raw

i'm assuming this is in response to me. it's one thing to have success with or without great players. it's another for your entire resume to be based on an offense that is bruce arians's baby with tom brady quarterbacking (and, yes, an embarrassment of riches at WR). no idea what the hype is about or what makes people think he's interesting as a candidate other than arians talking him up. it doesn't necessarily have to be the case, but we already saw how much that means with reid/nagy (when reid took the blame for all the bad playcalling and gave him the credit for the good and said nagy was the most HC ready coach he's ever worked with blah blah blah). Difference between Leftwich and Nagy is that Leftwich legitimately runs the offense. Arians is old and just a figurehead at this point. He's repeatedly stated that Leftwich runs offensive meetings, with or without him present. Plus, Leftwich has played QB at the NFL level and was well known as a leader even from back in his days in college when he played thru an ankle injury and his OL literally picked him up and carried him down the field everytime they moved the chains. I'm not completely sold on Leftwich (or any other coach TBH) but it has nothing to do with Nagy, Brady, Arians or anything else. He's definitely in my top 5.

Yep. Raiders were my #2 team growing up. Though it was more after his time there, in the early-to-mid 80s, I loved the players that carried over from his era (Lester Hayes, Cliff Branch, Mike Haynes). He still had a huge stamp on that franchise.

I just realized the Dolphins won Week 1. So they are the only team in the history of football to have a 7 game win streak and a 7 game losing streak in the same season.

Doug Pederson isn't a bad coach, but I think would be very bad for the Bears. The similarities between Pederson and Nagy aren't enough to inspire confidence that the team would be going in the right direction. Both were Andy Reid OCs before becoming head coaches. While Pederson had much more success than Nagy, they basically run the same offense. This seems like more of the same for the Bears. Went from after 2018 thinking that getting the right RB for the scheme was the missing piece (traded Howard, drafted Montgomery). Then after 2019, they didn't have the right TEs or coaching staff (out Shaheen and Burton, in Kmet and Graham, changed OC, OL coaches). Then after 2020, it was definitely the QB and they had to get Dalton, who was handpicked but clearly not the exact same as the previously hand-picked QB the previous offseason. Going from Nagy to Pederson reeks of these type of moves but now it's the coach that's the problem. While that very well may be a large part of the issue, the scheme, the players and the player acquisition stinks. And I do think that's the type of hire that happens if you keep Pace. That type of move says to me, "hey, we're really close. The players and acquisition are fine. The scheme is fine. But the situational playcalling!" Down to the fact that Pederson was with the team part of camp this year, and guys like John DeFillipo was on Pederson's staff. It's just delaying the inevitable change that is needed in this organization. You can't tease all this change and then run it back with Doug Pederson. Todd Bowles doesn't do much for me either. He definitely deserves another shot, but I don't think Chicago is the right place for him. I have no questions about his ability to lead. I don't know that he has proved he has the connections to build a strong offensive staff. Meanwhile, I think Raheem Morris is out there and looks like a better version of him, IMO. Morris similarly had a 3-year HC stint with a (then) perennial NFL cellar dweller and had 1 really good year. But Morris has also since worked with Shanahan, McVay, both LaFleurs, and currently works with a bunch of potentially great young offensive minds in LA. Bowles works with a couple of good offensive minds, but he isn't bringing Leftwich as his OC. Morris is also 13 years younger.

I was thinking about that as well. Its hard not to be "wins matter" and realize the circumstances that led to this one. I'm happy the Bears won, but still, horsefeathers Nick Foles Nick Foles is fine. He probably should be a Bear next year as well. They have to pay him 7.67 Mil for him to go away and only save 3Mil by doing so. Already guaranteed to spend 12.67Mil on the backup QB position, even if you don't have one on the roster. The 3Mil you save from Foles would likely be spent right back on a backup, who probably isn't as good as Foles in a pinch.

Missed all but the Bears 1st TD drive in this game. Just saw the TD and 2pt conversion. Has there even been a single play made for Justin Fields this year where a receiver made a play on the ball as good as those two? Hell, Byrd and Graham dropped easier ones in the game last week with Fields' on the field.

I can buy that Pace may be getting better at his job. I mean, after 7 years there should be things he's learned from and does better at this point. But even those names aren't THAT big of a deal that he's irreplaceable. The group is largely unproven outside of Jaylon and Mooney. Fields was a no-brainer. And all those names can be credited to scouting. You keep the scouting mostly in tact and that's not an issue. It's just really concerning that the organization didn't really seem to plan for this situation. I believe someone mentioned it, but we know Pace and Nagy basically had to campaign to keep their jobs last January. Why didn't ownership plan out a scenario where they could want to fire them again the year after, especially if there were no extensions involved? Now the potential Pres of Football Operation thing will delay everything. You can fire both Pace and Nagy without a Pres., but you can't really hire a HC or GM without one if your plan is to get one. I know they don't necessarily have to be in a hurry to hire any of these positions and there will be no shortage of candidates even if every team in need hires a HC/GM first, but if they do their true due diligence with all of these hires, you could be looking at going into the combine and draft season without a front office or a direction. If you want to keep Nagy til the end of the year, fine. But announce it this week so you can interview. Pace can be in on the interviews without making a decision. Use the last 2 weeks of the season to also interview team Pres candidates if that's the direction you're going in. He gets hired a week or 2 into the playoffs and has til the Superbowl to figure out what to do with Pace. From there go into HC interviews. Depending on who you have your eye on as HC, you might not even need a GM first. I'd imagine a guy like Josh McDaniels is allowed to bring in a Pats FO guy with him if necessary, so you can even cut that process down some if you want.

Can we do this with defense building around Smith and Johnson? - 1 starting caliber ILB to pair with Roquan - 2 starting caliber CB (slot and boundary) - 1 starting caliber S - Rotational DL (ideally extend Nichols) CB needs some real talent additions, the rest could patch up with cheap veterans Maybe Graham Jr has taken the outside CB slot, the rest of our current roster can compete for the slot? I also wonder about resigning Hicks ILB should be easy to find on the FA market IDK what Graham could do to be given a starting spot next year. I think that's how you end up with a situation like this year. Ideally, if Graham, Vildor, and Shelley go into camp as your 4-5-6 CBs instead of Vildor and Shelley being numbers 2 & 3, then you have a decent CB room. I'd prefer to sign a guy with some flexibility to play inside or out, and then draft the best guy you can find in the 2nd or 3rd. Probably have to bring in another Burns or Trufant just in case you can't draft a guy good enough to compete since you have limited draft picks. But that signing could wait til summer. I would not touch Hicks. 32 years old, missed 11 games in 2019 and going to miss all or parts of like 9-10 games this year. Love the guy and he's a monster when on the field, but I'm not spending the money to keep a guy that old, that big, and that injury prone. Bad combo. Plus, he's one of 2 guys (Robinson) that could bring back a comp pick.

Would be a Boxing Day firing if anything. That will work, after the Seattle game What if they win, though? Seattle is a very winnable game. They aren't going to fire Nagy after a win, unless they fully admit that they told him he was out this week beforehand, and that's still a sore spot with this organization.

Realistically, what do we need to add for next year to feel like we're putting Justin in a real position to succeed? Something like this? - 2 starting caliber WRs - 1 starting caliber TE - A starting caliber Center - A starting caliber guard (ideally just extend James Daniels) - A tackle (these last few weeks to determine how good he needs to be) With the cap space open this offseason, that's probably actually doable? You're left bargain hunting on defense, but I'd be happy to finally have a team that can win games 34-27. I don't think they need a TE. Kmet is fine. He's like 15th in receiving for TEs. Sure he's not anything special, but he also doesn't really need to be replaced. He's fine and most importantly, cheap. You don't need a 2nd TE. Nagy running his 2 TE stuff isn't going to be here and it's not like the Bears are utilizing 2 TEs effectively. They went over 200 total yards for the backup TEs on the last play yesterday. Get better WRs and there's no reason to throw to the TE group more than they already do. I think I'd REALLY focus on the interior OL position. Re-sign Daniels, but you gotta get a stud inside. Whitehair is interesting. He's apparently very average or below average at this point, you could cut bait with him and try to find a better interior guy. But I'd probably be inclined to keep him around and move him back to C. Draft the best guard you can in the 2nd (yes, even ahead of drafting a WR) and build a strong unit that is young in 4 of 5 spots, and cheap in 3 of them. If you can get a legit stud C then you can do that and move on from Whitehair, but I don't think the Bears will A) spend 30Mil on the interior OL (Daniels, Whitehair, FA C) or B) trust a rookie to man the C position. I feel like there's so many avenues to add WRs. Cheap FAs, trades of Day 3 picks, middle of the draft. Probably bring back Jakeem Grant. Hope Dazz or the other PS guys develop. There's your 4 and 5 WRs. Add a FA and a draft pick and you're good to go. Don't even have to break the bank. Guys like DJ Chark, Devante Parker or Will Fuller coming off injuries would be cheap. Brandin Cooks could get cut or traded (for the 4th time) for very little. I'd lean cheap, short term over another Robinson type signing and develop a guy in this draft. Fields has had plenty of success throwing to Mooney, Byrd, Goodwin and Grant. If needed, have a 1st in 2023 to draft a true #1 (looking at you, Jaxon Smith-Ngiba).

Even more critical because a President of Football Operations is probably going to have more rope than the subsequent GM and coach that are hired. You are giving this person at least 5-7 years to figure things out. Yeah, I don't necessarily care about the President role all that much. I'm not one to bitch about Ted Phillips. Getting the coach right is honestly my biggest concern. The right coach will maximize Justin Fields. If Fields is the stud we know he can be, the GM is going to look good and in turn, the president will look good.

To be fair, he was pretty lackluster in preseason and training camp (from what I hear). But I don't know what Xavier Crawford showed and I know he doesn't have the pedigree of Graham Jr., so who knows the logic involved in that decision. Also of note that he played outside CB all night. Many people had him pegged in a slot role. So nice to see him handle himself well on the outside with a bunch of snaps against Jefferson. Bears played him outside all camp, so technically they kept Artie Burns over him, which I guess is more understandable w/ him being a former 1st rounder with a bunch of experience....but not like he had experience being good, and coming off a torn ACL.

What? You don't kick FGs down 17-3 in the 4th quarter. 17-3, you need 2 scores. 17-6, you need 2 scores. You have to play to minimize the number of times you need to score when the time is not on your side.

Seems to be all about the gameplan to me. Super conservative early in games. Consistently try to establish Montgomery early to predictability. And like has been mentioned, there seems like there'll be a big 3rd down conversion on a 10+ yard pass and then they go into wildcat. It takes until the Bears are inevitably down until they actually start trying to score points. Then they're just not good enough at it for it to matter.

Man this game had everything. I truly didn't care about the result of the game, but I was completely pissed at the first half officiating. I mean, Bears are bad, shorthanded, and you still screw them over? Not that they would have won the game, but I hate that anger took over my ambivalence at one point. It also had classic Nagy, Nagying. I'm not a big play call guy, but clearly short yardage and 4th down plays are laughable. Situational game management is deplorable. If the world didn't know how bad he is as a coach, they know now. Fields gets in a rhythm, throw in wildcat. Hurry up offense is moving the ball, let's make them huddle up and throw a dive in here. Fields was bad, then he was good. I feel like the ability to throw the ball downfield with accuracy is one of the most important things a QB can do well to help his team. But he has to fix the little things. Stop taking dumb sacks. And for the love of God, protect the damn ball. Way too many fumbles. But when he throws it, it's a thing of beauty. Just needs some help. Nobody is making any above average plays for him. If the ball isn't perfectly placed, nobody is making a catch (Kmet misses perfectly placed ones as well). Guys seem to be just a couple steps off of where Fields expects them to be. And based on reactions, I think Fields is the one doing his job right. Saw some good things from Jenkins and Graham was amazing. Even guys like Marqui Christian and Teez Tabor stepped up. I'd love to see Desai get another shot at DC with a healthy Mack and a revamped DB room, but probably not happening with a new staff. I don't think he's the next Brandon Staley or anything just yet, but I do think he has some potential as a dC.

FWIW, I love going for the W there. Harbaugh isn't going to say it, but they aren't beating Rodgers in OT if he touches the ball. I know they stopped them the 2 previous drives, but the ones before that he was unstoppable as usual.

It's a good point... Fields could be having standard rookie struggles AND be greatly held back by terrible coaching/team, which would dip him into historically poor numbers relative to other QBs. Not to say that other rookies haven't had bad coaching, but its a bit of a unique situation. Also again it's 9 games. He does have some things he needs to work on but if you parse the numbers out, he's doing some things well and has shown enough flashes to keep my faith high. If he's still in this range this time next year, then sure I'll be concerned. Isn't Mac Jones the only rookie with good ratings? Fields catches a lot of flack compared to Wilson and Lawrence who are seemingly playing about the same level. The numbers I'm basing this on may be a touch out of date, but I remember reading this a few weeks earlier in the season. Yeah, Wilson and Lawrence are literally at the same level. Fields and Lawrence literally have the same QB rating and the same mess from an offensive talent/coaching standpoint (though Lawrence's is ugly bad). Wilson's slightly lower, but seems to have the most stable coaching situation.

Go for 2 or not, the play calls on these things is what kills teams. You cut off half the field, and like you said, the first read for a rolling QB is the only WR that is in his current line of sight. If you have a mobile QB, you want to give them the option to run. On the goal line, the best way to do that is to spread the defense out. You can give him 1 read and then let him go, and then if something pops open he can throw it once you get the defense moving. But the way that play was designed, he would have had to either stop or completely flip his head to the middle, which allows the pass rush to potentially get there.

Nope. Every player on the roster counts. Practice squad too. Nah, salary cap only counts top 53 highest paid players.

Going for it on 4th inside the 5 going in to halftime I felt was kinda stupid. Could’ve gone up 7, didn’t get the benefit of field position if you don’t get it and then can stop the Chiefs where you at least can get the ball back around the 50. The other 4th down attempts all seemed reasonable to me though. I disagree with this too. IDK if the Chargers were underdogs or not, but I know they were behind in the division. They needed this win in order to stay alive for a playoff home game. They should be throwing out all the stops and going for the W. I'd understand if they were getting the ball back after halftime and had 2 shots to score before the Chiefs touched the ball again, but I particularly loved this decision more than all the others, just because most teams would have just taken the 3 and been OK with it. Top 5 offense should be able to get 3 yards.

Yea, the 2 pt analytic wave hasn't even really hit yet even though many coaches have gotten better on the 4th down analytics. Except for of course our own Matt Nagy. Addendum to that. Actually I'm okay going up 8 in that situation. Still value in forcing the 2PTA and if you do go up 9 you just signal KC to go into hurry up. But it seems to be one of those close call situations from a model sense. Nah, I'd rather KC is in hurry up. Mahomes had been prone to mistakes the last few weeks and even earlier in that game. Also, I think you have to take into account how good each offense is, in general. You have a top 5 offense in LA, going against a top 5 offense. You "trust your defense" but you also give them any wiggle room you can get. You have to operate under the assumption that the Chiefs (a top 3 offense themselves) will be able to score. You also are in the 4th quarter, so you trust that either your offense can control the clock (with likely a 2pt lead if you go up 9) or they can score again if KC ties it. The difference between 7 and 8 is KC has to make 1 more play. The difference between 7 and 9 is KC has to make 1 more DRIVE, with the clock on your side.

Ironically, the failure to be aggressive probably hurt their chances to win more than the opposite. 14-13 Chargers lead. Score a TD to go up 20-13, they kick the PAT instead of going for 2. That kept it a 1-score game, 21-13. If they go for 2 and get it, they're up 9 and the Chiefs have to score twice (which they did), but they'd also need two 2pt conversions once the Chargers scored again late. If they go for 2 and they fail, they're up 7 and the game is tied anyway as the Chiefs just kick PATs and don't have to go for 2 unless they are being super aggressive. So, there was really no difference between being up 7 or 8 points in the long run.

But wait, it gets worse.

Noooo I want to see a Matt Nagy coached game without any of his coaches and calling plays so I can hate watch. First Nagy screws up the headsets, now he gave Lazor Covid just so he can call plays.....that maniacal bastard!

Part of me wonders if Meyer tried to get fired so he could pocket 50Mil for just 13 games of work. NFL coaching contracts are guaranteed, unless they are fired for cause (outside of wins and losses). Definitely seems like conduct issues worthy of cause to fire him and not pay him the remainder of his contract. But that could also lead to an ugly lawsuit. Wonder how the money is going to play out. But damn, you can't kick players, ditch your team to get grinded on at the bar, call your coach losers and blame them for stuff that didn't happen, all while being a failure on the field including potentially ruining the best QB prospect in a decade. I knew he was a piece of horsefeathers, but damn. Also, Jags almost HAVE to hire Leftwich right? One, he's a top coaching candidate and happens to be the OC of an elite offense which would fit very well with TLaw's skillset. Second, Meyer was hired at 10-12Mil/season reportedly, Leftwich would be much cheaper without HC experience and not a huge name. Third, he was a former well-loved Jag QB and the team could really use some good PR to create goodwill with their fan base.