Rants and Raves 2024 Edition

I am not getting the Cunningham love. What exactly has he done? Is it the backup QB thing. “Our starter sucks so the other guy has to be better”. If he was influential enough to stop poles from moving up for Rome how come he hasn’t been able to influence the shitty choices he has made?

Poles should be gone. The last straw for me was promoting Brown to HC when he was starting to get our offense and Williams on track. Forget the talent evaluation, which hasn’t been good enough, and just look at the football decisions.

All that being said he gets a chance at redemption that he does not deserve. And if he nails it, it could very well change the entire organizations destiny.

I can’t agree with this. The issue has been who the Bears have hired not the pool from which they picked. Bruce Arians would have taken the job if it was offered, Dan Quin would have taken the job if it was offered. The Bears don’t fire coaches who don’t deserve it. The Bears biggest issue has been QB and we finally have one worth a dam. Now will the Bears make the right choice? I doubt it but it won’t be because the right choice said no thank you.

 

Fair enough. But i don't think you realise you're partially supporting my point with the bolded. The issue is the Bears hire the wrong people, the issue is the Bears as an org are incompetent. Its not just the HC hires, their GM hires have been arguably worse! That's the guy who will pick the players for said HC. So yes, it matters. Enough for people to turn down the job? That remains to be seen, but i get where you're coming from, certainly for co-ordinators with no HC resume its less likely. For a guy like Vrabel, with a rep and options?....

Speaking of which, nothing the Bears are doing in this search will have increased their rep around the league or made people think they're getting it now. Despite having a head start on teams like the Pats, they sat on their asses, then interviewed every man and his dog giving the clear impression they have no idea what they are looking for. And they made them all do zoom calls for some unknown reason, except possibly Ron Rivera who TF knows. The Pats got the Rooney Rule out the way, then got Vrabel in their building and got it done. I actually respect Vrabel's professionalism towards the process even doing the zoom, but anyone who seriously thinks he was signing for the Bears given all this, is fooling themselves. Anyone who thinks senior people around the league aren't watching this from the Bears and having a chuckle to themselves behind closed doors, are also fooling themselves.

The message the Bears are putting out isn't "we know what we need(or even want) and we're gonna go out and get it". Its "look at us turning over every stone, look how hard we're working". Tuna said it on the other thread, the Bears are about optics most of all.

 

Great post.

There's prob a whole separate discussion to be had on this, but i've long felt the combine plays way, way too big a part in the decision making process for player selection. You have to wonder how much the league is culpable re their eternal push for ratings, particularly at that time in the year when things are so quiet otherwise. The combine has become this giant event now and i wonder if that in itself creates an inflated sense of importance, sub-conscious or otherwise.

So many of the combine tests are just position superfluous(OLs running 40s?). Hell even the ones that aren't superfluous, how much value do they really have over the tape? WRs run straight down a line catching easy balls left and right. They go deep on their own, tracking and catching balls in an empty stadium with zero distractions. Presumably some it is to determine if they can catch a football in a game yes? Well something went very fucking wrong with Quentin Johnston then didnt it! That guy has some of the worst hands i've ever seen, if he was on the Bears he'd already be inducted into their Ring of Stone Hands. That dude was a 1st round pick. I presume he didn't completely blow the catching drills otherwise he wouldn't be a 1st round pick right?

There's one reason above all else why Johnston went in the 1st round, his measurables: size, height, length.

 

"A leader of men". I guarantee you they're going to say this about 15 more times by the time the new hire press conference has wrapped up, whoever it may be. Georgie can't see past the inside of his own anus.