BearFan PHX

yes his regular accuracy I think in watching film has been about trying to throw around guys pressuring him. Hes usually pretty accurate, so i think that will clean up if he gets more protection. But long ball was questionable in college too. Lots of misses on film. And Im ok if he doesnt have that deep deep threat, as long as he operates everything else efficiently Ill take it. Justin for example, had a GREAT long ball. It was one of the things he did best. Hopefully Caleb can fix that, but I agree with you, the shorter accuracy has to get better, and personally i think it will if he has protection.

it would be crazy to already know youre keeping him I agree. One thing we disagree about is you (with respect!) seem to always think the next few games will make the decision, that its always waiting until the end, and I think sometimes you get to a decision point sooner even if you have to let the season play out. Of course I dont KNOW anything, but I think if an executive cant decide until the very end, they dont have much vision? I cant see how Poles could already be 100% all in on keeping Flus, and if he is, Id fire him just for that, and promote Ian Cunningham.

I think the answer is already known. Whether they will pay 2 more years on his deal, and his staff (could be like 20 million total) I dunno. If Flus is still here next year, we are in big big trouble.

*IF* Eberflus is signed through 2026, then it is *POSSIBLE* that Bears ownership wont let him fire Flus with 2 years left on his deal. That would really be awful if it happened. Not predicting anything, just reacting to Briggs' news that the deal might be a 5 year deal. Maybe thats part of why they wouldnt fire him after last year? All speculation of course.

This is the key, and has been for weeks!

thats totally legit too of course. and whatever he wants he should get and not have to ask for in the press! Im just saying I also see him missing on long balls a lot, and he could stay after practice and get some of those in too. So while I totally have no problem criticising Eberflus for all sorts of things, some of the deep ball accuracy problem is just on Caleb, or Caleb and the WRs just getting in reps. If Caleb is nailing most long ball throws in practice without a defense, then I am willing to say I've misunderstood of course. But I have a feeling that isnt the case, but I couldnt possibly know. I just think some of it is that Caleb isnt that accurate on the long ball the way Justin and Daniels are. And I'm ok with that if he gets everything else working on a high level. But if he can improve it, he should.

its definitely a jab at coaching, and some kind of admission that the long ball is an issue for sure too. Not sure what it means tho. Stay after and throw a bunch of long balls with some receivers.

I dunno about midseason firing, so Ill leave that alone. But if they come back with Flus again next year, it will be the worst move in the history of football. And I SO want to find my posts from January where I said everything that's coming true now. I even said Poles would be in some trouble. Grrr.

So Brad Biggs is reporting that Eberflus may have signed a FIVE year deal, thru the 2026 season. That would mean that the Bears would have to pay him TWO years of salary to get rid of him. Please say it aint so. If they keep him after this year, and waste another year of Caleb's window, we ought to all get torches and burn Halas Hall to the ground. For those without a sense of the dramatic, of course Im speaking figuratively. https://www.sportsmockery.com/chicago-bears/bombshell-matt-eberflus-report-may-stop-bears-from-firing-him/

I'll also add that i am a little concerned with Calebs deep ball accuracy.

I think Caleb is doing fine. What I see is a guy doing the best he can with what he's got. In sum of course the offense has been awful, so no one deserves congratulations for that I agree. But i see him making reads, moving safeties etc. To me, the biggest problem has been getting away from the run on first down and presnap penalties - both of which put us behind the chains, and that puts caleb in 3rd and long situations where he has to make something happen. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesnt, and it looks like crisis football. But that's the situation Caleb's in. We throw too much, and we throw too much when the defense knows they dont have to play the run. That makes any QB look bad. And then there is the OL. Now, does that mean I think hes awesome and nothing is his fault? Not at all. He is still a rookie. He misses things, and overreads players who might jump a ball, and in doing so he passes by open guys. I think you can give him props for not throwing a lot of interceptions, but on the flip side, he should pull the trigger a little more. And I believe in time he will. So while theres more than enough blame to go around, I still think he is going to do special things in the league. If I could keep Caleb, or trade him straight up for Daniels right now, I would absolutely stay with Caleb. Now Waldron for Kingsbury? Thats a no brainer. Hell I'd trade Waldron for a pencil. lol

wow. that is straight up malpractice.

100% Ben Johnson might be a good choice too. I want to watch some film of his demeanor. EDIT OK so after watching film of them, I dunno about Johnson. His game planning looks amazing, but I dunno if his personality screams head coach. Kingsbury has experience as a head coach and worked with a lot of good QBs over the years - or QBs he made look good anyway, who later looked bad, so even more to his benefit. I guess I would go with Kingsbury as a HC. I might choose Johnson as an OC over him, but I'm not sure thats the question when looking at a HC. In either case, I would definitely ask Caleb what he thought about Kingsbury.

100% and giving Brown a chance right now is a great idea. This kind of contingency might even be what he was hired for. ANd also to be int he pipleine in case of Waldron success too of course - no real threat of that now.

*IF* Poles' job is on the line, I think the Bears should consider promoting Ian Cunningham.

the roster is trending up. the coaching is holding us back. with a new coaching staff and some more linemen in the trenches there is real reason for hope next year. I freakin knew it with Eberflus though. Saw all of this coming a mile away. The guy has no leadership skills you can see it in his body language.

yup - another great way to measure the way Eberflus actually hurts the team. And the currency of this one is wins, so hopefully it helps with Stingers point about wins. I went the other way, and proposed other metrics, but if we want to do it on wins, how many is Eberflus personally responsible for losing?

then the gauntlet of divisional games will clarify all of this. we will know exactly where we are. Poles BLEW this year with his decision to stay with Eberflus. I said it at the time, and a lot agreed with me. The guy is too loyal, and as a result he doesnt make the moves he should to hold the organizational weaknesses accountable. The Justin hug was an example of what I feared. Just for the record, Ive really only gone to bat against the flow early here for four things: Charles Leno sucks Justin Fields sucks Matt Eberflus sucks Poles is too loyal I know I was early, and got labelled a hater or whatever, but I think time is proving me out. I am not, for example, calling for Caleb's head, or even Moore's. I'm not even saying we should trade Stevenson. Fix the head coach and OC, get some OL in here, and let's see where we are. I still say this season has two goals: 1) Caleb learns to read NFL defenses and get used to the speed of the game. 2) The team gets punched in the mouth and realizes that they arent entitled any wins so theyre hungry. We are on schedule. Too bad we couldnt be ahead of schedule and get some playoff experience this year, but all the things that are on fire will help clarify things and set us up to be better int he future. Also, no good head coach wanted this job when Eberflus took it - to captain the teardown. We will have better suitors next year. We could have had them this year, but the Bears dont pay off coaches two years early. Dumb, but it is what it is. This year is gonna SUCK from here on out. But we still have Caleb Williams and a deep defensive roster. The future is not dead, it just doesnt have Eberflus in it, a year later than it should have is all.

YES. I saw this back in training camp. I said that Allen and Odunze were being besties with Caleb and I was worried DJ was feeling left out. DJ is always a "sit by yourself" kind of guy anyway. Hes been a talented receiver, and I have to assume that his emotions are an outward symptom of the failed culture in the lockerroom. You can suspend him or whatever, but at this point its not like you have this rock solid culture and this guy is off the reservation. I think at this point, you look at the coach, and the OC and you wonder what Moore will be like next year with a new situation. So yeah, trade Moore. Trade him to the 2025 Bears who have a different coach for a new start for him.

its more than wins. Its HOW you win. If you win 10 games, but the team won 4 more that you blew at the end with horrible calls, you shouldnt be coach. You have to look at all the decisions he's made and ask yourself if he gives you an active edge in winning. Right now, it is pretty easy to make the case that he actually costs you games and makes it harder to win. But he sure isnt adding value, so he should be gone. He should have been gone last year to be honest. And not because of his record, we all knew what the problems were that werent his fault. But for the errors HE made, unforced errors that any pee wee coach knows better than to do. That's inexcusable. pro coaches dont make those mistakes, and they sure dont make them over and over.

Yeah, if you could keep 200 players, then yeah, anyone that can play is good for depth at least. But you cant. They take up a roster slot and salary cap room. And remember, bad players have no trade value, only good ones do. When you look at the teams with good rosters, you see them trading away good sometimes great players when they know they arent going to resign them to richer deals. Sure you lose them for a season (or a half a season) but you get something for them leaving instead of nothing, and that helps replace the talent thats going, The real recipe to success in the NFL is to draft well, and trade good players you arent going to pay big before the last year of their current deal. When youre seeing good players go, thats when you know you have a good roster.

lol it'd be funnier if it wasnt so true 😢

yup, absolutelty! and when your offense isnt making first downs, you dont run enough total plays to get everyone their targets either. Thats not meant to be an excuse, because Kmet deserves his % of targets no matter how few you have to spread around, but more of an indictment about how bad this all is, and how not running enough on first down is killing EVERYTHING.

I don't see evidence of Caleb big play hunting? He's been making short and intermediate reads mostly? This is just a leftover narrative from college, but the film doesnt show it? What I see is TERRIBLE first down playcalling without enough runs, and that puts us in 2nd and 12 or 3rd and 10 too often, and thats when Caleb has to make magic happen. And he often does, but you cant make a living going downfield with consecutive magic plays on 3rd down. Its not sustainable, and inevitably we punt (or go for it when we shouldnt). But weve gotten away from the run, and we have too many presnap penalties. And all that goes to coaching. Waldron calls the offense like it's Madden - all passes, and people arent getting open, and the OL cant protect Caleb. Given what he's done in Washington, does anyone doubt a Kliff Kingsbury run offense this year would have been better for Caleb? Im not even saying thats the guy, Im just saying lesser QBs are doing more with better coaches. And we need more on the OL. More talent, and more teaching.

There is a lot of frustration on this team, but before we trade everyone away, lets see what a new coaching staff can do with them. I also felt like DJ Moore was being kind of ignored during all the offseason love for Allen and Odunze. And this after we extended him for all those years. I doubt we can even afford to trade him right now with the cap hit. I also think these guys would be OK if they werent so frustrated. Also, if you watch the whole film i linked to above, you see Caleb was doing everything he could do. Not perfectly of course, but well.