Iffybiz

Before everyone gets too excited, the Bears would be idiots if they weren’t talking about the possibility of firing Eberflus and hiring another coach. Poles and Warren aren’t idiots.

At this point, they will be starting to put together a list of potential coaches and Jim Harbaugh will be on it. That’s probably about as far as they’ve gotten, so throwing his name out there means less than nothing. It doesn’t mean JH is coming and it doesn’t mean he’s not coming. So relax and let it play out, you people will end up with strokes.

Thoughts.

1. Glad to see Justin make a big throw in a clutch situation but those fumbles ouch.

2. Evidently, Getsy doesn’t know how to call a game against a blitzing team.

3. Nice win but if their two best offensive players were playing, the Vikes win easily.

4. Dexter and Sweat are going to be a PROBLEM for offenses going forward. Neither can be blocked by one guy consistently.

5. Watching the locker room, it looks to me like Poles and Warren really want Eberflus to work out. It may only take another win or two for him to keep his job.

6. That same locker room looked 100% behind Justin. Baring a complete breakdown the rest of the way, it’s going to need a very hard sell to that group to replace him. Saw no sign of Getsy in the locker room, hope that’s a sign.

7. This will likely be unpopular but they need an explosive RB next year with both running and receiving ability.

8. I want Justin to play here at least one more year while they finish building the team. Add at least MHJ and a real OC and if he can’t succeed with that, draft your QB or make a trade for someone like Herbert.

9. Speaking of Herbert. The Bears have the same number of wins as the Chargers. My guess is they will be HC shopping this offseason too. When the Bears played them, they seemed like a much better team.

I feel the same way. First off, he seems like a legitimately good guy. Says all the right things, plays hurt, teammates love him and players around the league have respect for him. He has a ton of talent. He’s a guy you want to succeed.

I’ve also seen QB turn it around. Saw Drew Brees get benched against the Bears during his third year. He was frankly, terrible. I remember how everyone thought it was a joke when SF traded for Steve Young, he was universally considered a bust. I’ve seen the reverse too, Jay Cutler was way better with Denver and regressed when he came to the Bears.

The older I get, the more I realize that the NFL is a coaching league. It’s not just fielding an extremely talented team but having the right coaches and scheme for the players drafted and signed.

You’ve gotten some good answers already but let me add my take also. There’s a lot of misconception about the defense being run. It’s a cover two, soft zone. However, unlike Lovie’s old Tampa Two they do change up coverages to fool with the QB presnap reads. The problem is the nature of the zones they play. Like I mentioned they are soft zones, designed to allow short passes but take away the deeper passes. It’s outdated for that reason. It used to be that QB just wouldn’t be patient enough to take the 5-7 yard passes, now they are and most West Coast Style of offenses add an element of running after the catch that hurts this type of coverage. It’s also fairly weak against the run unless your DL is very good.

However, your concerns about them making major changes to the basic structure of the defense if Eberflus is fired are probably not something to worry about. Unless they also fired Poles (which would be a huge mistake) he’s going to bring in a coach who will use the same basic defense but perhaps a bit more aggressive and flexible. The same is true on offense as well.

The people that don’t understand this forget that this was the plan from the beginning, they were going to tear everything down and build in back mostly through the draft. Clearly they expected to see better results this year which is why Eberflus may get fired but there is a plan in place and they are going to stick with it.

Ngakoue if he can be had for a good price. Until you have another proven pass rusher bring him back

Feeney maybe let’s see how he plays

Santos definitely

Tonyan if price is right

JJ yes if he’s reasonable

ESB yes

Mooney yes (with Moore and MHJ on the outside and a new OC he’s going to feast)

Also, I don’t know how the McCaskey’s can fire Poles. He came in and has done exactly what he said he was going to do, tear everything down and rebuild it. This team has good young talent, plenty of cap room, draft picks and the dead wood cleared out. They would be the laughingstock of the league if they fired Poles now.

The telling part of this account is that Warren might want to get more involved in football operations. Read between the lines, that means he wasn’t brought in to be part of football operations. I think this is a case a National writer who doesn’t really know the power structure of the Bears. Warren was brought in to handle the business end of the Bears in general and the stadium in particular. Poles was hired with the idea that he runs the football side of things. Warren isn’t a “football guy” in the sense that he played, coached or scouted. He ran the business end of things with the Vikings and was Big Ten Commissioner. So he knows more than the average fan but nowhere near what someone like Poles does.

I think the only way you will see Warren step in is if he wants Jim Harbaugh and Poles doesn’t. I doubt that happens, one because I could see Poles and Harbaugh working together and two because Warren and Harbaugh didn’t have a particularly good relationship when Warren was in the Big Ten.

I think that if they wanted to keep Eberflus, they’d probably do it this way. Hire a OC/asst. Head coach and give them complete autonomy over the offense. Have in essence two HC one for offense and one for defense. That was more or less done with Ditka when he was brought in. They retained Buddy Ryan and he had total control over the defense.

However, I can’t think of one really good offensive coordinator that would put up with that. Also, saw a very interesting interview with Wanny yesterday and when he coached, the HC would tell the coordinators at the end of the game what he wanted. If he wanted to run down the clock, he would tell his OC to run the ball, not tell the exact plays but rather that he wanted it ran. Same on defense. He’d tell them when he wanted to blitz or drop 8 into coverage.

So it’s likely not all on Getsy for the lack of aggression at the end. This is why I tend not to like defensive HC, too much “protect the ball nonsense.”

I agree with those who have said, Justin isn’t THE problem but he is A problem. However, NFL history is filled with cases of QB who were considered busts and either getting better coaching or going to another team with better coaching unlocked their talent. We’re talking guys like Drew Brees and Steve Young. HOF. Steve Young won 5 games his first three years in Tampa. Everyone thought it was a joke when Bill Walsh traded for him. Brees got benched in the middle of his third year. Norv Turner became the HC in his fourth year and Brees started playing like the HOF quarterback he became.

So my question is why not get a guy in here that can actually develop a QB and find out if that’s the problem or not? THE PROBLEM is coaching. Go and look at Tim and JT videos. The blocking schemes are nightmares. At one point they had 3 guys pulling leaving the DT completely unblocked. Another asked Scott to block Hutchinson. On defense, their best pass rusher was sitting on the bench during the last drive.

Let’s get the coaching fixed first and then see what happens. If all the HC prospects don’t want to deal with him, then you know where you stand. Forget the money aspect. He’s cheap next year and even if they pick up his option it’s not outrageous. Let’s just not throw the baby out with the bath water. If Fields doesn’t work, they’ll be another QB coming the next year.

First off, WHEN they fire everyone and start their coaching search. They should ask what is your preference at QB, Fields or a draftee? Don’t make the job contingent on keeping Fields but don’t make it contingent on not wanting Fields either.

Strictly FA. First re-sign Mooney, JJ, Feeney, Freeman and Ngakoue (now that someone is on the other side, he’s going to show a lot more). Extend Tevin Jenkins. Sign Chris Jones and Conner Williams.

Cut Whitehair, Patrick and Eddie Jackson

Scenario 1. My DC of choice would be Ron Riviera. He adds a more aggressive approach to the Cover Two. For OC I’m bringing in Greg Roman. He’s proven he can take QB from point A to point B. The problem becomes can he take a QB further? If you’re giving Fields another year and you should if you’re bringing Flus back, that’s the guy.

Scenario 2. I have two minds on this. I KNOW that Harbaugh would make this team into winners right away. The question would be, does he want to do more than coach? The Bears finally seem to have the proper structure in their organization. Harbaugh might want to change all that. So if they go back to a more traditional coach, Waldron is probably the guy I’d go with. He’s worked for 3 great coaches, Carroll, McVay and Belichick. He would have a fairly seamless transition on offense as his is also based on the Shanahan/McVay model. This is the offense that Poles has been building up and there will be less tearing down. Riviera could still be the DC.