We've all read the same shit opinion pieces about the Chicago Bears and what they're going to do in 2024, haven't we?
"Clean house!" say many fans. Didn't we just do that, like four or five times now? Two or three years and you're done in Chicago! There's no stability if we keep cleaning house, but with continuity things can improve with the right personalities in key positions.
"Fire Eberflus! shout the talking heads across social media. Many of these talking heads predict Eberflus is gone next season and there's no way he can save himself, it's a logical conclusion if you're a more casual football fan, in my opinion.
"Trade Justin Fields!" scream the most meatheads of meatheads. This may be the most uneducated opinion. As if replacing a quarterback is going to rush the passer, run or pass block, run routes and catch the ball, call the right plays, build the right scheme, create turnovers, or even punt the fucking ball inside the 10 or 15 on occasion. One player doesn't fix some of the very real problems that this team has endured this season, and Tyson Bagent helped to prove that during his four and a half game stint under center.
"Hire Jim Harbaugh" chants the long time die hards. Fans calling for Jim Harbaugh are at least clamouring for a realistic candidate unllike those who want to bring back Lovie Smith. You can find an opinion on just about everything,, if you look hard enough. But what about the unpopular opinions? The fans like me who want to look at this team as a perennial contending franchise for the next decade rather than a flash in the pan team that's capable of winning a Super Bowl next season? Many of us believe in the plan that Ryan Poles laid out in his opening press conference where he stated this would be a 3-4 year rebuilding process in order to take the NFC North and never give it back.
Fans are sick and tired of losing. The Chicago Bears are the second worst team in the NFL over the last ten seasons. Following a 3-14 season in 2022 with a 3-8 start to the season in 2023 wears on a fan base and fans once again are clamouring for a new regime.
The expectations of instantaneous results have tainted our ability to understand what it takes to tear down an organizataion from the top down and rebuild it into a perennial contender. It requires a culture shift that sometimes can look like a constant struggle on and off the field, and it has. We've seen players like Roquan Smith, Khalil Mack, David Montgomery and Robert Quinn get traded away under a new General Manager who, at the same time brought in a very inexperienced coaching staff.
The former team President Ted Phillips resigned, but not before helping the team decide on hiring a consulting team to hire a coaching staff. Why wouldn't you hire your team President and let HIM hire his staff? The team has hired in assbackwards fashion for many years, and when things didn't work out with a coaching staff, they'd give them another season, and a brand new quarterback to work with...for one season before firing them.
A lot of personnel decisions haven't made sense in Chicago for quite some time and some of us want off the crazy train.
Improvement. In year two of building a perennial contender the best moves aren't always the obvious ones. Many fans are screaming for Marvin Harrison Jr. to be drafted by Ryan Poles with the Chicago Bears first pick of the draft and who wouldn't want such a specimen? He's an elite receiver with a bloodline of a hall of fame player at the position. Harrison is a no brainer for many, especially with Darnell Mooney being in a contract year.
But what if Ryan Poles traded his highest value pick once again, and obtained more elite players to add to the roster, like he did with DJ Moore and Darnell Wright, while also adding more draft capital for 2024 and beyond?
What if Ryan Poles takes these two terribly dissapointing seasons in 2022 and 2023 to create the necessary draft capital that allows him to add more new young talent to the Chicago Bears organization over the next decade than we've ever witnessed?
What if Ryan Poles extends Darnell Mooney and Jaylon Johnson to lock up those positions, and continues to improve the stability of the roster by adding a solid, young safety to replace Eddie Jackson, draft a stud interior lineman and more depth along both the offensive and defensive lines, adds another receiver or two, and depth at tight end to develop.
Open your mind to the concept of building on what we have and not starting from scratch in key positions like the coaching staff, or quarterback specifically. Matt Eberflus isn't the guy everyone wants. The fantasy storyline would be bringing in Jim Harbaugh and going to the Super Bowl in a season or two with Marvin Harrison Jr. replacing Darnell Mooney. It certainly is a great story and sounds like the obvious answer, but people continue to people in this crazy thing we call life,and things rarely work out the way we want them to especially in situations where we have absolutely no control.
Welcome to being a fan of sports. Stop getting angry and acting stupid when your team doesn't do what you want them to do. That's literally the definition of entitlement and makes you look like a three year old child, you're a grown ass man, act like it.
And if this offends you then get a therapist. You're welcome.
The Chicago Bears have continued to show improvements this season, but injuries have shown how difficult it is to win games with both Justin Fields and Tyson Bagent under center. Keep in mind, the 2023 season got off to a very rocky start with a slew of injuries to key players in training camp and the pre-season. Injuries to the offensive line that have lingered until recently making the starting offensive line whole for the first time this season against the Detroit Lions, only to lose their starting center for the better part of the second quarter. They were struggling to figure out the run game when Khalil Herbert went down then Roschon Johnson and Travis Homer both leave the same game which forced full back Khari Blasingame to play RB1 D'Onta Foreman starts and the run game became the identify of this football team while Fields was out with his dislocated thumb.
The defensive back field has had serious injuries to their 2022 rookies in Jaquan Brisker and Kyler Gordon, who have played very physical since coming back. Jaylon Johnson was out for several games as well, but guys have been coming back from injury since the Las Vegas Raiders game and we're seeing the benefits of a healthy team who happens to be going into a bye week after this Monday night game against the Vikings.
If players remain healthy then I can definitely see more games that look similar to the competitive games we've seen against Denver, Washington and most recently in Detroit. And we can certainly win some of those games with a healthy team.
Win or lose, the product most fans want to see on the field is a competitive one, bottom line. Level headed fans who understand that football is not only a religion, but it is also just entertainment, can look at the sport with a far more even keel approach than I'll ever be able to, but I do my best to gain perspective wherever I can and recently I've watched some highly intellectual football coaches and players who make a great case for retaining a core group of players and this coaching staff for a third season. It may seem achingly painful to some, but again this is a 3-4 year plan which means this team could potentially win 5 games this season and 8 or 9 games next season.
Depending on the patience of the McCaskey's, Kevin Warren and Ryan Poles, this coaching staff could be here for the foreseeable future, folks. Is it likely though? Its just as likely as anyone else who's written an article or spoken on a podcast saying the coaching staff is gone next season, isn't it? We have no evidence to say which way this will play out, other than two things that come to mind immediately.
Ryan Poles said this was a 3-4 year plan to become a perennial contender, to take the NFC North and never give it back, right?
I don't take words for granted and I'm not a cynical person so I take him for his word when he spoke at this introductory press conference. No man who expresses this kind of genuine emotion deserves to be shit on the way this fan base has shit on him. Imagine shitting on Walter Payton when he was drafted, as many did, and witnessing his pure emotion as a player throughout his career. Nah, I'm not comparing the achievements of the two, just the genuine emotion while he's speaking.
He talks about the depth of the plan that Matt Eberflus had to meet Ryan Poles vision on the field. Say what you want about Eberflus and his inability to win football games, he has not lost the locker room. These players are still fighting to win games despite his inability to stay aggressive in games and bad decision making that's lead to a slew of losses. Either Matt Eberflus is the perfect scapegoat, or a brilliant strategist in executing two tanking seasons in a row from the coaching position because many of the games have been competitive,albeit atrociously called.
Ryan Poles gave what I believe to be a very genuine review of Matt Eberflus in a press conference following the Montez Sweat trade.
How will their tenures play out?
Will they be able to accomplish Ryan Poles goal to take the north and never give it back?
We're going to find out soon enough, but I have a lot of faith in Ryan Poles specifically and would like to see his plan through to completion because if he does accomplish what he set out to accomplish in taking the NFC North and never giving it back, and think about this for a minute, just sit back with your eyes closed and think about this.. IF HE DOES achieve his goal to build a PERENNIAL CONTENDER, a SUPER BOWL CONTENDING CHICAGO BEARS TEAM FOR THE NEXT DECADE OR MORE, Ryan Poles will be another legendary General Manager like Jim Finks, not only in this city but to millions of fans across the world. He will do what was supposed to be done in the 80's, but the organization failed to do it. Create a dynasty in Chicago.
And even more importantly to some fans, there's a hidden win in this that many fans don't even think about. If Ryan Poles succeeds and builds a dominant Chicago Bears roster and can maintain a dynasty this will alter the history of the franchise forever because the value of the team will skyrocket at the same time that the stadium plans are executed and the McCaskey family will sell the team for twice the current value. It will launch a new era that many Chicago Bears fans have been wanting their whole lives, new ownership.
The Bears will come out of the bye with nearly two full weeks of rest coming into Soldier Field on December 10th to defend their home against the Detroit Lions.
How many wins do you think the Bears will get in the final six games of the season?
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