Bears 12.0

[dice]

Poles biggest mistake was hiring and (later even bigger one was) keeping Matt Eberflus. He double bet on him and both time lost. He lost all credibility for me as GM with just that one move. He had no issue moving assets to aquire Claypool and later moving from Claypool. Yes sometimes you bet, you recognize your mistake and you move on and ship him. That's fine.

But keeping Eberflus after that disaster season and putting entire Bears franchise with another QB rookie playing with coach on hot seat is justifiable firing offense. And given this guy knows history of Bears, he still willingly went with it.

Just as that move, you dont deserve a job as GM anymore. That's a fact.

flus's defense came on like gangbusters in the latter half of his 2nd year. at that point, w/ ownership that was likely reluctant to pay him to leave at that point, i can understand poles not having much leverage to push for a change...particularly when he chose flus to begin with!

[dice]

I’m accepting that Ben Johnson sees in Poles a guy he can work with as long as BJ can guide Poles along. A key benefit as a coach in working with a weak GM is to be able to control your own destiny

this situation reeks of daryl morey/elton brand to me. gives ammunition to the idiots who hyperventilate about DEI - is the black guy keeping his job title indefinitely just because he's black?

the difference is that morey had prior success as a GM. ben johnson does not. and morey is not doubling as coach

if you are correct that BJ is effectively running the whole operation (and i suspect you are), that suggests a belichickian level of faith by management in a guy who has neither been a head coach NOR a GM

[dice]

My criticisms of Poles are basically twofold:
1. Coach hiring AND extending. The “forced on him via the Trace mafia” argument might work for the hiring, but on the resigning? That seems wholly on Poles. Add in the allowing of the hiring of Getsy and then Waldron……. :puke: absolute travesty, especially for a young franchise QB.
2. Combine 1 with not bolstering the OL for Caleb. And I’m not talking about scrap heap guys (Bates, Shelton, Patrick). Throw in the big signing of Davis with huge red flags. These are all at-the-time forseeable problems for a young QB. And the best asset used last offseason for OL w the injured Amigadije.

Now I will say in my view, he has turned those around this offseason. I love the Johnson signing, and I am somewhere between highly and overly optimistic on the 3 interior OL, and comfortable with Braxton/Ozzy for LT.

The other moves I’d say I lean positive. Mix of good (Sweat trade) and bad (Chase trade), some good picks (Wright, Brisker, Gordon, Tyrique, T. Smith), some bad (Velus, Pickens, 2 punters, Scott).

My biggest concern is the history of building “outside in” particularly with a young QB. The good news IMO is that he seems to have realized that issue and flipped to some degree (I don’t blame him for Loveland at 11 this year given the way the board fell in terms of OL and the depth at DL).

So he's made a few mistakes- which GM hasn't? How about at looking all the positives, too- such as building one of the best young secondaries in the league, have the best set of skill position players on offense in the past 40 years, having what should be a franchise QB for the first time since maybe Jim McMahon, a solid interior to the defensive line, and now, a very solid staring five on the O line. And to top it off, being able to attract one of the most sought after coaching candidates.

Does everyone who thinks Poles is doing such a lousy job think a talent like Ben Johnson would chose to come to the Bears if they were so poorly managed, if their GM was such a buffoon?

My main concern is that he’s made 2 major mistakes (coach and lack of OL focus) which seem to indicate a philosophical approach that I think is not conducive to longterm success. IMO teams should be focusing on OL and DL in EVERY draft. Not to the exclusion of other positions, but once each draft getting a top 3-4 round pick on at least one of those sides. Prior to this year he did that once at OL (Wright), and one major FA who completely flopped (Davis). So not only not focusing in the draft on that, but also mainly not doing that in FA (again scrap heap/low end guys).

analytics suggest that in today's NFL it is indeed better to build from the outside in. the eagles going from nearly worst to 1st in defense last year by overhauling their secondary and bringing in baun is emblematic of that. and people who believed sweat was largely responsible for the bears defensive surge at the end of 2024 were misguided. it was the secondary first and foremost...particularly stevenson

bears receiver and QB play were both quite underwhelming last year. independent of both mediocre interior line play/injuries, lack of running game and awful coaching

[MalagaBulls]

This could be drama. Look JJ, you signed that contract now honor it. I hope we don't have to wind up considering a trade sooner or later.


Sent from my SM-X210 using Tapatalk

[CjayC]

Read on Twitter

[ThisGuyFawkes]

Read on Twitter

Oof. I hope this kid is special.

[CjayC]

Read on Twitter

Oof. I hope this kid is special.

Game recognize game. Crossing my fingers

Read on Twitter

[ThisGuyFawkes]

Read on Twitter

Oof. I hope this kid is special.

Game recognize game. Crossing my fingers

Read on Twitter

Yeah, he's got all the talent in the world. Just really needs to get his head straight.

[Dresden]

And says Ben Johnson made him replace 80% of his offensive line.

Evidence for that???

[Susan]

And says Ben Johnson made him replace 80% of his offensive line.

Evidence for that???

Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson, Drew Dalman and Ozzy Trapilo are all Chicago Bears now.

That's more movement and resources dedicated to the OL than any other offseason of the Poles era by far.

[molepharmer]

Game recognize game. Crossing my fingers

Read on Twitter

Yeah, he's got all the talent in the world. Just really needs to get his head straight.

And stay healthy..... he seemingly had a habit of having leg issues at Missouri, nothing major just nagging stuff

[Hold That]

And says Ben Johnson made him replace 80% of his offensive line.

Evidence for that???

Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson, Drew Dalman and Ozzy Trapilo are all Chicago Bears now.

That's more movement and resources dedicated to the OL than any other offseason of the Poles era by far.

Or maybe he wanted to right his wrongs from the previous two years? Even when you approve of moves you’re reluctant to give him credit. “It must be the new guys”.

Which basically mean any positive move going forward it’s all Ben Johnson. As if Poles didn’t create the roster that appealed to Ben Johnson to choose the Bears

[molepharmer]

Evidence for that???

Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson, Drew Dalman and Ozzy Trapilo are all Chicago Bears now.

That's more movement and resources dedicated to the OL than any other offseason of the Poles era by far.

Or maybe he wanted to right his wrongs from the previous two years? Even when you approve of moves you’re reluctant to give him credit. “It must be the new guys”.

Which basically mean any positive move going forward it’s all Ben Johnson. As if Poles didn’t create the roster that appealed to Ben Johnson to choose the Bears

And of course, Ben Johnson had absolutely nothing to do with Poles manipulating the roster in such a manner that allowed the Bears to put $50 mil into the O-line.

[dice]

Evidence for that???

Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson, Drew Dalman and Ozzy Trapilo are all Chicago Bears now.

That's more movement and resources dedicated to the OL than any other offseason of the Poles era by far.

Or maybe he wanted to right his wrongs from the previous two years? Even when you approve of moves you’re reluctant to give him credit. “It must be the new guys”.

Which basically mean any positive move going forward it’s all Ben Johnson. As if Poles didn’t create the roster that appealed to Ben Johnson to choose the Bears

caleb williams (acquired by sheer luck) and a truckload of cash appealed to ben johnson

[dice]

And says Ben Johnson made him replace 80% of his offensive line.

Evidence for that???

Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson, Drew Dalman and Ozzy Trapilo are all Chicago Bears now.

That's more movement and resources dedicated to the OL than any other offseason of the Poles era by far.

i suspect BJ had heavy influence on the otherwise nonsensical jackson acquisition/extension (ditto loveland). but dalman was a rather obvious target and LT insurance was a must that was smartly addressed beyond the 1st round of the draft. thuney? god knows there was plenty of pressure on poles to make a splashy OL acquisition w/ or w/o ben johnson being here

[TheJordanRule]

And says Ben Johnson made him replace 80% of his offensive line.

Evidence for that???

Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson, Drew Dalman and Ozzy Trapilo are all Chicago Bears now.

That's more movement and resources dedicated to the OL than any other offseason of the Poles era by far.

Ben was right. The OL was in desperate need of an overhaul. Strong collaborations between coach and GM can be healthy. We just have to hope that the two of them together bring out the best in each other.

[Hold That]

Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson, Drew Dalman and Ozzy Trapilo are all Chicago Bears now.

That's more movement and resources dedicated to the OL than any other offseason of the Poles era by far.

Or maybe he wanted to right his wrongs from the previous two years? Even when you approve of moves you’re reluctant to give him credit. “It must be the new guys”.

Which basically mean any positive move going forward it’s all Ben Johnson. As if Poles didn’t create the roster that appealed to Ben Johnson to choose the Bears

caleb williams (acquired by sheer luck) and a truckload of cash appealed to ben johnson

There’s not a Super Bowl winning GM in the league that won’t tell you a little bit of luck was involved in their success. It’s no secret you’re gonna need to catch a break every now and then. And when you do it’s how you capitalize off of it.

We’ve seen many GMs fumble assets. Let’s not act like you can’t give Poles credit for maximizing trades to get draft capital and managing assets to make you an attractive destination.

[dice]

Let’s not act like you can’t give Poles credit for maximizing trades to get draft capital and managing assets to make you an attractive destination.

i can very easily do that. he's pissed away as many picks as he's acquired, he's done so-so in the draft, poorly in free agency, and his saving grace in making trades was spinning choosing fields over stroud into caleb

yes, luck is required to win super bowls. namely finding a good QB. poles has required luck just to keep his job

[fleet]

Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson, Drew Dalman and Ozzy Trapilo are all Chicago Bears now.

That's more movement and resources dedicated to the OL than any other offseason of the Poles era by far.

Or maybe he wanted to right his wrongs from the previous two years? Even when you approve of moves you’re reluctant to give him credit. “It must be the new guys”.

Which basically mean any positive move going forward it’s all Ben Johnson. As if Poles didn’t create the roster that appealed to Ben Johnson to choose the Bears

And of course, Ben Johnson had absolutely nothing to do with Poles manipulating the roster in such a manner that allowed the Bears to put $50 mil into the O-line.

First of all, the Bears aren’t paying a quarterback. Let’s just get that out there front and center. The Packers OTOH are paying a QB, and have about 35 million in cap space left.

Dumping salary and tearing down the roster is easy. Spending the resulting cap space wisely is the hard part to come. Tanking and dumping old salary for 3 years of mediocre roster construction is now called masterful “Manipulating the roster”? Managing the cap of a bottom barrel team of young players and rookie deal QB after a salary purge is GM child’s play. The good teams are the challenge to manage cap.

Anyway, Poles has signed like 11 long term deals and I don’t know if there was or will be 50% reasonable ROI. And it’s a stretch. As the team begins to win (if) after onboarding better talent that needs to be paid, that’s when Poles will show how good he is at managing the salary cap. We don’t know this answer because we have not seen the evidence. If anything, we have seen Poles shoot himself in the foot more than once on contracts, while also signing a couple market value deals. A mixed bag at best. And also, the practice of trading draft picks for high salaries is not generally considered financially advantageous cap management .

[fleet]

Evidence for that???

Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson, Drew Dalman and Ozzy Trapilo are all Chicago Bears now.

That's more movement and resources dedicated to the OL than any other offseason of the Poles era by far.

i suspect BJ had heavy influence on the otherwise nonsensical jackson acquisition/extension (ditto loveland). but dalman was a rather obvious target and LT insurance was a must that was smartly addressed beyond the 1st round of the draft. thuney? god knows there was plenty of pressure on poles to make a splashy OL acquisition w/ or w/o ben johnson being here

Ben Johnson showing up in Poles’ 4th season and suddenly the O-line is tossed 80% is either Ben Johnson insisting on massive improvements and focus, or Poles being so ashamed and dissatisfied of his work to this point it finally dawned on him to do his main job, and BJ’s arrival was only incidental. Justin Fields does indeed have to be SHDH. Either way, there was some kind of new fire under Poles’ rear end this offseason. For some reason.