adam

We are just past the halfway point in the season and based on preseason projections, these are the 5 biggest surprising teams and 5 biggest disappointments so far: Surprises: 1. MIN 7-2 2. PIT 7-2 3. ARZ 6-4 4. LAC 6-3 5. WSH 7-4 Disappointments: 1. MIA 3-6 2. DAL 3-6 3. CHI 4-5 4. CIN 4-6 5. NYJ 3-7 At this point, you can almost swap one team per Division (MIN > CHI, PIT > CIN, WSH > DAL) on the projections. You would expect all the HCs on the disappointing teams are on the hot seat and some may still be fired before the end of the season if those teams keep losing.

Gents, any recommendations for a GM that has not paid? How have we handled this in the past? See my post above for some options.

It really doesn't make sense. They said that they had not had an entire "unit" meeting? So they just met in their individual position groups and never had a offensive unit meeting where they are all in it together? No wonder they are all disjointed. I can't imagine not having a full unit meeting at least once or twice a week. Wild.

Flus may be good at coaching/scheming a defense, but that seems where his skill tails off. Personnel and talent management? Not so much. Leadership? Seems very meh. His post game rah rah speeches should just be "words fellas, lots of words"

How does the Passing Game Coordinator not talk to the QB though? Like aren't those the scouted routes that are drawn up by Brown that they are executing? What am I missing about the Passing Game Coordinator? How does that guy not sit in meetings with Caleb, Waldron, and Joseph?

If Brown magically turns around this offense and they win 4 more, that would look even worse on Flus and Waldron for the 4-5 start.

Max of 2, 1 random win, then possibly Week 18 when GB rests all their starters.

Another Poles whiff. That was not only a roster spot, but a good chunk of the cap wasted on Davis in 2023 and 2024. Ugh. His signing prevented the Bears from drafting in the interior because there were not enough roster spots to go around. So it was a double negative signing. Now the Bears have to eat the cap while they burn thru Williams rookie deal. This, like the Waldron firing feels late. Like why wait? How did those extra few weeks matter? They could've possibly traded for another Guard before the deadline, but couldn't with Davis sucking up a roster spot. Here are the negative impacts to the 2025 season from Poles moves that already occurred: 1. Claypool trade - Lost the 32nd pick in the 2023 draft, would be a starter in his 3rd year in 2025. 2. Davis/Velus dead money in 2025 - $2.4M 3. Allen trade - Lost 2025 4th-rounder 4. Scott pick - Waste of a 4th round pick in 2023, 2025 is 3rd year

His only game with 270+ passing yards is against the Bears which included the 52-yard HM. Since then, in his last 3 games, he has averaged 201 passing yards, 3 TD, 1 INT, with a good chunk coming in garbage time. On the season, he averages 213 Passing yards, 29 rushing yards (242 Total Yards), and 0.9 Passing TDs per game. Caleb is at 198, 26 (224 Total Yards), and 1.0 Passing TDs per game. Nix is at 197, 29 (226 total yards), and 1.0 Passing TD per game. So the top 3 rookie QBs are within 18 total yards (Passing+Rushing) and 0.1 Passing TDs per game. However, only one is getting MVP consideration, solely due to the team's record. The context of the stats is huge. Caleb has attempted 197 passing attempts when trailing to only 63 with the lead. Daniels has attempted 108 when trailing and 133 when leading (literally the exact opposite). Nix is right in the middle with 148 when trailing, and 113 in the lead. With the lead: Daniels, 133 (55%), Nix 113 (43%), Caleb 63 (24%) Trailing: Caleb 197, Nix 148, Daniels 108 The difference is huge. Caleb had a 76.2% Comp, 5 TD, 1 INT, 121.0 QB Rating and only 4 sacks when leading while throwing for 8.5 YA. Those numbers fall off a cliff when trailing. He drops to 56.9% Comp, 4 TD, 3 INT, 72.8 QB Rating with 27 sacks with his Y/A down to 5.5. If Caleb had the same % of passes when leading than Daniels does, Caleb would have at least 240+ more passing yards, 3 more TD, and 1 less INT (at a minimum) on the season. Probably more.

The Bears have better odds for the #1 pick than they do making the playoffs. They may not win another game.

I don't know if Brown calling the offense is going to make a big difference. This still looks like an ugly matchup at the worst possible time. The Bears will probably lose by 20 and nothing will change.

You can look back at old posts, Poles has not been as good as it seemed. He got a haul for the #1 pick, which most GMs would get in that situation. The only reason it worked out was because CAR took Young over Stroud. He is an ex-OL who doesn't address the OLine. It is baffling. He let Daniels walk to sign Davis to more money and play worse. If the Bears win 7 or less, you have to consider replacing everyone, including Poles. I am just wondering how many losses in a row will it take to fire Flus.

He was bad as the Panthers OC last year, but they had terrible players. He made a 30 yr old Thielen into a 1K WR, so he can obviously scheme guys open. The scary thing is he was already the Passing Game Coordinator and that seemed like a total mess. Maybe it was all Waldron. We will see, but it is hard to see how they take the plays that don't work, then somehow change them to work, and have the players in sync with these new plays. It will be interesting, but I would be shocked at a major turnaround at this point. Any improvement is better than nothing, but when you are this bad, almost anything will look like a positive.

Bears have a realistic shot at the #1 pick at 4-13, or at least a top 5 pick at 5-12. Do they win more than 1 game out of the next 8?

Brown was bad as the OC last year in CAR. Also, if he is the "Passing Game Coordinator" aren't those his routes that were drawn up? Isn't that what a Passing Game Coordinator does? He may be part of the problem. I would almost rather see Chad Morton as the OC and Play Caller. He at least seems to be a better motivator and leader than the other guys. I could be totally wrong, but that's the way it seemed on Hard Knocks. I don't even remember seeing Brown once the entire season.

Blow this whole thing up. It clearly is not working. Too bad they didn't sell at the deadline. Now we are stuck with this POS roster for multiple years. Poles and the entire coaching staff will be gone in 3 years or less. I assume the coaching staff is going to go this offseason but I have zero faith in Poles to select the right coach.

The amount of quality coaches Poles passed on to hire Flus, and then again this offseason is so disappointing. Poles sucks at his job. He got lucky with the CAR trade, that's it. Hardly any other move has resulted in a player playing above his contract or draft status. Taylor looks like shit, Wright has never played to top 11 pick potential, Stevenson sucks, Pickens sucks, Scott doesn't play, Velus was cut. What an absolute shit show, courtesy of Ryan Overrated Poles.

F*%k this team. An absolute poverty franchise. We all could see this coming a mile away. They had to move on from Flus or they would be repeating the same thing they did for the last 2 1st round QBs, and they did it AGAIN. Now it is going to burn at least another year of Caleb's rookie deal in a partial rebuild year as this one is lost. GB 45 - Shitty Team 6

This is arguably the worst run franchise in the NFL. Somehow the Panthers have won 2 straight but the Garbage Bears can't win a single game in their last 3 on one of the easiest schedules in the NFL. The original 4-2 was hollow and it shows. I don't care what you think of Poles, but he built the O-Line in the image of himself, a shitty OLineman, and it shows. His draft picks have sucked, he whiffed on way too many instead of loading up on OLinemen until you had a solid core. Velus, Scott, and Taylor were all wasted picks. They could've easily had a starting OG and OC out of those 3 picks. Poles also hired Flus, so the coaching failures are on him. I don't want him picking another coach. Make Waldron the sacrificial lamb, then fire Poles and the entire coaching staff this offseason. They all suck. Worst run franchise in the NFL. Look at Minny, Washington, etc, all were on similar timelines and are running circles around the Bears. That Keenan Allen trade looks like an absolute whiff. Another draft pick that could've been used to throw more darts at the trenches. Stevenson, who they traded up for sucks. He is terrible with a bad attitude. Great drafting Poles, a fetus could do a better job at picking than you. That punter sure looks like a wasted pick now. A 13 yard punt while the Pats punter is booting 75 yarders in his face. Embarrassing. What absolutely sucks is the Bears should've had a firesale at the deadline. Now they are stuck with this piece of crap roster for multiple years. Can you imagine how pissed Caleb has to be right about now? Sure he is not playing up to his potential, but man, WAS could've traded up for him and he would've had McLaurin and Kingsbury in WAS with that team. Instead he is throwing WR screens to an unmotivated Moore while old man Allen is whiffing on simple blocks. After 9 sacks, I would just list him with a phantom injury and call it a season. Let Bagent play out the string, no reason to risk long term injury when the season is over. The Bears could've had the historic haul + Jayden Daniels or this....... I think Poles whiffed here and he did zero homework on Daniels. Unbelievable.

At least he acknowledged it in the last press conference. Someone asked him about his accuracy issues and he is aware of them. So we will see. That is a better answer than "what issues". Here are his comments:

Game related, it looks like Billings is out for the year with a pec tear, Brisker still has not come out of concussion protocol. Both OTs are more than likely out. So this game is not looking good either. If they can't beat NE, they may not win another game. With the risk of injury, at what point do you go with Bagent? With the Billings new, Poles and Co knew he would be out before today, thus he could've made a move to add a body to the DL. Buffalo literally signed 2x DTs off waivers today.

It became very evident in Hard Knocks, and when they captured his post game locker room speeches. He might be a good "teacher" but that always doesn't translate to a good Head Coach. The good teachers are the positional coaches, and at most the coordinators.

Margins are so small in the NFL. There are about 120 total snaps in an NFL game (both teams), you can't afford anything external to the gameplay impacting the play on the field. We feel that with the officials all the time, a missed call or a phantom call, and it really feels like it impacts the game. The same can be said for coaching. If the Bears had Eric Washington as the HC all season, the Bears would at least be no worse off than they are right now. That tells you Flus needs to go because if you can just replace him with just about anyone and there is no drop off, then he is not a benefit to the team in any way shape or form. To me, he always felt like the "safe" pick for HC. I swear he was hired almost immediately after Poles and some questioned if Poles actually had much say in the process. Here we are almost 3 years later and week in and week out it feels like the same time. When there are problems, they will search for the answers, etc, etc. They never find the answer.

The 3rd year is supposed to be pointed up. I don't know if you can say the Bears are trending up. It feels like we are just floating laterally into oblivion. The crazy thing is the team has a bunch of vets that were supposed to add leadership. Allen, Lewis, Swift, Kmet, and Moore on offense. Sweat, Billings, Walker, Edmunds, Edwards, Johnson, and Byard on defense. That is a long list of vets to be having accountability issues.

Also remember this was a 10-win team last year that won 7 games. Now the Bears are a 6-win team that is 4-4.