Tony

Would be an insanely bad pick. Saw someone tweet during the Eagles/Rams game. Can't remember the exact wording, but the idea was: RB is a gasoline position. If you have a good OL and scheme, the fire is lit. But you can't expect the RB position to bring the matches and wood. A bad OL will put that fire out ASAP. The RB is the accelerator, can turn the campfire into a blaze. Meaning...they gotta fix the OL before they can think about spending real draft capital on the RB position. *I would also add I would guess BJ feels the same, would rather build out the OL first before getting the RB. The entire offensive won't work without an OL.

Big picture, the offensive needs to significantly improve. It won't take a year to see if Caleb is in good hands or not, or is there a large performance change that we can see. I say that because with the NFC North being an absolute force last season, so many weird things can happen, so I'm not ready to say "They have the make the playoffs or this is a bust." This is the hire they should have made. Brian Flores? Come on. They took a QB at No. 1 overall, and the offensive seemed broken many times this season. They need to fix that, and this was the best option available. And they got him. Now they need to find more talent for this roster, which is the harder part.

They did things the right way. Good for them. Now the hard part starts

Feels like if the money was the same, BJ would take the Raiders job because he gets to bring his GM, where it doesn’t seem like that option is going to be present with the Bears (which is incredibly dumb)

Could be a good sign?

I see it differently, and maybe I’m giving the Bears more credit than they deserve, but god help us if that’s the case. Reports have indicated early the interest on both sides with Johnson. I still contend that from an objective standpoint, the situation in Chicago is better than Vegas. I do think there would be concern inside HH that they don’t feel 100% comfortable with hiring an unproven candidate like Johnson, him suffering the same fate as Nagy, Eberflus, etc. Which would then shift to McCarthy. Not as exciting, and lower ceiling than Johnson, but higher floor, feels like you know what you’re getting. I know we aren’t inside the room, but I just don’t see any assistant being more attractive than Johnson. Doesn’t mean a guy like Monken can’t have success, but Johnson has been the No. 1 name out there for a while, and if they really do have interest in both McCarthy and Johnson, I don’t see them striking out on both. Option C of course is we have no idea what the hell is going on and they end up with David Shaw and believe they are smarter than everyone else, and we all suffer as a result.

Yeah, I heard the report yesterday that it sounds like McCarthy requested the in person, so I agree that it’s maybe less “intense” than I previously believed…but I still think he’s the favorite right now for a number of different reasons, and I agree with the sentiment that they are going to screw up this process in regards to Johnson. McCarthy won’t be a terrible hire, but it’s not the best they could do. Welcome to being a sports fan in Chicago.

But if you're basing your opinion on what has been reported, Russini (same outlet as Courtney) reported this on Jan 8th: Seemingly, that has held true for the first 10 interviews the Bears have completed, including candidates like Pete Carroll, who had nothing stopping him from meeting in person for the first round of interviews. What changed with McCarthy? This is his first interview with the Bears, yet he's the only one that has been flown in. That's not nothing.

I truly believe this is going to be a situation today where they "don't let him leave the building" They are flying him in on a private jet, rolling out the red carpet...think it's basically over if they are willing to shell out the money

At this point, I'll be shocked if it isn't McCarthy. It just makes too much sense for the Bears FO and how they view things. Poles, and really everyone in that building is feeling the heat. It's been an awful three year stretch, let alone the last 15 years for the organization as a whole. There seemingly is less risk involved with a McCarthy hire, because you have a much better understanding of what the floor looks like. There is most likely a higher floor with McCarthy than there is with Ben Johnson, mostly having to do with the unknown with Johnson as a HC. But that obviously works the other way too, there is seemingly a much higher ceiling with Johnson, again because of the unknown. But McCarthy can check off a lot of boxes for the Bears in a press conference. Offensive mind, has won a Super Bowl, one of five coaches to lead a franchise to 8 straight playoff appearances. He's 61, so he should have another 8-10 years in the league if he wants. And George watch him beat the hell out of the Bears as HC for Green Bay. It just seems like the perfect marriage as the Bears would see it. I don't, I still think you take the bigger swing with Johnson, but I think that ship may have sailed.

You think fans were pissed this year? Watch Fields go to the Raiders, led by Ben Johnson, and light things up. That should be fun 😂

Especially because Ben Johnson has been the name fans have wanted for probably a year, nothing changed this season (if anything fans want him more) and he's sitting out there, waiting for a suitor to sign him up, AND has reportedly shown interest in the Bears job. All the Bears have to do is bring it home...and anyone that has followed the team knows how unlikely that is for the Bears to pull off...because it's the Bears.

There are ways to get a commitment from Johnson through back channels, it happens quite a bit. Still obviously some risk involved, but Johnson wouldn't be the first coach to have an agreement with a team before the playoffs are over, then it gets announced. It's on the Bears if they can pull it off

Vikings had a great season, but amazing how bad things can look at one game. - Not sure you can give Darnold a new deal after that performance last night, it was horrific. - The Vikings have 37 FA’s set to be FA’s this offseason. - They currently have 3 draft picks for 2025, a 1st and two 5th’s. They traded their 2nd, 3rd and 4th to move up last year to take Dallas Turner, who had a mediocre rookie year, and Jared Verse was still on the board.

Pete Carroll has never made sense to me. He’s 73. You should be looking for your next head coach that will be here for the next decade. That has to be the goal. Usually doesn’t work, but that has to be what who you’re trying to find. I don’t think anyone thinks, including Carroll, that he’ll be coaching at 83. So if that’s the case, why is he even a realistic option?

I’ll give it a shot…no coach has ever won the Super Bowl with two different teams, and I don’t know why we think Mike McCarthy would be the first one to do it

This game hopefully takes Flores out of consideration…

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Why are we acting like CJ Stroud has risen to Patrick Mahomes/Josh Allen levels? Caleb and Stroud both played in 17 games this year. Stroud - 3,727 Yards, 233 rushing yards, 20 TD's, 12 INT's Williams - 3,541 yards, 489 rushing yards, 20 TD's, 6 INT's I mean, what are we doing here?

I don’t think it has to be a clear indicator, and I know we are beating a dead horse here, but given his lack of success in his previous role, it’s hard for many fans to fathom (myself included) that he was not only promoted, but the Sox didn’t interview anyone for the role. They have admitted that. Even the biggest Getz supporters have very little to cite when it comes to what he has excelled at as a baseball executive, yet he was given one of the most prestigious jobs in sports, and didn’t have to compete with anyone for the job. The cherry on top, of course, is the reason Jerry cited in hiring Getz was he “didn’t want to waste a year.” Coming off of that statement, all they did was set the major league record for worst season of all time. Just great work all around. Yet some can’t wrap their head around the skepticism White Sox fans have with their favorite team.

Of course it was extremely talented, but it speaks to my original point. 2005 everything came together perfectly, and a number of guys basically emptied their gas tanks for that season. End of the day, they won the World Series in 2005, and were third in their division in 2006. And as we know, 2005 is the only season in the last 100 years they have won a playoff series. So I’m not going to the take the advice of someone else on this board and be thankful for the wonderful ownership of Jerry Reinsdorf, or anyone that came before him. This is an embarrassingly bad franchise most of us were unfortunately born into.

You’re attacking posters here but that anger should be directed at ownership. The post you are quoting is working under the same assumption we all have been…the Sox were never going to extend Crochet. 2025 and 2026 are going to be awful years for the White Sox, the same years Crochet is still under contract with the Sox. Working under that premise, it would have been asinine NOT to trade him.

This has been a debate for basically the last decade, but I think the argument is a fairly simple one. The 2005 White Sox were an absolute force and absolutely deserved to win the World Series based on their play. However, coming into the 2005 season, there were not waves of predictions they were a World Series caliber team, from fans or media members. - A 31 year old Jermaine Dye doubled his WAR from 2004 - Podsednik had a 1.7 WAR in 2005, up from 0.6 in 2004 (He played in 25 more games in 2004!) - From 2002-2004, Konerko put up a 3.8 WAR total. In 2004 he had a 4 WAR season. - Two guys who I consider some of the most important guys in 2005, Politte and Cotts, came out of absolute NO WHERE and both had WARs over 2 as RPs. I could go on. There were a few guys that actually had somewhat down years from where they were before (Rowand, Frank obviously) but generally speaking, a lot had to come together from some unexpected places for 2005 to be as memorable as it was. That is often the case for World Series teams, but as history unfortunately showed us, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007 weren’t playoff teams. It was a magical season, but the key word there is “season.” It lasted a year.

One of the most incredible statements ever made in the very long history of this site.

I agree with this, by the way. You didn’t really say that in your first post lol