Hairyducked Idiot

I don't hate a lot of decisions on paper, but their job is to get the players on board with those decisions and they failed

It's all coming out now Bears offensive players apparently never liked Waldron going back to the summer, when they thought that he was negating work they had done in previous years by installing a new running scheme and that he was installing a passing offense too complicated for a rookie QB. Meanwhile Eberflus had a full five year guaranteed deal so we will be paying him through 2026

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5957910/2024/11/30/matt-eberflus-fired-bears-players-locker-room/ This is paywalled but a really good in-depth look at what we basically already knew: we've had a full-on player mutiny going all season. The offensive players hated Waldron and felt like he was screwing up Williams' development. The defensive players felt like Eberflus screwed up by allowing a free completion on the Washington hail Mary drive, and not calling a timeout before the hail Mary. (Personally I think they're wrong, but it doesn't matter, if you don't have the players' respect enough for them to trust you on calls like this, then you can't be a head coach). Things really boiled over after the end of this game. Eberflus tried to give his speech about perseverance or whatever, but Jaylon Johnson and then other players were yelling at him for not calling a timeout after Williams was sacked. Eberflus finished his speech and left the room. My thing has always been people get too worked up over tiny differences in in-game strategy, but the one thing you cannot do as a head coach is lose the locker room. Whether the calls were right or wrong is irrelevant, the fact that he didn't have the players' trust is disqualifying. The issue going forward is that we need to get control of things. I do not want the inmates running the asylum in the locker room long-term. I know this is where rooting for draft position makes sense, but I would like to see them win some games down the stretch to help return things to normalcy

So now that that's done we can talk about the long term vision for the Bears, which I think is interesting. The immediate needs for next off-season are safety, edge and iOL, and I would strongly prefer to fill those in free agency and let our draft picks take a longer-term outlook. What long-term vision do I want? To give Caleb Williams every single tool he could possibly need to be the most productive offensive player in the league. My dream scenario would be that we stumble to a top-10 pick and there's a franchise LT sitting there, although I don't think this draft is well regarded at tackle. You can move Jones to guard, keep him as a swing tackle, or just wish him well. If that doesn't happen, there's a chance we are picking in that sweet spot to take the best iOL in the draft. I would also be fine taking other parts on offense, probably in the second round but maybe even with a mid first. Wr? Why not, Keenan Allen is decrepit and Moore is not far behind. TE? I would love a strong blocking technique TE to pair with Kmet, who is a great receiving TE but a consistent liability in blocking. God help me, I wouldn't even hate a RB. Swift is a nice long down back and big play merchant, but it would be really nice to get Williams to 2nd and 5 instead of 2nd and 12 more often, and Roschon Johnson is not the answer.

I'm not wildly opposed to Brown as the head coach. He's not a completely unqualified candidate, but the idea definitely makes me nervous.

For the love of God don't stick your new head coach with a legacy coordinator

I'm worried that the players are now in charge and they will want Thomas brown

If he was going for the tie, he would have kneeled it out when they got to the 25.

There. Now everyone can focus on Caleb Williams

He's lost the locker room harder than trestman did, and trestman's locker room was doomed from the start.

Allegedly no decision has been made and won't be for at least a couple days. Which, on theme with the season, is the worst possible way of handling it

OldKyle>NotKyle We have not had repeated sniper attacks in recent weeks. We have had repeated operational problems with the field goal unit in recent weeks. No one has actually stepped up to say "yes, we would have said it was the right call even if it had failed" because you know I'm right, which doesn't matter to most people but it does matter to me so you'll just have to live with a few more posts about it. The only one I actually trust on this stuff is UmFan, who consistently makes calls in advance and sticks with them. The fact that the offense can't get a play called and set in less than 26 seconds in that scenario is a massive indictment on the coaching staff. As is the fact that Kmet felt comfortable committing the exact same penalty as he has been called for earlier. And Borom not knowing the snap count. And it doesn't even matter that it was right, because the players very clearly don't have enough faith in him to trust him, and aren't being shy about it in the media, which is an infinitely bigger problem and is immediately firable.

Ok, he calls the timeout immediately with 31 seconds left after the sack They set up a play call they like and get the kick unit ready for a scramble drill kick The play takes 3-5 seconds and the offense rushes off the field, the place kicking team rushes out, but something goes wrong as they try to get set. A procedure penalty causes a runoff to end, the blocking scheme gets screwed up and yet another kick gets blocked, or maybe Santos just misses it. Would people *really* be saying Eberflus made the right call by calling the timeout earlier and putting all the pressure on the place kicking unit?

None of this becomes a problem if Cole Kmet doesn't run the exact same pick he got called on earlier in the game, or if our veteran swing tackle knew the snap count. Those kinds of things point to a deeper culture problem that speaks more poorly of the coaches than late game strategy, imo

It would be nice if two offensive linemen didn't get hurt every time we got any offensive momentum, but Williams *does* need to take fewer sacks. He's still learning the limits of what he can and can't get away with. There's still tons of flaws in his game to iron out. The sacks. The overly cautious ball placement. The miscommunications with receivers. And despite all those flaws, and the O-line injuries that have forced us to go deeper than Matt Pryor's backup on the O-line at times, and despite an offensive operation so dysfunctional it caused a player revolt to get the oc fired, he's *still*: Set the rookie record for attempts without an int Smashed every Bears rookie passing record Has a plausible shot at the overall franchise passing yards record Is currently 13th in the league in passing yards and TDs That's how good he is, and he's still got a lot of room beneath his ceiling to improve

I honestly don't care anymore and just wanna talk about Caleb Williams

If you have to have a meeting about whether to fire your coach because you're worried about the locker room, you already have your answer on what you should do.

He called one earlier in the drive

The players are coming as close to asking for him to be fired through the media as they can get without outright saying it. You have to pull the trigger.

So from the press conferences, it was indeed a designed QB run on the second to last play (I hate that call) and Borom didn't hear the snap count and thus didn't slow down his man at all. The offensive players all assumed a timeout was coming, hence not hustling to the line at fi st Then the coaching staff wanted to re run the same play, Williams overruled it and tried to audible, which is why there was confusion at the line

Williams' current 3700 yard pace would put him at 11th all time for NFL rookies. The line for top 10 is 3733, give or take what the other rookies do.

My question on Poles is how much credit you give him for the Panthers' pick turning into no. 1 overall.

The one in ot? It looks like a standard 2-deep zone and he found the hole in the zone. The biggest issue there is getting no pressure with four

Williams is the first QB to throw for multiple TDs against the Lions this season

The commanders haven't had their bye week yet so this is through 12 games for both; Williams 2612 yards, 14 TDs, 5 ints Daniels 2613 yards, 12 TDs, 5 ints I'm sure people have learned their lesson about freaking out less than halfway through a rookie season tho...