BearFan PHX

that makes money sense, but it also gives some false sense of security that weve filled a hole? If you want him as a backup, thats cool, but if youre kind of penciling him in as a half starter, witht he idea that it wont cost us if hes injured again, then i wonder if you havent failed to bring someone in as a starter in his place?

on paper I agree. I hope it is so in reality.

we agree on this, and this is why i think Xs and Os are only a part of it, and why I like Vrabel. IF we get Johnson, I sure hope he is up to this part of it. Maybe he is. I cant say he isnt, but its a gamble, just as Vrabel finding an OC who can develop Caleb is a gamble too. Either way we gotta cross our fingers a bit.

I totally see it the same way, Grizz. I worry Poles isnt the brains, but Cunningham is? But when adam said he gets "smartest guy int he room" vibes he didnt mean that Poles IS the smartest guy, but that he acts like he is, so that he doesnt have to follow the conventional wisdom that Jason so aptly just described, and thinks he can out-think everyone with moves that are too cute. I think we are all agreeing

of course I hope youre right

Happy New Year to all I hope 2025 is great for all of us. My daughter is getting married on the 4th, so 2025 will start out great for me! Hope you and your families have a great year too. And the Bears too!

and he definitely understands how important a good OL is. His whole offense is based off their running game. They do amazing things in the passing game, but it's because the defense has to respect the run, and that is because their OL is dominant.

I have been pleased to see some of that fire on the sidelines too. If we grab him, his upside is obvious, I just truly hope he can unite the team and instill desire.

that's gonna be amazing. Looking forward to what you find. Maybe count the number of times they are and arent? Also keep in mind progressions, and open throwing lanes. I suspect you'll find a decent number of plays where Caleb had options, and a bunch more where he didnt. But what a great project.

Here's an article by Erik Lambert. Unless we think he is completely lying (as some do) he quotes Ernest Jones IV directly. He played LB against Caleb in the opening game, and again after he was traded to Seattle. He says (unless Lambert is totally lying) "he is going to be special" and "From the first game until now he's way better. Way better." and he also said "Decision making... he's starting to get more comfortable. There's a lot going on right now down low with his O-Line. He's making a lot of plays with his feet. Once they are able to get him protected, man, he can make all the throws. when he gets out of the pocket, he's dangerous" Everyone has an opinion of course. And some of them are wrong I'll go with the professional that has to play against him, and scout his film. Especially when it confirms what I see with my own eyes. Caleb surely has growing to do, but he is going to be special. I just hope we can put a team around him, and a staff that knows what they are doing, in terms of building a culture and schemes both. https://www.sportsmockery.com/chicago-bears/nfl-defender-cant-believe-how-much-caleb-williams-improved/

It's hard to separate bad coaching from bad OL play - they are so interwoven. Like Mongo says for example, if you give the right help, chips etc, then the player isnt on an island, and of course we have seen very poor play by the players, but at the same time players that were terrible on the OL for us have gone on to play well for other teams. The great thing about football is it is such a team sport. Every player and coach affects every other. One thing is clear - our team and culture are in ruins. We need someone to come in here and reform our team, before we even look at Xs and Os, and when we do come to scheme, we need to use players to help eachother so we can be successful as a team. I think you can lay 20% of this on Caleb, but the other 80% is shared by the rest of the players and coaches alike.

and theyre likely to keep him. the McCaskeys are still finding ways to destroy their grandfathers excellent dream.

I'll take it. That's fair. You can even give him 20%, he certainly needs to continue to grow and develop. Hopefully the next coach can do that for him.

you did, and it's logical. No head coach will come here knowing the GM could be fired and the next one may have a different vision. Then again, some head coaching candidates may wish to bring their own guy in, or suggest him? I suppose that's the fire him scenario, but it might not happen until after the coach is chosen. But one way or another, once we have our head coach, there must be a GM whose contract aligns or exceeds that of the new head coach for sure. Anything else would be... Bearish. Ugh. No decent head coaching candidate would put up with that.

Hard to know if those sacks show that Caleb is a super stud doing all that with no protection, or a result of his holding the ball too long. Just like it's hard to know if all those passing yards are Williams making something out of nothing, or working against big zones because we are down multiple scores early in the game. By my eye, he's a winner and will develop into a true stud for us. That's my bet.

Ian Rappaport reports that Mike Vrabel's contract as consultant to the browns has ended, so he is free to speak to any NFL team without running afoul of tampering rules. We should at least talk to him!

LOL Im not smarter than anyone else - I posted a link to a rumor and said I found it interesting. Youre the one who had to crap all over it, meanwhile youre constantly telling us "the Bears will ______" or "the Bears wont _______" and most of what you say turns out to be wrong a few weeks later - your track record is absolute crap LOL Youre a very silly person.

I think you're totally right. He cant communicate directly with the Bears for sure. But he has apparently made generalized statements about what he needs in a team, and that apparently includes being in sync with the GM's contract. So the Bears would have to fire or extend Poles to land Johnson to fulfill that consideration. And that makes sense in general anyway. Here's Albert Breer repeating what Johnson said, which is where this all comes from I think? If this helps? https://www.bleachernation.com/bears/2024/12/06/ben-johnson-bears-message/

OMG. Im going to have to explain this to you like 10 times before you understand again. Instead ill just try this once more. "my understanding" means based on something SOMEONE ELSE told him. "my opinion" means one's own opinion. As I said very clearly above: "Also the way you parse "my understanding" to mean "my opinion" is dumb. What he is saying is that he heard this, and that is his understanding of WHAT HE HEARD. Maybe he heard misinformation, maybe rumor - I'm certainly not claiming it was more than that. But it 100% doesn't mean his opinion. At the very least it means someone elses opinion that he respects. Given that he hs a lot more connection to Halas Hall than either you or I do, it's at least a rumor." You are entitled to your opinoin, I am entitled to mine. But you routinely say "the Bears won't do _______" and you don't know, so I dont feel I have to be so careful about how I discuss things either. Every time you do that, i dont jump in and say "you dont know that" I could,m but I dont. So maybe you could extend the same courtesy. But your first jab was that Lambert isn't to be trusted. But see, that was a really dumb thing to say because Lambert simply pasted ZImmerman's tweet. So surely in this case Lambert is 100% right that Zimmerman said that. And ZImmerman in turn was passing along what he'd heard as well. So yes rumor. Like I said. A rumor I found interesting. So save your sarcasm and condescension please. I thought the rumor was interesting. I still do. I dont know why you're like this, but I refuse to go back down the road we were in last offseason just because you cant act nicely. i won't go there this time. You do you.

yeah, and i thought it was interesting. I think that's OK. Also, you went after Lambert, which made no sense. He was just reporting what Zimmerman said. It's like the clickbait thing a week or two ago. You're not great at critical thinking, so maybe just stop trashing my links Also the way you parse "my understanding" to mean "my opinion" is dumb. What he is saying is that he heard this, and that is his understanding of WHAT HE HEARD. Maybe he heard misinformation, maybe rumor - I'm certainly not claiming it was more than that. But it 100% doesn't mean his opinion. At the very least it means someone elses opinion that he respects. Given that he hs a lot more connection to Halas Hall than either you or I do, it's at least a rumor. If you have alternate evidence I am ALL ears - for real. But if you're just gonna trash the guy that wrote the article, then i would offer to you, in symmetry of what you just said - why should I listen to your opinion either? I don't claim to be a Bears reporter with any inside info. You're surely not one either. I just thought that tidbit was interesting. I still think it is. And I think that's OK.

I think Poles was sound strategically, and his downfall was player evaluation. Here he had Ryan Bates, a player he'd long had his eye on, coming to start at center, Nate Davis, a player with excellent film at RG, a first round draft pick coming into his second year at RT, a talented player in Jenkins at LG, and another season out of Braxton Jones while Amagadje, a 3rd round pick works to take his spot. On paper, if all these players were what he thought they were, we were sound on the OL. The problem was that Bates never got healthy, Davis' attitude remained what it was said he was, Jenkins never got over the injury bug, Wright regressed with Morgan coaching him, Braxton cant handle a bull rush, and Amagadje was always hurt. Poles and his staff failed at player evaluation in each case, and now we have very little to build on on the OL. Even depth pieces like Pryor, Shelton and Curhan have been awful. When you look back at Claypool, Velus Jones, Pickens, and others, the pattern emerges: we are not good at player evaluation. Anyone would have known to pick Caleb - that was hardly a test of Poles. I'd like to fire Poles and bring in a good GM.

Youre saying Zimmerman's tweet didnt happen? The whole story is sourced, so your complaint about Lambert makes zero sense.

This is interesting. https://www.sportsmockery.com/chicago-bears/new-info-reveals-ryan-poles-2024-draft-was-so-close-to-being-different/

There are a thousand little things like this that make the difference between winning and losing. Being a head football coach is about a lot more than Xs and Os.

Chris Morgan absolutely sucks.