I'm not even convinced we'll beat Green Bay. Chicago folds to them routinely. They have our number.
drummerboysam
This is ridiculously cool looking.
But of course we want to go all orange...
But there's a big difference between what he's done versus what guys like Nagy, Tristan, and others have: his side of the ball is playing well.
I'm gonna have to stop you right there. You are comparing Bears coaches based on their predecessors, which is flawed at the outset. You should be comparing them to NFL coaches around the league.
Our coaches have all been terrible since the mid 2000's. Being a high mark among Bears HCs is one of the lowest standards you can set.
Eberflus' defense has improved against the run big time in 2023. I don't take that for granted. But our pass defense and ability to generate pressure is not good enough. Eberflus is a "pretty solid" DC on good days, and that's probably his peak.
Everyone is talking about the "chance to prove it" for Fields, but nobody ever talks about the money.
For the Bears, the belief has to be that they're going to get better and won't be picking in the top 5 every year.
Justin Fields rookie contract is up. We have him next year, but then's the extension. Daniel Jones set the market on guys with talent who kinda suck at QB, and if we're brutally honest that's what Fields is.
We have cap space right now, but that's going to start to bleed away with a few signings. Extend Fields and that's it, we're basically out of money and it starts to become a balancing act.
Fields has shown flashes of being a good QB, but if you have the chance to break the bank to sign him long-term and hitch your entire roster to him or get 4 more years of a discount on a better prospect than he was, wisdom leans on value over loyalty.
Does Andrew Billings count?
On a team standpoint, he's basically taking Armon Watts spot and is like ten steps ahead of that player on this defense.
Teven Jenkins has also been lights out since coming back from injury and taking the RG spot next to the rookie mauling RT. His play has been elite at guard the last few games.
Unfortunately those QBs aren't looking as surefire as they were a few months ago
Caleb Williams has shown signs of being merely human, but Drake Maye's draft stock has gone up this season.
My one offseason prediction I was pretty confident in was that our DL additions would see us improve off an awful 2022 rush defense. Not really tooting my own horn here because we replaced guys who were genuinely bad at run defense like Pennel and Watts with guys who grade highly in that area like Billings and Walker.
It's a small win, but I'll take it for this team. We needed to get better at nearly everything and we're starting to get better at some things.
Such a dumb line that people love to rehash.
Call it like it really is. He's a dual threat QB who is an amazing athlete but hasn't fixed his issues as a passer.
George McCaskey keeping Pace and Nagy in 2021 when everyone in the league knew they were toast was awful.
Pace trades up for a QB to try and save his job, gets fired. New GM is non-committal to the QB on the rookie scale and commits to a full tear-down rebuild. Now QB is probably toast while the new GM will get a pick of QB before he gets fired the next season and the new GM gets to non-commit to the next QB.
Could be the case, but didn't the OC already say the gameplan was going to be the same if it were Fields or Bagent?
CJ Stroud is a lock for AFC OROTY, but what about the NFC?
Jordan Addison? Jordan Love?
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I think JJ will be a good QB. Harbaugh is legit. Harrison is incredible.
I really don't know if Harbaugh to Chicago will work. Kevin Warren probably has a rapport with him from his Big 10 commissioner days. But I wonder how a Poles/Harbaugh dynamic would look, and I really don't see the Bears firing Poles or giving him the quiet demotion that a Harbaugh hire would be.