BearFan PHX

good point.

true. and i will even concede that Ive seen him make more throws from the pocket, closer to on time the past few weeks than id ever seen from him before. But i dont think it's enough. JF may well eventually turn into a superstar somewhere else. As long as we get our QB and are able to become the winner we are set up to be, and contend with them, it doesnt matter what JF becomes - because we dont know it now, and we cant go all in on him now. That's just NFL reality.

or maybe it was the wake up call we needed not to get stuck in the trap of drinking our own kool aid? Im of the belief that until we have a contender, I dont want any lucky breaks. I want to earn our victories. That way market or evolutionary forces shape us until we are good. I dont want to win because a double doink went the right way - I want to win because we are up 17 and something like that doesnt determine the outcome. I keep retelling a joke in here, it goes like this: When Justin Fields was a little boy, he dreamed of heroically evading the pass rush and throwing a last minute 70 yard touchdown pass to win the Super Bowl as time expires. When Tom Brady was a little boy, he dreamed of being up 35 points in the 3rd quarter.

exactly - and he actually has sped up his reads - even in this game he did better at that than he had before a couple weeks ago. And even still your point is true. Patting the ball, waiting. And against the good defenses, youre not gonna be able to run and make miracles. Not deep in the playoffs.

amen - I think the standard answer has been that the McCaskeys dont want any big personalities as head coach after Ditka. Of course the best coaches often have big personalities. I think this, maybe more than anywhere else, is where Kevin Warren may change the Halas Hall curse. *IF* he can be a buffer and tell ownership to stay out of it, and hire the best, regardless of temperament and corporate ass kissing, regardless of HR suitability, then we may be able to have a better chance of getting the right guy in here. Now I don't really know Warren, so i dunno if this is how he is or if he will value the same good boy coaches that the McCaskeys have? Lovie was probably the closest thing we've had to an alpha coach since Ditka. But he was almost Belichick style mute at press conferences, and so he didnt make a lot of waves either. I dont recall him calling out the team in press conferences either. And Im not saying that a good coach has to be a jerk either. Im just saying when you limit the pool for some (any) reason, you get fewer good choices as a result. I want a tough SOB tho. I admit it. The defense and OL are ready for it.

can you imagine any OC, even just a decent one, wanting to come here on the last year of Eberflus' contract? And are we really going to draft a rookie QB and then align his first year of NFL learning with the last year of the coaching staff's contract? You pretty much have to reset them all together or it's the same old Bears schedule over and over again with overlapping windows that never work out. We need to stop trying to salvage something from the fire, and just start over with everything new together.

I thought we were done mathematically if we lost today, but I havent really followed it that closely. Thats a very sad fact indeed. NFL is built on hopium. Bears need a solid dose of reality to wake up and take the opportunity before them! If we get new coaches and draft a rookie QB in the first round, I remain very optimistic about our future as early as next year. There is a lot to complain about here, but there is a lot to build on too - Poles has been a total bright spot.

this also sounds like good coaching!

I like it.

Hero ball might beat the lesser teams, but when you face a top defensive line, the running doesn't work. Fields' style of football can never win through the playoffs. If he developed a west coast pocket style ability on top of the running, he could be unstoppable. But he hasnt. ANd he had his chances to show it.

amen.

exactly!!

just like Velus earlier in the year.

exactly. we have the heroics, but we dont have the simple mechanisms of regular football.

Well it was the moment that hope turned into dust. I think the answer has really been defined already weeks ago, but it wasnt mathematically over yet. This ended it for sure. So from that point of view this was it, but i think from a dispassionate non-fan point of view, any GM should have already known this? Either way, after this youre right, we are clearly over that threshold now.

yeah, I think the dominoes are starting fall and what Ive been talking about this whole time is starting to get clearer. I think I got a bunch of flak for being early on the curve, but youre right about this. And to be fair, I have seen you with me on this Adam all season long too. Youve politely held the door open for miracles, which is optimistic, fan-ly and considerate of you, but it's not like i have been the only one saying it. Chile too. And a couple of others. I've just been the only one beating the drum about it - and I get that it has been annoying. But give it a couple months and I think more will come around to this. It kinda had to be.

I saw em. they are insane! You end up with like half the 2024 first rounders hahahaha If that happened, they would talk about it every draft day for the next 100 years! I dont think it's possible in reality, but Ive never seen drafts like that in any year of simulations. They are outrageous! But they are fun as hell. Do you have "no JF" versions?

Mooney is better than a lot of 2nd string WRs in the league. Youre right hes lost a step too. Im just saying, there are some players who are winners. it transcends their physical abilities. For example, Michael Jordan was a great basketball player. We have stats on him as a shooter etc over his career. We know exactly how good he was. That's his baseline. But when it was a final shot to win the game, his numbers go UP. he is better than himself when it matters. That's a winner. They find crazy ways if necessary when it matters most. I promise you Chris Carter would have caught that. Deion Sanders would have caught it. DJ Moore would have caught it. Velus Jones didnt catch it earlier this year. Mooney is just a regular player.

youre right. its not easy. its not what you train for or draw up in practice. its totally random and chaotic. but it is part of that invisible thing about being a winner. the great ones all find a way to snag that ball 10/10 times.

I like your list a lot. I dont think MHJr is gonna make it past Arizona though. I dont think Penix is gonna make it to the 2nd round either. But if you find a way to take Daniels or Penix, you can keep fooling around with Fields next year. I still think he's not gonna be our starter in 2026 or win a Super Bowl before that, but if we get one of those Qbs, I wont complain about it. I also think with the #1 pick the options are to take MHJr outright, or trade out of it. If you trade out, you can get some combination of a current player in trade, future #1 picks, and one of the other high ranked rookie WRs, OTs or Edge. We also need OC and FS, whether later than round 1 in the draft, or in free agency. And I hate to say it, but we might need to look for an OG too. Jenkins is possibly hurt again, and Davis has been inconsistent. Sometimes great, sometimes not. So we need: QB, WR2, OC/FS, FS/OC, EDGE2, TE2, OG2 That's not an unreasonable list for a team in our draft and salary cap position. I think we will be stocked and dangerous next year, and only QB development (no matter who it is) sets a ceiling on us.

Exactly. Poles has already replaced him this past draft! He saw all of this before. Remember when people were saying Mooney would be Fields' #1? Sheesh.

now that the playoff window is mathematically closed, I hope people can see the truth of this. We are so used to terrible here in Chicago that just OK looks too good to us. I want great and dominant. You know who's killing it? Poles. Poles is stacking this roster. Poles is the reason the defense looks so good, not Eberflus. And you dont sacrifice having a HC just so that you can keep your DC as HC when hes not even innovating anyway. These defenses arent tricky, the players are just executing. And boy are they looking good.

after all the physical measurements etc, there are some players who are just winners. If it takes catching the ball on the top of your helmet in the Super Bowl to win, you find a way. The BEars have been beaten by GB QB last minute winner plays so many times - we know what it looks like. Mooney is not a winner.

yes, the writing has been on the wall for a while.

Mooney is not a hero. He had that in his hands. Mooney and Velus Jones need to open a Dry Cleaners.