IMO Poles has done a reasonably good job so far, but it's been 2 years, and the first was an intentional choke job. You can't be great or terrible in that short of a period of time. I like that Poles clearly had a plan for how he was going to proceed, and he has largely followed that: tear the team down to the ground in the first year without committing to long term contracts. Sell everything you can. Year 2, start to replenish the talent, while giving Fields enough of a supporting cast so that 'lack of talent' cannot be used as an excuse while evaluating him. At the same time, he deferred a year in selecting a QB (from a class that was not nearly as highly regarded as this class is) while placing a bet that by trading with Carolina, he'd end up in a position to draft a QB this year if he needed to. That bet is currently paying off.
All that said, this was NEVER going to be a competitive team this year! The talent was so bad last year, this was always going to take at least 3 years to build back up. Right now, the Bears are still too thin at too many positions. They need at least one more solid off-season to genuinely compete for a playoff spot.
ghosthiker
joined 2 years ago
If I had the ability to apply perfect hindsight to my decisions, I wouldn't be wasting my time in a Bears reddit sub.