I know this isn't the way to start a conversation, but... I am NOT here to start anything, be a pest or argue in any way. It may just be that not all of these people are fucking stupid, but rather they are just optimistic. Some of you are aware of my own optimism. It sickens many of you for some reason that I can't figure out. I read your boards because the pessimism fascinates me. I can't seem to understand how you are all so involved and entrenched in something that seems to bring you so much disparity and bleak outlook. In the previous post by dline, who I enjoy talking with back and forth actually, that Twiiter was using back to back 8-8 seasons as a reason to "annoint" the Bears. Honestly, going back 3 seasons, you guys have been in the playoffs twice, with Mitch Trubisky, Nick Foles and Daniel Chase. I know you have changed out a few pieces on defense, but frankly what I don't understand is why everyone is so certain you will not return to the playoffs this year? As far as Fields not being the 2nd QB picked, that really doesn't hold any history as to ability to be a successful QB. 2018 Josh Allen was the 3rd QB taken, Lamar Jackson the 5th... Darnold was the 2nd. Now it is still early and the jury is still out on the class, but today I would take either over Darnold. 2017, I won't bore you with the statistics in this first round... 2014 Teddy Bridgewater was the 3rd QB taken, I wouldn't brag on his success, but he is currently still a starter in the NFL (until the Broncos trade for Rodgers) and the other two taken before him are out of the league (Manziel) and practically gone (Bortles) 2012 Ryan Tannehill was the 3rd QB taken, he has definitely proven to be the best over Luck and Griffin the 3rd, even if the only proof is he was the only one able to stay healthy. The only point I am trying to make is it happens regularly that the picks made in front of their peers do not live up to someone else's ability in spite of the fact they were picked later in the draft. I know you know this, yet it seems to be a reasoning tool for you to not want to feel optimistic about this draft, lol. It's OK to have some optimism, if you don't want to that's your prerogative, I'll have enough for you all. I have already predicted in another thread that you all will win the division this year. This is more to do with the division than anything else. It depends more on how quickly Fields adapts than anything else. If he sits the entire year, I think Dalton is good enough of a game manager to get you to 9-10 wins, which could win the division if Rodgers is gone from Green Bay. If he shows enough early, then I would another 1-2 wins to that prediction. You're gonna love this kid, I hope you embrace it.
Because we are Bears fans and understand their history endured the pain year after year after fucking year, and matter how much you polish a turd it is after all, still a turd. If you want unicorns farting rainbows perhaps this isn't the best place for you as we're grounded in reality.
No, I get THAT part, I'm a Browns fan, I probably understand it better than you even. The part I don't get is how miserable you all seem to be. Not that I have to, not my team, I'll just shut up now. I was more looking to give you part of the reason why I personaly am optimistic for you guys.. Again, not trying to start up an argument.
When there's reason for optimism, you'll find plenty of it around here. You should have seen this board before 2018-2019 seasons. The last 2 years, combined with a few decades of terrible upper management/ownership and QB play have taken their toll lately. Understandably our board is not the most pleasant place to visit. Assuming Rodgers remains the GB starter, I'll bet $500 that we don't. Kind of dirty profiting off my own team's failures but I learned long ago it was the only way to personally turn a negative into a positive .
The fans here aren’t pessimists. They’re realists. Some fanbases can be fed shit year in and year out and still think the filet mignon is coming. The Bears fans that populate this board aren’t that kind of fan. When the team is good....we are fully behind it. When the team is bad...we fully call them out for it. And they are bad, or even worse mediocre and boring, more often than not.
Precisely. To be clear--I'm not shitting on the team now for the draft. I'll give them credit because the GM filled 2 enormous positions I've remarked were necessary and have begun--whether we agree with some of their moves or not--shifting the focus of spending/attention/now draft capital of the roster, specifically offense. I am fully behind the bears being forward-thinking where getting the needle in a haystack/enormous talent at QB is a necessity if you want to be successful more than a blip year or two of a really dominant defense and a passable at best offense with a 'who knows' outlook in the playoffs. We criticize the team with good reason. I am giving Justin Fields every chance. I'd love for him to be the reason the team can win games not needing the defense to spot them field position/points constantly because that isn't sustainable. I am not buying into bullshit like people saying 'he's an Ohio State quarterback" because those same people were saying Patrick Mahomes was "a Texas Tech QB" when we know damn well where the kid went to college has nothing to do with him putting on an NFL uniform. I don't care about the nonsense. I want him to be good. I also think it's reasonable to consider while now is a time for positive objectivity--valid questions/concerns remain about him and why he was the 4th guy taken. I'd love nothing more than him to be the guy everybody missed out on, but he could also be the #4 QB taken for a reason. Your examples are completely reasonable, but I rebut Christian Ponder in 2011. Not changing my stance on fans. They have every right to be as positive as they want but that doesn't preclude them from also being fucking stupid at the same time. BWW implied lots of these people could be served a bowl of diarrhea and think its a prime cut because this team has been bad enough, often.
I was one that once drank the Koolaid year after year, and then year after year after fucking year get crushed from the weight of that optimism. The day after a Bears loss I was a miserable mess, but I've learned to temper that enthusiasm, and I've done so much better doing so. Don't confuse being hypercritical with misery because when you are honest with your emotions you have nothing to lose. When we had the Bears draft contests it wasn't so much whom the Bears should draft, but whom the Bears would draft. It was basically like taking a test and figure out all the wrong answers. Is this QB they drafted the real deal? If I was a betting man given the fact they have never drafted a QB in my lifetime that turned out to be a franchise QB I'm going to say no. I hope I'm wrong, but money says otherwise. The only GM in my lifetime that was worth a fuck was Jim Finks as he better understood the value of the trenches, not these assclowns that Virginia marched out there in her circus.
Make no mistake, we Bears fans here are in the minority among the overall fanbase. There are plenty of places around the internet where you will find the type of Bears fans you seem to want to see. The Bears FB page is so bad it is way beyond parody. Its so full of mouth breathing idiots that lap up every spoonful of wet turd ownership feeds them that they genuinely make the guys on your Browns board look like dealers in nothing but cold hard facts. You're making some observations about us and thats fine, but if we're being objective and just having a conversation here, it works both ways. I've gotta tell you, you most pathetic thing i've ever seen in my life from a fanbase was the parade Browns fans held after going 0-16. And im sorry to drag up a nasty moment for you, but its relevant to this. With everything Browns fans have suffered over the years they should've been protesting outside your version of Halas Hall all offseason. Like properly protesting. But they didn't, they threw a stupid parade then went back to slurping down dogshit. The Browns board here is similar in its acceptance. People would be down right after another shitty season, but almost immediately kid themselves everything would miraculously change only to endure another 3 win season. We here used to laugh at you guys the way you'd live in your fairy dreamland. When one of us stopped by to drop a fact or two people would freak out like an agoraphobe who's front door had just been flung open! Im not about trolling other teams boards(Packers board in the old CBS days not counting) so i just left you guys to it. We're just different. I guess you guys would argue there is more day to day enjoyment with your approach and you're prob right i guess, but you do that at the expense of credibility. I can't, and wouldn't want to, live my life like that. I dont take seriously much of what Browns fans here say about the Browns. For instance that clown SAS will one day be right and the Browns will go 13-3. Problem is he's a simpleton slurper who communicates mostly in pictures and has called them to go 13-3 ever since i can remember. Therefore when he is finally right it will be completely meaningless, and certainly not based on any actual football knowledge. As the others have said, we deal in reality here and despite how hard that can be i much prefer it. I would always rather see what was really going on than waste my time in make believe. No joke, the expertise in football knowledge and judgement that exists on this board, there are several people here who could genuinely GM the Bears and have far more success than Ryan Pace. TBH im being modest, its at least half a dozen. If any of that sounds like im taking a shot at you/your team or trying to start a fight....im sincerely not. You gave your thoughts on our board, i've given my thoughts on yours. Its unlikely we'll ever truly get each other heh, but FWIW i always used to like the Browns in the 80s and the Steelers have more than had their run of success, so im looking forward to a changing of the guard in that division.
Also, you did specifically mention the draft and i realise i didnt respond to that. I think for the most part we're pretty pleased with how that draft went. I know the bar is low, but the immediate feeling i have is this is prob the best draft Pace has had. I do feel he overpaid to get up to 11(because he did) but im happy with the selection. You and i spoke a little bit about Fields on the main board. From what i could watch pre draft i liked him. You make a fair point about being the 2nd, 3rd or 4th QB taken. I really dont care about Fields being the 4th taken other than from the negotiating perspective re the price Pace paid to move up which was an overpay. But its gonna take far more than a good pick at QB. Again, you and i agreed a while back that the spot a player ends up in after he's drafted is almost as important as the talent he brings. Fields isnt in a horrible spot, but he's not in a great one at all either. And there's no getting away from the fact that at a fundamental level, the GMs whole philosophy re the draft is very flawed. You just cant trade up every draft. Each time a guy you do that for busts you have the equivalent of 2 or 3 busts on your hands. This kills your depth and often makes what weaknesses you have more glaring. I would argue the Bears have a very hollowed out roster. At what position do the Bears have actual depth? RB, ok. But im not sure i could name one other position. Oh, Kicker. I think we're the only team in the league to have 2 kickers. Great. Point is we can feel pretty good about this draft in isolation, but the reality is this is a badly owned, badly run team with too many examples for me to even go into. I like Fields, im pulling for him bigtime. But he faces an uphill battle.
Yeah in a vacuum this draft was good. But overall this offseason wasn’t. We lost Kyle Fuller because Pace spent too much on Dalton and for some reason refused to part ways with Jimmy Graham instead. So gone is one of the best corners in football. Probably the leagues best zone corner and one of the best open field tacklers the game has seen in a while. Meanwhile we have millions locked up in two very average at best QBs in Dalton and Foles. Bad contracts on guys like Robert Quinn due to bad picks of guys like Leonard Floyd. These are the things that drive fans crazy and why it’s hard to support Ryan Pace. Pace has done some really good things. But he’s also done a lot of bad. And unless you’re winning, which this team currently isn’t, then that’s not okay. That’s the thought of the Bears fans here. And it’s based in reality. Not rose colored homerism.
Which ones? Missionary, 69, doggy, is a handful. Obviously everyone wants to fill more than a handful.
My initial reaction to this news was basically Dline's, but after digesting it for a while, I guess I'm ok with it. Is it a square peg in a round hole? Maybe, he certainly "grades out" better as a RT, HOWEVER, and it almost pains me to say this, heh, I agree with you rob. Basically if the plan was LT, then just hit the ground running and take your lumps at LT. I will add, and this sounds terrible to say, all the better he's taking those lumps while Dalton is starting. Let him get up to speed with a whole new position while we have the 10 million dollar bridge taking the hits. This isn't the worst plan I think, IF you think he's the LT of the future, and I do think that's Pace's thoughts. Get the QB, get the protection, we have some weapons? I think my real problem here is I think Pace is going to rely on a quick, within the year contributions of Fields and Jenkins, that Johnson grows up in his second year without Fuller. It's gambling a lot on rookies/2nd year guys to get a passable season and show the growth we should have been seeing the past 5 years. Given this, while I think the plan is to redshirt Fields, I don't see anyway he spends the entire season on the bench. He will be the starting QB for the Bears this year, I have no doubt now. Pace IS desperate and trying accelerate/compress a long term plan, that's what this means. I think it's probably asking for a bit too much. The other guys have covered it, we are a more objective bunch. The optimism comes in spades when it's really there (and man, dating quite a few of us, but a few things I can think of are early 2006 when Sexy Rexy was lighting the world on fire, or when the Cutler trade happened). What I learned, more than anything from those conversations was how to look at the positives AND the negatives of the team. That's why this board matters so much. I'll get plenty of kool-aid from Reddit, Facebook and Twitter are absolute jokes when it comes to any reasonable discussion. I've got buddies like that too, after every loss it's "15-1, 14-2 now, SUPER BEARS SUPER BOWL". Being objective about the team for me, leads way more appreciation to the sport. Take losing Fuller. The homer / positive take I see all over is "well he cost way too much". This is a true statement without context, the context being that we kicked the can down the road and signed Dalton, Foles, Quinn who are munching on the cap (also Mack even, his contract is MASSIVE and while an awesome player, had a down year). Pace holds responsibility for this, no matter the good moves he's made. And looking down the road Mack's contract is going to be a problem fairly quickly too. Homers don't look at that, they see only sunshine and rainbows and Pace will save the day. Homers also were completely off the deep end a month ago and turned around like it was nothing. And also, I'm pretty sure most of us have been pretty goddamn up for some of the games. God help me the fucking season opener of 2018 after the Khalil Mack trade and the pure elation at half time, Rodgers goes down Kizer is sucking every dick in the stadium and the Mother Fucker comes out and Hail Mary's their way to another gut wrenching loss? What a rollercoaster. Fuck the Packers, always. I guess what I'm saying is, it's easy to write off how we chat here as downer. But I promise you every one of us WANTS them to succeed. And will cheer them when they do. For me, I might come off more negative simply because I get the kool aid drinking out in person during game time for the most part, heh. Shit I've said it before, I still have that disease of the rabid fan in me, and I have this willful fucking ignorance come game time that "anything can happen". I do appreciate the 3rd party thoughts on Fields though. Our sanity as Bears fans depend on him panning out.
Everything comes back to being stuck with Pace and Nagy. I swear this is the only franchise that can fuck up by getting it right.
