Tall Midget wrote:
Warren Newson wrote:
They're not going to fire Poles after two seasons where it seems he was given explicit permission to be as bad as humanly possible for at least one of those seasons. If you think that statement is accurate, this season is not a total disaster for two reasons. One, they've had at least two questions answered: neither Eberflus nor Fields is going to be around long term. Two, they're bad enough that they will be able to take a third run at a top of the draft quarterback.
The consensus coming into the season seemed to be that the Bears would be improved, but still miss the playoffs. Whether they miss the playoffs by going 3 and 14 or miss the playoffs by going 6 and 11, it really doesn't matter to me so long as Poles fully accepts that the coach and QB are busts.
Your analysis makes sense until you begin to look at Poles' record of talent evaluation so far. He took a big swing on Douche Claypool and seems to have missed. He preferred Gordon and Brisker to Pickens. He thought PJ Walker would be an acceptable backup QB. He passed on Jalen Carter, who was ideally suited for Eberflus' one-gap system, only to reach on Dexter, who had exclusively played a two-gap system in college. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Poles may have been given more than one tank season by George, but was he also granted the right to miss on so many personnel decisions?
Everything is forgotten IF he drafts a franchise QB in the next draft. I did like his plan to not over reach on a QB last year in the draft and collect draft picks to ensure they end up with another shot at a fanchise QB this year. D.J.Moore is a nice addition to pair with the next QB of the Bears. I do not believe he thought Fields was going to be the QB of the Bears in 2024 and punted this year.
Poles knew he couldn't give up on Fields and risk him having a breakout season for another team. He needed to show everyone that Fields is not the QB of the future before he could move on to the next stage.
Losing organizations have to oporate this way because they have no equity with the fans. If by some miracle Fields turned into the next D.Bress, he would forever be the GM who let the first franchise QB in the modern era for the Bears go!