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I respect your opinion that I disagree with, lucky for me the most important person in the organisation doesnt agree with you.

agree. I assume that there are enough good voices around Eberflus now to moderate that stuff, and maybe Flus himself would be less conservative with an improved roster anyway. My beef with him is less the mistakes that he's already made, and hopefully won't repeat, but instead whether he gives an active edge in winning or is just a good caretaker and organizer of the team. Either way, we have a ton of great coaches and position coaches and a good roster and we should be able to win. I dont see Eberflus holding us back per se, but if the time comes that Waldron is getting HC offers because he was good here for us, Id rather promote him and lose Flus, than to keep Flus and lose Waldron, but in the real world, without a smoking gun like more close losses because of HC decisions, I dont see how you can realistically do that.

and Lovie got fired after a season with a good record too. It's a tough business!

I agree too. For now. We’ll see this year if Waldron overcomes Flus conservative decisions when the game is on the line. I’d rather die swinging for the fences than pussy out.

The team's track record against good/great QBs is not good. Hopefully the offense will help that, but the best QB a Flus defense ever beat was Goff. Besides Goff, in the other 6 wins, they faced Howell, Hoyer, Young, Dobbs, Murray, and Heinicke. In 2022, it was Lance, Mills, and Zappe. So in Flus' 10 wins, only Goff, Murray, and Young are still starting QBs. That scares me a little bit. Here is what this season's QBs look like: 1 - Levis 2 - Stroud #15 3 - Richardson 4 - Stafford #6 5 - Young #29 6 - Lawrence #17 8 - Daniels/Mariota 9 - Murray #22 10 - Maye/Brissett 11 - Love #9 12 - McCarthy/Darnold 13 - Goff #11 14 - Purdy #1 15 - McCarthy/Darnold 16 - Goff #11 17 - Smith #14 18 - Love #9 4 games against top 10 QBs (Purdy, Lovex2, Stafford) ----------------------------------- 6 games against QBs from 11th-22nd ----------------------------------- 1 game against bottom 10 QBs (Young) 6 games against QBs without a QBR from 2023 I know it is not that easy, but just say the Bears lose the 4 against the top 10 QBs, split the middle games, and win all at the bottom, that is still a 10 win team without having to beat an elite QB. So just say they do and beat Love at least once, now you are lookin at an 11+ win team.

I think we know the answer on both of them as neither are here. Fields did not improve last year or take the expected leap that everyone, even myself, thought he would take. The one thing that stood out to me amongst a bunch was the fact that Fields could not work with more than one WR. Mooney had 1K yards, has great rapport with Fields on and off the field in 2022, then Moore shows up and Mooney becomes a ghost. People blamed Getsy, but I think that was Fields not being able to hit Mooney if he wasn't the first read. In a weird way, Nagy got a fairly quick hook. I didn't care for his play calling, but it's interesting that he got fired with a winning record and his worst season was 6 wins (his only losing season). So Flus is in Year 3 and has yet to match Nagy's 3rd best season or in 2 seasons Flus' 10 wins is still 2 fewer than Nagy's in 2018 alone.

That makes sense. I still think the way this new rule will evolve is unknown to everyone, and I hope it doesn't become a source of too many touchdowns and overtake the rest of the game, but what Wanny said makes a lot of sense based on my understanding of the play as it currently stands.

I understand the generalized comments about growing in experience etc, but the unforced errors that Eberflus made that lost us 3 games last year were not complicated decisions. They were things that even high school football coaches know better than to do. I do think that with the staff around Eberflus we will be fine, and Flus should not prevent us from winning, but at the same time we have lost the opportunity to put in a head coach that can give us an active edge in winning. At best Eberflus is neutral to the team. I also think that Poles didnt want to lose the locker room. Moving on from Fields was a big move, and he probably wanted to keep Flus so that he didnt lose the defense. I dont know that Flus can or will do anything so bad that he would get fired at this point. He's like Ringo in the Beatles - extremely lucky to be where he is, and he's going to get brought along for the ride. But if Waldron is offered head coaching jobs next year or the year after because he has done a stellar job with the offense, I think it would be fair to say that it would be better to keep Waldron as head coach than to keep Eberflus and lose Waldron. Unfortunately, there's no real way to do that without a smoking gun against Eberflus, which I dont expect. So we are where we are, and I think this team can go far in the next few years, even with Eberflus. But in a hypothetical purely logical world, where players dont have emotions, he would not still be head coach. But we live in the real world of human beings, and the situation has evolved as it has. Eberflus is going to possibly win multiple super bowls and all the coaching accolades that go along with that, but it wont be because of his skills. We can hope that it wont be in spite of them.

I agree with you guys. Keeping Flus was the right move. We expect Williams to be a future GOAT. I say future because he has a lot to learn. The transition from NCAA to NFL isn't easy nor a given. What we need to see this year are two things. Continued development into the powerhouse franchise QB we have all been waiting for. That is obvious. But in the process, he has to win over the team. Leadership skills. Can he motivate his teammates to match his intensity, maximize their skill sets, and become winners? I say this because the same can be said for Flus. Coaches are no different from players. The transition from an NFL DC to the head coach of a storied franchise isn't easy or given. While he develops as a head coach, he must also rely on his leadership skills. Taking a team that was (I hate to say it) garbage and bottom feeder and keeping the players motivated through a long rebuild takes unique skills. That he has already proven capable of.

This part is very important to a rebuild. Flus is building himself as well. He may have not been fully ready to be a HC, but what guy was going to come in and endure the rebuild? The in-game decisions will be much faster for him this year, not having to deal with Alan Williams stuff and also with the game slowing down, as it also does with players. If Flus is here three more years, it's a really good sign.

i SEEN WANNSTED TALKING ABOUT THE NEW KICKOFF RULE AND FOUND AN INTERESTING TAKE ON IT. INSTEAD OF A FAST GUY LIKE V JONES, HE THINKS SOMEONE LIKE R JOHNSON WOULD MAKE A BETTER KRer.

Tht's cool, my claim to fame was a 2nd cousin that played for the Bears in 1940 and in the game that the Bears beat the Redskins 73-0. (my dads cousin, I never met the guy obviously.).

We praise Poles for making good decisions with the draft and in FA. Yes its not a perfect record and many people think Flus isnt a good coach. He choose to keep Flus, why? To establ;ish a consistent winner you cant change coaches every two years or 3 years , its constant turmoil for a team. We lost a lot of games the last two years, but you cant completely change a roster and expect to have a winning team. Poor cap space and no first rounf pick his first year effected our record. After our 3rd draft we now see a light on the horizon. I think you have to give a coach cudos when he keeps a team together thru lots of losing. People think we need an offensive coach to suceed, but forget so easily Nagy was an offensive coach. How did that turn out. This year Flus will show his worth as wins start to show up. Did he make all the right calls? Of course not. Stefanski of Cleveland won coach of the year and did we see him make perfect ingame decisions? NOPE. Its a process and now that Poles has rebuilt the roster we can finnally see us have a winning record.

for sure, and if Waldron is good, he becomes head coach, which would be great.

Here is a cool way to look at the schedule, solely based on net rest. I don't know how much it correlates to more or less success, but the Bears are tied for 8th and have 3 games with more rest and 2 games with less rest than their opponents: Games with extra rest: +7 days @WSH, +3 days @SF, +3 days @ GB Games with less rest: -7 days vs GB, -1 vs @DET The away games with less rest seems to be the worst, and the Bears only get one game that fits that criteria (@DET with 1 less day of rest), which seems positive. They also get 3 other road games with extra rest, which should help for games on the road. I don't like giving GB an extra week to prepare of us though. That one sucks. With 2 THU games late in the season, the Bears do play 6 games in 32 days (basically every 5 games), I feel like that might catch up to them in late December.

The D shouldn’t be worse this year with a pass rush for the entire season. That said, Flus’ decision making skills are in question and if he pisses away two games again this year, HE GONE.

Thanks Pix. Yeah, it's a big deal. It's sometimes how adopted kids feel somewhat out of place. Our family does a pretty good job of simply loving our own and not looking at race. There are people out there, of all colors, that won't let it go. It gets better with each generation.

awesome. It's not easy to get over that kind of stuff, you guys must be very proud.

You certainly should be proud. The young man not only turned his life around but is also making a significant difference in the lives of young athletes through his program. I never knew biracial kids dealt with identity issues. I had a biracial friend in HS. I wonder if he had the same problems.

Very cool. I am glad he got over the substance abuse stuff as that stuff is sticky. Here is the article if you can't see it at the Trib: https://www.aol.com/kofi-hughes-used-football-hide-110000505.html

He's an article from the Tribune featuring my nephew. He played for IU and had a stint with the Bears. We are so proud of him. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/05/19/kofi-hughes-football-athletic-trainer/

Locking Goff in for a top 5 QB deal is great for the entire NFC North. Once he gets hit, it's game over. I know they had no choice and the Bears would do the same thing in a heart beat, but Goff is turning 30. Injury risk increases every year and he is already a statue. The one thing the media doesn't talk about is the actual cap hit for Goff. It is relatively the same for the next two years, then balloons to over $69M in 2026 (24% of the cap), $54M in 2027, and $61M in 2028. So they really have the next two years or they will look at a restructure after two years. The problem they are going to have is St. Brown's new deal and Sewell's new deal also balloon in 2026 (to $29M and $32M respectively). So between those 3, they will have a $130M cap hit in 2026 (45% of the cap). If you add Hutchinson's 5th year option and Glasgow, those top 5 players would take up over 56% of the cap in 2026 with very little wiggle room. They are going to have to shed a ton of salary over the course of the next two seasons while basically resigning none of their current players.

All the signs are there for a breakout year, but it is still on paper. Injuries are going to be the most important thing. Then obviously the play of Caleb, the O-Line and the D-Line. The Bears, just like other teams, need a little luck, or most things to go right to have a great year. I think what most see that now that the QB position may not be the limiting factor, the sky is the limit. I still think they are a year away, but nothing is stopping them from having a Texans type of season with a playoff win. The crazy part for me is, if the Bears lose, I can almost guarantee you it is because the defense allowed 28+, not because the offense couldn't score 20. The Bears will be undefeated when the defense holds opponents under 20.

You may be right, dont know all the rules

I thought there is a rule that you cannot negotiate an extension before the end of year 3of a rookie contract. That means the Bears would still have year 4 plus the 5th year option at their disposal.