BearFan PHX

I think the great teams always have a TE that really contributes to the passing game.

I dont want Flus fired now either. Do it at the end of the season. Im just saying I dont trust Poles to make the next choice. If Poles is retained, I hope Warren is a huge part of the decision. ANd having said that, I think that means you gotta fire Poles, and with Cunningham in the wings, it makes it that much easier to do. I doubt we hire another Trace Armstrong guy.

no doubt Bowers is great, and your point about them being different in style and complementary is a good one too. I just think they couldnt sink that much value into the TE position, And maybe thats a mistake, too,

Im not rooting for the Bears to lose. Now that we have Caleb, Im not in tankathon mode. What Im rooting for is for Caleb to develop, and to win as many games as possible this year. All Im saying is even if we win more games I want the coaching staff gone in the offseason, and probably Poles too. ANd that is because I am rooting for us to win as many games as possible in the future. This isnt about me being right, its about Eberflus being terrible.

Bowers is a hell of an athlete and slot receiver even as a TE. i think that because we had just spent money extending Kmet, we went with a more traditional receiver. But I would trade Kmet for Bowers straight up any day of the week for sure.

I agree with all of this, but we need a new coaching staff. Just because the O wasnt horrible doesnt mean you extend this when Kingsbury, Johnson, Kubiak or whoever is waiting in the wings. You dont just need to get better than awful - you need to chase greatness and that means upgrading people. In other words, dont compare Flus/Brown to Flus/Waldron, compare it to the Lions or the Redskins offense. Compare it to the top 5 teams in the league. Going from 29th to 15th isnt the goal. Going to #1 and bullying the f*ck out of the league is the goal. We need coaches who are winners.

Nah. Winning a game despite mistakes isnt the same as not making mistakes. Flus makes a ton of them. Winning 1 or even 5 games doesn't change the fact that he is terrible with situational football. I am learning to understand you. I see you are always loyal and always an optimist. You always root for the guys on the team to succeed. I'm rooting for the what's best for the team too. And once I see a player or a coach isn't good or has some problem I want it fixed or replaced for the good of the team, whereas you want them to win some games so we can say they are no longer broken. For example, if injury had forced Nate Davis back out on the field, and he'd had a good game that wouldnt make me think the problem was solved. Id still know we need to move on from him. If Jenkins plays the rest of the season without injury, I still cant sign him as my starter and depend on him next year. Sometimes once someone shows you who or what they are, a few contrary performances wont change the underlying truth. You say the team bought into Eberflus this week. I say they rallied because Waldron was gone and bought into each other. And it worked. The team beat the Packers. Then Flus got scared and didnt run another play to get the FG closer, the kick was necessarily low as a result of that overly cautious decision, and the Packers were able to block it because of that. So Flus lost the game that the team won. Again. He's not a plus for Poles. I said in the offseason that Flus was not the guy. It was already obvious, and not just to me of course. We saw him blow those 3 games last year with over cautious play at the end. Same with the hail mary. Same with the 50 yard TD run at the end of the half last week. Keeping Flus was a mistake, and it was easy to see that back in January. This isn't a case of 20/20 hindsight. So no, Poles doesn't avoid criticism of that insane decision. Apparently Warren was arguing with him about it. And Poles was too loyal to Flus. So now Poles' butt is on the line too. And I don't want him choosing the next head coach. Get that wrong and you lose everything. I dont want the friendliest guy in the room, or the tamest. I want someone to bring discipline and accountability to this team. You cant win without it. So I dont just want to fire Flus, I want to fire Poles too. Not that he necessarily deserves it, or was that bad, but his decision to keep Flus was a big mistake, and now you need someone to make the call on the next guy, and you cant give that to a guy who just screwed it up so monumentally. Poles bears some responsibility for Getsy and Waldron too by the way. I'd roll with a promoted Ian Cunningham, and keep the scouting staff together, and start over with the coaches. Find the right head coach, and let HIM bring in his OWN coaches.

Totally agree, but when he kept him last year, then it became his decision.

He'd better not pussy out and get another polite coach. If he does that, then Calebs entire career as a Bear is wasted. Without any knowledge of the other GM candidates out there, and not based on enough info to make a truly informed choice, my gut is to fire Poles, and promote Cunningham and keep the scouting departments the same as they are.

right. plus they knew there was a decent chance that they'd get Odunze, and so Allen would teach him route running. So it was a win under each scenario.

I think that had a couple small things changed, we would have beaten the Packers this week. I don't think we will lose the rest of our games. I think we will be underdogs in them, but I think our team is chaotic. And that's probably right given the amount of talent on the roster - and again it just points to poor coaching. We have a lot of the ingredients we would need to win these games, but the chef doesnt know the recipe. We could win more games than you expect, but it had better not be a reason to keep the staff. Grrrrr

It's a mixed bag. On one hand, a more matured QB comes in hotter, but i have heard a lot of GMs say that the common wisdom (which can be wrong of course) is that QBs develop a lot between age 20 and 25, and then their ability to continue growing slows down. They say that getting a guy at age 22 gives you 3 years to build him in the NFL, whereas a 27 year old comes in more mature, but probably doesnt grow much after his first year. Of course there are the Kurt Warners of the world to disprove that theory too. But this is one of the big supposed knocks on Nix that I heard a lot from different sources pre draft. The upside is that he's playing well already. So to your main point Grizz, I think youre right. Next years' Caleb should be better than this year's model. But also on Nix, he may be ahead of the pack right now, but he may also be closer to his ceiling too?

We just keep getting more confirmation, but this was already obvious in January. He is awful. The question at hand is not really whether Poles will fire him, but do we want Poles picking his replacement?

Caleb's time to throw today was pretty quick on a lot of his throws. Faster than anything weve really seen before. To do that in one week tells you how screwed up the gameplan was with Waldron. Matching short protections like play action with longer routes. Today looked more like football.

I agree. He has a better chance of being rookie of the year, than ending up a top 10 QB in the league. His age gives him a head start on the rookies, but it also suggests an earlier ceiling, as he may already be nearing maxxed out, having done a lot of his developing already because of his age.

I completely agree with the first half of this statement. If we develop Caleb, then this season was a success. I'm not against Brown getting a look, but he shouldnt get any extra consideration for being in house. Youd have to think he would be better than Johnson, Kingsbury, Kubiak and a few other names.

for sure. this was obvious in January.

beat us with the prevent offense today. took the playcalling out of Browns' hands and screwed it up. Again. Worst endgame manager of all time.

You can pinpoint the exact second the playcalling went from Brown to Eberflus, and that is the exact moment all momentum changed, we got scared and came up an inch short. If Caleb is your guy, then dont take the ball out of his hands at the end with overly safe prevent offense. Doenst meant he has to throw, but let the offense run.

This was a great game for us and our future. Defense played OK, except for giving up some stupid crazy big plays. Seems the Packers always do that to us. But we held the score down. Offense looked MUCH better - same plays but called in the right order. Staying ahead of the chains. Making first downs. None of these 2nd and 12 we've been living through recently. Caleb showed some good leadership out there, and once again did not throw any interceptions. There was one risky pass. Then, with a high probability of winning at the end, with the outcome of the game solely in our own control, and PRECISELY when the play calling switched from Brown to Eberflus we got scared and over cautious. We could have run another play and had a shorter kick at the end, one with a higher trajectory. Even 4 more yards from Roschon would have put that kick above the Packers' hands. This is the offensive version of the too early prevent defense. .The team won this game and then Eberflus lost it all by himself. What we learned: Flus has to has to has to be fired at the end of the season Braxton Jones cannot stop a bull rush. He cannot be our starter at LOT next year. Caleb has what it takes, and with a little more time will be fine. Waldron was really really bad. We seriously need more help on the DLine. We are still on schedule for next year. It's not fun or pretty, but the problems are in sharp focus now, and the important questions are getting answered.

since the beginning, the goals of this season have been to 1) develop Caleb thru his rookie year and into an NFL experienced QB 2) Find out where we actually are and what the weak links are to open a window to compete next year. We always knew the OL still needed work. I really hope to see Caleb progress. I want to see him put together drives. I dont care if we win, but I want to move the ball and score points. As for finding out where we are weak, and what we need for next year, Id say the results have been phenomenal. We have a very clear picture of whats working and whats broken. You cant say its a contradictory mess or a mixed bag. Its clear. And thats a good thing. Coaching, OL, DL, WR (to replace Allen for next year) We've gotten a GOOD look at a lot of our offensive linemen. We know what Davis is. We know Jenkins will keep getting hurt. It's coming into focus. We need new coaches. And who is going to pick them? Is Poles the right guy?

I dont play, and i dunno who it is, but if theyre still playing and wont pay thats really lame.

organization and culture are terrible

but is he even good at scheming a defense when we see so many last minute losses because of defensive playcalling? I mean, the defense looks good, but we arent leading the league or anything. Even at his core strength hes not better than ok, and as you say everything else is a disaster

yup - way too many unforced errors