BearFan PHX

It does make sense to have a rookie QB sit behind a veteran starter to learn the ropes. I think it's common practice. We did it with Trubisky and Fields. So what youre saying makes a lot of sense in general. I think that Fields is a special case though. he doesnt make reads or execute the offense, so Im not sure hes a role model. He's also got so much love in the locker room it seems, and can you imagine if Caleb Williams is an ego and a head case and anyone even gives a whiff of rejection to him as hes sitting? Or support to Fields and he takes it as rejection? It sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. I do like the idea of a rookie sitting behind Bagent, or whatever free agent journeyman QB they want to bring in, but Fields is so young hes of Williams' generation and so unorthodox in style, it seems like a bad idea to me? Then again bringing in a rookie as the coach is on the hot seat is a bad idea too, and theyve done that multiple times in our history too.

LOL so maybe it wasnt even him?

as to Eberflus and his hires that exited etc - its not just about whether Eberflus should have known, because I get that he wouldnt. But whether it's Eberflus, or Fields or whatever, we dont see much accountability. We dont see a standard being held, we just see nice guys that we want to protect. It comes down to this same question - if you know a coach or players isnt bad but isnt great, do you give them more chances, or do you fire them, not because they were terrible, but simply because you dont believe they will ever be elite? Being elite means top 5 or whatever, so of 32 teams, 27 professional starters are not elite. You might say firing them all is crazy. You might say who will you find that you know will be elite? And my answer would be, I dunno. No one elite is just sitting there without a job. But I think you have to keep searching and trying to find elite, and that means firing competent mediocrity. It's not "fair" but it's the only way to find elite players and coaches. And on top of this both Fields and Eberflus have shown their share of incompetence too.

yes this is exactly what Im thinking. Im just looking for meaning in the fact that they havent already said anything, and of course Im grasping at straws, but i come away with the same answer youre saying.

yeah i dont get the Flus love, but what do i know?

right, I get the point, hes under contract, no need for an announcement. But then again, with all these press stories swirling, if he was staying, they could do the fans and Eberflus himself a favor and just say it? And they arent. So theyre waiting for something. Maybe just to finish their end of year analysis - Im not saying it points to any specific outcome, but i do expect some kind of announcement at some point?

If the team was 100% bringing Flus back, they'd have announced that already. No reason for all these rumors to swirl around unaddressed. I suppose it stands to reason that if they knew 100% that they were firing him they'd have done that already too? I think they are waiting to hear from Harbaugh before they do anything.

and point to one time that he gave the team an edge in winning?

perhaps that is our center.

I think from this we can glean that Flus is staying. LOL Just kidding - making fun of all the tea leaf reading in here, including mine

agree keeping mediocrity for the sake of stability just means you will be consistently mediocre.

Plus, at some point you have enough money, and it's the competitive fire in you that drives you - like winning a Super Bowl for the team you used to play for.

especially when that man hasnt proven to be a positive difference maker in giving you an edge to beat opponents, and has in fact been outcoached most of the season. Also, this thread is about blowing it up, but with the exception of the QB, the roster stays, we dont lose ground, we wouldnt be starting from ground zero, wed be starting from here.

That is extremely interesting, Grizz. Obviously Warren is ingratiating himself with some members of the press that he will need as he manages the Bears' image over the next however many years. I wonder if he had any particular influence on them, asking them to hold off on reporting some kinds of things, or encouraging them to report some kinds of things. Some reporters get closer access in exchange for Warren getting more access too. It may be as simple as just to set up connections and conduits for draft smoke, but who here wouldn't have loved to be a fly on the wall for that meeting?

yep, or one penny more than the second highest bidder is willing to pay

I think that definitely happens. Whether he says yes or not is another story. But theyve got to at least reach out and see.

Ok so maybe not Penix LOL

yeah there's what they SHOULD do, and then what they WILL do. Bears gonna Bears. Please prove me wrong Warren! Everyone wants you to be different!

even if you leave last season out of it, youve got situational football errors starting with that 4th and 1 TE sneak against the Packers in the opener. All the short runs out of the gun. Managing 3rd and 4th and short. Keeping Sweat off the field at the end of the game because of the rotation. Calling games too safe. and three historic losses that were 99% wins. All of these are unforced errors. none of them is a result of the other team's players being better. Theyre all straight up mistakes. Add to this all the times we got outcoached and you've got PLENTY to fire him for even if you dont include last year.

yeah thats how it played, like here I am, being honest, Eberflus sucks. It definitely gives the letter credibility.

I've read that Warren is active in football operations. I'm sure he's not in the nitty gritty day to day stuff, but things like coaches and Justin I think he's going to weigh in on. I don't know if he will insist on his preference but I dont know that he won't either. I don't see how anyone can say what Warren will or won't do.

I hope that you telling him you live outside Los Angeles doesnt do anything to your season ticket claim? But other than that, I gotta say, great letter. My favorite line was "I expect the Bears to be the best team in the NFL, not just kind of good enough every 10 years." And you left it as its own paragraph. Awesome. You said it all just right.

hopefully Warren understands this, and with any luck Poles does too.

I think youre probably right. Of course it often takes more than a week to find the replacement, because good assistant coaches are still with their teams in the playoffs, but if youre saying that firings are announced quickly, then I sure dont have any data that says otherwise. I just wonder, if they think they would keep Eberflus unless a top notch option appears, including Jim Harbaugh etc, then they might delay firing him until they had that in hand, but I admit Im just making guesses at scenarios, I havent seen any particular evidence or even info about that.

yeah and it's not even about yesterdays loss. I always thought it was foolish to keep thinking the decision would be about the last game. I think that came from people who kept hoping they would turn it around, and just ran out of games. The thing is, in the NFL, you dont need to be bad to be fired. Simply average is good enough to get you fired. Youre looking for people, especially at QB and coach, who are difference makers. You dont survive in spite of them, you win because of them. I didnt see anything from either Flus or Fields that told me they were clear difference makers. I dont know why we want to hold on to either of them. The best argument for keeping Fields is the draft pick haul of trading down the #1 pick. Or a set of excuses that it wasnt his fault. No one can make the argument that Fields was actually a positive difference maker himself. Same with Eberflus. It was the growth of the players on the roster and the addition of Montez Sweat that made the difference. Time and again we got outcoached. Poor game management. Poor situational football. Hell we had three historically bad losses after losing big leads with chickenshit playcalling. This is not haterade, it's a fair analysis of how bad we've been. It's like playing 5 card draw, and you've got 2, 4, 7, 9 and Q. What could you lose by trading some cards in for the unknown? its not like youve got anything in your hand worth keeping.