How do we correct this? Can we?

[BearFan PHX]

I think our best (and only?) hope here is Kevin Warren. Im not saying I have any reason to have faith in him for this, just that he is heretofore unknown on these questions, other than a rumor that he was fighting with Poles last offseason, and wanted to get rid of Fus while Poles wanted to keep him.

If Warren can be a buffer between ownership and these decisions AND if he sees things more the way we do, then maybe he can make a new kind of choice.

I sure hope so, but I cant say its likely just because he is unknown.

[Stinger226]

49 minutes ago, BearFan PHX said:

I think our best (and only?) hope here is Kevin Warren. Im not saying I have any reason to have faith in him for this, just that he is heretofore unknown on these questions, other than a rumor that he was fighting with Poles last offseason, and wanted to get rid of Fus while Poles wanted to keep him.

If Warren can be a buffer between ownership and these decisions AND if he sees things more the way we do, then maybe he can make a new kind of choice.

I sure hope so, but I cant say its likely just because he is unknown.

What I see with Warren is a business man that got brought in to do the stadium and let him gradually take over the managment of the operation. Right now he is Poles sounding board. They are talking today about what to do. We will find out how much power Warrten has. 

I think the players have given up on Flus, which means you have to get rid of Waldron and Flus and at least show the players you see what they do but that means they have some accountablity here to.

Hoke as head coach

  Brown to OC

  Williams to DC. 

This is not getting us a winning season but at least the regime has noticed.

Next yr Poles gets a HC, probably Kingsbury because Caleb knows him and would be the easiest transition. 

Drafts a LT with the first pick and move Brandon Jones to swing tackle.

Draft a OC in 2nd round and have Shelton be the transition player. 

Move Kiran A. to LG , let Jenkins leave (injury concerns)

Bates at RG and draft his replacement to give us good depth. 

Wright at RT with Jones the swing T. 

 

[DABEARSDABOMB]

In fairness - last week was as banged up as an oline can get...but the Bears have some guys who have consistently been banged up which is on them. Now on paper it still isn't a great oline and some of the scheme / talent eval seems to be missing. Not sure which.  

I expect the oline will improve with their 2 starting tackles back and with Bates getting more footing. If you get your tackles back with Bates and Jenkins and Shelton in the middle - I'm not saying it is great, but that is a big step up from what played most of yesterday.  

But I think you do it with a new OC who potentially makes tweaks - and at this point - I think simpler has to be the trend of direction cause there is only so much you can change in an offense during the course of a season, which is what makes it hard.  However - how they haven't isolated Moore and Kmet and others on key plays and split the field to simplify things for the QB just isn't good. They obviously don't have a go-to way to run the ball, but it seems like we need a hard reset. I don't expect a lot that can be done - but they have to do stuff different.  

I would get rid of Flus - if the defensive lockeroom is shaky, if it isn't, I just don't know how they can go another direction at this point because you don't have someone on the other side of the ball to turn this over to. If you turn it over to Washington, who is a different and fresh voice, fine, but than who calls the plays.  

Under all scenarios - Waldron has to go. You can't just switch the play calling at this point, I don't think it is enough.  Every week Biggs has made comments in his pieces about Waldron NOT having the buy-in of the players. I think reality is he's probably a smart offensive mind, but he has no idea how to get the room to all move in his direction and because of it - the offense is all over the place. When he worked with McVay and Pete Carroll - it wasn't needed because those dudes DROVE buy-in all day / every day.  

[BearFan PHX]

I think the most predictable next move, and maybe the wisest, is to fire Waldron. Flus bears a ton of responsibility for all of this and deserves to not be back next year, but i dont think firing him now does anything to really help. Firing Waldron sends a message, and hopefully lets this team get into some rhythm, even though i think we all know this season is very unlikely to end in a playoff appearance.

I was listening to Flus with David Kaplan, and he said a few things that shed some light on all of this.

First off he did his typical positives thing. And while I think it's tone deaf not to start with accountability and even show some emotion at losing at this point, he wasnt wrong. Every week we see individual offensive plays that work, and even small 5 minute windows of rhythm and then chaos again. I would say that the team has talent and Waldron and Morgan are the biggest culprits.

I think it's fair to say that the offense isnt really Eberflus' fault. He's been a defensively oriented coach the whole time. His issues are situational, and failing to know how to help the offense. But the offense has failed under Waldron and Morgan, and Flus has not really been part of that - which is it's own criticism of Flus as well.

Still, what happens if we bring in a new OC or promote someone and talent shows up and we split our games with the NFC north? Do we all say "wow maybe this can work?" and stay with Flus and the new offensive coaches? If the new coaches are like a 6 out of 10, does that mean we wouldnt find better under Ben Johnson or Kliff Kingsbury etc?

I think we have to be careful of doing something now and then sticking with a 6 because its better than a 2. I think we need to find a 9 or a 10 and nothing less should do, even if a 7 doesnt stink. I want superbowls, not to be slightly better than average!

So Id be careful and cynical about any improvements we might make with an in season move right now.

The other things Flus said made it clear to me that by wednesday there would be some shakeup on the offensive side of the ball. Flus actually put a time limit on it, and not only admitted they were looking at it, but something about getting it right. So I think you can hang your hat on the idea that there will be changes.

But here's my warning - the changes will almost certainly make a difference. THe offense may well improve, even win some games. But we shoult not fall in love with incremental change. We should still want Flus gone, and we should still want to pick our leaders fromt he full menu of available options during the offseason, and not now from the limited list.

[DABEARSDABOMB]

3 minutes ago, BearFan PHX said:

I think the most predictable next move, and maybe the wisest, is to fire Waldron. Flus bears a ton of responsibility for all of this and deserves to not be back next year, but i dont think firing him now does anything to really help. Firing Waldron sends a message, and hopefully lets this team get into some rhythm, even though i think we all know this season is very unlikely to end in a playoff appearance.

I was listening to Flus with David Kaplan, and he said a few things that shed some light on all of this.

First off he did his typical positives thing. And while I think it's tone deaf not to start with accountability and even show some emotion at losing at this point, he wasnt wrong. Every week we see individual offensive plays that work, and even small 5 minute windows of rhythm and then chaos again. I would say that the team has talent and Waldron and Morgan are the biggest culprits.

I think it's fair to say that the offense isnt really Eberflus' fault. He's been a defensively oriented coach the whole time. His issues are situational, and failing to know how to help the offense. But the offense has failed under Waldron and Morgan, and Flus has not really been part of that - which is it's own criticism of Flus as well.

Still, what happens if we bring in a new OC or promote someone and talent shows up and we split our games with the NFC north? Do we all say "wow maybe this can work?" and stay with Flus and the new offensive coaches? If the new coaches are like a 6 out of 10, does that mean we wouldnt find better under Ben Johnson or Kliff Kingsbury etc?

I think we have to be careful of doing something now and then sticking with a 6 because its better than a 2. I think we need to find a 9 or a 10 and nothing less should do, even if a 7 doesnt stink. I want superbowls, not to be slightly better than average!

(oops accidentally posted - still writing more to come)

I agree with this - I could see the oline coach going as well.  But Waldron has to go.  I also think Flus is gone unless they come back and win the playoffs, which I don't see happening. Even than - I think the decision is already made on Flus barring some miracle.  

[BearFan PHX]

8 minutes ago, DABEARSDABOMB said:

When he worked with McVay and Pete Carroll - it wasn't needed because those dudes DROVE buy-in all day / every day.  

Basically, it proves that Eberflus as a motivator is not a good head coach.

[DABEARSDABOMB]

5 minutes ago, BearFan PHX said:

Basically, it proves that Eberflus as a motivator is not a good head coach.

Yes - that is Eberflus job to identify it. But it also shows they made the wrong move at OC because the expectation was they would hire an OC who could run that side of the ball and didn't do it. Either way its a failure on Flus.  

[BearFan PHX]

1 hour ago, DABEARSDABOMB said:

Yes - that is Eberflus job to identify it. But it also shows they made the wrong move at OC because the expectation was they would hire an OC who could run that side of the ball and didn't do it. Either way its a failure on Flus.  

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