Are things really that dire?

[BaBaBlacksheep]

See, that confirms my suspicions. Are you really trying to make difference makers be like "top 3 in the league"? You know how many Superbowls Brady has won without having ANY difference-makers by your characterization?

You'll NEVER be happy looking for a GM who can draft like that BECAUSE THEY DON'T EXIST.

Most NFL TEAMS don't even have ONE difference-maker. And the ones that do, they might only have one difference maker if they contend for playoffs- the QUARTERBACK.

So I think at this point, you really need to clean up what you are saying and be REAL clear what your expectation is.


Because for ME, when I hear difference-maker, can they start on an NFL playoff team seriously contending.

And below, under THAT criteria, looking at today's roster, here's my list of YES. And I will exclude Mack, Quinn and Hicks assuming age for them by the time the core is good:

Fields
Mooney
Smith
Goldman
Johnson
Montgomery
Herbert (not as good as Monty, but good enough to start on a playoff roster)

And here is my list of Maybe, but jury still out:

Kmet
Borom


And beyond that, NOT EVERY PLAYER CAN BE A SUPERSTAR - you still need competent role players who not only can produce, but also fill in to give your starters a rest.

Playoff-caliber role players:

Bilal Nichols
Mario Edwards Jr
Alec Ogletree
Joel Iyiegbuniwe
DeAndre Houston-Carson
Jesse James
Jester Horstead
Alex Bars




17 players who can contribute to the playoff roster.


Stop making excuses. You're allowed to still want Pace fired. I do. But give the devil his due.

Fields (hopefully)
Mooney (good but not top 20 or anything)
Smith (yes)
Goldman (LOL. Headcase that want to retire supposedly. Not a long term building block)
Johnson (very good)
Montgomery (RB dime a dozen)
Herbert (RB dome a dozen)

Yeah GREAT core. LOL

 

[msadows]

You need more than role players

The Packers have went through

Donald Driver
Javon Walker
Greg Jennings
Jordy Nelson
Randall Cobb
Davante Adams

they are always looking for the next guy and often tend to go no further then the NFC title game so you have to have more than just role players.

Sojust a bunch of guys that HOF QB's turned into household names.

 

[Chicago Staleys]

Yes. Yes it is!

 

[bufordht]

Yes, right now it's dire as evidenced by the 3 wins they have. Teams turn around in a year or 2 all the time, so dire doesn't mean impossible. They need a good coach, a couple good drafts, and some good FA pick ups. Not impossible at all, but as it sits, yes it's dire.

 

[msadows]

Yes, right now it's dire as evidenced by the 3 wins they have. Teams turn around in a year or 2 all the time, so dire doesn't mean impossible. They need a good coach, a couple good drafts, and some good FA pick ups. Not impossible at all, but as it sits, yes it's dire.

Ehh, if you had improved oline and qb play you prob have much more than 3 wins right now.

Thats should, you'd hope, be fixed by next year. Or they could just go into the season for the 4th straight year with massive holes on the oline....

 

[Mighty Joe Young]

Fields (hopefully)
Mooney (good but not top 20 or anything)
Smith (yes)
Goldman (LOL. Headcase that want to retire supposedly. Not a long term building block)
Johnson (very good)
Montgomery (RB dime a dozen)
Herbert (RB dome a dozen)

Yeah GREAT core. LOL

Your issues with him notwithstanding, Goldman was solid before covid and was manhandling people in Pitt.

So pardon me if I think your evaluations are more based on emotion than what's actually happening on the field.

 

[Pegger]

Good post and the team really isn't in that bad of a spot.

I think the larger frustration is around how the team is run. Some blame Ryan Pace, some Nagy, some both and some the ownership.

There are no doubt there are some good individual pieces on this team, but just to play devil's advocate it's a bit of a fans' bias. I mean, you like the Bears and when the Bears play someone will end up making plays. Every team in the league can look at their roster and grab some names that have flashed or look good in their jersey. The issue a typical Bears fan has is they know their team far more than they do other rosters around the league.

It's the same for all teams. I'll use the Eagles as an example. Just looking at the offense Hurts, Smith, Reagor, Mailata, Dickerson, Goedert and Sanders are all young and flashed. Add in that this team will probably have 3 first round picks and the future looks so bright, right? It's not necessarily the truth. The reality is that all teams have some young players that have flashed. I know those names because I'm rooting for the team, not because I've objectively looked at where they rank in relation to other young players in the league.

Just for discussion I'll do the Lions:

• Swift looks real good for a 2nd year guy.
• Hockenson is the real deal and a constant mismatch.
• 1st rounder Penie Sewell looks to be a starter for the next 10 years.
• Romeo Okwara and Jeff Okudah have a lot of talent and flashed before going on IR.
• Trey Flowers isn't your speed rusher, but he's a good youngish (28) piece.
• They will probably have the #1 overall pick, which is considered an asset.
• I'm sure there's other players, but honestly researching Lions players is exhausting...

Anyway, I hope you get my point. Any team's fans can look at their roster and identify a young core of players worth getting excited about. It doesn't make that specific team unique or better than the next. It just means their fans know some names that give them hope.

 

[JesusHalasChrist]

Jesus fucking Christ

What's up?

 

[Mighty Joe Young]

Good post and the team really isn't in that bad of a spot.

I think the larger frustration is around how the team is run. Some blame Ryan Pace, some Nagy, some both and some the ownership.

There are no doubt good individual pieces on this team, but just to play devil's advocate it's a bit of a fans' bias. I mean, you like the Bears and when the Bears play someone will end up making plays. Every team in the league can look at their roster and grab some names that have flashed or look good in their jersey. The issue a typical Bears fan has is they know their team far more than they do other rosters.

It's the same for all teams. I'll use the Eagles as an example. Just looking at the offense Hurts, Smith, Reagor, Mailata, Dickerson, Goedert and Sanders are all young and flashed. Add in that this team will probably have 3 first round picks and the future looks so bright, right? It's not necessarily the truth. The reality is that all teams have some young players that have flashed. I know those names because I'm rooting for the team, not because I've objectively looked at where they rank in relation to other young players in the league.

Just for discussion I'll do the Lions:

• Swift looks real good for a 2nd year guy.
• Hockenson is the real deal and a constant mismatch.
• 1st rounder Penie Sewell looks to be a starter for the next 10 years.
• Romeo Okwara and Jeff Okudah have a lot of talent and flashed before going on IR.
• Trey Flowers isn't your speed rusher, but he's a good youngish (28) piece.
• They will probably have the #1 overall pick, which is considered an asset.
• I'm sure there's other players, but honestly researching Lions players is exhausting...

Anyway, I hope you get my point. Any team's fans can look at their roster and identify a young core of players worth getting excited about. It doesn't make that specific team unique or better than the next. It just means their fans know some names that give them hope.

Honestly, I think the real frustration is that it hasn't been a smooth road to get to where we are at, and so there is nothing to really inspire confidence that the Bears will get it right. And believe it or not, I get that.

The Bears, for better or worse, took a very uninspiring and winding path to even get their quarterback. We don't get Fields if we don't bust on Mitch first.

But fans are fans, ya know?

I remember when Theo Epstein was hired to the Cubs and laid out the plan for everyone to see, and you still had people stroking out after year one, even though the timeline was told to the fans ahead of time, and there really were not setbacks to that plan, which is UNHEARD of in sports - there's almost always setbacks.

So if Chicago fans bitch when everything goes to plan (and the Cubs even arrived "a year early"), how much moreso when it feels like the team is fumbling around and figuring itself out?


Setting his decision to hire Nagy aside for a minute, for me, I do agree the Bears don't have enough impact players. Its by virtue of the Mack trade and then the capital to move up and get 2 quarterbacks (because the first one busted) - just not enough picks left over to FIND more impact players.

The Bears have the hard part figured out now. They got the QB. in my eyes, go all out on protecting him, #1. Don't settle for what you got on your line. If they do nothing else but that this offseason, I'll be satisfied. Then really push for the special players in the skill positions in 2023 and beyond.

 

[HearshotKDS]

Yes and No.

Things are super dire for a team built to be a Mack led top 5 D, with an Offense that does just enough to win games. That window is closed.

Things aren't very dire though for what is really the "next" Bears team which revolves around talented young pieces like Fields, Borom, Mooney on rookie contracts. The team has a 2-4 year window where they pay key pieces peanuts and can load talent up as much as possible before cap concerns cause the unavoidable shedding in talent. The only real concern is if whatever management and coaching staff the Bears have during this transition will be competent enough to pull it off.

 

[Briggs is GOAT]

If Fields is the real deal then no it isn’t “dire” because the right QB covers up a lot of deficiencies.

But other than Quan and Fields I’m not seeing a lot of difference making talent there.

Well Johnson is a top 10 CB. That's game changing, even if he doesn't make big splash plays.

Borom if he's a good T (which for pass blocking it seems he might be, which is what you want from him), then he's game changing.

Monty and Herbert are a wonderful 1-2 punch (that Monty wildcat is nice) and they'll both be here for next season.

Cole Kmet has a connection with Fields and is kinda breaking out rn.

If ARob builds a connection with Fields over the last 7 games (he had probably his best game against PIT) you think about keeping him.

Honestly you don't need special players everywhere, just at a couple positions.

 

[Bort]

The main problem is that the Bears not only have the oldest roster in the entire NFL, they have only 34 players under contract for 2022. They will need add or re-sign a whopping 19 players (including 8 starters) just to have a 53 man roster. And $40 million is typically a decent amount of salary cap room, but not when you need to either re-sign or replace 8 starters.

And then when you look by position for 2022, you see holes everywhere. Only 1 starting caliber defensive lineman is under contract next year, and if they let Nichols and Hicks walk, the defensive line goes from a strength to a weakness.

Only 4 total defensive backs under contract next year, only 2 of which are starting caliber. Only 1 tight end under contract next year. Ogletree will also need to be re-signed or replaced. Same with Allen Robinson.

Given all that, it's difficult how to see they manage to maintain the current level of talent on the roster let alone improve it.

 

[Black Rainbow]

Thats the point you goober.

If fields develops into an all pro QB, all you need is a great oline and he will have the accuracy to throw those role players open.

The type of QB that can just take over games is like top 3...maybe top 5, but probably not.

There is NO evidence at this point to think Justin Fields is a Brady, Rodgers, Brees type. And even if he is, two of those guys won one SB. All QBs need help for the most part.

You're doing that QB fanboi thing again.

 

[10veitout]

If Fields is the real deal then no it isn’t “dire” because the right QB covers up a lot of deficiencies.

But other than Quan and Fields I’m not seeing a lot of difference making talent there.

Fields talent makes a difference when it comes to helping Bears opponents lol.

 

[10veitout]

Its a good post and you are correct, I think that fans have just been disappointed since the 2018 run because our team hasn't performed up to the talent level IMO due to Nagy.

A good coach and you could easily add 2 wins to the 2019-2020 seasons and that would have been a pretty successful run with likely some playoffs wins... but that is all speculation.

Fields makes all the difference in my opinion. It makes the glass half full. The QB positon is settled, there are some position players to work with and you just have to make some good draft selections to replace some defensive players.

If Fields continues to progress and Rodgers leaves the Packers this offseason, Bears are definitely in contention to win the NFC North.

The QB position is settled? Fields has played atrocious this season.

 

[10veitout]

You need more than role players

The Packers have went through

Donald Driver
Javon Walker
Greg Jennings
Jordy Nelson
Randall Cobb
Davante Adams

they are always looking for the next guy and often tend to go no further then the NFC title game so you have to have more than just role players.

The Packers have as many SB wins since 95', as any team in football, save for the cheatriots.

With that in mind, it makes no sense to criticize them for getting too alot of NFCCGs.

 

[Hawkeye OG]

Personally, with the shape that the roster is in currently, it's not bad but it's not great either. The Bears have some building blocks. Couple young guys on offense, couple young studs on defense, but most importantly they have a QB.

A dire situation is when Pace took over. That roster was just plain bad. The Bears don't need to rebuild, they need to re-tool. Finally took a QB that has some promise, they need to attack the OL this offseason. Shed some bad contracts/aging vets. Find themselves a #1 WR and compliment to Mooney. Also, get rid of Nagy. That's addition by subtraction. I'm fine with Pace being fired too. He's had long enough and no results to show for it.

 

[Mighty Joe Young]

Fields talent makes a difference when it comes to helping Bears opponents lol.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1458167343088082950

 

[Mighty Joe Young]

The QB position is settled? Fields has played atrocious this season.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1458167343088082950

 

[Mighty Joe Young]

The Packers have as many SB wins since 95', as any team in football, save for the cheatriots.

With that in mind, it makes no sense to criticize them for getting too alot of NFCCGs.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1458167343088082950