BearFan PHX

yup, and we knew this LAST YEAR too which is why its hard to trust Poles to pick his replacement.

I havent looked at any actual data, but in general, finding good young free agent OL is very rare. Teams hang on to them, for the obvious reason - and thats why we need them too, because we havent been building through the draft long enough yet.

i totally agree. Im just saying, in general, if you have the #3 pick and theres a stud pass rusher there, it'd be hard to ignore, and that would be a problem because we need OL help. If the OL talent isnt top 5, and you can trade back then great do it - we agree. But Im saying if we have pick #6, it's easy to take OL whereas if we have pick #3 there will be some voices in the room about edge rusher.

If you put your thumb over Eberflus' fake hipster haircut, you can see he is Nagy in disguise.

So maybe it gets clearer now. Do we want to let Poles, the guy who kept Eberflus this past offseason, to be the guy that picks the next head coach? I assume we all understand how that single decision is going to shape the next 10 years of this franchise, and Caleb's career in Chicago. To me that one narrow question is the whole thing. If you only look at that small corner of this, you have to be able to say YES to keep Poles despite any other mitigating or positive factors. And I dont see how anyone can. It's not like we didn't know who Flus was last year. The first year, fine, it was a teardown. But last year we KNEW. We saw this same stuff over and over. We could have had Harbaugh, or if we hire Johnson, Kingsbury, Belichick or whoever anyone likes, we could have had them this year already. Poles signed off on Waldron. And Getsy. And HE is the guy responsible for making Waldron keep Morgan as OL coach and run game coordinator. Maybe he's good at some things and bad at others. Fine. He is terrible at picking coaches. Picking our next coach is the most crucial decision the franchise has had in 30+ years. How can he be the guy? Maybe Warren and McCaskey will hold his hand. Maybe theyll bring in Accorsi or Polian to help. Does that sound familiar? Maybe with help they can collectively get the coach decision right. But do we want to have to hold Pole's hand? If you cant trust your guy to get it right, you gotta replace him, dont you?

If they fire Flus this week, then great, if they dont i really dont care. He needs to be gone for next year, but i dont need some revenge or punishment. The big question is who should be our next HC for next year, and the obvious 1b question is who should make that choice?

boy are you off base. If youre the head coach and you see it taking too long, you can call that timeout and stop the clock. It's all narrative from you. Yuck.

so maybe if we had someone in a sort of head coaching position, they could have called timeout to try the tying field goal. We should get one of those.

Win or lose this one, Caleb is a gamer!

Thanks 50 Best to you too

it pissed me off too. I thought we were gonna see Bagent. This offense has made really good halftime adjustments.

Wow. Caleb gets totally kneecapped and comes back with that TD throw. Ii agree, we need 3 or 4 new players on the OL. And yes, everyone is demoralized. Id love to see players believing more, but it is hard to when you KNOW the ship is sinking? I also agree with you about Montgomery. I have always loved him. I think we need to get Roschon Johnson more involved too. I do love power backs.

I feel the same way. The roster is pretty good. We do need a little more. OL, a pass rusher etc - we all know. But it can be found in a single offseason. I also dont need a yeller per se, but it has to be someone who brings real accountability. You see how Dan Campbell is. He doesnt seem like a genius. He has amazing coordinators. But the one thing he excels at is just personal energy. He is the Daddy of that team, and that's what you need. Belichick did it quietly, Harbaugh yells. Either way getting the team motivated and disciplined is the name of the game. I love Ben Johnson's Xs and Os, but i wonder if he has that thing we are talking about.

For sure, a great OL makes everything else look so much better.

Definitely getting our asses kicked in every way. Rather than harping on the Bears, it seems to me like Detroit is really really good. They are what we should want to look like. Ben Johnson very impressive as OC. He'd insist on an actual OL. Dunno if he is the alpha Dan Campbell energy too though. He still might be the best option for us. But wow, it's nice to see such good football, even if it is our ass getting kicked.

me too! I wanna see Caleb continue making obvious strides against good defenses!

I suspect that if this is the muppet show, I may be one of the old men up the box seats heckling LOL

Poles was part of Getsy, Waldron, a fired DC, and Eberflus - twice. And of the entire universe, this is who you think is best to choose the next head coach? There is no one else available to us who is better? Poles shouldnt get so much credit for Caleb. He couldnt know that Carolina would get the first pick the next year. The trade he made was good, but it wasnt creative or out of the blue. Any competent lawyer could have made that trade. The question is: who is our next head coach. EVERYTHING depends on it. Get it wrong, and you waste all of this, the trade, Caleb, everything. Youre back to square one. It's a 20 year death sentence. But get it right, and we are finally a contender. Caleb becomes a star and we win superbowls. If Poles picks the right guy then great. But is he our BEST option for making that pick. Out of everyone? I dont care about giving a guy all the time he was promised. This isnt the Chicago befairtopoles - its the Chicago Bears. And if you need to be right for anyone, you need to be right for Caleb!

you cant just take any group of people and give them 3 or 4 or 5 years and expect the result to be a championship. Winners are rare. Every year 31 teams do not win the superbowl and only 1 does. When your group is showing that they are not great, you move on from them. I do not understand this "give em another chance" crap. I want to win, not be nice to the people who have failed to win.

ahahahahaha it needs a hipster haircut

Yeah man, I'm totally with you on Caleb. He is probably already the best Bears QB of the modern era. And it is the hardest thing to get right. Finding coaches is much easier. I dont give Poles as much credit. The deal with Carolina was incredible for sure, but that was mostly a function of being the worst team in the NFL two years ago, and not being ready to get rid of Justin Fields. Neither of those things is about Poles' brilliance. It's mosre about him holding on to Justin, and us sucking during the teardown year. I truly believe any lawyer could get the same deal from Carolina, if he was instructed to trade out. Was keeping Justin over CJ Stroud the right move there? Probably not. It only looks great because everything went right and we got Caleb. In many outcomes, we would have Maye or Daniels or something this year instead, if we hadnt gotten the first pick, and there is no way youd know youd have that the year before. So would you rather have Maye, Daniels or Stroud? Poles hasnt been terrible, maybe he doesnt particularly deserve to get fired, if you judge him in fairness. But I am more worried about Caleb's development than being fair to Poles, and he made the decision to hold on to Eberflus this year. He also signed off on Getsy and approved Waldron over better more proven options. Like he's good at picking DBs, but not as good picking OL. So he's not so great at picking coaches, and this upcoming coaching decision is going to make or break our franchise for a decade. I like our scouting department. I want someone other than Poles picking the next HC. I HATE that we are now counting on Kevin Warren to do this when he isnt qualified and it's not in his job description. What IS in Warren's job description is firing the GM and making the choice of his replacement. It may not be fair, or warranted, but the decision ahead is so important to get right, and he is not who we should have making it. That's why Id fire him.

he really is a muppet. I dont particularly want him fired mid season. I mean I'd love to on some emotional level, but it doesnt accomplish anything. If I were GM os the Bears starting today, I'd be looking forward to the offseason and a new coach, and not necessarily fire Flus right now. I also don't want to get over my skis about Thomas Brown. He may well turn out to be an excellent head coach someday, but for me he'd just be another candidate out there, and I wouldnt give him any extra credit points for currently being on the team, or for whatever he manages to get out of Caleb. We have to chase greatness with all options on the table, and not fall in love with our own guys.

I totally agree. In fact, the reason they've looked so good is due to the talent of the players. Like Caleb, they have done good things in spite of the coaching.

changing things when they are not good enough until they are is what it's all about. Keeping continuity with failure is a bad idea. Plus you dont lose the roster when you change GMs? It's not a start over, it's just a new and hopefully better captain.

keeping Eberflus in this past offseason was such a bad decision, and it's impacting everything else now and the timeline going forward. And if we whiff on the next coaching hire, Caleb's career, or at least his career in Chicago, is destroyed and none of this will have meant anything. It was such a colossal mistake. If we limp along with loyalty to Poles etc, then we get what we deserve - even if we fire Poles in 2 years it'll be another 20 years of futility before we could get another real QB and try to put a team around him. If you're not furious at Poles now, you havent thought through the implications of all of this.