I also want to believe in Poles. I hated his offseason approach and believed the offense was doomed this season. Outside of the QB virtually nothing that is happening on Offense is surprising but then i was paying attention. No, it doesn't. It needs to continue and its going to. For as long as those position groups are shitting the bed you'll see me talking about it(figuretively speaking). There's plenty of blame to go around with this team(QB included) and go around it will, from me anyway. If that pops anyones Poles bubble or goes against any Fields hate narratives being worked up then tough. Put me on ignore if thats a thing around here, i don't give a fuck. 1st one up. Sorry but this is all horseshit. Quite literally. "QB's all over the league" lol? Name them. Which teams have got the same or less talent than the Bears at BOTH the OL & WR position groups. You'll struggle for 1 let alone 3 and even 3 is nothing like all around the league. Patriots may seem like a bet but they've actually got the Bears covered in both departments. Panthers? Umm nope. DJ Moore and Robbie Anderson + FA money to Austen Corbett & a top10 overall pick at LT. Deadskins? Hell no. McLaurin & Curtis Samuel that is all. Colts? Shitty WRs but an OL thats stellar compared to ours. Honestly the closest you'll get is the Texans who the Bears just played but even they have the likes of Brandon Cooks and Laremy Tunsil, talents far superior than anything the Bears have. Christ even the Jags have the Bears covered in this game. Even the fucking Jets! The Giants have actually invested in their OL and WR positions, injuries aside Daniel Jones has more to work with than Fields unquestionably. The Bears have a bottom 3 OL for pass protection(and thats me being kind) and probably a 3 WR corps. No other starting QB out there is dealing with that. The real reason they're at the bottom of offensive categories every year is because they don't invest in the Offense.
So one of the best QB's in history wouldn't struggle, okaaaay. Glad we clarified that. The rest of that list damn man you just named most of the best QBs in the league, at least 2 of which look bound for Canton(ones a lock). What is this fuckery? Some of the best QBs in the league today could make some chicken salad out of chicken shit so Fields is having excuses made for him?? Allen was trash his first year and not much better his 2nd. Yes he finally made a big leap, it also coincided with having some better blocking and getting a stud WR to throw to. Hurts i could kinda get but have you seen the weapons they've given him over there??! Eagles fans were done with him now he's putting up numbers throwing to AJ Brown & Devonta Smith, another incredible coincidence!! Murray is only throwing to a future HOFer, a 1st round pick oh and DEANDRE HOPKINS!(when healthy). What the F is going on around here? Im just telling you guys, this CCS shit aint gonna fly. Yes Fields has played poorly we all see it but lets have some fucking context.
Oh my God someone actually fucking gets it. Is that whats really taking place? Who knows we're not in the building. But everything you just said is entirely logical and makes far more sense than the Fields witchhunt thats going on.
If he finds the right QB and invests in the o-line, I'll believe in him. We embrace debate here. The whole offense is trash. Worse than trash. But eventually you will tire of the Fields excuses yourself. It happens to all of us with all Bears QBs, except that each of us processes this on a different timeline. I've seen this too many fucking times to count. Jets have very little talent at the skill positions and ditto Texans. Cooks is no better than Mooney and our RB duo is better than both of those teams. Giants have a good OL but are you impressed with their WRs? I'm not. Zach Wilson comes in for his first start of the year and leads a 4th quarter comeback on the road. Some guy named Bailey Zappe played very well all things considered in Lambeau and the Pats have very mediocre WRs and their RBs are not as good as ours. Quite literally every starting QB, save maybe Baker, looks way better than Fields even when he has time to throw, which the next gen stats continue to show that he leads the league in. The real-er reason is because we hire moronic GMs who hire bad coaches + draft bad QBs all while neglecting the o-line year after year. See 1992-2022.
I'm having fun spectating like the gang from It's Always Sunny during their debates. Just moving my little face magnet to the other side of the board whenever a strong-sounding argument is made. First person to slap the word "bitch" on a couple faces gets my vote. I haven't watched enough Bears this year to judge either way. Newborn baby, fulltime job, shitty economic situation, trying to move to a new home in this market... Got enough shit on my plate to let that clownshow ruin a day of my week. Looking forward to the day when I can watch them again without emptying a bottle of scotch.
If he had shown just a little more than he has, I might be making the context argument myself. But outside of a literally 5-6 nice passes this season and his athleticism to run for first downs, he's done nothing to show me he can be a starting QB in this league. Apparently it's unfair to ask him to not be the absolute worst starting QB in the league just because the deck is stacked completely against him. But that's what we should all be demanding/expecting, given this guy's pedigree and what we gave up to draft him where we did.
What exactly tells you the opposite? I think pats speculation is entirely possible, but probably instead sold as, "I need to rebuild the defense, if Fields is really the guy, he will be able to do it no matter what". Just had to quote this again as I agree. The Packers game HE had the deer in headlights look, and that's not a good look for a head coach. He hasn't looked as bad as Hackett, but that's a pretty fucking low bar honestly. Again though, we can take Eberflus to task but not Fields? I have been to CCS and this stuff is nowhere near that nonsense, holy shit. If you want to give yourself an aneurysm go take a gander. But it is the Fields apologists (which I don't think you are) that likely inspired my reply and I think BWW has gotten the same on twitter, those people for whom it's everyone's fault but Justin's. I will not defend the garbage that our offensive line is (especially Mustipher), and the WRs are shit and Kmet blows, all true. That said, I'm trying to stress that despite all his handicaps, he's not rising above it. When he does I'll give him kudos. I hope he does. And no matter what I, or any fan, thinks, he's playing out at least this year and very likely next year too. We will all get to see. I bring up all those guys because none of them have put up historically bad numbers. Josh Allen I agree was bad as a rookie and they got him some talent and then he not just improved, he absolutely took off. Fields has gone the opposite direction and in a BIG way. Can we blame everyone else? Sure, but I choose to ALSO blame him. There's enough blame to go around. For the Giants game, he was not even close to the top reason they lost, and I don't think he's a bust, yet.
I find it odd we're talking Fields after a loss that's not on him, but you want an example team without a lot of talent? You brought up the Texans (which there, Mills looked better than Justin in that game, as bad as Mills is), but the Steelers. Mitch, for all his shittiness, did not look at bad as Fields, and then they brought in Pickett, who the jury is way out on. You can still argue that the coaching is better, and I won't argue too hard against that. But I'll be curious too see if Pickett has a 4 game stretch like Fields has, given he's a rookie, and that talent is severely lacking. One thing we didn't mention were the blitzes. The Giants were bringing heat big time, and for any rookie QB that's going to be tough, but then again, Fields isn't a rookie anymore either, even if it is a new system. He should be clued into the hot reads, so were the WRs not heads up to know, was the blitz just *that* effective, etc, etc. Curious to see tape analysis later in the week.
I appreciate you thinking of us, man. We're just north of Orlando presently, yeah. Got hit hard here - over 15 inches of rain, and then flash floods from the local waterways on top of that. Thankfully, I'm a seasoned pro from South Florida, been through 30+ hurricanes at this point. I sealed up all the vulnerable spots, so we literally watched the water rising up our back sliding glass door, and not a drop got in. I'll admit, a lot of it was also due to luck. 15 minutes south of us, our sister in law had to be rescued by airboat while their house was flooding. Parents in law to the north of us by a few minutes still don't have power as of now. So we got spared the worst, and I'm really grateful. We're moving up to Minnesota spring / summer next year, presuming interest rates start looking more favorable. It's basically the anti-Florida, and I can't fucking wait. We looked at Illinois first, but in order to get a top school district, we'd either be paying more than we can afford, or would be too far from Chicago (a sticking point for my wife. So, north we go.
Cough, blow me, cough. By all means point who's not doing their job every single week. There are plenty of them. But that's not the reason Fields stat line looks like dogshit at the end of the day. He could have made some bigger plays against Houston. There were plays where someone was open somewhere on the field for a potential big gain. It happened again Sunday. He missed a couple plays that would have been either big gains or touchdowns. Or just extended drives. Not saying it's a definite the receiver would have caught the ball or not fumbled after catching....but Fields has left some plays on the board this season by hesitating or just completely missing an open receiver. So despite all the crap around him playing like the turds they are.....he's left points on the board. It's not horseshit. Every season this team finishes near or at the very bottom in so many offensive categories. Are they always the most devoid of talent? Why was Daniel Jones able to find the endzone twice when he had barely anyone resembling a legit NFL receiver and had a makeshift offensive line that got even more injured during the game? The Giants found a way to brave out a six minute drive late in the game while basically only using 10 guys on offense. The Bears could put 12 on the field and struggle to move 2 yards. Davis Mills is a walking pile of crap....still out performs Fields statistically and it's not because he's surrounded with talent. If you think Cooks is the reason he plays better than Fields that's fine. It's also bullshit. Teddy Bridgewater had stats last season we would have been really happy to see Fields have on a really shit team in Denver. Gardner f'n Minshew put up stats that blow away Fields in Jacksonville a couple years ago on a 1-15 team. Every year you find QBs on teams with talent like the Bears have and they are, for the most part, performing better than Bears QBs do in the same situation. Hasn't mattered who the coach is, the LT is, the WR is, or anything. The Bears continue to find ways to just completely shit the bed and be the worst of the bunch.
The fact that they spent a whole offseason working on Fields footwork and then built a timing offense that is supposed to be in sync with his footwork tells me differently. The fact they made moves to load up the coming offseason.....they aren't dumping Fields after his second NFL season. So this coming offseason is targeted to put pieces around him. Also just listen to Eberflus talk about Fields. I just don't buy the crap.
They're obviously not going to say the quiet part out loud, which is why watching the moves/actions Poles makes--particularly next Spring when he CANT cop out behind 'but I have limited resources and cap space and too many roster spots/holes to fill.' I disagree with BWW for now on Poles being 'all in' on Justin Fields. To me its a funny thing to say 'we're all in' when all the moves aren't to help him short of throwing a bucket of shit at a wall and hoping something sticks in terms of a bunch of 1 year WR deals and paying a solid 33 year old pass blocking RT 12.5 mil to ride the bench. Everything else went to defense. Top 2 draft picks in the 2nd round? Defense. Larry Ogunjobi (until his failed physical) was in line for 16ish mil a year, and Riley Rieff wasn't signed until after this deal fell through because had it stood/Larry not failed it--there wouldn't have been cap space for the highest paid swing tackle in football. When Quan held out representing himself like a tard, it was reported he turned down big $$ because it wasn't Fred Warner/Shaq Leonard level. I'm with Tuna with this team. They're retards until they aren't. I don't give a shit about words and good vibes. Your team sucks. Fix it more than the half-assed way of spending 3/4 of resources on an 'all decade defense' or I'll ridicule it as it deserves when it needs a kicker to not double doink in order to get out of the 1st round of the playoffs because the offense is garbage. Don't get me wrong, Fields isn't immune to criticism. He's fucking sucked when the OL has protected him and when bum ass Cole Kmet is open with 2 steps on the guy covering him, but I'm not really getting the 'we're all in on Justin' vibe from the front office based on the moves made/actions taken. And I get this is revisionist historian a bit--because during March/April--everybody thought Jax was nuts for paying Christian Kirk what they did for the lack of production he had in Arizona. ARob wanted a break up, and after seeing what Kirk got, you didn't want to commit big bucks to a guy like DJ Chark. Two things can be true at the same time though. Justin isn't realizing to take the quick stuff if its there the way Rodgers is a wizard at in the same offense--so questioning his progression and development is merited when they trust him to throw the ball, but then he's getting hit on dropbacks over 50% of the time in under 2 seconds/sacked 5 times in the 1st half against the Giants. A lot of WRs were covered against the Giants.
Poles had the option to spend now or spend later and chose spend later. I'm not saying he chose the right approach but his whole offseason was about patience. I think he evaluated the O-line and thought it was better than it is. And thought the coaching staff could develop Fields through a season where the talent around him isn't superb. If he really is smart he's probably realizing he made mistakes. They were. But Fields can throw guys open. He did it last season. He's not even trying this season. He did it once with Pettis Sunday and of course the piece of shit dropped the ball. There's a lot Fields can do to help himself. Learn how to slide step to avoid the rush instead of completely bailing. If there aren't hot routes ask your OC to install some. Take the short stuff when it's there. There's a lot of change that needs to happen that is 100% on Fields to control. His football...his eyes...and his decision making all belong to him. If receivers drop good throws..fine. But make the fucking throw.
As fate would have it I will probably be moving to your old stomping grounds next year around the same time you're moving up north. I was there last week scouting out the area and but bailed before Ian came close. I've had about enough of cold shitty weather and I've become so soft that even the Maryland winters piss me off now. Looking in Boca Raton/Ft Lauderdale area, as many of my Chicago born brethren have migrated to in the past. Truth. It could be that Poles is all in but his way of thinking about "all in" means purging the roster of older vets + big contracts and bringing in a bunch of low-tier band-aids for prove-it deals, and then start loading up next year. The Reif contract is weird especially since he's not even playing but it could mean that he had zero faith in Borom/Jones and paid Reif to come in and offer Fields a little protection. It may be that the coaching staff thinks Rief is worse than those two. Or maybe he's not 100% healthy. My stance always. The bootleg play in the redzone on third down, he has both Pettis and Kmet open for short gains (probably not a first down), instead he keeps the ball and gets crushed and loses yards. That's a very easy/basic throw any QB should make within 2 seconds of the snap. Not every throw has to be a TD. It's a QB who makes the right throw most of the time, even for minimal yardage, that's going to have a long career. It may take a major injury for Fields to register that.
If I can give you any info / insight to help out, just let me know - spent just shy of 30 years in those two counties, so happy to help if I can. It is quite funny, the timing. I totally get being over winters - I'm sure we'll be there at some point. But when you can't even play baseball with your kid in the summer because it's just too damn hot... I'm over the heat, right now. Also, keep an eye on homeowner's insurance - that's something that was in crisis mode before Ian. We're all waiting to see just how bad that all gets. But hey, lots of things to love about it here, if you do it right. And if that's where you're moving, go get some seats for the Florida Panthers - some of the cheapest and most entertaining hockey in the league, at this moment. I'm excited for you!
Good example of why you can't blame everything on the other 10 guys. Fields has to stand in here. Maybe slide over a couple steps and he has time. He actually runs himself into trouble here.
Compare the above with what he can do when he's not concerned with protection and is delivering a pass with conviction.
I pointed this exact play out on the game thread when it happened. There's clearly a lane to step into and survey the field for an extra second or so. And he causes the pressure himself.
I don't know. This, to me, shows the exact same story that we've seen all year, and have been worried would happen (some of us the moment he got drafted) - he's literally running for his life. In the first clip, he's looking downfield and catches his C getting beaten off the snap AGAIN out of the corner of his eye, so he takes off. Fair, he ran himself into trouble, but I don't blame him for moving. Yes, he has to develop his vision and his movement in the pocket - that has always been true, especially the latter point - but that's so much harder to do when you're constantly under attack and can't trust a single one of your blockers (including in the backfield). To me, this is PTSD causing him to make a bad play. He can fix his reaction, sure, but ultimately the cause needs to be fixed as well. That second clip? Great protection. But to note, it was max protect, with 7 men blocking and the RB doing... something (I wouldn't call that selling the fake, nor would I call that blocking / getting into a route). So, as a QB, you're getting a deeper drop and expecting more protection. I don't think these two plays are ultimately comparable, though I do think they both highlight glaring issues with the offense and how Fields is playing within it.
