Having all day to throw can also mean you take a lot of sacks for holding on to the ball too long when your skill guys aren’t good enough to get open. The Bears WR’s struggled to create separation under Nagy, some of that was crap playcalling and crap play design -but some of it was guys not being good in the 1st place


Obviously the line is incredibly important, but so is having the guys the line is blocking for in the 1st place, and that isn’t only the QB

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If the rule you followed lead you to this, of what use was the rule?

Umm, yeah, it would be nice to have good wide receivers.

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There were a couple of good receivers who took one year deals. I can't understand why Poles wouldn't have been in on those

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

In short what I’m saying is at the very least Fields will need a combination of competent line, competent receivers and competent game planning/play design/play calling to know what he is.. not just competent line play.

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If the rule you followed lead you to this, of what use was the rule?

Fields is supposed to be a can't miss superstar quarterback, but everything needs to be perfect around him before we can determine if he's good. You can't make this stuff up.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Agreed. Would help the assessment process of Fields quite a bit to bring in a couple productive veterans on short deals.


That said.. Poles has stated he wants to build thru the draft -and he’s treating this FA period like he means it. It’s just, he doesn’t have a lot of picks to work with just yet to do what he wants. I think this is also where (and some here have mentioned this) the Bears may be really active scooping up undrafted FA’s after the draft

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If the rule you followed lead you to this, of what use was the rule?

How is saying things need to be ‘competent’ the same as saying ‘things need to be perfect’? That’s an odd leap

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If the rule you followed lead you to this, of what use was the rule?

Bates to sign offer sheet with Bears.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Fields was AWFUL last season. Part of that was Nagy, but most of it was on him. He clearly has the physical tools to be special, but he needs to fix the MANY holes in his game. We all should be able to see improvement from him this year regardless of what he has around him. He needs to clean up his throwing motion, improve his touch on passes under 20 yards, get rid of the ball quicker, read defenses better, be a better leader, and work on his body so he won't get injured every 2 seconds.


This is going to be a running offense. They're even bringing in a fullback to make the transition.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Yeah if you are a top tier QB you do not everything to be good around you. If there isn't improvement by the end of next season you draft someone else in 2023.

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That's not encouraging with regards to the run game, but hopefully the small sample size is skewing things.

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I thought him being somewhat of a project was what made him intriguing to everyone.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

It would be a good idea to have at least one lineman who can win the vast majority of the time against opposing players. We currently have zero (0) players who have proven they can do that. Poles seems to be privileging attitude and style over performance in his OL free agency acquisitions.

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There weren't any on the open market either. Whitehair is fine, but everyone else is mostly terrible or an unknown. Let's see what he does in the draft. I'll have my pitchfork if he doesn't address the O-Line in the draft.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Well, they made an offer to the Rams' center and sniffed around Armstead but came up empty-handed.

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Vikings made Bates an offer. Bears made a better one.

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"I give you my word as a Biden"

What a shocker, Bears interested in someone and Bob craps on them

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I didn't, an ESPN Football writer did.

If you are a good receiver looking at a 1 year "prove it" deal, would you sign with the Bears?

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“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”- JD Vance
“My god, what an !diot.”- JD Vance tweet on Trump
“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy”- JD Vance

I get your point regarding Bob, but I am curious as to which FA signing(s) you are pleased with to this point. (And by pleased I mean actually happy with as opposed to OK with).

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“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”- JD Vance
“My god, what an !diot.”- JD Vance tweet on Trump
“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy”- JD Vance

I am pleased with Pringle and I am pleased with pursuing Bates, I think the DT they signed could be solid.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Its more depth with the potential for upside I guess. He's doing the GM equivalent of 'throw shit at wall, see what sticks' at this point.

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If the rule you followed lead you to this, of what use was the rule?

And instead of answering my question directly which was 'how does asking for competence equal asking for perfection?'.. you opt for a goal post move.

Ok. I'll play along





Agree to a point on the 1st sentence, disagree partially with the last sentence. Fields was a rookie QB that got thrown into the mix earlier than he should have by a coach that clearly was in over his head, had no idea how to develop his own offense let alone a 2nd young QB he was handed. I'll let his failure with every single QB he worked with from veterans he insisted on having (Foles, Dalton) to a young high draft pick he hoodwinked his way into the job claiming he could develop in (Pro Bowl QB) Trubisky speak for itself.. and of course his eventual firing for being a stubborn, incompetent, one dimensional failure that was kept around at the very least a full season longer than he should have been.

But yeah, some of that was on Fields too.. as a rookie.






Again, he was a rookie. I'm sure Jacksonville, and the Jets felt the same about the young QB's they drafted that fell flat on their faces too after they were thrust into early starting duties with poor, incompetent coaching.

You want to know what a rookie can look like with a competent coach and organization when he's asked to lead from the start? Take a look at Mac Jones. You dont think Trevor Lawrence of Justin Fields (who at least have more physical talent) could have flourished at a similar rate had they been drafted by the Pats?





And now we come to the goal post move I mentioned earlier. Yeah, ok, improvement, I can agree we should see that regardless of some things.

Now lets move onto what was actually said and being talked about that seemed to have you taking issue with my post - Fields showing us 'he's the guy', or 'showing us what he is', and me adding for that he will need some competent help. Showing 'improvement' isnt mutually exclusive (in my world) with showing 'he's the guy'. They arent the same thing. Mitch showed improvement from his rookie year with Fox to his 1st year with Nagy without proving 'he's the guy' after all.

Asking for things to at least be 'competent' shouldn't be some Hail Marry laughable idea that gets snarky reactions from people like you who want to come off as knowledgeable while claiming that concept is asking for things to be perfect. Taking that position literally leaves you dying on the hill of incompetence because its literally the only other option left after competence.


Its ridiculous on its face to suggest that in his 2nd season in the NFL, and his 1st season with yet another new coach in another new system, everything around him can be at a level of incompetence and he should still be good, he should still show progress that proves this that or the other. There isn't a QB on planet Earth that survives at a high level of efficiency operating under those same conditions, let alone a dude in his 2nd year, and his 1st with a new coach and system.

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If the rule you followed lead you to this, of what use was the rule?

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Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

If they're designing an offense to Fields strengths, having a younger, slightly more mobile guy in Siemian makes sense compared to Foles.

And based on what Poles is putting around Fields for 2022, I don't think it's a prove it year for him. I think Poles is committed to Fields through at least 2023 unless something drastic happens.

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"I give you my word as a Biden"

More and more stuff out there about how Poles took several days to completely evaluate the all the Bears offensive lineman and saw very little he liked. If there is even a shred of truth in these stories, which one must think there is because someone within the organization must be leaking them as we have learned the collection of goofs that are currently masquerading Bears, "Beat Writers", or "experts", will never give you anything other than company approved takes and information, you had to read out of town stuff to get actual information about Nagy's complete inabilities.

It certainly appears that Poles feels that any competent NFL offensive lineman is a significant upgrade over all the guys that started or got a lot of playing time last year. It makes perfect sense when you look at where Jenkins and Borom were drafted, they both had a few evaluations that had them ranked a bit higher, but both slid in the draft for a reason, thinking Poles will have an entirely different grading and evaluation process than Pace.

Pace consistently failed spectacularly in the early rounds of the draft, Poles would have to be terrible at this job to match Pace, and he very well may prove to suck as a GM, but at least he seems to have a somewhat similar idea of how to evaluate NFL players as every other GM.

I'm not sure how trustworthy Olin's opinion is in this regard, but he says Bates is a step down from Daniels. While he likes Patrick, Olin doesn't seem to think he is a cornerstone player.

So far, it looks to me like Poles has replaced some of Pace's overpriced mediocrity with more reasonably priced mediocrity. I guess this is a step forward?

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If Bates calls Olin for help, his opinion of him will skyrocket.

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