AZ54

I'll add that Poles has done the right thing and hedged his bet on Fields. He didn't go all-in like Denver with Wilson followed by giving up draft picks for Sean Payton.

Fields just isn't playing like an NFL QB. Just missed an easy pass to Kmet for a TD. Now I'm curious who comes in. With this score it should be Bagent, get him some experience.

To be fair the Bears never said it was a health issue, at least I never heard that. I believe that was just internet speculation. I"m not sure how many HR investigations folks have taken part in on the first couple days you have no idea where things are going. Just because you are someone's manager doesn't mean HR tells you why they are doing an investigation because they can be investigating you too. Nor can you come out and tell people either on the team or in media there is an investigation because legally you are liable if you try to influence the investigation.

The team never fired nor suspended Williams so I think that clearly means there was no criminal activity involved, nor gambling on games. From the top: 1) Bears planned to fire him. I don't know of any scenario in any business where you would tell an employee in advance you plan on firing them. I can say you're performance is trending toward termination but I'm also required to state here is what you must do to retain your job. I cannot say "I'm going to fire you no matter what you do". This does not mean these coaches can't be fired on-the-spot. Nor does that seem like Poles MO as he has had many difficult discussions with people face to face. 2) Drugs. Can't rule it out completely but again, the team has never offered anything that sounded like help or assistance (i.e. our thoughts are with him at this time) 3. Gambling on games is immediate suspension by the league pending investigation. Didn't happen. 4. Alphabet community paranoia that everyone is after them. 5. Domestic problem. From a resignation standpoint this could fit but again the team was ont very conciliatory about him working through some problems. Seems unlikely. 6. ED. Not sure what job standards Flus might have for his DC but this doesn't seem like one of them. Likewise with personal health no conciliatory messages whatsoever from the team. 7. No conciliatory messages from team, no offers at all for support. See Roquan's issues in the past. I'm still thinking he was demoted from play calling because he was bad at it. He didn't like it and walked away to think about it and then decided to quit. This being a performance management issue Flus wanted to keep it in-house. Maybe there is a juicy tidbit behind the scenes. I don't think any players have spoken about this either.

IF... big IF... we are going to win this game we must run the ball all game long. That won't be happening up the middle with Chris Jones back but we're actually better working the edges of the Dline. We need to keep the pressure off Fields and have a good enough run game for play action to help him with more time in the pocket. We need TDs on every trip into the redzone. We need to win time of possession as that is the best way to minimize Mahomes' damage. Somebody needs to find a way to get enough pressure on Mahomes to keep them around 25pts. I'm not saying we'll score 26pts but as thresholds go anything beyond that is likely getting into 6 sigma territory for our offense. All long shots but this is the way.

There are some positives to build on. Not that it was all great news as he highlights some bad mistakes but this team is not the same s*** show in talent that we watched last year. If Fields was just making the easy plays, not even the right "reads", just took what was there, then this would have likely turned out differently. Same thing goes for Getsy if he'd have just called more run plays... which would have helped Fields. W

Reading between the lines here this means Bagent just got promoted to 2nd string. Most likely we're moving Peterman back to the practice squad where he'll dress as the emergency QB. I take this as very good news that Bagent continues to excel, at least as far as backup QBs go.

That might be the most contrite press release ever. Not even a little thank you. https://www.chicagobears.com/news/alan-williams-resigns-as-bears-defensive-coordinator The Bears on Wednesday released the following statement: "Alan Williams submitted his resignation as the team's defensive coordinator this afternoon."

i finally got to watch his press conference. In some aspects I liked what he said in a couple aspects it made me nervous. Especially with the one play he talked about where he took a sack. Justin said in that scenario in the future he'll be leaving the pocket. IIRC there were receivers open on that play. So mostly he alluded to just getting out of the pocket but nothing about just making the quick easy pass to an open receiver even if it's not the normal read for that play. That makes me a bit nervous but I do agree he needs to get back to doing what makes him comfortable early in the game and then let the rest of it come to him.

Nah Flus seemed pretty clear they want to keep Wright at RT. I think that's best too especially with Davis coming back. We've been running with Patrick for a couple weeks so just change one position with Borom. At least Borom gets to practice all week to prepare and he looked much better in preseason. Hopefully Jones' injury isn't serious. That doesn't seem likely for a 4 wk IR plan but sometimes these neck issues can go sideways quickly.

Flus' reactions on Williams' status at today's press conference was pretty non-descript. That was immediately after he said he and the team have Davis and his family in their thoughts (paraphrasing). If Flus won't give Williams the same kind of sentiment, and this has now been through 3 press conferences, then to me it just doesn't feel like a family or medical type of issue. Flus was asked if he had fired Williams and he said no but he also didn't say Wiliams would be back calling plays. Which I continue to interpret to mean Flus took over the play calling for the rest of the season or at least until he feels like things are on the right track. I know nothing of the other rumors and I'll keep it that way until something more official comes out. I think if there were any truth to the legal issue rumors (which sound very criminal) the team would just cut ties with Williams more officially. Or at least come out and say he was suspended pending investigation.

This is known as the Mark Anderson rule.

I only got to see the last 7min of the MNF game but Bryce Young does not look like an NFL QB. I still think it was the right call to see what Fields could do because a bird in the hand is always the better option. It's not working out for whatever reason with Fields and after MNF my hopes have gone higher for getting the 1st overall pick next year. For some reason I also watched Drake Maye on Sat and he didn't look like an NFL QB either. Arm talent is there but reading the field eh not so much, at least in that game. He's also not hte best athlete on the move. So that brings me to just one...Caleb Williams. I've only seen him play for about 10min so far this season but he looks the part.

I will forever blame you for getting me hooked on Scotch whiskey.

I don't agree with that at all. Flus' body language is an easy read and you know when he's upset and not happy. He took over play calling, likely for the rest of the season from Alan Williams. I wouldn't expect him to be calling out players or coaches in a press conference. if you have class and are willing to tell people to their face in private that their performance is bad then you don't ever need to do it in public.

The argument is that Shanahan knows offense and how to get the most out of his QBs. Regardless of who they are and their skillset. He’s not developing QBs or they’d be successful elsewhere or he’d quit Trading away draft picks to draft a new one. Imagine the 49ers roster with the extra draft picks they gave up for Lance. I’ve watched a ton of Brock Purdy since he was a freshman in college. I like him but He will regress to his mean as well. Still a good QB but Shannan thought so much of him he was 3rd string behind Lance.

That's too broad of a brush...how many QBs has Shanahan ruined in SF?

That's true from a team building perspective. It doesn't change the fact the QB can't read the field even when he has time.

Seems about right and we've got to deal with Chris Jones coming straight up the middle. We have no answer for that.

I wasn't able to watch most of the first half but had a better feed in the 2nd half. What I saw of Fields made me thing he's just not the QB we need. He looks lost on too many plays. There were moments in the 2nd half where he looked like the guy and then he'd follow that up with a Trubisky moment. Of course there are other pieces that need to be improved but I can't escape the fact Fields is holding back the offense from producing more.

Family will always take care of family, in that I mean the team.

With this it's not likely a displaced fracture and the surgery is likely just to put a plate and screws to secure it and help it heal. Should be high confidence on his return.

I just watched his press conference and Flus looks mad and focused. With regard to Alan Williams.... if a player or coach has a family issue to deal with you almost always hear them say we wish him the best, or we look forward to him returning soon. There was not even a hint of that from Flus and that made me start wondering if we just fired our DC. To pile on that sentiment: A reporter asked Flus if the defense would look the same with him calling plays and he just said "we'll see" with a hint of a wry smile. Then further along he spoke of each of the defensive coaches and that they know what his expectations are and what needs to be done and how it needs to be done. Still through all that chatter there was not another mention of Alan Williams (i.e. when he returns...). If the defense is going to look different with Flus running it then by default it means Williams wasn't running it the way Flus wanted it run. When Flus got the HC job it took him a bit of searching for a DC before he settled on Alan Williams. They had worked together for years so you'd think if Williams was his top guy then he would have been in the conversation for the DC job from the get go. OTOH, and IIRC, Getsy's name popped up fairly quickly among the OC search. All I know is this weekend's game just got a lot more interesting!

I believe Janocko is also a big part of the run game planning. Considering how well that worked with Fields last year when we finally turned to it maybe he has a better feel for what we should be doing on offense than Getsy? Fields was still too mechanical in the pocket and he still needs to learn how to slide around. I'm thinking at this point that will never happen. He's such an elite athlete in his mind I feel he's thinking just hold, hold, then run and get outside the pocket. Maybe with a bit more consistent protection he'll relax a bit and let that come to him. After watching film he has to have a lot more confidence in Darnell Wright who even if he gets backup a bit can and will anchor.

We’re going against Todd Bowles. Expect lots of blitzes and varied rush attacks. We need effort but also smart play.