Well that historically bad QB just put up the one of the best statistical games for a QB in Bears history. Yes I know Bears QB history itself is historically bad. But our defense was worst in the league last year and is also the worst defense in the league this year. That has nothing to do with the QB and is nowhere near mediocre. When you have a terrible OLine, as we did last year, and you are always playing from behind, no QB can really succeed to any large degree. It seems to me that the debate shapes up as those who think the bears record under Fields is 100% due to Fields, and those who realize that the entire organization and team have been bad while we have had Fields. I agree he hasn’t played well consistently, but I also recognize all of the other factors that make it very hard for him to do so.
Here’s the nuance. Fields hasn’t been successful driving the Bears at any point of the game. His most successful situation is very clearly the opening scripted drive of games. After that almost every drive is a failure. So when he fails in the 4th quarter, that doesn’t tell me that he can’t close out games, that tells me that those drives are just like the other 6-8 a game he screws up.
As @Airbeck noted, he’s had the rare late game success, just like he’s had rare mid-game success. It’s just the normal random distribution of good play amongst a sea of shitty play.
For all of Fields faults, handing criticism and handling pressure are not ones I’ll lay at his feet. He’s tough physically and mentally, and he has shown high character in the worst situation. The offense is simply broken. He doesn’t throw with good anticipation (essential for beating zone), good accuracy, (ditto) and his receivers seem to not always be in the right spots. It’s tough to beat a zone when your spacing and timing is all fucked up, and that seems a perpetual problem with this group. Fields is at least half that problem.
As I mentioned, the pattern this year, and I suspect for his career, that defenses have figured it out, is that he does really well against man coverage when he has time, but he almost always takes the check down on zone coverage. Beating the zone requires receivers and QB to be on the same page and see the same things in the coverage, and letting a pass rusher come in unblocked and unaccounted for trumps anything else, cough Larry Borom cough.
Fields has tremendous athleticism and makes otherworldly plays running and escaping pressure to make time, he’s tough physically and mentally, as you say. He has made very accurate throws, so he has that ability, he just needs to make sure its consistent, and he must learn how to handle zone defense. If he can’t do that, then the rest of his skills may not matter. I just fear trading him to say, Atlanta, and then he becomes the player his tantalizing athleticism and potential seem to show he can possibly be. It would be an indictment on our whole organization, as if we need another one.
You may be right. A good HC/OC/QBC could probably get a lot better play out of him. Most of his issues, with the likely exception of his random accuracy problems, seem like they could be coached out. But this is year 3 and it hasn’t happened. If anything, it’s gotten worse. Yes, the Bears “brain” trust is largely to blame here, but Fields has the opportunity to work in the offseason with QB gurus and other smart people. Other QBs work on their craft in the offseason too. Either Fields hasn’t done that or it hasn’t taken, either way that’s an issue that transcends the Bears org.
Fields likely needs a fresh start. Even if we clean house, I’m not sure he can overcome the baggage. I don’t think any QB working with his 3rd regime on the same team has ever flourished. Fields is probably looking at a Mariota like career at this point.
I’m ready to dump the whole thing, draft Caleb Williams and hire Harbaugh or Lincoln Riley or whoever, and if Fields can show just enough this season to warrant a draft haul like Sam Darnold got, that’s the only move.
We never have alignment with GM, HC, QB for as far back as I can remember. It’s always some form of a GM gets hired with an existing coach and QB, or a HC is forced to coach a QB that he didn’t pick or want, or some form of that. Maybe that’s what we need. A complete clean out from top to bottom. Again sigh.
It’s just all in all a bad place to be for Bears fans. If you also happen to be a White Sox fan like me, it’s downright depressing.
This is also where I’m at. Fields is an exciting athlete and, by all accounts, a hard worker and a well-liked teammate, but the fact that we’re still talking about him like he’s a promising rookie in season 3 tells me he’s never going to be a true franchise QB.
Yep. A new HC and a new QB for sure. I’m still on the fence about Poles.
To be fair, that’s true of every single team that doesn’t have a long tenured coach. The logistics of the hiring process and the draft simply don’t allow it. Even the Rams and McVay were stuck with Jared Goff. Nick Siriani didn’t draft Jalen Hurts. Even Mike McDaniels and Tua are an arranged marriage.
The list is pretty much just Reid, Belichick, Harbaugh and Tomlin who have that kind of continuity.
The only way the Bears are likely to get this is to give the next HC the ability to pick his own players. I personally hate that model and think it’s doomed to fail, but if Harbaugh demands it, you probably have to do it at this point.
I agree, giving the HC personnel power almost never works out. I’m still scarred by the Wanny era.
I’m also on the Fence about Poles. I agree with a lot of his philosophy on building a team, but there are also a troubling number of mistakes so far. Claypool, Velus Jones, not solving the 3 technique problem when that position is vital for the cover 2 to be effective, etc.
Yeah, what happened to them? Not to hijack, they lost 100 games this year but they won the division two years ago going 93-69 and have basically the same team.
What I’ve heard is a big part was clubhouse issues with certain players. Grandal being one of the main problems. Former teammates have said he’s difficult to play with, not a leader, not a friend of the pitching staff, which is damning for a catcher. Also we signed too many young prospects to long term deals before they proved anything at this level. I’m sure due to not wanting them to sign elsewhere for big money. Moncada is said to be a diva that doesn’t work hard, doesn’t play for his teammates. Also Eloy, although he is a positive personality-wise, is also not a hard worker. Also poor roster construction, too many 1B/DH non-defensive sluggers. It’s a lot, mostly due to a dysfunctional front office, poor management, zero minor league player development, all coupled with an owner that won’t ever sign any big contracts for proven players.
Anyway, back to the Bears. It’s gotten so bad that I’ve resorted to placing a couple of small bets each week to keep me invested in the games. I’ll always be a Bears fan, but this year is really challenging.
Regarding the possibility of firing Matt Eberflus in-season, I just saw this: Who would you choose if the Bears pulled a “Jim Irsay” and hired a former player to replace Eberflus on an interim basis this season?
I think it’s a stupid publicity stunt of an idea, but kind of fun to debate. My thoughts are:
- Mike Singletary (some head coaching experience)
- Leslie Frazier (ditto)
- Olin Kreutz (no experience, but it would never be boring)
- Tom Thayer (no experience but a very good podcast analyst)
- Charles Tillman (if he can take a few months off from the FBI)
Who would you nominate?
Would it be cheating to say Jim Harbaugh?
Olin is intriguing in a toughen up the team sense. Our OLine would probably see some improvement.
Another analyst name, who never played for the Bears, but is great when he’s on the Score 670 analyzing the Bears, and he’s from Illinois, is Matt Bowen. He coaches a high school team right now, but he knows his stuff and is also tough.
It’s weird, I was actually a guy that defended Pace for longer than most. He made ugly mistakes on some high draft picks, but found some gems in the middle rounds. Poles early on has the same kind of up and down record. I believe in being patient with this stuff and I don’t think it does your organization any good at all to have a reputation as having a quick trigger on firings.
That said, I’m pretty firmly out on Poles right now. I haven’t decided if I’m just being emotional or if I’ve just learned my lesson. The Velus Jones pick enraged me the day he made it. The Claypool thing I defended at first because I understood the WR market was upside down, but these issues he’s having absolutely should not be a surprise. This stinks of an organization that doesn’t do its homework.
Some people are trying to absolve Poles of the Eberflus gaffe because he was basically handed a list of 3 guys to pick from by Polian and the owners. I’m not really buying that. If he didn’t like Eberflus he shouldn’t have taken the job, or he should have just slowed down the process and found his guy. You need to stand up to ownership if that situation is like that, or you need to recognize that it’s doomed to fail. The fact that he didn’t tells me that he liked Eberflus and co-signed it. He doesn’t get to scapegoat him.
The most damning thing in my mind if how badly he’s handled the OL and DL. He was a former lineman and everyone told us he was going to fix our most glaring issue. This was supposed to be his break and butter. I could overlook some mistakes on WRs and DBs if he was crushing every OL and DL addition. But since he’s been here the situation he degraded in the trenches. Maybe it was just lazy journalism to suggest that a guy who was an OL in the league for 5 minutes would be good at scouting lineman. Even so, he’s got a lot of work to do to win me back. And drafting Caleb Williams 1st overall isn’t going to be a feather in his cap, I could do that.
Yes. It has to be someone not currently coaching who could step in as an interim coach midseason.
Now, if we’re talking about next season …
Any football executive should know that you need to start building a team from the lines out. Without good O and D lines, you cannot succeed. These were also our most glaring weaknesses. The fact that we have had two off-seasons under him and we still don’t have a league average OLine and our DLine cannot pressure anyone is not a good look.
I guess the ball is in Kevin Warren’s court now and we’ll see how things play out, but Eberflus definitely needs to go, and we need a new HC and staff, that much I’m sure of at this point.
Ugh, this would be a great way to turn an ugly season into an absolute clown show. Most of the former Bears we see in the media are idiots, they are popular on the radio or TV because they are either bland, vanilla cheerleaders or just loudmouths who vomit whatever the angriest take of the day is from the fans.
We don’t have a DC so you can’t even really bring in a figurehead and hope the lieutenants are able to stay the course. Unfortunately, the situation is such a mess that we only have 2 options. Keep Eberflus (him not hiring a interim DC is a really savvy move to ensure job security) or promoting Getsy. If we do the latter, I don’t think any of our position coaches are qualified to run the defense.
Frankly, I think our only real out is this: Lovie Smith.
I used to love his column when the Tribune carried it. (Especially his running gag about being the guy drafted right before Tom Brady.) I wonder why he hasn’t cracked the pro coaching ranks.
The only rationale I can fathom here is that Poles believes that he knows line play, especially OL play, well enough to bargain hunt. He probably thinks he sees some inefficiency in the market and is trying to exploit it.
I know a couple people who are “in the know” with the organization and what I’m hearing is that Warren is basically 100% focused on the new stadium. I hope a guy in his position is able to compartmentalize, but I’m not counting on him to swoop in with the perfect GM and HC hires. As B1G commish, I don’t imagine he’s developed a deep network of up and coming innovators in NFL front offices. Hope I’m wrong.
I wondered how much, if anything, he has to do with that side of things. It will probably stay Poles as GM then I would imagine. Do they let him pick his own coach, or do they do the “consultant” thing again and handcuff him to certain choices? I wish I had any faith in this organization do to the right thing.