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They truly are building a culture, while seemingly not losing out on any talent doing it.

Also, the character and personality part is hard to determine just by watching tape. So the "personal" scouting piece seems to be equally important. Looking at all the draft picks, all of them love football, are great teammates, and work hard at their craft. Williams is always doing something. You see Odunze doing the 3-cone drill over and over long after everyone left. Booker is at the Senior Bowl working on stuff on the sidelines long after others have left. That dedication is infectious. Kiran is on another level growing up and still being a Bears fan. His tweets are hilarious. He seems like a guy that will do whatever he can to help this franchise win.

thats what I see too. Plus, holding the ball because you are big play hunting because your defense is awful and you need to be scoring 40 to win, is a different kind of "holds the ball too long" than being indecisive and gun shy. And Caleb is not either of those things.

I totally agree. I'm sure to your point that these guys get more data points than they need. On one hand you might uncover hidden problems, but on the other hand you may become overwhelmed with data and get swayed by something that isnt going to have any real impact. Im sure all the scouts are very close to all the small details, and Poles has to have the large view and put it all into context. he seems to have made a lot of wise moves, and it looks like it's starting to pay off too!

Sometimes it's the no-brainers that are the best moves too. Don't overthink it. Don't try to be the smartest guy in the room (Trubisky over Watson), Shaheen in the 2nd. The UDFAs are a huge part of the scouting process too like you said, and I have liked what they have tried to do there as well.

It is night and day. Williams is a natural thrower. Fields always felt like a super athlete trying to play QB. It is not natural for him. Now entering his 4th season in the NFL, he still is somewhat robotic. That doesn't even account for the actual delayed release which gets worse with the hitch. Watching a lot of Williams tape, when he makes the decision to throw the ball, it is on the target almost immediately, regardless of his body position/angle, etc. It is pretty impressive to watch. However, most of the time, he is just dropping back and throwing the ball in rhythm. For a baseball analogy, Williams is a guy that is a technician, 5-6 different pitches, with all kinds of variations and arm angles. Fields is the flamethrower that has two pitches a fastball and curve. It is either feast or famine with him.

The whole narrative about a decline in Williams' performance in 2023 is way overblown. He only threw 5 INTs all season and 3 came in one game (against ND). So outside of that game his INT% was 0.57% which is actually insanely low. He had a 1.0% INT in 2022. For the season in 2023, his INT% was 1.3%, which is still elite. So did he force 5 balls trying to make a play, yes he did, but if that is the worst, I will take it every day and twice on Sunday. Also, his raw numbers were slightly down from his Heisman season, but there were two factors, one he played in two fewer games, and two, the team around him was far inferior to the team in 2022. The crazy thing is, even though he had less opportunities, he made the most of them with a better Comp% 68.6% and Y/A at 9.4, both career highs. He also rushed for 11 TDs in 2023 which gets overlooked because he wasn't a running QB like Daniels.

finding those hidden gems is definitely a place where your scouting shines, where they can really help the team. and while youre right that Odunze is a no brainer pick, youd want to be sure from your scouting that for example Dallas Turner isn't the next NFL sack leader, or Fashanu isn't about to set the league on fire too. I agree that even with my layman eyes I could see the difference, but even sure things go through a ton of vetting because that bust percentage is so high. But I feel really good about all these guys too, and some of the unsigned rookie free agents are intriguing as well.

The title is funny "Scouting Staff praise their own decisions" I would hope the scouts are happy with the picks that they recommended to the leadership. Also, with Williams and Odunze no brainers, there were really only 3 picks that took any type of "scouting" and technically Taylor being the best punter in the nation didn't take a lot of effort to figure out. So it really came down to Kiran and Booker.

Ogbah would be a nice vet addition.

thats what i see too. And even when he does hold the ball hunting big plays, hes always looking downfield, again unlike Fields. Im not here to diss on Fields now that he's gone, but I think we keep putting the criticisms of Fields on Caleb for some reason, and they arent true.

His release is right up there with the greatest I've ever seen. Polar opposite of Justin in every aspect. He's fiery and plays with a sense of urgency in which I had a problem with Justin.

I was looking at available EDGE players and noticed Emmanuel Ogbah. His stats are actually impressive, especially when you consider, from what I read, Miami switched defensive schemes two years ago causing his production to drop. At 30 years of age, 8 years of experience, 6'4". 275#, 35 1/2" arms, and 10" hands, he sure fits the part physically. I bet he'd sign cheap and would be a good upgrade opposite M Sweat. (assuming our scheme fits his strengths).

Good comments here from Poles and scouts on the draft picks. Poles has also been on some podcasts this week, including Pat McAfee and Waddle & Silvy. https://www.chicagobears.com/audio/ryan-poles-bears-scouting-staff-praise-2024-draft-picks-bears-etc-podcast

Bullshit. Thats a ridiculous narrative from the media. I just posted a video with over 100 examples of Caleb playing in structure and not holding the ball.

I loved the whole walk out. I'll do the scream on his first win!

I hate being overly optimistic, but man it is hard to see anything less than 4,200 passing yards. This is 4,400: Moore - 1,000, Allen - 900, Odunze - 700, Kmet - 600, Everett - 400, Swift - 300, Scott - 200, All Others - 300 (Herbert and Roschon had over 300 last year). That is also 364 fewer yards for Moore, 343 fewer for Allen, 119 fewer for Kmet, and then normal projections for the others. No crazy numbers and no career highs.

I love the scream when he walked out, that was all of us.

Last year the top 4 offenses had over 4000 passing and over 2200 yards rushing. We had 2399 rushing and 3421 passing. Caleb and our WRs will make up 600 passing yards. Anyone think that is unrealistic? We will have more offensive plays this year because of a more successful offense. I think Waldron runs a balanced offense theory . In 2022, 573 passing plays and 425 rushing plays. 4282 passing yards and 2042 rushubg yards. In 2023 passing 575 4167 and rushing 382 1580. They finished 9-8 both seasons. We have more talent than the Seahawks had, it is a no brainer that we win more games.

His arm talent is exceptional, but last year his decision making took a hit. When you hold the ball for 60 plays over 6 seconds, thats poor decision making. Because of the lack of talent around him, he held the ball to long trying to make home run plays instead of taking what the defense gave him. 2022 he was king for his decision making, Heisman Trophy. Its great to see him shine on his play, but when he makes mistakes, that counts to. That contributed to his fumbles also. His success this year will be based on how well he accepts coaching, no coach is telling you to hold the ball for more than 4 seconds.

Here's 20 minutes of Caleb making big plays in structure and getting the ball out fast. His throwing motion is insane too. But mostly you see him having elite pocket presence and reading and manipulating defenses. This oughtta bust some of the media narratives about always holding the ball too long. This is a fantastic prospect we are getting. The Oklahoma stuff int he first few minutes is good, but the USC stuff is crazy good.

I guess we mostly agree, I just think Caleb reads a defense better than any. McCarthy is probably second in that. But I don't think he has generational arm talent per se, I think it's his QBs brain, character, maturity and desire to win that's generational. He does make really great off platform throws, but I think it's his "quarterbacking" that's elite?

I didn’t say he’s just an arm. I said it’s his arm talent that is generational. Other traits as you said were not even best in class. Of the top 6 QBs if you ranked them in each category I’m confident Caleb is top 2 or 3 in each except fumbles. He might be last there and if I wasn’t using my phone I’d look it up. Overall those traits made him the best prospect but he’ll need time to fix those bad habits. He gets one big advantage because our offense is all new with many new skill position players. Nobody knows what to expect in the first few games.

yeah when you have a good roster, the holes are easy to see. This is all the effect of having tanked the 2021 year. We bought our freedom from football purgatory with that move.