raw

This is exactly what I want on the offensive side. Wish we could have seen what Tyler Scott could do down the stretch, but whatever, he's probably not good enough anyway.

Obviously was a characturization of them. Was just trying argue my point. LOL. And you make good points, but I guess I am giving him the benefit of the doubt based on the differences I have seen. Angelo traded down a bunch, almost for the sake of trading down when he found those great late picks. Pace traded up way too much. Poles has traded picks for players, players for picks, and generally used sound logic for the moves he's made. It's probably me having a bit of blind faith in the guy, but he was able to get a coach fired midseason for the first time. And I'm convinced it wasn't his doing to keep him. I just feel like he is different. Remains to be seen if different = good.

I would like to think that, but the last GM traded up for a guy because he drove his grandmother's beater car, over what would be the best QB in the league when he also said he had them rated equal (Watson was more logical a pick). Emery would have surely taken Penix because he thought he was smarter than everyone else. Angelo would have kept Fields and traded back to get more 2nd round picks. Nevermind the fact that none of the previous GMs would have had the Bears in position to have the #1 pick that led to the Caleb trade. They all would have tried to build the team around Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn.

I get it, but I don't look at it that way. He's leading the process because he's the only one capable of leading the process in-house. There have been GMs that have drafted for their teams and then gotten fired. It's a terrible way to do things, but so is keeping a coach because of his contract. And so is letting a coach do a press conference and then firing him 2 hours later. Just get the hire right. Just do the best for Caleb. I don't trust anyone more than Poles (maybe Cunningham, but package deal) to at least make moves with Caleb's best interest in mind.

I think it's crazier to trust the guy who can't get the stadium taken care of to get the GM hire right. Poles 100% deserves to be fired. But it also just so happens that he's probably the most competent person currently in the organization to get things right. The results have been disgustingly bad, but I think his thought process has been solid and different from recent Bears history. This franchise has been defense + running the ball from hell or high water. He had the guts to trade away the QB who made half of that equation among the best in the league. I can't say with any confidence that any other GM the Bears have ever had would taken Caleb and tried to gear the team to playing modern football. Everything about Poles (young, black, analytical) is a positive change from Bears past. And I think there's enough smoke out there that he wanted to get rid of Flus and wasn't allowed. The Bears historically would not even think about hiring Ben Johnson. They'd be hiring Vrabel or Carroll and trying to set a high floor with defense, rushing and discipline.

Am I the only one that thinks this is the right way to go about this? Poles is the only one that has ever interviewed a HC candidate before. The alternative is that Warren and guys like Accorsi and Irsay do the whole HC/GM process at the same time again and hire the guy that best embodies Chicago Bears legacy as the GM who agrees with their HC of choice. "Leading the search" isn't the same as being the sole person to make the hire. Poles SHOULD be involved in finding and interviewing the candidates. Obviously, you have Warren and some other guys in there. If the coach(es) you want say they want to bring in their own guy, you let them bring in their own guy, thank Poles for his help, and move on from him.

Broken franchises have been fixed before. 49ers had 8 straight non-winning seasons before Harbaugh, and 4 more after and before Shanahan. The Lions were broken for years. This is fixable. It is fixable fast.

Yeah it's tough. I'd expect Poles to have the desperation to get things right fast. But I don't trust him to be able to get things right, and desperate GMs usually make short-sighted moves that hurt the franchise in the long-term.

So, a couple things with this. First, it's not just QBs who "suck". It happens all the time with QBs who aren't taking the next step from mediocre to good. We've seen it happen to guys like Mayfield and Darnold, who did suck, but moved on to become good QBs in better organizations. We've seen it happen to Cutler in 2 different organizations, including ours. He certainly didn't "suck". All it takes is another up and down season, because he's learning a new offense for the 3rd straight year, the GM is trying to put his stamp on the team and there's a lot of moving parts that keep him from progressing fast enough for the new GM's liking (because we know he'll never blame himself for the QB's failure). Secondly, the whole "new GM hire good HC" thing is actually WAY easier said than done. Somebody has to hire the GM. I'm sure Kevin Warren will take charge of that search, but he has literally never hired a GM before. Despite being an NFL executive for years, he's never been involved in decisions on the field side of things. So now you have inexperience hiring someone likely inexperienced. Or maybe there's another committee they hire led by Jim Irsay's 90 year old ass.....because that's worked out so well every other time. The only way this really works is that you HAVE to have the head coach hire the GM. And the only way that makes sense is you have to hire a HC worthy of picking his own GM. The only guys that have enough of a resume to even be able to get that type of power are guys with successful HC experience (Vrabel, Carroll) or a guy who is the hottest HC candidate on the market ala Kyle Shanahan years ago, Ben Johnson. And you trust this front office with a HC hire over a GM candidate, because the HC hire is a lot easier to align with your vision for what to do with Caleb, your most important asset.

The Bears organization is broken. But so is the Jags org. So are the Saints. If the Giants and Raiders jobs open up, they are broken too. The Lions were pretty broken too before Johnson got there. Hell, they were pretty broken for his first 3 years there before he became the OC.

Sounds like you parsed through this pretty perfectly.

This was the best case scenario watching the play. Twitter doctors (legit ones) were thinking torn ligaments in the knee. If nothing is torn (doesn't sound like it is), this is a 4 month recovery and he's easily back in time for training camp.

He hasn't thrown an INT in the United States since Week 3. LMAO

They really need to hit free agency hard. Like a real solution (or 2, or 3) on the OL. Can't really count on being able to pick whoever you want on the OL where they are scheduled to pick. There's only 2 legit OTs that project top 15. And about 3 teams that pick before the Bears that probably have that as their #1 need. There aren't really any guards slated for the top 10, unless you play a tackle there. But mostly, they need a guy they know that can play. Not a guy that was a backup swing guy somewhere and pencil him in to start for them. Not a guy with position flexibility that is good depth if someone gets hurt. Not a guy who's former team is telling the world "this guy doesn't like to practice". Of course, this is what they've needed for 3 offseasons now.

Like I pointed out. He's literally had 2 offensive possessions the last 2 weeks when the score has been within reach that weren't completely ruined by someone else's mistake. Obviously, there's 13 other games of data, but the non-competitive stuff has mostly come in the 3 weeks post Eberflus. The first 6 were all competitive. Arizona and NE were not (a lot of his fault). Then 3 games that were competitive to the wire (other than 1st half vs Detroit). Maybe I'm being an apologist, but I'll cut some slack when 2 coaches have been fired and 90% of the team has visibly quit.

Not trying to come off as an apologist, really I'm not. But like today, 2 WR fumbles and a 1st down holding penalty on his first 4 drives. Last week, the playcalling gave the ball twice on 4th and 1 to a RB that likes to run sideways, and he obliged by going sideways. Also mixed in was a rookie completely whiffing a block and getting Caleb blindsided at the top of his drop. That was also 3 of the first 4 drives, and the 5th time he got the ball he was already down 3 scores in both games. There were always going to be ups and downs. I wish he was consistently better as well. But I also like wishing to find millions of dollars in a pile of dog crap.

I was asking what's the alternative for Johnson. If this organization is too dysfunctional, so is like 80% of the NFL, just that some of them win pretty consistently, and he's quite literally never getting one of those HC jobs, And every single move in the NFL is crossing fingers and hoping it works out. The Bears could trade for Mahomes, and we'd be hoping he doesn't tear his ACL in the airport. This is a sport where guys get their careers ended in a blink and formerly good players aren't good in a new situation. There's no guarantees with anything.

I mean, I get it with the Caleb stuff. But this is quite literally going to be a top 5 QB season in Chicago Bears history. I know, low bar and all, but he's also had to deal with the first ever OC getting fired in-season and the first ever OC getting fired in-season. Maybe part of that is on him, but there's nothing statistically to suggest that those are his doing. If you're disappointed on a "relative basis", I have no idea what relation you are making. He's had a better rookie season than former #1 picks: Jared Goff, Bryce Young, Matthew Stafford, David Carr, Jameis Winston, and basically the same statistical rookie seasons as Kyler Murray and Joe Burrow. If it's relative to other rookies, he's having the same statistical season as Bo Nix who broadcasters rave about when I watch the Broncos. If it's relative to more experienced QBs, that's more of a you problem for having too high expectations than a Caleb problem.

So just like Detroit before Ben Johnson got there? Like I said, what's the alternative? There's 32 of these jobs. The teams that aren't poop emojis don't get rid of their coaches unless it's a rare situation (see Eagles- Reid).

Yeah, I put Edwards the sentence before. 2nd was the typo

Why? If it's because of history or some kind of curse horsefeathers, that's dumb. He's not going to get a better job than this. There isn't this magical, winning and super efficiently functional franchise just waiting to hire a coach. Those teams are good, and good teams don't fire their coaches. Johnson's choices will come down to: Top 10 pick, franchise QB in Year 2 of rookie deal, 68Mil in cap space Top 10-15 pick, no QB, not picking high enough to take one of the top QBs in a bad QB draft, 60M+ over the cap Top 10 pick, 40 year old QB and his 35 year old WR1 buddy Top 3 pick, QB already paid and coming off injury and ineffectiveness for a franchise that's been more inept than maybe any. But they got money! Maybes: Work for Jerry Jones Top 3 pick, can take a QB but again, bad QB draft. Little other talent on the offensive side. Top 3 pick, can take a QB, but again, bad QB draft. Brock Bowers and Maxx Crosby Patriots are probably a decent job too, if that opens. But I expect that to be Vrabel if so

So, I do think coaching is a huge part of it. I mean, just look at the defense with and without Eberflus calling the plays, even back to Alan Williams. It's been a difference of over 9 points per game with and without Flus calling the plays. I also don't think the roster needs to turn over quite yet. All the normal defensive starters are under contract. While this may be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it, you do have some building blocks on that side. Jaylon, Kyler, Dexter, and Sweat (for better or worse) are going to be around. Billings, Byard and Edwards are serviceable. Can't count on Brisker, Stevenson or Edwards to be good really, but those guys have been a lot better as recently as last year/early this year. Offense, it's all about Caleb. If Caleb is the guy, and all indications in a season where everything has been worse case scenario is that he is, then everything else offensively will fall in place if you get the coaching right. Got DJ, Rome, Kmet, and Wright for sure on offense. Braxton isn't terrible. It's not going to be an easy fix by any means, but there are a solid 8-9 pieces in place that you can see starting on a contending team. That being said, my strategy would be to go into this process with Poles and Warren leading the show. If a guy like Ben Johnson wants his GM to line up with him contract-wise, you can always fire Poles at that point, assuming Johnson has a guy in mind as his GM (Ray Agnew seems like an obvious choice). Who cares about the optics after a HC was allowed to do a press conference right before being fired.

Caleb's game-by-game has gone.... Bad Bad Not great, but 363 passing yards and 2 great 4th quarter drives Good Great Great Bad, with should be GW TD drive Bad Bad Good, with should be GW FG drive Good, with game tying TD drive Amazing 2nd half, with should be game tying FG drive, at least Bad, but with 116.7 QB rating Bad I honestly think he can end the season on a positive note. Lions injured defense. Seattle is solid defensively, but traveling 2 time zones on a short week should make for a vulnerable defense. Packers, nothing to play for Week 18 could all be decent games. I don't expect the London game to come back around in any of these last 3, but if he can focus on just getting rid of the ball and self preservation, he could make things feel a lot better than they currently are even with an 11 game losing streak (should be noted, I am not worried about Caleb either way).

Lucky for them, the Bears will do that for them

This game is actually winnable. The Lions have played 3 games outside this year. 1 in Arizona. 1 in Houston. 1 in Green Bay in early November in 50 degree weather. But the Bears won't win. They'll lose miserably.