If I was an NFL GM

[NAMEDSONPAYTON2]

If i was a GM of ANY team in the NFL, every year I would draft OL in the first round, DL in the second round and other needs in the rest of the rounds!

[Stinger226]

Stats say first round picks at any position is better with a high pick. There was no IOL worth the 9th pick. Now maybe we could have moved back and got extra assets and took Zach Frazier who has been said to be killing it at OC. There is example of OL succeeding out of the first round, just have to be smart enough to draft them.  Jason Kelce was a 6th round draft pick, he got developed. Creed Humphrey was a second round pick. Lloyd Cushenberry was a 3rd round pick. 

[ASHKUM BEAR]

Is there a team in need of a RB that has a C or G depth to trade? 

The Bears RB depth is deep but we are not running effective with the oline deficiency.  Can the Bears trade Herbert to a RB needy team?  KC, SF, Cincinnati, Dal, Cleveland, Bal...    

Herbert is likely gone after this season. I'd hate to see go but with Bate out 4 weeks and Davis, Shelton, Jenkins playing below par, I would think about it.

[Mongo3451]

If I were a GM I would definitely draft the trenches until I had both fronts solidified.  The only way to accomplish that would be if ownership bought into three years of growth before any expectation playoffs.  Poles gambled and lost.  I'm sure he thought the OL was good, since we were 4 centers away from Sam Mustipher.  It's crazy to think that Sam outperformed them all to date. Trading for Keenan was a luxury, stating that we are ready.  Drafting a fourth round punter doubled down on that thought.  The 24 mil we are paying Allen would buy two very solid starting IOL easily. I would much rather have that than an oft injured aging WR. Bryce Young and Justin Fields are examples of players that were thrown to slaughter because of that neglect.  We can only pray Caleb survive it.  Once the fronts are set, BPA like crazy.  

It all starts up front...

[Stinger226]

Lucas Patrick is the starting LG for NO and the OL is kicking ass. Whitehair is the starting RG for Raiders and JPJ (rookie) is backing him up.

What is wrong with Kramer to OC? He cant play worst than Shelton. Bates and Kiran are one month away from helping uus. Kramer to center and Matt Pryor to RG, it cant be worse. 

[Waiting4Godot]

Patrick and Whitehair starting (with success) elsewhere underlines that the problem isn't the roster. It's the coaching. (By extension, Shelton was at a minimum competent in LA, but appears all but useless in Chicago). So we can spend the next fourteen games talking about how to rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic but the ship will probably still go down if the captain isn't changed. Our coaching team is collectively unfit for purpose. Proof of that lies everywhere you look. They're hired and retained by a GM who therefore by definition can't be fit for purpose. But they're all great guys so here we are.

[Stinger226]

In the general sense, overall,  Poles has gotten a lot of praise for building this team from one of the worst rosters in the league with a hellish cap situation into where we are today .(The third yr) This is the year which will show if the job he has did turns into  sucess. Has he made  some bad decisions , yes. No GM bats 1000% , the key here is where we are at in the second half of the season with a rookie QB.

He could have did the easy path to victories by keeping Fields (3-0) and trading the #1 pick into another draft haul, filled our weaknesses and have a winning team this yr. He has built a very good defense in three yrs, added talent on offense and could get us to third base but he rolled the dice with a potenial high end QB prospect that is going to have strumbles along the way. The end game is the hitting home runs , not tripples. We are 3 games into the season, 1-2 and were into the last minute of the two losses with the chance to win. The defense has looked good but the offense has 4 flat tires. We have a few weeks to get the tires fiixxed before I set the vehicle on fire. 

Poles- B+

Flus C-

Waldron D

QB no grade

[adam]

1 hour ago, Stinger226 said:

In the general sense, overall,  Poles has gotten a lot of praise for building this team from one of the worst rosters in the league with a hellish cap situation into where we are today .(The third yr) This is the year which will show if the job he has did turns into  sucess. Has he made  some bad decisions , yes. No GM bats 1000% , the key here is where we are at in the second half of the season with a rookie QB.

He could have did the easy path to victories by keeping Fields (3-0) and trading the #1 pick into another draft haul, filled our weaknesses and have a winning team this yr. He has built a very good defense in three yrs, added talent on offense and could get us to third base but he rolled the dice with a potenial high end QB prospect that is going to have strumbles along the way. The end game is the hitting home runs , not tripples. We are 3 games into the season, 1-2 and were into the last minute of the two losses with the chance to win. The defense has looked good but the offense has 4 flat tires. We have a few weeks to get the tires fiixxed before I set the vehicle on fire. 

Poles- B+

Flus C-

Waldron D

QB no grade

I almost think of it the opposite way. Waldron has had 3 weeks with a rookie QB and what looks like a suboptimal O-Line. Flus can't do much about the O-Line, so that falls back on someone like Morgan as the position coach or the GM for player acquisition.  Poles has also been with the organization the longest and hired everyone and drafted Williams, so all of their performances fall back on him. 

[Stinger226]

56 minutes ago, adam said:

I almost think of it the opposite way. Waldron has had 3 weeks with a rookie QB and what looks like a suboptimal O-Line. Flus can't do much about the O-Line, so that falls back on someone like Morgan as the position coach or the GM for player acquisition.  Poles has also been with the organization the longest and hired everyone and drafted Williams, so all of their performances fall back on him. 

I dont disagree but the  4th game of the third season is not the right time to talk about burning it down. IMO If they win the next 3 games 4-2 will be acceptable for me. Everything you stated could still apply sitting at the bye week with winning the next 3 games. 

Im on Twitter X all the time and I understand problems but I  think it will straighten out. Im just  not ready to have a lousy season in my mind just because of what I have seen so far, you're welcome to do so. Some people think the bus already run off the cliff. This place is mild compared to X.

[Pixote]

And ...

If it were not for Caleb's turnovers (to be expected from a rookie starting the season), what would our record be right now? Quite possibly 3-0 despite the offense struggling (also to be expected at the beginning of the season with the new OC and scheme. Remember, we had a lot of injury issues, causing OLmen to miss reps in camp. Is this leading to issues in communication?).

And ...

If we were 3-0, would we complain about Poles, Flus, and Waldron or praise them?

 

[BearFan PHX]

3 hours ago, Pixote said:

And ...

If we were 3-0, would we complain about Poles, Flus, and Waldron or praise them?

you're absolutely right. but it is all about winning too, so anything that happens happens in the context of winning or losing.

I do hope they can learn and adapt, and if they do, I'll be at the head of the parade. Like you said, all I want is to win, and eventually to dominate. I dont like or dislike these guys personally, in fact, Eberflus seems like a REALLY nice guy. He'd be a great friend or neighbor. So if we win, I'm gonna love the guy.

But if we keep laying eggs like we have, burning timeouts, going for it on 4th and 1 when we shouldnt, getting a delay of game after a timeout, calling a 1 point conversion, and then switching your mind to get a delay penalty etc etc and you couple that with losing, then of course we want their heads. And if they win again, they we will love them again.

And I think one of the biggest drawbacks of having Eberflus is that you dont have someone else who could potentially give you an edge in winning.

But lets see what they do when Bates is back, and how they handle these next couple weeks.

Winning fixes a lot, and losing with awful coaching stinks. It's really not a hater or a fanboy thing at all with me, it's just how bad it's looked. It's in their own hands to fix or not.

[Stinger226]

8 hours ago, BearFan PHX said:

you're absolutely right. but it is all about winning too, so anything that happens happens in the context of winning or losing.

I do hope they can learn and adapt, and if they do, I'll be at the head of the parade. Like you said, all I want is to win, and eventually to dominate. I dont like or dislike these guys personally, in fact, Eberflus seems like a REALLY nice guy. He'd be a great friend or neighbor. So if we win, I'm gonna love the guy.

But if we keep laying eggs like we have, burning timeouts, going for it on 4th and 1 when we shouldnt, getting a delay of game after a timeout, calling a 1 point conversion, and then switching your mind to get a delay penalty etc etc and you couple that with losing, then of course we want their heads. And if they win again, they we will love them again.

And I think one of the biggest drawbacks of having Eberflus is that you dont have someone else who could potentially give you an edge in winning.

But lets see what they do when Bates is back, and how they handle these next couple weeks.

Winning fixes a lot, and losing with awful coaching stinks. It's really not a hater or a fanboy thing at all with me, it's just how bad it's looked. It's in their own hands to fix or not.

So would you say SF 1-2, Rams 1-2 , Denver 1-2 and Miami 1-2 have all bad coaches? In their past they all have a history of winning, a coach in his 3rd yr of a total rebuild has yet to build that resume. No one would have won the first yr here as Poles corrected the cap by getting rid of all the good players. In his second yr, he went 7-10 and finished 4-3 with two losses that one play changed could  have given us wins. Plus according to you we had a  bad QB. 

f you notice bad teams that always stay bad, keep changing coaches every couple of yrs because the owners get to impatient to win, and they always stay losers . In my Bear history , I never seen a complete  rebuild except when Jim Finks was here in the eighties. This is what a complete rebuild looks like. It wont be pretty until 2025 when it is almost complete. Now that we have a blue Chip QB, Im going to let 2025 happen before I want to burn it down. 

[adam]

1 hour ago, Stinger226 said:

So would you say SF 1-2, Rams 1-2 , Denver 1-2 and Miami 1-2 have all bad coaches? In their past they all have a history of winning, a coach in his 3rd yr of a total rebuild has yet to build that resume. No one would have won the first yr here as Poles corrected the cap by getting rid of all the good players. In his second yr, he went 7-10 and finished 4-3 with two losses that one play changed could  have given us wins. Plus according to you we had a  bad QB. 

f you notice bad teams that always stay bad, keep changing coaches every couple of yrs because the owners get to impatient to win, and they always stay losers . In my Bear history , I never seen a complete  rebuild except when Jim Finks was here in the eighties. This is what a complete rebuild looks like. It wont be pretty until 2025 when it is almost complete. Now that we have a blue Chip QB, Im going to let 2025 happen before I want to burn it down. 

SF, LAR, and MIA are bad examples, they are ravaged by injuries, which no amount of coaching can overcome. DEN? Payton has a losing record without Brees at QB, so the jury is still out on him to begin with. 

I would be less concerned about coaching if the rookie QB was the problem. Williams is not the problem though. So it falls back on the roster or coaching, or both. 

[Mongo3451]

The above shows how close this league is week to week.  Injuries and mistakes play a huge role in close games.  We've had a chance to win the games on a last drive and failed. 

Back to beating a dead horse, but it started with Nate Davis.  His shitty attitude rubbed of on the rest of the OL.  IE: if he doesn't have to do the work, why should we?  Big guys hate working in the heat.  The injury to Bates couldn't have come at a worse time, because it took Flus ability to remove Davis from the equation.  Trust me, they hate him.  Completely destroyed the HITS principle for the entire unit.  Huge player and coaching fail. 

Good thing is, I saw improvement on the Colts game.  It wasn't good, but not always the meme we see going around.

[Stinger226]

3 hours ago, adam said:

SF, LAR, and MIA are bad examples, they are ravaged by injuries, which no amount of coaching can overcome. DEN? Payton has a losing record without Brees at QB, so the jury is still out on him to begin with. 

I would be less concerned about coaching if the rookie QB was the problem. Williams is not the problem though. So it falls back on the roster or coaching, or both. 

My point was a 1-2 record does not make a profound statement that all our coaches are bad. If this offensive trainwreak continues , I'll jump on the bandwagon of everyone is bad but it's still early. I've listen to about 20 podcasts discussing this topic and to me there is a communication problem between OC and QB. Did anyone hear Mercedes Lewis talk? He basically siad Waldron isnt calling people out for screwing up. Trying to be the nice guy. I think CW has shown improvement in every game but for anyone to say he is not part of the problem is misguided. 

The defense doesnt set until we line up , lets say they load the box and he is expected to change the play change the line call if necessary , if he dorsnt make the adjustment, the play looks bad which is on him. I credit the coaches for giving him everything and letting him be fully invested in the offense but if is in game adjustments arent being made, some of this disfunction is on him. They are not babing him so he is learning on the job so by the second half of the season  the offense will look better as he grows. 

There are lots of stupid play calling going on  like playing shotgun in the red zone. Flus had made some bad decisions also and as a whole, its dysfuncional. Flus, Waldron, and CW all need to do better to make this work. Then you take in account the player building by Poles and its a mess on offense. We have Bates coming back in two games and Kiwan should be ready so OL help is close. Pryor has a few crap plays but overall was a lot better than Davis. ( everyone was right on Davis where as I was hoping from the player he put on film in Tenn) 

EVERYONE is to blame for this dysfunction.

[Stinger226]

On the positive side, we have won our last 6 home games and the next 3 games are at home. Is everyone okay with a 4-2 record?

[BearFan PHX]

12 minutes ago, Stinger226 said:

My point was a 1-2 record does not make a profound statement that all our coaches are bad. If this offensive trainwreak continues , I'll jump on the bandwagon of everyone is bad but it's still early. I've listen to about 20 podcasts discussing this topic and to me there is a communication problem between OC and QB. Did anyone hear Mercedes Lewis talk? He basically siad Waldron isnt calling people out for screwing up. Trying to be the nice guy. I think CW has shown improvement in every game but for anyone to say he is not part of the problem is misguided. 

The defense doesnt set until we line up , lets say they load the box and he is expected to change the play change the line call if necessary , if he dorsnt make the adjustment, the play looks bad which is on him. I credit the coaches for giving him everything and letting him be fully invested in the offense but if is in game adjustments arent being made, some of this disfunction is on him. They are not babing him so he is learning on the job so by the second half of the season  the offense will look better as he grows. 

There are lots of stupid play calling going on  like playing shotgun in the red zone. Flus had made some bad decisions also and as a whole, its dysfuncional. Flus, Waldron, and CW all need to do better to make this work. Then you take in account the player building by Poles and its a mess on offense. We have Bates coming back in two games and Kiwan should be ready so OL help is close. Pryor has a few crap plays but overall was a lot better than Davis. ( everyone was right on Davis where as I was hoping from the player he put on film in Tenn) 

EVERYONE is to blame for this dysfunction.

so it's not just 1-2 thats causing this reaction. If you watch the film, you see how insane a lot of it has been. Morgan is a disaster, Waldreon is floundering and Eberflus continues to make ridiculous unforced errors.

It's not just the W/L record, its HOW we got there.

And if what lewis says is correct, then that is a real problem for a coach. Without accountability, all you have is a social event.

[Stinger226]

2 hours ago, BearFan PHX said:

so it's not just 1-2 thats causing this reaction. If you watch the film, you see how insane a lot of it has been. Morgan is a disaster, Waldreon is floundering and Eberflus continues to make ridiculous unforced errors.

It's not just the W/L record, its HOW we got there.

And if what lewis says is correct, then that is a real problem for a coach. Without accountability, all you have is a social event.

I see everything you  do but I think its fixable, I get the impression you dont? 

[BearFan PHX]

41 minutes ago, Stinger226 said:

I see everything you  do but I think its fixable, I get the impression you dont? 

no Im not at a decision point at all. I just think you cant fix things until you see and admit the problem. Thats why accountability is important.

Am I cynical about the current coaching staffs ability to fix it? probably, but if I see signs of change, ill note them too.

Im not fixed to a particular outcome, Im just calling it as I see it?

But Mercedes Lewis tells us Waldron wasnt feeling comfortable to call players out and bring accountability. And that is definitely a problem. Kumbaya coaching doesnt win superbowls. Its just that corporate mindset, and i dont think it works in football.

Certainly I hope they change and start doing the right things. But I dont have a ton of faith in them either - is that fair?

[Stinger226]

48 minutes ago, BearFan PHX said:

no Im not at a decision point at all. I just think you cant fix things until you see and admit the problem. Thats why accountability is important.

Am I cynical about the current coaching staffs ability to fix it? probably, but if I see signs of change, ill note them too.

Im not fixed to a particular outcome, Im just calling it as I see it?

But Mercedes Lewis tells us Waldron wasnt feeling comfortable to call players out and bring accountability. And that is definitely a problem. Kumbaya coaching doesnt win superbowls. Its just that corporate mindset, and i dont think it works in football.

Certainly I hope they change and start doing the right things. But I dont have a ton of faith in them either - is that fair?

I get it, your not buying into until you see it. Im speaking more from a hopeful state. Flus needs to be more involved to get what he needs from the OC. Waldron was a OC for two yrs and he accomplished some success with a retread QB not a rookie. I think he thinks he need to take it easy because he's a rookie but when you have a talent like CW he will be able to accept it. They all will look better this week because there is a lot of strong character guys in the room.

[BearFan PHX]

45 minutes ago, Stinger226 said:

I get it, your not buying into until you see it. Im speaking more from a hopeful state. Flus needs to be more involved to get what he needs from the OC. Waldron was a OC for two yrs and he accomplished some success with a retread QB not a rookie. I think he thinks he need to take it easy because he's a rookie but when you have a talent like CW he will be able to accept it. They all will look better this week because there is a lot of strong character guys in the room.

yeah thats fair too

I have been cynical about Eberflus for a while now, so I probably won't change my mind on a dime, but i have also said before that i think there is enough talent on this team to win despite what I think of Eberflus.

But now that I see the problems on offense, and I'm hearing from players now that the coaching is too friendly and not tough enough, and thats been kind of an ongoing thing Ive been talking about for a while from Poles on down, I do feel somewhat like my read was right?

Now all of these guys are certainly professionals. I dont think Waldron doesnt know vanilla blocking assignments, I assume they all know this stuff. My worry is that they are trying to be too tricky, and that kind of Nagy-esque cuteness rarely fools the other professional staff of opposing teams. because they are professionals too.

Tom Waddle said today something like "stop being fancy, and do simple things well" and when it comes to the running game and the blocking scheme, that means guys winning their matchups. And a lot of that is about "Want to" - weve seen Davis's level of effort, and if the team didnt come down on him, then what are other players supposed to think?

Players have said that they were more afraid of Bill Parcells than their opponent. Thats one way to motivate, but certainly not the only way. But however it's done it has to include real accountability, or it's fake.

How do you get more out of a player than that players knows they have to give? being nice alone aint gonna do it.

[BearFan PHX]

This just came to mind, so Ill add it:

Do we see any evidence from the OL that the HITS principle is in play?

Hustle? Intensity? (turnovers) & Smart?

The OL has not been smart, intense or hustling.

Xs and Os aside, in terms of motivating people, is Eberflus only a defense whisperer? Is he checked out and leaving it to Waldron? Is he really just a DC in disguise?

[adam]

11 hours ago, BearFan PHX said:

This just came to mind, so Ill add it:

Do we see any evidence from the OL that the HITS principle is in play?

Hustle? Intensity? (turnovers) & Smart?

The OL has not been smart, intense or hustling.

Xs and Os aside, in terms of motivating people, is Eberflus only a defense whisperer? Is he checked out and leaving it to Waldron? Is he really just a DC in disguise?

Another thing that doesn't get talked about enough. Who have the Bears beat in the Flus era? What elite offense has the Bears defense shut down? How about the defense's success is also sort of hollow? Here is a list of every QB that Flus's defense has beaten:

2024 - Levis
2023 - Heinicke, Murray, Goff-11th, Dobbs, Young, O'Connell, Howell
2022 - Lance, Mills, Zappe

Goff is the only QB with a QBR in the top 20 for that respective season. Murray is the only starter from previous seasons who is still a starter (or even on a roster). That is another reason why this weekend's game is so important. If the Bears defense can't stop Stafford who is without Kupp and Puka (top 2 Receivers), then we have to start doing more relative comparisons with the defense as well. 

Another component to the offensive struggles is Waldron is too nice of a guy. He is scared to tell vets what to do as evidenced by Lewis's comments this week. With all the analytics, tape, and now AI. There is no reason you can't draw up plays that are undefendable. Just like chess, the opponent can only react to your next move. They can position themselves for what they think you are going to do (show Cover-2), but until the ball is snapped the defense is at a disadvantage. The Bears do not take advantage of that edge. The offense doesn't dictate what the defense does. They take what they are given and in most cases this season, they can't even do that. 

[Stinger226]

12 hours ago, BearFan PHX said:

This just came to mind, so Ill add it:

Do we see any evidence from the OL that the HITS principle is in play?

Hustle? Intensity? (turnovers) & Smart?

The OL has not been smart, intense or hustling.

Xs and Os aside, in terms of motivating people, is Eberflus only a defense whisperer? Is he checked out and leaving it to Waldron? Is he really just a DC in disguise?

Agree with that, not physical enough. I think Flus allows his coaches to coach and I bet he was more involved this week than the previous 3 games. Waldron is trying to finess to much. 

[Stinger226]

53 minutes ago, adam said:

Another thing that doesn't get talked about enough. Who have the Bears beat in the Flus era? What elite offense has the Bears defense shut down? How about the defense's success is also sort of hollow? Here is a list of every QB that Flus's defense has beaten:

2024 - Levis
2023 - Heinicke, Murray, Goff-11th, Dobbs, Young, O'Connell, Howell
2022 - Lance, Mills, Zappe

Goff is the only QB with a QBR in the top 20 for that respective season. Murray is the only starter from previous seasons who is still a starter (or even on a roster). That is another reason why this weekend's game is so important. If the Bears defense can't stop Stafford who is without Kupp and Puka (top 2 Receivers), then we have to start doing more relative comparisons with the defense as well. 

Another component to the offensive struggles is Waldron is too nice of a guy. He is scared to tell vets what to do as evidenced by Lewis's comments this week. With all the analytics, tape, and now AI. There is no reason you can't draw up plays that are undefendable. Just like chess, the opponent can only react to your next move. They can position themselves for what they think you are going to do (show Cover-2), but until the ball is snapped the defense is at a disadvantage. The Bears do not take advantage of that edge. The offense doesn't dictate what the defense does. They take what they are given and in most cases this season, they can't even do that. 

Is Lewis talking about CW? He may react differently to CW than to the other players because he is a rookie QB. He shouldnt thou, CW can handle it