AZ54

Two years ago nobody with experience wanted these jobs (OC/DC). Flus had trouble finding his DC for sure and eventually settled on Williams but he was clearly never his first choice. This time around we have the phone ringing with people calling to be on the list and we start out of the gate with two of the top candidates on our wish list (not necessarily the same as Poles/Flus list).

I'm waiting on the combine to get a better sense of where Newton fits in. I have concerns about his length and he's not Aaron Donald elite with his athleticism to get around that.

A team typically carries 4 QBs in camp. Might not be anything more than that.

I'd phrase it differently but yeah: Do you know when to call/utilize quick slants? Against which type of defenses and what situations? What are your counter plays to the quick slants and when/why would you call those plays? I don't really care about B2B plays if they are effective. I know that's not practical in most situations but for all I care we can run off-tackle for 8 yds a pop all game long if they can't stop it. Last year, or maybe a couple years back, the Packers just ran screen after screen against our D and we couldn't stop it. Just don't go assuming the next opponent has the same weakness or that it's your strength against everyone. Would you call the same play if you weren't gaining any yards? Would you call those WR screens and put your 175lb rookie receiver as the primary blocker? This is where on-the-field talent has to match up with game plan/scheme. Bad memories.

Yeah but watching some film, usually of other players like Dexter, he seems to get pushed around an awful lot. Sometimes 5 yards downfield. Seems like it's hit or big miss with him. OTC says he's worth $6mil/yr again like his recent deal with us, but I'd rather find someone young with more upside for that position. I'd take a shot on Chris Jones if he remains available and he's still asking around $20mil/yr. If you prefer an ideal Poles target check out Madubuike, 26yr old entering his prime. He's got the quick first step you need at 3-tech and has some power to his game. The Ravens have just $17mil in cap space for 2024 and that's with only 44 players rostered and no easy big money cap cuts. They can free up maybe $10-15mil if they cut a few players but the rookie pool will eat up $10mil. Rostering 9 (or 12) players with $17mil gets eaten up fast and their FAs are some of their good players not the least of which is Patrick Queen. OTC has Madubuike valued at $15.5mil/yr but popular FAs always get overpaid, and pass rushers with 10 sacks are in demand, so he'll likely get closer to $18mil/yr. Paired up with Sweat on the outside, Dexter on the nose, and a top 10 DE at RDE and no QB is going to have much time to throw. Just need to add a good safety and the D is complete. With Madubuike and the DE that need drops a bit. Plus there appears to be some decent vet FA options we might be able to fill with a $5mil/yr deal. You got 1 draft pick for DE and all other picks can be offense if you want. Rookie pools: https://overthecap.com/draft https://overthecap.com/free-agency/baltimore-ravens

Wilkins might be a wishlist player but there is no reason to bring back Justin Jones. His best and only attribute has been leadership. We won’t need that next year and we will need more production out of the 3 tech.

et tu Adam? The cheap extension of Fields is an interesting thought although I don't see it happening. If that extension worked out it would help with re-signing Poles first draft players like Gordon and Brisker. Pairing it with a similar trade down as we did last year which I see as being very likely (he does two trades down in top 10) yields 3 picks in 1st Rd in 2025. To walk out of this draft with 2 good WRs, backup OT, starting caliber RG and Center, and starting caliber Safety is pretty good.

He had offers last year, likely in the college ranks for HC, and chose to stay with the one who brung him. He's already making $2mil/yr which should make him quite happy. I'm always leary of the college transition to the NFL because of the rule differences. Then there is the fact he's on the west coast (Pac 12 for now) a region not known for good defense. He's a good coach but given where we are now I don't think this is the time to gamble on someone without NFL experience.

I agree that Poles leans toward Fields but not certain/sold. The leadership and mental toughness aspect is a big part of his evaluation. Same goes for the draftees. He said he's taking the #1 pick all the way to April, I'd say it goes at least well into March to where he has to make a decision on the 5th year option. Which leads to.. He didn't seem inclined to keep Justin and draft a QB 1 overall. Although he said he'll consider all scenarios that one didn't seem to be something he's already mulled over. Jaylon Johnson was mentioned in his first sentence as a key player for the future. He's going to get a new contract. He backed that up later. Mooney does not seem to be part of the plan going forward. He alluded to the fact some players we let test the market and then decide. That seems to be what'll happen with Mooney. My guess is he sees him and Scott as redundant roster pieces. For the OC role the ability to adjust to both talent on the field (i.e. QB strengths), adjust against a defensive strength, and in-game adjustments all seemed to be key. Which, reading between the lines, is indicating what they didn't see from Getsy. Chris Morgan is definitely on the staff for next year and the few other remaining offensive assistants. Team page appears to be updated: https://www.chicagobears.com/team/coaches/. Poles gave a ton of credit to our training staff... .called them elite. We do not have a single player needing surgery as we head into the offseason. I'm not sure I've seen that before. Certainly there is some luck to that but a lot of players returned from injury and stayed healthy. That's an indication of a good rehab process IMO. Kudos to Brad Biggs (I think it was him) for asking Poles what he missed on with CJ Stroud last year.

I’m so old I can remember when people were concerned Getsy was going to be hired away to be a HC.

So far everyone involved in the passing game has been fired. Those involved in the running game have stayed. Oops just saw that we fired our RB coach. I was just listening to some names being rattled off for OC and one that was interesting was Klint Kubiak. He's had success at multiple stops, has a lot of NFL experience, and now with the 49ers knows their system. If there is going to be any attempt at improving Fields I think we'd keep a similar system to what Getsy has run the last 2 seasons. That plus Flus said at the time he hired Getsy that this system gave him the most challenges when he was game planning. https://www.49ers.com/team/coaches-roster/klint-kubiak

The Fields question is somewhat of a mute point because regardless of QB any new OC will have to bring a plan to improve the performance of a young QB. The Bears can review tape of their games with a new OC and then ask what would you have done in this situation and why. Then again, any serious candidate would already be doing that ahead of the interview. If Poles wants to quietly up the trade value of #1 he can float some feelers out there for a trade of Justin Fields. Then weigh it all into the final decision.

Some very long discussions by the front office just to get to this point. Unless your name is Tepper nobody does this without a plan. Who is on Flus' radar for OC? That had to enter the discussion as to why they would be a better choice than Getsy. Why should we expect anything to be different? The first name I've seen popup, one I have no clue or sentiment one way or another, is Frank Reich. https://www.si.com/nfl/bears/news/bears-reportedly-fire-offensive-coordinator-qb-coach "Immediately, offensive coordinator speculation will focus on Eberflus' friend and former boss in Indianapolis, Frank Reich. The Carolina Panthers fired Reich as head coach during the 2023 season." I wasn't aware PFR had coaching stats: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/coaches/ReicFr0.htm

After Jaylon Johnson this list is just a bunch of whatever. There are a few decent backups in the list like Foreman who I wouldn’t mind if they came back for the right price. I also wouldn’t mind having a better replacement. That’s about 33% of the roster nobody will miss which is a clear reminder to me how far this team has to go in the rebuild.

Factory workers, especially me, take offense at that. It's complete ignorance to think the only professionals are those making millions of dollars. You have no clue what people have to do in their personal life when they are on call 24x7x365 year after year. Being a "lowly paid" professional takes a lot more effort to guarantee your future than someone who has enough guaranteed money they never have to work another day in their life. The vast majority of the professionals I've worked with would absolutely come in for a similar scenario because I've known many managers who did it for layoffs when they themselves were also laid off. In the end you proved correct... most people can't comprehend what it means to be a professional nor do they understand what it means to have class in how you treat other people.

True value is always what the highest bidder is willing to pay.

Jaylon said he was going to play so I expect him out there.

Were you expecting a rebuilding team to start out beating the better teams and QBs? We have to start learning how to win somewhere and that is mostly likely to happen against the bad teams. FWIW he also beat Goff and I can make a good argument he soundly defeated him for 117 minutes in 2 games. It's also interesting that Wilson made your list of good QBs a week after he was benched, or maybe more depressing that we lost that game.

Wow. It's been awhile. https://www.chicagobears.com/news/montez-sweat-jaylon-johnson-selected-to-pro-bowl-games-2023

Never saw it. It’s pretty funny.

Can you edit that and add the number of players rostered next to the cap space/value? If you are $40m over the cap and only have 40 players counting in that calculation then you have to find a way to sign 13 players.

I can't find the link right now on Youtube but I saw where some mock had us trade back with Wash and get both of their 2nd Rd picks (our former pick being one of them). Then he had us trade back again, I think with Atlanta, and pick up their 2025 1st, along with 2024 2nd and 3rd Rd picks. In the end he had 8 picks in the top 100. One of those, #100, was a comp pick for losing Ian Cunningham which I think happens this year. All total we had 10 picks by the end of the 5th round, plus plenty of draft picks heading into 2025 including two 1st Rd, and two 2nd Rd, to hedge the bet on the QB or just keep piling on the talent. That is a very realistic scenario. In 18 months we've come far enough as a roster that at first it's hard to imagine 10 rookies making this roster. Who is leaving? Ok with a bit of thought you can figure out 10 to lose but there will be names in that list we were counting on going into 2023, including Whitehair and Jackson. The point is that if we follow this trade down scenario there will be some serious competition in training camp this year. That's not even including the FAs we will add. As long as Poles takes value in the draft as he's done for 2 years you can't help but come out of this offseason with a very good roster and some good depth. Now that means we give up on Harrison Jr. and both LT talents. If you think we can get by with Braxton Jones improving enough into his 3rd season to be a good starter (not Pro Bowl), which I think is a reasonable expectation, then there's no reason not to bypass those talents. FIelds' escapability allows us to save money at LT which offsets his contract by 10-20%.

Agreed. I think it also depends on the root cause of the injury. Logic says its physical trauma but sometimes it can be a muscle imbalance leading to a lack of stability in the knee. Think about the players who make a simple cut and go down. Some players come back stronger and faster with better training. Then there is the fact that certain performance enhancing drugs build muscle but weaken ligaments and tendons. We may have a good sense what the NFL does for testing but in college?

Just using last years draft there are 3 positions for which a team is willing to trade up into the top 5 picks. QB, LT, Edge. There are no top 5 edge players, at least not yet. Ideally I’d love to have two picks between 5 and 10. As badly as I’d like to see MHJr I know adding another good edge rusher could put our D into the elite category. I’m thinking I’d close that deal then put the rest of the draft toward the offense. I’ve been on board with keeping Fields for some time. How he plays this last game could close the deal for me on any need to hedge the bet via a backup QB. At least until day 3. If Poles feels the same way then just throw open the trade windows early like he did last year. Teams already know his price and that he is willing to trade as far back as 9. It also removes the negative impact of the Bears scouting the QB class and then saying we don’t like them now we’ll trade the pick. That puts Atlanta and Vegas in play. Which could be enough to get Wash or NE to overpay.

I prefer Latu. He’s much more mobile and still brings the same length and power.