Chisoxfn

He has no future as a QB if the Bears are trying to force him as a legit pocket passer. It won't work. I think Tony's link about how with Cam you got to let him be. Heck, look at Big Ben, I can't stand the guy, but if you wanted to put him like full west cost offense, it just wouldn't work. Big Ben had an offense completely catered around him too. Lamar Jackson same way. All of them are unique talents but you can't just put them in a traditional drop back offense and let them work. Even Josh Allen - that offense was designed to maximize his strength(s). Right now - it does not appear to me that the Bears are doing that with Fields, unless sitting him back for the first couple weeks is part of a longer term growth plan (and I don't believe it is). Unleash Fields and run an offense that exploits his strenghts (cause he absolutely has him) and minimizes his weaknesses. We literally have seen 2 straight weeks of the opposite. It kind of reminds me of the first few weeks of Field(s) season last year, where Getsy tried to force Fields into his thing and than as the season progressed they adjusted. Why they started off back to square 1 from last year is beyond me - maybe they read too many press clippings or something, I don't know.

Very well said. And I am with you - I don’t get why when you have a qb with his skill set you aren’t calling 5-10 designed runs per game, another 5-10 bootlegs, and another 5-10 play actions.

For me Poles future comes down to how his draft picks perform this year. It’s early - let’s see what happens. I also want to see at least some of his free agent moves pay off, especially the bigger money ones. And I will state if I were Poles - zero chance I would have traded Fields. I was lukewarm on Fields but you knew he didn’t have enough around him last year to make a decision and everyone could see the god given physical abilities he has and he clearly puts in work effort etc - so you had to see what could happen. With that in mind - there are 15 more games, hopefully Fields shows us in a more free flowing system he can be a true playmaker / difference maker. I am not expecting it and I now have my expectations perfectly aligned but s%*# - it could happen and I will root for him. Coaching staff has to start supporting him though and putting this around him cause they aren’t keeping their jobs with Fields not at least being decent (cause 3 wins gets flus fired for sure).

100 percent. I’ll just Poles on how draft picks more than anything. His free agent choices matter too…at least ones where they are multiple years and/or using material cap space.

If I were Fields, I would go to coaching staff tomorrow and say design 10 run plays a game for me. He will probably get hurt - but Fields only chance at being special is to be put in a system that leverages every ounce of athleticism he has to force teams to guard him and create space for big plays. Fields has nothing to lose at this point. And I am for sure the fan who now expects Bagent to start half the season. s%*# - why can’t he be the next Purdy haha. He won’t be - he doesn’t have the arm, but s%*#…if two quarters through the season offense is meh - time to see what they look like with someone who appears to be able to get ball out on time. I just don’t think he has the arm talent to play in NFL.

I am 99 percent sure he is not the guy.

The downfall is - he has no one to sell high on rate now. The cupboard is real bare.

Actually - if true - this would be the most refreshing news I have heard from Getz. Sox need to operate much more like a small market team. Own it and be a small market team with a higher payroll so you can opportunistically buy but they got to own what JR has in place (ie don’t pretend you are going to land a mega free agent or sign a pitcher to long term deals - including your own).

End of the day that is all you can control. Every one of this guys have parents. Should you get mad cause your kid isn’t the next Trout…no. Only thing any parent can wish for their kids is they work hard, play the game the right way, and do the best to maximize themselves to be the best they can be. Ultimately the best for one is not the best for the other. The same holds for ball players - you just want them to become the best they can. We get mad at the Sox but it is because the Sox seem to think Sheets can be something he isn’t. I don’t care how hard Sheers work, he just isn’t a major leaguer and certainly not a major league outfielder. But someone like Yoan or Eloy or Tim - they can be more and they aren’t and this whole team makes so many stupid mistakes (running, wrong cut off, weak at bats). Very clear a lot don’t put in the work - and work isn’t just what you do from the physical side, but also what they do with the mental side.

What did Dave wilder say? Didn’t he go to jail or something?

If ownership is angry after one week that is bad. It is still one week. Now If Flus has no respect - that is an issue, but they need to have a calming presence. Clearly it seems like they were completely shocked at what happened but come on - figure it out. Defense was miscommunication city - offense had real poor line play and a qb who was seeing ghosts / succumbing to pressure.

Let’s see if they really clean house and change tone. I go back to easier to have an outsider do it than the in house guy - unless Getz had been consistently pushing this with Kw and Hanh and getting overruled and Jr said hey this getz guy has been right a lot - let me let him try. But I will be clear - I 100 percent support this move. They have a lot more of them to make, as you say Balta, cause the standard the front office and coaching staff has held has been beyond sub standard and years of it has created a cancer.

So my overreaction Monday is - I didn’t think Fields looked awful in first half. I thought he missed some plays and things were too conservative but I thought they moved it ok and he was pretty accurate. I actually even liked that he had some good check downs. 2nd half the defense was getting destroyed and oline was bad and Fields looked like a deer in the head light but maybe that happened cause he was getting mauled every play and it’s just human nature to do that. That is the only real excuse I can make for the offense. We know Lucas Patrick sucks and I am convinced Davis is pure garbage (what an awful moved by Poles - dude clearly wants nothing to do with the Bears). Whitehair is not what he once was and even than he was overvalued by Pace (pace gave him that extension). Defensively - I am far less worried, other than I think Williams is not good dc. I do expect they will have trouble generating a pass rush - but I also expected communication issues from this d. Lots of new players, lots of young players, and a ton of various injuries during training camp was like a trifecta of things that would lead to the type of miscues and breakdowns they saw.

The lack of pass rush or the defense making mental mistakes did not surprise me a ton. They were awful last year and didn’t make any major improvements and the ones they made in interior were playing their first game. And beyond that a bunch of them stacked up a ton of DNPs too in training camp and preseason which further constrains communication issues. Offense was my issue. Same system as last year with many of same players etc. just looked bad across the board. I will say I think GB has a top 5 defense.

I think they are sending a clear message that we will hold you accountable. We said that we want you to work on certain things and not continue to do x, y, and z and that is clearly not happening so they are sending a message. I can actually applaud it - its just hard because for year(s) they have not done this and they are clearly NOT consistent in how they have handled it. Probably goes into a lot of why they have failed across the board at everything - they don't set the right standard and don't hold people accountable to that standard. It seems to be ripe at all levels, whether its players off-season workout routines, or putting in the right work on the little things and building the right habits that compound into winning ways.

That or just hire Greg Roman and immediately begin the process of seeing if an offense installed completely around Field(s) works.

That is where I think about what the Sox traded in Burger vs. what they traded for in Eloy. For Eloy to be a player worth his contract - he needs to be healthy and an elite hitter. He has the tools to do so, but has not shown the availability and more recently the power necessary to overcome. So if you could get financial savings for him and a raw flyer, done. Vaughn - I put him similar to Eloy, other than they don't have a major contract. But for Vaughn to be a very good player - he has to be an elite hitter because he has ZERO positional value. Again - I would trade this player all day long, especially if there was a team who thought more highly of him. At this point - I get if the Sox didn't want to because he's at least cheap and cost controlled for a while. For Burger - he plays a position and is adequate at it, does not have a huge contract, but does have durability concerns, largely stemming back to early in his career, but they were a series of devasting injuries. This makes him old for his age, but he's still young in terms of developmental time. Contract wise he's got a ton of service time and no major LT cash risk at this point. For him - slight improvements in walk rate and contact rates, while maintaining his defense and power - would make him a pretty valuable player (say a 3-4 WAR kind of guy). Downside is - he's a platoon player who can backup at 3B / 1B against righties. Still has a value given his service time, etc.

IF through 8 weeks of the season - the Bears are like 1-7 and its because the offense is not scoring, moving the needle -> than they need to do something different. It isn't a controversy - cause Fields will have shown he is NO good and Bagent is probably worse, but lets find out. Now if they are 1-7 and its because they are giving up 35 points per game and losing 35-28, well that is a different problem and one I would honestly GLADLY accept. I am fine if the Bears wanted to completely ignore the defense and just build the offense and once they find an offense that works, try to figure out the defense. Just because I am so done watching horrendous offense(s) year in and year out. I will state - Williams looks like a seriously awful DC (showed plenty of signs of that last year - but I got it, the talent level was horrendous). This year the talent level of the pass rusher(s) is still bad, but there is enough talent around that, where I expect better and I certainly expect better coaching wise to move the needle. It has to be a pretty uncomfortable day/week at Halas and hopefully this team responds well. One time back in 2003, the Patriots lost a home opener 31-0 to the Bills. The Pats went on to go 14-2 and won the Super Bowl that year.

But a 1:1 trade for Burger wasn't good. I was consistent in my views leading up to the trade, given how cost controlled he was, I didn't like the idea of moving him, unless you got real value for him. Because if Burger actually was able to develop and get better (which is not crazy given how little MLB exposure he has had) - than you are talking about a pretty valuable guy given the years of service. When I say better - I mean, improve the walk rate a bit, improve the contact rate a bit, maintain his power, and continue to refine his defense at 3B (where I think he's definitely serviceable). I got the concept of trading him - I would have rather traded Eloy or someone else and If I were to trade him, I get trading him for pitching, but a 1:1 for deal like this puts a ton of risk cause you are giving up a cost controlled major leaguer for a minor leaguer with injury issues, albeit with a draft pedigree.

I hear you entirely - all that said - I’m over excuses. Franchise qbs by definition overcome them. It’s one game so that game doesn’t make a season - but it was more of the same. With that said - I have said I will be patient, but my patience ends this season. By end of season - he has either shown that he is a franchise qb or they need to move another direction. Quite frankly halfway through the season, if it isn’t their try Bagent .

The only positive I can really identify is Mooney looked solid and it is only week one and a ton of teams across the league looked like s%*#.

If you don’t have a good offense or qb - your team will suck. Fields wasn’t good. The defense sucked too - but guess what - the defense was the worst in football last year…I am sure it will be a bit better but the story to me was how shitty the offense looked .

The oline was real bad and the play calling was either real s%*# or it shows you how little the oc thinks of Fields.

Fields was awful.

He can either elevate this team or he can go. It’s black and white for me this year. Mediocre or flashes are not good enough.