Bears Bills game thread - useless mod/drunk kicker/Xmas edition

With this team we've got find the fun wherever we can.

 

If they get the #1 then the trade down is officially open for business, especially with the Texans at #2. Any team that wants first pick for a QB has the way open if we are sitting #1. Actually the Bears should already be there, the Cowboys were incredibly lucky to slip past the Texans a couple weeks ago. That team is still playing hard, Lovie is coaching for his job. They'd be crazy to win their way out of the #1 spot now, but Colts on the last day of the season? Cross your fingers.

I'm still sceptical of how much action the Bears would get for the #2 pick. This is a very odd year with like 3 top10 draft pick teams having their pick belong to someone else. That has muddied the water. Pray for the Rams and Saints to keep winning and the Colts, Panthers & Raiders to keep losing.

Just wanna say how much i hate this kind of talk btw. Losing can become habitual all too easily and once the loser identity becomes systemic for an organization it can be incredibly hard to shake. We only need look at our friends in Michigan for proof of that. And the Jags, and the Texans. The Bears as a franchise are in a perilous position right now imo. I look at the next two games and want them to lose into the #1 pick to facilitate a trade down that will generate the extra picks needed for a faster turnaround(hopefully). The cost benefit lies with that imo, even tho there is also value to going into next season with a snapped long losing streak. But none of us should be happy with any part of this. The GM has a massive job this offseason and he needs to damn well do it.

 

Realistically, aside from Jenkins, who along either line is a lock for a position or even the roster for that matter? On defense, it's an even deeper hole extending to the front 7, and on offense throw in the WRs. That's an impossible dream and can't be done in one more year with just the resources they have now, as Poles would have to do battle with a windmill and win.

 

Can't be fixed completely in one offseason but the right moves this offseason probably make the team a contender for a playoff spot next year....followed up with one more good offseason that puts you on the door of being a contender for the NFC.

A lot has to go right for that to happen but it is possible in this league.

That being said.....I don't expect it to happen. Not with this team. The Bears are the Bears.

 

This franchise already has the loser identity. We're already the Lions, if you don't think so you're in denial. Hitting the reset button every 3-5 years, making terrible hires and not making firings at the right time. Remember Georgie was proud of "making" the playoffs in 2020 after a second half collapse and kept Nagy/Pace for 1 more wasted season because of their "collaboration". Nothing more indicative of the loser mentality than that.

None of us are happy but we all want the Bears make the most of a shit situation. That starts with stockpiling as many high draft picks as possible. That said, has any GM in Bears history (ok going back to 2000 when we actually hired a GM) had more on his plate in one offseason than Poles? I don't think so.

 

This is where I am torn. All season I have been very much on the train of "what does a few spots really matter". But if we are talking about potentially the 1st overall pick? That's worth so much more in a trade, and it's almost guaranteed to happen then. So I guess in the final two games I can really look at it as win/win, a loss gets us closer to that #1, a win is still a win.

That said, I think there is a little bit of Poles creating a tank here. The Bears have not won since New England, after which we jettisoned Quinn and then a week later Roquan. Not saying they weren't good moves, or that the coaches are involved in playing to lose, but getting rid of two very good players on defense for picks is not playing to win this year. Would Quinn and Roquan have been enough to swing even one game this year? The Lions, Phins and Falcons were all close enough that the smallest difference could have changed the outcome. I'm not saying they win if they have them, but I am saying without them, they didn't win.

Then again, he traded away a pick for Claypool, so there's that.

I made a post last year about the ridiculously bad history of this franchise under Ted Phillips. Realistically, the Bears being good died just after Halas did.

That said, we're about to go head to head with the Lions themselves. I can 100% see the Lions "Lionsing" their way to a loss against the Bears, which ends up screwing our draft position and ruining their chances at the Playoffs. It reminds me of that South Park episode, "The Losing Edge": to quote Stan: "Dude, we had it all wrong. While we spent all our time trying to make our team suck, these guys practiced and got really good at sucking." The Lions are really good at sucking, heh.