BearFan PHX

every week is a different game plan, and you know you cant say that because team A beat team B, and team B beat team C, that means that team A would beat team C. Also, GB only scored 17 because it was enough to win. Yes our defense is good and getting better, but if GB had needed another touchdown to win the game, they would have called the plays differently too. And Lucky isnt saying the players, hes saying the play calling on defense. Even Brisker criticized it after the game. And this is the same playcaller that lost THREE games in historic ways by being too safe and too soft and blowing what should have been historically insurmountable leads. It is absolutely fair to say that Poles has built an excellent defensive roster while simultaneously criticizing Eberflus' scheme and playcalling. Those things are not mutually exclusive, and pointing to the success of one doesnt mean the other isnt substandard. I'll tell ya what we can agree on - let's not replace Eberflus with Dallas' DC

Our defense is getting good. Our offense, and specifically our QB was impotent in that game.

gap - cool way to think about it.

that does track.

YES and Brisker complained that they had the DBs playing too soft (too safe!) no matter what the coverage was. Its a joke.

yeah because they have coaches that call plays well. Eberflus gets into his too safe zone and lost three games that were historic losses given how likely we were to win them going into the last minutes. Eberflus is not great like those offense coaches are. In fact, he should have been fired. But I dont think anyone can argue that Eberflus' play calling gave us any kind of edge in winning.

they dont want a DC, they want an asst DC and Eberflus is the DC i.e. a puppet, This franchise is ridiculous

no doubt

No matter what it is, if it happened it's disfunctional. And Warren's job definitely includes hiring and firing the GM at the least, but i am also uncomfortable with him getting into football details. The whole thing seems like a giant shitshow and they are gonna squander the momentum we bought with the last two seasons. We, the fans, paid the price in 2022 to allow for change. And now theyre already reverting. Hire a GM. Let that GM hire a coach. Then the coach fills out his staff with the GMs approval. Then together they draft a QB. That's how the flow chart works. But the Bears do it all upside down. Over and over. And what is the common element from above? Our ridiculous ownership.

ha! I was typing the same thing. we agree.

or he knows it's smart to sit on both sides of the fence. If Eberflus succeeds then outwardly he was the one to steady the ship, and if it blows up, then he fires Poles and everyone below him next year, and hey Poles wasnt his guy anyway. Also, if a GM generally gets to hire a second coach before they get fired, then a Kevin Warren gets to hire to GMs, and thats four coaches, so Kevin has a long term invite. No reason to get too active too quick. But Poles might have taken similar advice, because if Eberflus fails, Poles will go too, so in a sense, his second coach was Eberflus again. All I can say is I believe the report. I cannot say that Poles isnt right. yet. lol

OK, this is juicy. There's a non traditional media pundit that I follow on Patreon who I almost always agree with, and he definitely has relationships with people inside Halas Hall. He goes on shows like Adam Rank's, and had him and Courtney Cronin from ESPN on his show multiple times as well as current and former Bears players. He doesnt always have inside information, but when he does it's usually true. I dont really recall anything being fake from him ever. He also gives a lot of strong opinions that some people might disagree with, but when he says insiders are telling him things, I believe he is telling the truth. That at the least these rumors exist and he isnt the source of them. Anyway, he says that Warren disagreed with Poles about bringing Eberflus back and things got pretty heated. McCaskey and Poles were on the same page. Interesting. So if this loving reunion doesn't pan out, especially if they keep Justin, you might expect Warren to fire Poles and everyone beneath him. It sounds to me like Poles gets his chance to prove it, and Warren is cynical about it. And it goes along with my "Is Poles too loyal? Does he want to be friends with the team?" questions.

I had misread it - it was written poorly and I am also stupid sometimes They didnt air it, they were explaining it wasnt their fault - really weird to read. But they were definitely throwing the mothership under the bus like "we're just an affiliate, dont blame us please! we hate it more than you do"

OK I read it wrong at first. My NBC station is running a crawl that basically says "Broadcast notification, our corporate office has made the decision to only broadcast this game on Peacock" So they are saying "dont be mad at us, we know this is crap" yikes I blame Taylor Swift. LOL

apologies then, it went over my head.

The Brees Fields thing is a JOKE. Yes Brees started slow. Whats the argument? That all QBs that start slow are likely to become one of the best QB of all time? Make a survey of all the QBs who had similar stats and tell me how many ended up to be Brees. I can save you the trouble. Only one. Brees. There are arguments to be made for Fields. But current career stats isn't one of them. Dumbest thing ever.

it *IS* BS, and I buy both NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTubeTV to see the Bears. It's crazy. I never watch YouTubeTV other than that. Whatever the NFL is getting licensing it, they could get the same at lower rates to us by cutting out middlemen, and if they do the per team option at a much diminished price, they might still be making more than what YouTube gave the NFL for the rights. All of YouTubes profit on top of that is what we are paying for. Yuck! The era of buying a whole service for a single show cant be sustainable. Even the idea of services is probably gone in 20 years. Channels, Networks - they will all just be production houses and capital for production, and if the show can make itself, then theyll will stream to us direct. Same with films and why not sports too.

all good points. still, if you have a guy doing really well and he cant stay cuz he clashes with new blood, has the new blood proved it? We'll see. I'm already looking with a cynical eye after keeping Flus.

It was in the Sun Times, and I totally agree, what alpha leader DC will come here and put up with this. Also, all the position coaches are staying - which is probably a good thing, but another decision made out of order because of retaining Eberflus. I do like the defensive position coaches. It should also be said we've heard nothing about interviewing defensive coordinators. They aren't out there looking for hotshots, they're gonna want a puppet. And we will be in prevent losing games in historical ways again. I hate to say it, but I think the Kevin Warren experiment is already starting to smoke a little. Not that it's too late to fix it, but geez. From Jan 11th, Sun Times "Eberflus repeated his desire to call plays again next season but said he’d be open-minded when he interviews coordinator candidates in the coming weeks. He’s already committed to stability, though. The Bears plan on bringing back every position coach on defense and could even promote one of them to coordinator. That makes sense, as each group produced dominant performances." https://chicago.suntimes.com/bears/2024/1/11/24035133/bears-defense-coordinator-will-not-change-good-thing-jaylon-johnson-montez-sweat-matt-eberflus-nfl

I don't know if that will work or not, but that's Caleb's opinion on deep dish in Chicago. (video didnt show up in thread but can click on the caleb is gonna love it here part to go to that reddit thread and see it) I watched this. I was surprised by what these top athletes went through. I think it was in this one where he told his dad at 10 he wanted to be the best QB. He was waking up at 430 every day and at the gym by 530, working out and then would go to school. Then after school, back to the gym training. Good stuff. There are a lot of plays there that are the kind I wish Justin would make. This is right on time, and good to see. Caleb has until Monday to declare. This is all about to get very interesting.

Stein was great. He'd been there a while, maybe he retired. If he was forced out or if he quit because of anything the team or office was doing, then that's a strong signal that this group is going to crash and burn. I couldnt know which it is though, so I'm not predicting. To me, up until last week Poles has done a great job, but it was the old teardown, and roster building. I said a few weeks ago that Poles hugging everyone was concerning me, and I wondered if he would be able to cut and trade players and coaches or whether he was too invested in being part of and liked by the team - a weakness that (IF it exists) wouldnt show itself until now, since everything up to this point has been adding. Now we hear Eberflus is going to keep calling defensive plays. Stein was one of the only bright spots that was consistent for decades with us. If he retired, or left for some other opportunity, then God bless him and I wish him well. But if he was fired, or quit because of the team front office, then this is possible piece of evidence that we have the wrong guys. I would contend that keeping Eberflus is another. So that's at least one strike, and maybe another on this hypothetical score board for Warren / Poles. And just like a strike, it doesnt mean you cant hit a home run on the next swing and be a hero either. These are only small beginning things to keep an eye on, not large indictments with clear conclusions at all. Just little bits. But if they also keep Justin and don't draft a top QB, and Justin doesn't develop next year, it will become a fully fledged dumpster fire pretty quick.

Adam the numbers guy! Nice! I was wondering about this, and it's amazing the numbers wash so closely. I guess the lesson is - look for talent, the $ comes (a close) second.

oh for sure, I was speaking of out of towners like me, I should have added that to the list. Free local broadcast with streaming option requiring no cable or antenna with commercials for preseason and regular season games. I do think it's reasonable to pay a fee to stream Bears preseason and regular games out of Bears media market tho. I will pay that, but why do I have to buy YouTubeTV as well, when I never watch it? And can I buy just the Bears for a lesser price please? And I also meant that there should be a free streaming option for everyone for the playoffs where you dont even need cable or an antenna. From any location. And there will be commercials.

The NFL is going too far. In the future there should be one fee to pay, that doesnt require buying YouTubeTV as well or whatever, that allows you to watch any NFL game from preseason thru the end of the regular season. And then all playoff games should be available to anyone who wants to watch them, but with commercials. And if they are decent at all, a lower fee to only watch all the games of one team. This is getting ridiculous.

lol