long way from being able to emulate that.

Beyond a doubt, nearly any other QB would have pulled the trigger, overthinking, lack of confidence, playing scared, fearing a TO, is not going to work. He should know that if he doesn't, he 's as good as gone. I'm talking myself more and more into the belief that they just need to let him play freely and sink or swim. I think back to the Browns preseason game (yes I know it was a meaningless preseason game with starters sitting) but you could just see Fields start to get comfortable after a few throws and then suddenly he was electric and confidently throwing bombs all over the field. I think back to the Steelers game last year. In the first half he struggled with a gameplan that didn't involve many passes, in the 2nd half he hit a couple of perfect throws and then became unstoppable. I think if you give someone only a handful of attempts to make something happen, they're going to play more tentatively and scared because the margin for error is razor thin (like WrigleyField22 said). It certainly seems like the case with Fields. It was like that every game last year too. The offense would do nothing 1st quarter (or entire half in most cases) and then Fields would get into a rhythm and just play. Hell, he did that last week. But Pittsburgh, SF last year also come to mind.

Exactly! I mean it's true. That talent is bad. But like I've said all offseason....do you spend a ton of money and force it? Miami is doing this with Tua. And granted, he had 6 TDs and 500 yards passing yesterday, but ultimately, he's probably not good enough for them to have spent all that money around him. And I'd imagine in a couple years, they're wasting tons of money on that supporting cast with inconsistent QB play and a few season that they have nothing to show for. NYG has done that for Daniel Jones, and again they are 2-0, but they probably aren't actually good and have no cap space to add a proven QB to that team next year. I love Fields as much as anyone on this board. My wife thinks I'd leave her for him if I ever actually met him (straight man crush). But at some point, he has to show some basic competencies of an NFL QB. He's still not throwing to open guys, when they do get open. He still isn't feeling the pass rush and moving in the pocket to avoid it. He's still holding onto the ball too long. And honestly, he hasn't really shown progress in that area. I know, new offense, new players everywhere, bad playcalling, whatever excuse you want to make, but they aren't going to sit around and spend huge money to add big-time talent around him if Fields isn't improving on those basic traits. Poles didn't need to cripple the franchise and he wouldn't have with a more meaningful and purposeful offseason. I agree Fields has work to do, but comon there is no way Poles offseason made any damn sense towards building any type of competent offense Again, I have said that there is a middle ground. He could have signed my favorite FA fit, Laken Tomlinson, and had one of the best guards in the league for the next 3-4 years. He could have drafted George Pickens over Kyler Gordon, who got his ass consistently handed to him last night in coverage and in the run game. But Poles' goal wasn't to build a competent offense. He wants to build a competitive team. That's both sides of the ball. He didn't completely ignore offense. He didn't do enough on offense, but based on last night, he didn't do enough on D either. For whatever reason, he felt he needed a clean slate from what Pace left him with and didn't have any picks or money to work with. It's completely understandable and not an unreasonable offseason. Sucks that Fields was caught in the middle of it, but that's what happens when you let a lame duck GM trade multiple picks for a QB and push money into the future.

If the Bears drafted QB in the 1st every year, they'd still only have 1 more of them on the roster. They've traded like half of their 1st round picks in search of a QB or in pursuit of supporting cast around the guy they thought was their QB.

This would be more convincing if it wasn't a copy-paste of the exact things I've been hearing about Bears QB busts since McNown. Exactly! I mean it's true. That talent is bad. But like I've said all offseason....do you spend a ton of money and force it? Miami is doing this with Tua. And granted, he had 6 TDs and 500 yards passing yesterday, but ultimately, he's probably not good enough for them to have spent all that money around him. And I'd imagine in a couple years, they're wasting tons of money on that supporting cast with inconsistent QB play and a few season that they have nothing to show for. NYG has done that for Daniel Jones, and again they are 2-0, but they probably aren't actually good and have no cap space to add a proven QB to that team next year. I love Fields as much as anyone on this board. My wife thinks I'd leave her for him if I ever actually met him (straight man crush). But at some point, he has to show some basic competencies of an NFL QB. He's still not throwing to open guys, when they do get open. He still isn't feeling the pass rush and moving in the pocket to avoid it. He's still holding onto the ball too long. And honestly, he hasn't really shown progress in that area. I know, new offense, new players everywhere, bad playcalling, whatever excuse you want to make, but they aren't going to sit around and spend huge money to add big-time talent around him if Fields isn't improving on those basic traits.

He's looking down his primary receiver and holding the ball way too long. OK, I guess you are right. It's still a little too early. But what you posted is like deja vu for every other failed QB the Bears have had. It's too early, he doesn't have help, too many coaches, etc etc. I find it to be more likely at this point he will ultimately fail, for whatever reason(s) we want to point to. But since this season isn't going to be a good one anyway, I'm OK continuing to play him. He had 11 pass attempts all game. Failure is assured. He had 9 pass attempts while the game was still potentially competitive. 4 of them were screen passes. But to the original post, it's got nothing to do with the Packers. Especially Rodgers, you can't sit a dude for 3 years anymore (unless ironically, you actually have Rodgers, apparently). We've seen Mahomes and Herbert in recent years come out as MVP level players right away. Granted Mahomes sat a year. Lamar won MVP his 1st full year starting. Watson was pretty good, pretty quickly. Imperfect guys like Jalen Hurts had some decent success early on (albeit mostly with his legs). Even Josh Allen, who was more raw than Fields coming out, showed more flashes by this point. You have 3-4 years to figure out if these guys can play with the rookie deals and the decision on 5th year options for 1st round picks needing to be made. It's not unreasonable to expect to know leaning one way or another after 2 years. Granted, the 2nd year just started, but there's a pretty strong chance the Bears still don't know what they have in Fields by the end of this year because of the OL, weapons, 1st time play caller, whatever else. I don't think it's unreasonable for fans to have higher expectations than what they are seeing on the field. Even if it is, I don't think you should look to "fans" to have reasonable takes in the first place.

To my non-expert, non-all-22 having naked eye, it appears as if he is struggling to get thru reads fast enough or moving on from them too quickly at times. It's hard for me to call ESB his 2nd read on that play. IMO, it was clearly set up for a blown coverage. The design of the play meant either a crosser or the overtop guy would come open (and actually, backside crosser was wide open as well). Maybe he was the 2nd read, but IMO it was pretty similar to a levels concept where it's a half or 1/3 field read and you take the underneath and you read both depending on where the LBs and safeties leverage is leaning. Finding the backside crosser, I would consider reading the defense. Of course, he made the right throw, so this isn't a knock. Just my 2 cents. Also the Pettis TD, I wouldn't call a "read" necessarily. It was a scramble drill play. Fields escaped the pocket and threw to the opposite of the field. Sure, he had 3 guys in his direct line of vision before flipping his hips to Pettis, but I've never questioned his ability to read defenses outside of the pocket on improvisation.

Sounds like the team doesn't expect Bahktiari back this week, and Ian Rappaport doesn't expect either Bahk or Jenkins to play. Sounds like Runyan has a concussion so he may be out this week as well. Barnes and Walker at ILB may miss this week too. Not only are there no significant injuries from Week 1 on the Bears side that I know about, there may have been 0 injuries in general. I'm sure there's some nagging issues somewhere, but the only question seems to be if Lucas Patrick can snap and start at C over Sam Mustipher.

Ugh. I hate this game. We already know how this ends. Packers are too good to go 0-2 in the division. And the more desperate team often wins in the NFL, especially when they have the superior talent. Aaron Rodgers owns us. Last year, GB got embarrassed Week 1 against the Saints, came back with a primetime home game against a division rival (Lions, MNF) the next week and dominated on their way to dominate per usual until January. But boy if they can pull this one off! Whole different outlook on the season. There were only 4 games on paper that look like clear losses for the Bears. While obviously nobody expects them to go 13-4, winning 2 of those 4 right out the gate would bode well for the potential of this rebuilding year. I honestly look at the weather differently from everyone else. It seems like the Bears were more affected by the weather than the Niners. Fields went from 2 gloves, to 1 glove, to no gloves on either hand, back to 2 gloves. The kicker was a headcase. The playcaller was coaching scared early in the game. I didn't really see the Niners really holding anything back, that's about what I expect to see from their offense, scheme-wise, but with results getting better against lesser defenses.

I'm not "fine" with the FG decision, but if you're going to do that....do it with 1:00 left after a timeout. Still have 2 other TOs and maybe you get the ball back for 2 or 3 more plays. Of course, that's even still more reason to go for it on 4th since a failure is the same result that saves you 7 yards. I believe I read 64+ yard FGs have been made 2 of 47 attempts in NFL history. Those are terrible odds, especially not in Denver where I know at least 1 of those 2 kicks made it.

With the time outs in hand, could have run at least, one more play if not, two, to give themselves better field position for the FG. I don’t think the issue was not having time to run plays. They clearly did with three TOs left. The issue came down to running down the clock and attempting a 64 yarder or making a 4th and 5 conversion. The HC thought they had a better shot with a long FG than a conversion. And that’s insane. Russell Wilson is considered one of the game's top QBs. Maybe not Rodgers, Brady, Mahomes elite, but I think most around the league consider him in that next tier of very good QBs. Yet, he has now had multiple coaches in multiple cities treat late game situations like they are working with Sam Darnold. IDK why Russ isn't making a bigger stink about this. Forced a trade from a situation where they didn't "let him cook" and still being treated like a 3rd class QB.

They have Lamar Jackson, Jaylon Jones and Josh Blackwell all on the 53 who had 0 defensive snaps yesterday. I think they're all older than Graham as well.

He missed just about all of training cam and preseason. I think the team liked him and was waiting for him to get 100% healthy But overall, I think when in doubt thus regime has picked to keep their guy over a Pace guy. Would have had to cut one of the guys they added for the 53 over Graham. Kept Pennel over Tonga. That Kingsley Jonathan dude over Sam Kamara, etc.

Think he was psyched out by the field too. He just physically looked like he didn't want to be out there.

This was a fun thread to go back and read after the fact. LOL But yeah, the Niners only have themselves to blame for this one. Two 15-yard late hits on a sliding Fields, bail out a 3rd & 4 dive call with a facemask, and a couple defensive holding calls trying to stop linemen from getting to the 2nd level. The disciplined team that showed in the preseason again only committed 3 penalties, 1 of which was for wiping the field with a towel. When you are the lesser talented team (and the Bears may be every game), you have to play clean football. The Bears avenue to any kind of success this season will be strong defense, penalty free football, and redzone execution. 10 points, 3 penalties, and 2 for 2 scoring TDs when inside the 20. Obviously, not a good enough showing offensively. I think Getsy was psyched out by the weather. Was ultra conservative, but wasn't creative about it at all. The 49ers were just as conservative, but ran some endarounds, quick WR screens, designed QB runs that were non naked to get their young QB in a rhythm. I thought the OL held up OK. Jenkins graded as the best player on offense, despite splitting snaps with Patrick. He was damn near dominant on the only actual TD drive of the game. Defensive line was pretty good. Justin Jones was creating havoc even with nothing to show really on the stat sheet. Quinn collapsed the pocket and actually held the edge really well so Lance couldn't escape. Robinson was the big revelation. The Bears had plenty of pressure (12) on Lance despite LITERALLY ZERO (0) blitzes in 34 passing snaps. Lance was 1-7 for -2 yards passing when under pressure, with 2 sacks and 3 times he was able to escape for positive yards. The quietly huge break was Elijah Mitchell going down. He was averaging 6.8 per carry and Jeff Wilson was a noticeable downgrade there. They also only gave the ball to Deebo in the backfield 1 time after the Bears 1st score, even though he had 7 rushes for 51 yards up to that point. Only threw 1 screen to him as well.

Fields doesn't have the supporting cast and can't do it himself. Everything that's happened to this point suggests that they aren't invested in him being successful. Which brings us back to WTF was Poles hired if not fully invested in Fields' success? Doesn't make sense that Poles would just immediately write him off without at least, seeing what they have to work with. Is that what a smart GM would do? Moreover, I get the sense that many think Poles had the roster flexibility and, or draft picks to make some kind big time moves on offense. Thanks to Pace' ineptitude he didn't, I'm not defending Poles just stating realistically, there's not much he could have done this offseason. I've explained my view on this situation before. Honestly, from a personal standpoint, it would have been stupid for Poles to throw all his eggs in the Fields basket. QBs cost people their jobs. Many top WRs changed teams and got paid this offseason. Not that Poles really had the ammo to get any of them, but even if he did, I don't think that's a direction he would have chosen. My analogy I used previously was that I trust my wife to be faithful, but I wouldn't lock her in a room with a naked Jason Momoa. Poles can trust Fields to be the next great NFL QB, but that doesn't mean he should have gone out and traded a bunch of future assets and financial flexibility to put that pressure on him right away. Poles is fully invested, he's just not betting his NFL future on it....which is probably the smart play. Now, as I've said before, there's definitely a middle ground between what Pace thought he was doing year 2 of Trubisky and what Poles has done year 2 of Fields. But I don't think we should read too much into how invested Poles is in Fields based on this offseason based on your last sentence.

Quite a trial by fire for the rookie starters this week. Braxton Jones? Here's Nick Bosa all day Kyler Gordon? Here's Deebo Samuel Jaquan Brisker? You got Kittle underneath I'm kind of backing off on the "Bears could surprise this game". I think too much is being made about them keeping Jimmy G around. Also, Lance's last preseason performance wasn't great, but it also wasn't terrible. And he had a pretty good couple series in his other preseason game. Lance is probably going to be good, if for no other reason than his head coach and playcaller. The Niners are likely to be very good because they brought back most of a good team from last year and potentially are more mobile and explosive at QB. I'm thinking best case scenario may be similar to last year. Fields plays well, but the Niners just have too much firepower and win by double digits.

How the hell do I get the Bears over Detroit and Philly, which are both closer to Pittsburgh than Chicago? Not that I'm complaining.

AFC East Buffalo 13-4 Miami 9-8 NYJets 7-10 New England 6-11 AFC North Cincinnati 10-7 Baltimore 10-7 Cleveland 8-9 Pittsburgh 8-9 (Tomlin's 1st losing season) AFC South Indianapolis 10-7 Tennessee 9-8 Jacksonville 6-11 Houston 6-11 AFC West Kansas City 11-6 Las Vegas 11-6 LA Chargers 10-7 Denver 8-9 KC over Balt, Cin over LAC, LV over Ind Buff over LV, KC over Cin Buff over Cin NFC East Philadelphia 11-6 Dallas 9-8 Washington 7-10 NY Giants 4-13 NFC North Minnesota 10-7 Green Bay 9-8 Chicago 7-10 Detroit 6-11 NFC South New Orleans 10-7 Tampa Bay 10-7 Carolina 9-8 Atlanta 3-14 NFC West San Francisco 12-5 LA Rams 11-6 Arizona 7-10 Seattle 3-14 PHI over CAR, LA over NO, MIN over TB SF over LA, PHI over MIN SF over PHI Buffalo over SF for Super Bowl

They weirdly fit the mold of a team that could outperform expectations. New HC, a new offensive system that shows promise, a second year QB who's shown flashes of talent, a coaching staff with some promise, and a handful of offseason moves that could help move the needle. It's oddly reminiscent of Nagy's first year, for better or worse. I don't think the talent is there for more than 9 wins (barring a miracle), but the NFL is strange. Yeah, that's kinda where I am. If Fields stays healthy and is actually going to pan out as a franchise QB, the Bears are likely to outperform expectations. I have pointed out way back when in this thread that there have been a few occasions in the last 5 years where a team with similar talent deficiencies have been pretty good unexpectedly. 2019 Ravens and Bills, 2016 Titans. All with 2nd year QBs, a couple with new(er) defensive coaches. Granted Mariota still somehow didn't pan out and Jackson had a historic season on the ground and with passing efficiency, but those teams all won at least 9 games with ugly offensive personnel on paper. I hold out hope for the 2022 Bears to be similar, but I'm certainly not counting on it.

Ah yeah, good point.

It's supposed to be like their own in house version of Hard Knocks (except even more propaganda-ey) I get that, which is largely why they kind of suck. By minute 8 I want a nap. I could see a 5 minute version being fine. Velus Jones’s toothbrush had a featured role in this thing. LOL. My big takeaway is Eberflus is everywhere. He's watching DBs, then DL, then WRs, then QBs. I don't imagine Nagy did too much with the defensive guys in practice, which is fine if he was good at offense. But I think I like the CEO style HC with coordinators coordinating.

Interesting that they cut Zachary Thomas yesterday, who was a Poles draft pick this year. He can be added to the PS after 4pm, if he clears waivers. But these signings (mainly Thomas, because Diesch was already reported) puts the Bears at a full 16 on the practice squad. I'm going to assume he'll keep Thomas and cut maybe Eiselen? But Eiselen is the only other C on the roster if Patrick has to miss a couple weeks and Mustipher goes down. IDK that Whitehair is an option to move back there. Also guys like Snowden, Tonga, Shelley, and Caleb Johnson look like the odd men out.

Yeah, not sure why they just weren't cut. I honestly don't like Leatherwood's fit in this offense. He's a big powerful mauling dude in the run game, granted so is Jenkins. But I'm good with taking a shot on any former top 75 pick still on his rookie deal. A team thought he was a 1st round talent just 18 months ago (I thought he was closer to mid 3rd round). Change of scenery, motivation by a new staff and dire situation to save a career may or may not be a real thing, but it's worth a shot on the talent as long as you don't overpay.

I mean, the media has always been validated in their opinion. I've been telling Bears fans all offseason. I don't think they will be the worst team in the league. Last time they were the worst team in the league, they only tied for it with the Steelers and lost the coin flip for the #1 pick which was Terry Bradshaw. But on paper, the Bears don't have big money, proven free agents. They didn't have a 1st round pick. Hell, the only 1st round picks on the entire roster are Fields, Quinn (who was drafted 11 years ago), Roquan, Harry and Leatherwood (both 1st round busts). This just isn't a talented team. I don't think they were all that talented last year (based on who actually played the majority of the snaps) and they are better coached and have an easier schedule than they did in 2021. And honestly, the Bears have been on the bottom half of talent in the league for most of our lives, but this time they have talent at the most important position in sports.