BearFan PHX

This is where I'm at too. i think either by shceme or effort, the WRs havent been open much and the OL has been a sieve. Not that there isnt blame for Caleb too - but I dont think he is the weak link, and still has a very bright future with the right coaches. yup. 100%. gotta fire the coaches and see what a guy like Kliff Kingsbury could do with Caleb. I see the one read offense he has at washington and it's doing great because the playcalling rhythm is so good. Caleb would be doing much better than even Daniels has with a guy like that I believe.

This was a team loss. Everything was terrible. Im not ready to abandon Caleb, but he is playing poorly today along with everyone else. We surely have no momentum.

Oh I totally agrtee on that play, and the sack later - it looks like hes holding it too long. The all 22 will confirm, but right now, I agree thats what it looks like. It was the "clearly the main problem" I was responding to. On that play? Likely. Overall? Way too soon in my opinion.

also, Ive been watching Bates - hes been great on every play so far

youre obviously right, we should have kept Justin like you said. I get the idea that youre the eternal optimist, and so you dont like to criticize in season, but what is this? I mean youre entitled to whatever opinion you want of course, but are you really going negative this early on our rookie QB? I totally agree he held the ball to long there by the way. I will wait for the all 22 to be sure who was or wasnt open, but I also agree it looked like Swift was available. Keep in mind that Eberflus has had 3 years, and made similar unforced erorrs over and over. Caleb is still very early. If he looks like this in year 3, I will be saying we need to move on from him. But it's early for him in ways that it isn't for Eberflus. So this isnt all negative or all positive as some kind of default - its each player or coach in proper time

we start off like this: Borom - Jenkins - Shelton - Bates - Pryor so we think Bates / Pryor is better than Pryor / Curhan Makes sense.

OK, I am really interested to see the OL, especially Bates. Bates was the first player out of the tunnel. I dunno what to read into that if anything. Davis is ruled out, so we will continue to be seeing more of the options we have. Thats good for the future whether they are good or horrible. We need to know what we have. LETS GO BEARS!

thats a good guess. other possibility is Borom - Jenkins - Bates - Pryor - Curhan or even Borom - Jenkins - Shelton - Pryor - Bates or Curhan Bates might not even start. I sure dont know. But they do have options.

yeah, why havent we been doing that from the beginning. Seems like Waldron sees Xs and Os but doesnt consider personnel. Also there are a lot of plays where WRs are in the same area. Thats either bad coaching because the play isnt sound, or its bad coaching because players dont know where to be.

I wouldnt be shocked if he waited until the end of the year, we agree. But I dont think everyone is waiting for more to know which way things are headed. I think if youre Poles youve already seen enough - but now we read that Poles is definitely keeping him next year - so i dunno. If thats true its insane. To already know youre keeping him? Yikes.

that video is wrong in my opinion. PFF stats, then hes talking about 3 second holding the ball (I timed it it was 2.6) but its a 5 step drop so of course it takes longer. And you need to see the all 22 to know if anyone was open. If you watch the film the OL has been trash a lot. I dont buy that video at all. Not sure who the guy posting it even is?

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.