Stinger226

We are starting to jell as a defense and having a game manager at QB with a good running game will get us some wins along the way.

I agree with everything you said. His first year he offered Brian Allen a higher contract than the Rams paid him, but he choose the SB champs. His second choice was Patrick that has been laden with injuries, plus hasn't played well. He signed Davis for IOL but brought some baggage with him and now is injured. He's made attempts to fix the IOL but so far it hasn't worked out. Jenkins has had injury concerns but I think the development of Carter prevented him from bringing in another prospect there. Thinking Whitehair, Patrick and drafting Kramer ( who has been injured) hasn't worked out. I can't say he hasn't tried. He did trade for Feeney but he's been injured also. You can't figure injuries in to any plan you have and it's been about as bad as it can get with the OL. If he had a healthy Jones -Jenkins-Witehair/Patrick/Kramer-Davis- Wright, that was a good plan. I

what I see as our biggest needs going into 2024 is keep building the OL and DL. The QB situation will work itself out. We will have 2 high picks this year and because I think he trades one or both , mullite picks in 2025. People say there are generational QBs in this draft, maybe. I remember when Mahomes was drafted, almost no one rated him # 1 let alone a generational QB. QBs are a shot in the dark , rarely do they judge them right. Just imagine if we ended up trading both draft picks and ended up with Harrison, Bowers, Fashanu, Alt, Verse or Turner. Or any combinations of them, a QB prospect plus multi 1 st round picks in the future. Hurts was a 2nd round pick, Jackson was the last pick of the first round in 2018, not all of the good QBs are taken at the top of the draft. Lets let the QB situation play out, what do we need in FAgency or the draft. Edge rusher, LT (if Jones stays injured), FS ( expect Jackson to be cut), more depth on OL, new OC ( I expect Whitehair to get cut)). More DL prospects.

The reason I think Poles is safe is because when he came here, he said he wanted to build thru the draft and not over pay for FAs. We cant see the benefits to that in a year and a half. In two years his only expensive FA sighing has been Edmunds, otherwise they are all reasonable contracts on short team deals. history shows that overpaying for FAs is a bad idea. Very few of them has worked out. He brought in Cunningham to help do his job. They both come from winning organizations. I only see two big mistakes so far, the Claypool ordeal and drafting V Jones. As a new GM they arent going to be right with everything. Plus he has shown the ability to move on from mistakes. So far he has manipulated the draft in his favor and I think his drafting has been above average. The biggest reason to keep him is because he turned a bad cap situation into a strength. Also if we have 2 first pick in the draft two years in a row, that could reap huge dividends. Of course it means we have lost a lot but since I have been a Bears fan (60s) I have never seen a complete rebuild and this is what it looks like. If a bad 2 years turns us in to a consistent winner, Im willing to see if that works. Year 3 will be the year to see what he is building.

The only articles I could find in a possible Bears- Wilson trade was on BGO on March 8th 2021. Reddit on March 17th 2021, about trying to trade 3 first round picks for Wilson. Poles didn't get hired until January 25th , 2022. The end of this year will determine who is our best option for QB and who is the best college QB. Hard to judge at this time. Maye is the ideal pocket passer, where Williams is more of a wildcard similar to how Mahones was projected when he was drafted. Penix has some fans also. Then there's the options of Fields or Bagent? Depends how the rest of the year plays out.

Time to start figuring out 2024. resign: Andrew Billings 2.6 mil this year/ 3 year at 16 mil. ( 28 years old) Mooney- the top 25 WRs are making over 10 mil, 3 years at 31 mil J Johnson-the top 21 are making over 10 mil a year, 3 years at 35 mil G Stroman- 1 year 1.2 mil R Tonyan-2.6 this year, 1 year at 3 mil Cancel Whitehair pre June---4 mil dead money-9.1 mil cap savings Cancel EJAC post June --3.9 mil dead money-14.31 mil savings Total cap after adds and subtraction 103 mil est. Next up will be free agency. Anyone have a PFF sub.? Its not the best tool but gives some perspective on value.

Braxton Jones-out, Nate Davis -out, Darnell Wright-out. How is any QB going to perform well in that situation against the best pass rusher this year, Max Crosby . We are moving Whitehair, Jenkins around to compensate. I think we need to start doing mock drafts and pre free agent looks for now.

Injuries matter with a young team, we have to keep building the roster and hope for the best.

I agree with that because of the lack of consistent competition. Projecting what players will be 1 year from now is very hard. Will Fields be good, will Bagent , will Williams ? People get fired and hired by how well they do at that. Like Adam said, lots of quality QBs are struggling now. Build a defense, a good running team and get lucky at QB is about the best you can do.

How do you make proper judgement calls with this many injuries? One and a half years just isn't enough time to build up depth. Injuries are a part of every year but OL was so important to the growth of our offense it's had an effect. 3 RBs were out last week, it probably cost us a win on just that. So who plays RT if Wright is out? Pretty thin pickens for facing Crosby.

Justin has this year to get his act together, if he doesn't, he won't be here. Processing is a mental issue, he is a hard worker. You never know. I believe better coaching would help.

Not sure if it's accurate, but seen someone post time holding the ball, Williams 3.21____Fields___3.01. Seems to me both need to get the ball out quicker.

If Fields is good when he gets back will just make Poles job harder to decide. The more games he plays will help. Hopefully Bagent plays well and that would be good for the team. The whole point of this year was to see if Fields can be a franchise QB, we will know by the end of the year. I watched videos of former Bears being asked if we should stay with Fields or move on, they all said to keep him. Long, Brown ,Briggs, Urlacher, they just have opinions but at least they played the game. We will find out if they are right.

If he doesnt pick the 5th year option, Fields cost 6 mil next year. If he takes the option, that could turn out to be the same situation that Ravens went thru with a similar QB.

The problem is there is no clear cut answer. What decisions at the end of the year gives us the best chance at winning next year? Poles will need to show a big step forward to keep his job. It could be as simple as better coaching and 2 blue chip players added in the draft. Plus a vet center and pass rusher, we have the money for that.

Poles has 3 options: Bagent if he shows he can play Fields with a 6 mil pay next year Draft a rookie that has a cheap deal for 4 years If Bagent balls out and Fields plays well for X number of games then what gives us the best chance to win next year? Keeping them both next year may be the answer. That also will mean we will win some more games this season and have a lower pick in the draft. Draft a pass rusher and OT , or Harrison? If we trade the first pick, he will have 2 more high picks in two years. In Poles third yr pressure will be on him to win. What's his best choice?

What happens with the OL? The bad snaps is a problem, do we give a true OC the starting job, Doug Kramer? I think Whitehair wont be there again, it may be Patrick. Carter has played well so even with the Davis injury we have that covered. The key to the line is when Jones comes back. Hopefully this week. With our first two picks in the draft, probably should be a pass rusher and a OT, but the QB question will make that a QB. I think the other pick will be a pass rusher, 2nd round needs to be a OC.

That may be more of an accurate prediction than you realize.

Its a catch 22 situation, if he balls out his trade value goes up but also the chance we keep him.

I think no matter how much I wanted Fields to succeed, I think the injury has sealed his fate. If he balls out when he comes back it will only increase his trade value. Poles is looking at the future of the team and just wont have enough trust in Fields to not look at the 50 mil he would have to pay him in the 2025. I wish it was different but I think Poles will make us a winner , it just will be 2024 or 25. A new coach will have input in who is QB, will he love Fields or a rookie? His best decision may be to tailor an offense to make Fields the best he can be instead of going thru the growing pains of a rookie. Lots of questions going forward.

As much as we are losers, we were very close to beating both Broncos and Vikings .The defense is starting to get better. We had our best 2 RBs out that would have totally changed the outcome of the game. If you take out Jackson and Whitehair, we are the youngest roster in the league. The problem is the bad play calling isnt going to go away. Hopefully Getsy makes it simpler for Bagent to allow him to be the best he can be . In the Washington game he rolled the pocket out 7 times against Minny he did it once. He got stuck on thinking we were better than we were. Fields was under duress all day and is now injured. I would love us to win all the games going forward but between our injuries and the same coaches will will find ways to lose. The light at the end of the tunnel will be the top 2 picks in the draft and 111 mil cap space. If that happens the coaching staff will be fired and probably a new QB. Hard to say right now if we win more games next year because of that but it changes our hope for the future. Fields will be back (as of now) so we get to see what Bagent can do and still have some games to evaluate both. That is a blessing in disguise for us to be able to know what we have. I am one of the only posters on here that thought we could have a winning record (misguided optimist). the truth is 1 and 1/2 years into a complete rebuild that wasnt going to happen.

Why trade him if he brings no value? He still has a chance to play at least 5 games. That may up his value.

Next year if you cut Whitehair pre June and Jackson post June 1, it cost you 8 mil in dead cap but saves you 24.5 mil in cap space .Both have tapered off and we already have 111 mil.

Absolutely, its not an easy process and good GMs screw up all the time, the key is to get more good than bad.

When we assess this year we have to consider injuries have affected our win total. DBs are coming back and the defense is starting to play better. The OL has been a mess due to injuries. Jones has been out, Jenkins just came back, and Davis starts playing well , injured. Whitehair had to play guard and goes back to OC , with issues. His problem was his injured hand and not sure that isnt still effecting his snaps. The original starting 5 looks like that would have been good but hard to go 8-9 deep in the OL with good depth in a second year of a rebuild. Hard to correct that problem in season. The only way to compensate is with play calling and we can see that's not helping. Injuries are part of football but we need at least one more year to build the roster. We have a great cap space and 2 1st round picks to correct that. If Jones doesnt come back , we have to draft a OT, probably a QB. That eliminates an edge rusher and Harrison as choices in the first round. Maybe Poles can do magic 2 years in a row and gets us extra picks for one of those high picks.