How Bout Dem Bears?

Realt Dearg Sec

Report out that Kevin Warren will lead the search for the new GM with Poles "assisting". Why can't the bears ever just do things properly? If you don't trust him to pick the coach, then get a different GM, fine. But Warren's job is building a new stadium, he is not a football person.

padraig_f

I thought that was interesting, Belichick's take the end of the Lions game, and how to manage those late-game situations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKoLBs6U6As

I guess Belichick could be one of the candidates for the head-coaching vacancy. Any preferences for the next head-coach?

For me, I favour offensive head-coaches, so my clear number 1 would be Ben Johnson. Then you've got maybe Kliff Kingsbury, Belichick, Brian Flores, Bobby Slowik.

Thomas Brown I think would be too much of a risk, no matter how well the team does in the remaining games, just because of his lack of experience. 1 year as OC with the Panthers, that's it. It seems to me, it frequently ends badly when teams promote an interim head-coach who won a handful of games (e.g. the current Raiders head-coach)

padraig_f

Kyle Brandt:

"The Bears next head coach?

Be ready for weird."

https://x.com/KyleBrandt/status/1863659282605949195

Realt Dearg Sec

Ugh, that's probably right, they'll always want to have some nerdy quirky pick to look clever, like with trestman, instead of just picking someone who knows the job and is able to command the respect of players.

rodders999

Absolutely annihilated there on the first play of the game, only way is up I suppose.

rodders999

Or now. Maybe they’ve decided to tank.

Realt Dearg Sec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122937955#Comment_122937955

Never assume you've hit rock bottom!

rodders999

I was actually thinking at 21-0 that this could be rock bottom. 9 offensive yards on the day, QB sacked on 3rd down again and again….and again. Refusing to run the ball despite that being the best way to get at SF.

Williams now has 52 sacks - Christ.

Realt Dearg Sec

Did anyone in the bears defensive coaching staff ever hear of George kittle before today?

rodders999

sacked on 3rd down AGAIN!!!!!

Realt Dearg Sec

This has been abysmal and, fair or unfair, probably that's the last we'll hear about Thomas Brown as head coach candidate.

rodders999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122938193#Comment_122938193

when he rang each player on Monday what the hell did he say?

Realt Dearg Sec

The real disgrace here is that the players themselves pushed hard to get flus fired, and now they're playing like they couldn't give a **** anyway.

rodders999

good drive, nice touchdown then Kmet drops an easy one. Standard.

Realt Dearg Sec

A brief moment of competence on each side of the ball, then both got back to business as usual. I mean, we have no coach right now so whatever, I'm not expecting much anyway. But it's grim viewing all the same.

padraig_f

I don't really care about the result these days, in fact a loss is better for draft-position. I just feel a bit bad about this when I see Caleb Williams' sad face on the sideline, the guy really wants to win!

Anyway, in more positive things...I wouldn't be a great evaluator of wide-receivers, and was curious that Rome Odunze had a fairly quiet season. But he made some great catches yesterday, the first TD was an absolute beauty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aJeIoRnQ1E

And a good route and catch for the second one too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBigtDXOUnc

Just looking at his stats there, compared to other rookie WRs:

https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/nfl-rookie-receiving-yards-leaders-2024

That's really not bad, when (checks), the Bears are 30th in the league in passing-yards per-game:

https://www.espn.com/nfl/stats/team/_/table/passing/sort/netPassingYardsPerGame/dir/desc

Realt Dearg Sec

I really think the state of our offensive line, starters, depth, and coaching, is negligent and it's harming Williams. Shocking when your GM is a former o line himself. But if they get that right this year (make a splash in free agency AND draft heavily, AND get a better coach in), the offense isn't far away. I've liked odunze a lot too. Thinking about the way the season is I'm not too shocked this morning about the players checking out but really they should have shown more fight the week after the coach was fired. Anyway...

padraig_f

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122940062#Comment_122940062

We have great draft capital. High first-round pick, and two high second-round picks (ours and the Panthers). You can really do a lot with that. I'm not worried about it damaging Caleb's development (only the risk of injury behind the dodgy o-line), I think he's too smart for that. You can see him learning week to week, and the fact is, he has developed well throughout the season, despite the shitshow going on around him.

I wasn't surprised at the team's performance either. This isn't soccer, where you get a new coach in, and a bit of ra-ra gets the players going. American football is a more complex game, and it requires things being installed in the offseason. The idea that you'd promote the passing-coordinator (who let's not forget, was part of the original problem anyway, he was passing-game coordinator!), and he'd turn things around was wishful thinking.

Realt Dearg Sec

Troy aikmen telling us that Caleb has to take the blame for all the sacks, then moments later he gets blindsided, again, due to our embarrassing oline. I have turned on the bulls game, at least if they don't win they won't completely humiliate the city in the process.

Realt Dearg Sec

Caleb Williams looked a broken man tonight. If I was a QB coming into the league I would simply not agree to be drafted by the bears, their track record in this regard is truly shocking.

Oat23

Scoring a TD and having it taken off the board because Doug Kramer forgot to report as eligible. You can only laugh at this point.

Amegadjie is nowhere near NFL ready and should've been redshirted this season, not forced to start at LT. Poles' future should've been tied to Eberflus as soon as he decided to retain him in January and all this talk about him being safe and heading up the search for the next HC has been very annoying. These performances every week reflect badly on the job he has done and he should be fired too. Lucking into Caleb is one of the only good things he has done through 3 years.

Realt Dearg Sec

Gonna be a long day.

Realt Dearg Sec

Rome Odunze don't drop the ball challenge

Realt Dearg Sec

Jaylon Johnson shut the fcuk up challenge

Oat23

Very early on in the coaching search but it looks like Ben Johnson from the Lions will be the most coveted coordinator on the market this January, and Courtney Cronin from ESPN reported yesterday that he plans to interview with the Bears next month. Johnson himself said recently that he'll be selective when it comes to interviews this time round and will only take them with teams he is interested in actually coaching.

Wouldn't say it's a lock yet. He could be spooked by the incompetence he witnesses at Halas Hall when he visits. Another team could make a more convincing offer. The Lions could lose in the playoffs in heartbreaking fashion and Campbell convinces him to run it back. We'll see.

Realt Dearg Sec

Could easily see him being very interested but then our leadership decide to get cute and hire some quirky long shot candidate. They definitely won't like the fact that he is likely to have sharp questions about how the club is managed. That's the pessimist in me but I think it's well earned at this stage. But he is, easily, the best candidate right now. His play calling is amazing (unlike Nagy who had nearly no experience with that) and he has transformed a journeyman QB into a consistent and sometimes brilliant leader (again unlike Nagy who just held onto mahomes's coattails).

Realt Dearg Sec

That fourth down timing fiasco getting bailed out by Williams and then him taking another sack is such a wonderful summation of our season, I don't think you could script it. I feel so sorry for him and yet so glad he's here

Realt Dearg Sec

And another clock management fiasco, **** amateurs, I don't want to hear any more blaming of Williams, he is surrounded by incompetence (a few honorable exceptions on the field).

Oat23

I don't know why I'm surprised that the coaches hired by Eberflus are also incompetent.

I don't understand the final few plays. If you don't think Santos can kick from 57, why are you throwing it deep on both 2nd and 3rd down? If they are both incomplete, which they were, you've left yourself in a position where you have to go for it on 4th & 10 for the game. Just breathtakingly stupid decisions all night.

Realt Dearg Sec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122992649#Comment_122992649

The whole end was confusing. Bringing out the punter and burning a timeout to bring the offense back out, etc etc. Just like under eberflus there was clearly no plan for these kinds of situations. Very depressing to hear the analysts finding ways to blame Williams (and even suggesting that the oline should be frustrated with the quarterback! I mean he wasn't perfect but Jesus Christ Almighty), I hope he isn't listening to that stuff.

In a way I'm glad the stupid interception record is gone because he might loosen up a bit.

I'm optimistic about him and Rome, and weirdly enough Moore looked motivated tonight too. I dunno, we deserved more out of that, but the coaching was abysmal. Defense were better than they've been these past few weeks.

Part of me is ready to fire poles but I think if they can get Johnson this team could be a real contender.