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Firing coaches mid season and paying big bucks for the top coach available clearly show moving on from the McCaskey curse.

And it could be - last year - many thought Flus wasn't right but McCaskey wasn't there yet to fully change his ways. Clearly when they moved quickly after the Thanksgiving debacle you could see more of that change. I think same with how they handled the hiring process with Ben Johnson and I think we even saw that with how they handled some of the assistants too - paying for a Dennis Allen as well as an EB at RB coach (who has some alpha in him). And if Warren and Poles were actually suggesting the change last off-season and McCaskey wasn't ready - he than saw that they were right - it may also just continue to support and help him learn a bit more as well as an owner so that maybe in time he learns how to get this right (and hopefully someone else in that family is also observing and getting schooled).

My two favorite current Bears personalities are Wanny and Olin. The Bear brass has always been the hidden vilian in my Bears watching history but that has changed now. It startered with Poles coming in and appears to had some restrictions but when they hired Warren, like AZ said, he is now the buffer to block George and the family. We have seen things slowly sort out. Poles has some blame in the build but is now past that with hiring BJ and drafting Caleb. I think he was influenced into hiring Flus and to work it out with Fields that just wasnt working. In all of this, he has managed the cap and did a good job of roster building. Mistakes along the way but show me a perfect GM? We are at a place we should have been last year but now it doesnt matter. The ducks are aligning to not just have a winning season but something a little more. We are gun shy because of the history of the Bears but its time to let that go. We have our franchise QB (IMO) the creative offensive guru and leader. I think the other coaches hired with him are a windfall. Many HCs in the future. We nitpick on a few positions when the overall talent lever is very good. LT-RB-EDGE but we are not void of talent there just not obvious at this point. I think we are ready to take off w/o the normal chatter of we have to grow together. We have BJ and Caleb, Houston did it with a lesser talented coach in 2023 and Washington did it with a lesser roster last year. WHY NOT US?

cheapness and also the mckaskey family are born idiots. every one of them. how can you be around a sport/business your ENTIRE life and know absolutely nothing about the sport or how to run a franchise. you had people thinking they were smarter than anyone else, mikey especially. even george halas was a terrible owner. the same applies to him. CHEAPNESS and stupidity kept this franchise in the dumpster since the 60's and maybe before that too. this franchise was a cash cow first and a sports franchise second. exception: the hiring of wanny was a good move at the time as he was one of the best candidates out there. i think they paid out decent money also but, whew, what a freaking failure. he certainly didn't get any help from out idiot GM mikey but still. this formula it seems is the role model for all chicago sports. you had in baseball: wriggley who was maybe the worst, commisky, veck, and reinsdork who ranks up there with wriggley. new cubs guy? don't follow baseball anymore. football: halas/mccaskey and bidwell basketball: don't follow this sport but i have to put reinsdork right up there. as far as sports franchises go, chicago is the city of big shoulders, big pockets and small brains. EDIT: mugs halas seemed to be the future of the bears franchise and wasn't given enough time as the president to turn it around before he died.

wanny was a terrible HC. remember the spying on players in the locker room rumor? as a HC he too was leagues under the sea. a good DC and I like him at his current status as a commentator and evaluator but as HC atrocious. add to your horrible failures as HC ditka and those before him with the exception of the one who left in the late 70's. can't think of his name, was HC of the oilers for a while. not the best but at least an average HC. add armstrong to abe gibron and even before. a total shite show throughout the decades.

yes. Hiring Warren seems to be the answer to McCaskey meddling. Would he have the juice now to decide something like firing Eberflus before last year? One hopes so, but these McCaskeys are a curse.

Who knows what they were constrained with. Cheapness is a curse with this franchise. This is the first year I've felt they are willing to pay for something lasting...

Fox was a real coach at least. In the end, he wasnt capable of putting together a modern offense, or apparently attracting a good OC, but these two were certainly better than the others.

I like Wanny too. He was just so hamstrung by Mikey. I also liked Fox. Fox is the only experienced head coach they ever hired and he was at the end.

I think the McCaskeys liked to hire people they felt they could control. People who showed deference. People who werent too confident or alpha. For a FOOTBALL team. Getting cold feet on people like McGinnis and Arians. It's pathetic. I think the hiring of Warren is supposed to be the end of their BS. We will see because Poles still couldnt fire Eberflus last year, and it is unproven whether Warren makes good decisions. Getting Ben Johnson was a really good move. Hopefully Johnson takes over the leadership role, and we dont need Poles for that anymore. Whether we got lucky, or what, we now have a real Qb and a real HC/OC, and for that matter a real staff and a pretty decent roster. We still need a few pieces, but if we dont sniff the playoffs this year, something is wrong.

It's exhausting to be honest. There are so many other little things like hiring Jauron after announcing Dave McGinnis. Not that hiring McGinnis was the answer, he was terrible too. It was the entire process that led to the team announcing it before it was a done deal. EmBearassing. How about going with Trestman over Arians? That was fun too. Arians was the easy slam dunk and would've been crazy fun with Cutler at QB. Then with Eberflus, Dan Quinn was a final candidate. The only saving grace is the Bears would not have landed Johnson because Quinn would probably still be the HC right now.

I did forget Fox, and I thought "dont crap on Wanny, he wasnt THAT bad" but you know what? Youre right. We have been a joke for a LONG LONG time.

Don't forget Wanny and Fox.

To me this was Poles biggest failure. Now Im reading more support for the idea that the McCaskeys simply said that he couldn't fire a guy with 3 years left on his contract. If so, that shields Poles from that decision, but then it calls into question why he agreed to Eberflus in the first place. I understand he was under ridiculous pressure, having just been hired and your boss has a guy picked out for you. Maybe its too much to hope that Poles would have put the brakes on at that point. I also read this week that Caleb was trying to get out of going to the Bears pre draft until he met with Poles, and that Poles, Warren and Cunningham all told Caleb that they knew the Bears were a shit show, and they were working to change that. If I read between the lines, it's its a hunch more than a fact, that Poles may even have said something about Eberflus and the future. probably something like "listen Caleb, either he is going to make it work here, or we will find you coaches that can" whatever it was, after that meeting Caleb texted friends that he could work with the Bears. So it's hard to triangulate Poles' part in this - whoever's fault it was, Eberflus was another in a long line of disasters. Maybe the last one(s?) a McCaskey gets to make? Moving forward things do seem to be progressing now. But look at this list: Eberflus Nagy Trestman Jauron Waldron Getsy Loggains Gase Kromer TIce Shea Shoop Crowton What. The. Hell.

It is crazy just how bad they were. Flus may be the only head coach to have his DC, OC, and RB Coaches all fired in season, then gets fired in season himself. Williams and Walker left in season in 2023, Waldron and Flus in 2024. In reality Flus should've never been hired, and or fired after every season. He took a 6-win team and somehow made it worse. Then because Fields willed the team to a few extra wins in 2023 he got a 3rd year. Which was again crazy. How does a guy like that get one of the top 32 positions for that career field? This continually supports the position that what Caleb did last year was even better all things considered. The coaching actually hurt him and was a detriment to his development and performance. I would not be surprised if every other rookie QB drafted last year fails miserably under the same conditions.

? There definitely was a story that the coaches werent preparing him properly with film study. We are talking about it now. Waldron and Eberflus were TERRIBLE. And unprofessional. And inept. And in over their heads. Frauds.

The story was, he didnt want to play for the Bears Yes it is malpractice, old story / new context

Here is a quote stating that it was "at times". I just thought it meant that when he was going to watch tape alone, no coach ever told him to watch something specific. Still coaching malpractice, but it seems par for the course with how bad the coaching staff was.

Yes he is saying they never watched film with him. Thats why it's a big story.

Check out this interview with Bagent. He thinks Caleb and Dexter are going to have breakout seasons. They try to be nice about the former staff, but Bagent is super excited about the new staff and went up and down both sides of the ball praising the coaches. He also noted that the new staff is teaching them what they are responsible for on each play, what their job is on every play, very detail-oriented, connecting the dots, etc. Now one would think this occurs everywhere, but the fact that he states this as a difference leads me to believe that they were just running plays last year. He mentions "teaching" several times in this interview. He also mentioned how awesome it is to have JT Barrett and Case Keenum in the QB Room. He said that Keenum has already helped him change his routine. That's awesome. I would not have any issues keeping 3x QBs on the roster if Keenum is that big of an influence.

The WR group isnt impressive because they didnt have any great QBs and we were a D first and running team.

The reason Kyle wasnt given any credit was because he was a 7th round pick. If we had drafted him in the 4th or 5th, no one would have looked down on the pick. He was the best RB in the big 10 for 2 years. Henderson and Junkins got more credit because they are good and played for OSU. Rutgers had a lousy passing game so he had to run against 8 and 9 in a box every carry. He could easily be the surprise of the whole draft.

The quote was (at times) he watched film by himself. If a player goes in on his own time and watches film, I would say cudos to Caleb for putting extra work in. Every position group watches film of the game with their coaches after games. It was not stated (never).