It's hard not to feel like this has been done for a while and the Bears were just fucking around filling time. That happened FAST. 

Good for them. Love it.

Absolutely huge news. Great job bears on closing.

Ben Johnson HC and Dennis Allen DC it appears 

Edited January 20, 20251 yr by Soxfest

4 minutes ago, Soxfest said:

Johnson HC and Allen DC it appears 

And the assumption he brings in the Lions O-line coach as his OC. 

 

Wonder if Eddie George fits somewhere?

I'm gonna kinda say...good job Warren? We went from people calling him an empty suit, to someone over-meddling in football business, to landing the top HC candidate and getting George to certainly pay him near Reid money. He's gonna be paid a ton.

Regardless of anything, this is a highly sought after coach in this cycle.  Nice to see the Bears pull it off, feels like when they got Lovie.

9 minutes ago, bmags said:

I'm gonna kinda say...good job Warren? We went from people calling him an empty suit, to someone over-meddling in football business, to landing the top HC candidate and getting George to certainly pay him near Reid money. He's gonna be paid a ton.

Yeah. And (I think) good job Poles. He was able to sell himself pretty well I assume.

3 minutes ago, PaleAleSox said:

Yeah. And (I think) good job Poles. He was able to sell himself pretty well I assume.

Correct, absolutely. Now actually draft ?

4 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

Regardless of anything, this is a highly sought after coach in this cycle.  Nice to see the Bears pull it off, feels like when they got Lovie.

Right, the reason I'm more confident is because the general ether love Ben Johnson, not that the bears picked him out of a lineup. 

Nothing works out until it works out (buffalo, detroit, etc), but boy Johnson sure felt like the biggest coordinator hire since Shanahan.

But...some may say Daboll. You never know, but I think other stuff sunk Daboll anyway.

8 minutes ago, bmags said:

Right, the reason I'm more confident is because the general ether love Ben Johnson, not that the bears picked him out of a lineup. 

Nothing works out until it works out (buffalo, detroit, etc), but boy Johnson sure felt like the biggest coordinator hire since Shanahan.

But...some may say Daboll. You never know, but I think other stuff sunk Daboll anyway.

Everyone seems to love this guy, but he has no head coaching experience. Does he get a year or two to get his feet wet or should Bears fans expect the playoffs next year? 

12 minutes ago, PaleAleSox said:

Yeah. And (I think) good job Poles. He was able to sell himself pretty well I assume.

Let...Poles cook?

Johnson must have gotten a promise that Warren/George will stay out of football decisions, too. There is no way he would come here without that.

8 minutes ago, LittleHurtCG said:

Everyone seems to love this guy, but he has no head coaching experience. Does he get a year or two to get his feet wet or should Bears fans expect the playoffs next year? 

If you can upgrade both lines (offensive more than defensive) then the talent should be good enough to get them in the hunt. To me, that's a good first year.

Now actually draft offensive linemen in the 1 and 2 rounds.

7 minutes ago, ptatc said:

Now actually draft offensive linemen in the 1 and 2 rounds.

Yeah I'd like to see OL, DL, OL for those first three picks. 

12 minutes ago, LittleHurtCG said:

Everyone seems to love this guy, but he has no head coaching experience. Does he get a year or two to get his feet wet or should Bears fans expect the playoffs next year? 

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. 

I can see Poles giving Trey Smith a blank check as a UFA. But boy... I wonder how much they would consider Ashton Jeanty now in the draft to be their Jahmyr Gibbs. Swift is not it. 

9 minutes ago, SoxAce said:

I can see Poles giving Trey Smith a blank check as a UFA. But boy... I wonder how much they would consider Ashton Jeanty now in the draft to be their Jahmyr Gibbs. Swift is not it. 

There's definitely a non-zero chance for this now. But just about every other resource would need to be dumped into the lines.

Or, hear me out, the obvious move is to convince Fields to return as the ultimate gadget player.

10 minutes ago, SoxAce said:

I can see Poles giving Trey Smith a blank check as a UFA. But boy... I wonder how much they would consider Ashton Jeanty now in the draft to be their Jahmyr Gibbs. Swift is not it. 

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. 

I’ll be excited when we actually see some success due to this move.

4 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

I’ll be excited when we actually see some success due to this move.

You are allowed to be excited by moves. What the hell are sports for if not that? Take some joy today. They got the best guy on the market. 

I wonder if 

10 minutes ago, Tony said:

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. 

If Ben Johnson wants a RB the good news is this is a phenomenal draft for RB and you could get a great one at 39 or 41.

7 minutes ago, PaleAleSox said:

You are allowed to be excited by moves. What the hell are sports for if not that? Take some joy today. They got the best guy on the market. 

Nah, I’ll reserve my judgment until I see some form of success.  We were all excited about the Keenan Allen trade last year.

Edited January 20, 20251 yr by WhiteSox2023

5 minutes ago, bmags said:

I wonder if 

If Ben Johnson wants a RB the good news is this is a phenomenal draft for RB and you could get a great one at 39 or 41.

I still would hate them taking one that early, but with two 2nd rounders, I wouldn't pitch a fit. 

Fix the trenches and everything becomes so much easier, and everyone gets a lot better. 

4 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Nah, I’ll reserve my judgment until I see some form of success.  We were all excited about the Keenan Allen trade last year.

Alright, man. Well have fun with that.