Rants and Raves 2024 Edition

No thanks

 

10 years ago I'd be all about it. Seahawks were in playoff contention every year. But it's too late now. I think it's still worth interviewing him and picking his brain.

 

Agreed. Talk to him? Sure.

Constant Playoff contention sounds nice till you start to look closer at moves he made after the Super Bowl win. He and John Schneider have made a lot more bad decisions than good. Russell Okung got hurt, and replacing an elite OT isn’t easy, but he dropped a 1st round pick on Germaine Ifedi. Remember that bum? I do. Seattle cut bait with him quickly, then he ended up here, especially useless.

Trading away 25 year old Frank Clark coming off 13 sacks because you blew all your FA money in 2018 on 29 year old S Brandon MacDougald and KJ Wright, who was injured, 30, and since his Super Bowl performance was pretty ineffective at LB wasn’t a smart idea. The guys he drafted with the 1st and 2nd round picks he got in return aren’t on the roster, and the 1st round DE he drafted with 2019 KC’s pick isn’t on the roster, and didn’t get his first sack in a Seahawks uniform until 2022.

He hired Shane Waldron to call plays. How’d that turn out?

And as feel-good as the story was, spending prime draft picks on twin Shaq Griffin brothers (I forget which one was missing a hand between Shaquille vs Shaquem) but for 3 years, the one without a hand had to step into starting LB a lot due to injury and aging talents and he was picked on. The one missing a hand is out of the league and the brother is in Minnesota after making his way through 4 teams. That feel good shit is something the McCaskeys would love, but results in the win column won’t be a lot different than what we’re seeing now.

I really like how Carroll handled WRs. He’s not constantly spending prime draft picks or resources and got a lot out of a decade of DK, Lockett, Kearse, Doug Baldwin, Paul Richardson, and one more I’m forgetting. The bears spend #9 overall on WR3 and Carroll found guys just as effective 3rd round and later.

Carroll was the first guy to start constantly bringing in guys off the streets to work out, and at the end, Pace started doing the same things. I like that, but again—short term with Carroll he will turn over the roster, likely putting the team further away from contention longer then 2-3 years later when he’s 76/77, what’s going to happen then after a couple more rough seasons? He’ll be long gone and the bears will be right back where they started.

He’s a weasel, the type you probably hate playing against but if he was your guy you’d love him. This guy needs an established team who needs a coach to get over the hump. The bears are nowhere close to that.

 

Brian Flores, that’s the guy you want as HC. I wanted the Steelers to make him DC, but they let him go sign with the Vikings. Look how good their defense is this season. I don’t know what teams think of him after that lawsuit but he is a very good coach.

 

You almost have to admire this team digging in deep and doubling down constantly on stupid decisions, before they find new/hilarious ways to lose games.

Another game of 0 targets for your highly paid blocking TE. Gerald Everett got more targets.

Another game where almost every DJ pass except for 1 was at the LOS.

I know its early for "wish lists," but Everett, Edmunds, Brisker, Stevenson, Walker, Taylor, Borom, and whatever is on the OL/DL right now short of Wright, Pryor, Sweat, and Dexter all need replacing/not need be in a bears uniform next summer.

Gents, there is a silver lining after another piece de resistance performance last night. We're almost single digit days away from Black Monday.

Absurd that Nate Davis alone was about 33% of this total number.

 

• 3 straight last place finishes.
• Total record of 14-37 (0.274 winning %).
  
• 2-16 record against the NFC North (0.111 winning %)
• A worse OL than we had 3 years ago.
• A worse DL than we had 3 years ago.
• A worse coaching staff than we had 3 years ago.
• Scapegoating his own coaching staff.
• A litany of horrible 2nd and 3rd round picks.
• Nate Davis. Edmonds. Swift. Chase Claypool.
• Not trading VJJ when he had a chance.
• A barely average punter in the 4th round.

Ryan Poles is the worst GM in franchise history. This cannot be disputed.

 

Not to mention a franchise record worst 10 game losing streak in 2022, only to be topped by a new franchise record worst 11 game losing streak in 2024.

 

Its genuinely not worth a debate, but just to say my worst Bears GM is still Pace. Cos he would make all the same bad personnel decisions but he also had an ace up each sleeve. 1- He was an absolute mark when it came to trades and the entire league knew it. 2- His abilities at cap management were as bad as anything i've seen from a GM. A teenage girl at a shopping mall with daddy's credit card was more fiscally responsible than Pace. When Pace left the team was so screwed cap wise that they had to completely write off the following season and that was after trading away Mack. The next GM, if there is one, will at least be in a v solid place re cap/draft picks.

But the bottom line is they are two awful hires and i'll throw in a 3rd in Phil Emery. Each one hired under George McFuckskey.

 

I was all ready to argue with you with Emery, but he had 3 years too, lets look at the numbers to directly compare with yours:

• 3rd, 2nd, 4th finishes
• Total record of 23-25
• 6-8 against the NFC North
• Hired Trestman
• Drafted Leno as the rock of the bears LT for 6 years
• Let Urlacher go

Pace had (in the first 3 years):

• 3 last place finishes before he traded for Mack to go with Trubisky and got that lone year where they finished first.
• Total record of 14-34
• 3-15 record against the NFC North (including an impressive 0-6 in 2017)

So Pace's first 3 years are comparable actually, he just mortgaged all of the future to "win now" and save his job, which bought him 3 more years and one decent year. Will they let Poles do the same? Pace even had a similar situation with Fox as Eberflus. Maybe they can repeat history again.

Fuck this team.

 

Statements he made are just as alarming.
When referring to the offensive line he said "This is the deepest room I've ever been part of" or "We are going to constantly put players in positions to succeed."
My favorite "We're gonna take the North and never give it back."

He's had a few hits in the draft, and a whole lot of misses. Fuck you Poles
His free agency pickups have been questionable at best if not downright bad. Fuck you Poles
Name one instance this season where they put a player in a position to succeed? Now you could say Tory Taylor because Poles with this offense has given him plenty of practice, and they say practice makes perfect, but he's still middle of the pack. The fact that he used a 4th round on a fucking punter as a luxury pick with all this teams holes shows me he's delusional of the talent he's compiled. Fuck you Poles
His selections are long on measurables, and short on ability. Fuck you Poles
Thomas Brown should have had one job to do which was development of Caleb and the offense, but only after showing two weeks of progress with Caleb, Poles decides to pile more on his plate and throw him the keys when he's still on his learners permit, and the Bears have been going completely backwards ever since.
Fuck you Ryan (Less Than Zero) Poles, your team sucks.
Fuck you Virginia (Just Die Bitch) McCaskey, your family sucks.
Fuck you George (I'm Pretty in Pink) McCaskey, your organization sucks...
...it's because of these assholes, the Bears still suck.

 

On a separate topic, I am sick of seeing these "so and so could break the record for most X in a season!" when we keep expanding the length of the season. Brock Bowers beat Ditka's record for most receiving yards by a TE and at first I thought, "well at least he did it in the normal 16 games" and then I had to remember, "oh yeah, Ditka played with 14 games back then, 2 less even than Bowers had so far". Barkley is only 101 yards away from Dickerson's record, but Dickerson was done when it was 16 games. Justin was on pace to beat Lamarr's rushing QB record until he missed those games, so he had a chance to do it in the 16 games, but if he had done it in 17, it's just silly to me.

Was nice to see the Packers lose yesterday at least.

 

Watching Jordan Love look absolutely pedestrian was great. Josh Jacobs on the other hand I have no clue who the fuck is gonna tackle him this Sunday. Also watching them with a bunch of undisciplined play and penalties made it sweeter. Was nice to see someone else make stupid mistakes for a change.

O’Connell pissed me off the whole 4th quarter. 6 min left, you’re up big, and you’re still throwing? 3 and out and they took something like 15 seconds off the clock, some Nagy-esque shit there and the packers score 2x.

 

Gave me the red ass like a pissed off gorilla at the zoo. Agree 100%. Hopefully a learning experience.

Just passing by.

 

I can’t defend Pace at all but he entered a situation where he was hamstrung with Cutler’s contract for 2 of the first 3 years. No such concern for Poles.

Tuna’s post really drives it all home. This guy is so delusional he thought the OL was deep when literally every fan, even the morons, knew it was below average. Then the arrogance of taking a punter in the 4th round indicates he thought this team was a complete Super Bowl contender, which even if it was it was still an inexcusable selection. Rome is a #2 WR at best (is he even going to be better than Darnell Mooney?) and we all know the Yale guy will be out of the league in a year or two. Lucking into Caleb is probably going to buy Poles far more time than he deserves.

I’m trying to ignore all the rumors flying around about who is interested in the Bears HC opening, who the Bears are interested in, whether or not Poles stays or goes if a certain guy is hired… Instead I’m worried about the best candidates turning us down. Everyone sees Ben Johnson as a forgone conclusion but he spurned the Skins and since he’ll have his pick of the lot why would he want to enter an even more dysfunctional organization? Pete Carroll interested? Ha. Like that guy would want to put up with Warren and Georgie.

As Bears fans we are a highly delusional fan base. Most of us thought we were destined for the playoffs this year, and most of us are thrilled about winning the offseason Super Bowl (which I believe we’ve done 7 out of the last 10 offseasons) and assume that will translate to a successful regular season. No. Brace yourselves. We are not going to land any of the guys we really want for HC. A Nagy or Trestman type will be coaching this team next year.

Fuck the McCaskeys.

 

Poles did have the first year where he tanked and cleared the books of massive amounts of dead money left over from Pace's mismanagement. Poles cap situation has been a bright spot for him over other GMs, another reason he's maybe not the worst. But arguing over the biggest juiciest turd in our rich history of turds isn't all that appealing to me, because Poles like those before him is complete ass. And I've got a feeling we're going to enter into his second contract now. Because continuity and other bullshit.

I was listening to Hoge and Jahns on the HC candidates and it's just depressing. Brian Fucking Flores as a candidate? Then I read CBS and he's considered the #3 best candidate available? That is the Bears-iest move I can think of.

 

It doesn't matter which candidate they select it will be the wrong one. They could bring in Jesus DeFootball, a guy that turns bubble screens into touchdowns and it still wouldn't matter. It would then be TFL's all day long.

 

Im just gonna say this right now.

If they hire that fat fuck former Packer McCarthy i am OUT.

 

I’ll say this for Flores. In a vacuum, you could do a lot worse looking solely at retreads. I’m with ev—if McCarthy is a the guy—I’m out. There are several reasons he’s a candidate for HC, but he doesn’t fit here.

I don’t want to give the Vikes two 3rds for the diversity hire. Furthermore, I don’t understand the de-facto acceptance that he will instill “discipline.” The Vikes’ defense, his unit, are top 1/4 in DPI against, and 2nd in the league in ‘12 men on field’ calls. I’d like to leave the cover who back in the 1990s where it belongs, so I’d welcome the 3-4 back with an aggressive coordinator who knows the scheme isn’t for bend/don’t break and it’s for aggression.

His Tua situation when he was in Miami doesn’t bother me. What’s his plan for offense on the other hand, does. I could theoretically get behind stealing Josh McCown, but even then, I don’t love it. If he’s going Mcvay/shanahan tree, who’s the guy?

Some 6 names are floating around. I’m waiting for black Monday before I give any credence to the names. I’m 50/50 on Poles leaving. It’s the bears so I expect them to fuck things up and look for a reason to shoot themselves in the foot. On the other hand, not sure you can sell any fanbase on keeping poles. His only probowler he didn’t draft. His tenure looks like Matt Millen, but NOW he’s got a sense of urgency? Don’t buy that.

He’s drafted a ton of not good players, and he’s put himself in a bind. He’s paid Jaylon, and in the next 2 years Kyler, Brisker, and 29 are up. You can’t keep them all, so the drafting strategy is suspect. You also can’t spend big $$$ on a secondary and expect the defense to work just fine.

Mind you no OL drafted by him have gotten a 2nd contract. The punter will forever be funny, as will drafting WR3 at 9 overall.

 

There is little he has done aside from keeping the cap in line, but another GM could mean another teardown, and I'll never survive that. More importantly, Caleb will never survive that. Fuck this team.