Bears Ranked 4th Best Opening

[Mighty Joe Young]

Mack finally got a half a year off after nursing foot/ankle injuries for 3 years it seems. You've obviously got Quinn coming off a spectacular year. If both those guys are healthy and locked in along with Roquan in the middle, you've got the foundation of a defense that can be alright. Manage to find another capable corner and a couple guys who can hold down the middle of the D line and you've got a unit you might be rely on from time to time.

On offense, use Fields to his strengths, bring back Montgomery and shore up the O line and you should be able to at least do fairly well in TOP with the run game and maybe be something more than terrible. Again, schedule falls your way along with a couple bounces and maybe you squeek in with 9-8. That's probably the Bears' ceiling though. Unlikely but possible.

The absolute key to Fields is to maximize his accuracy. He's shown some amazing down the field accuracy which is what a top playoff caliber QB needs, and I'd argue is the most important skill in the playoffs for a QB.

Other things can be fixed, but you can't teach that accuracy. I can't tell you how many times I saw Dak throwing the ball at the feet of his receivers, or Derek Carr overthrowing his guys by 5-7 yards - its just not good enough for playoff football. Jimmy G made some better throws for sure, but even he had some head-scratchers, when you compare him to Brady, Allen, Mahomes, or even what we know of Rodgers.


Its why I am high on Daboll - I think he can get WRs open and let Fields use his speed and accuracy. My #1 concern is that Fields has a place to step up into. Our interior O line is trash tier - too many people overrate Whitehair and Daniels (the latter of which thankfully will be gone).

 

[cameronkrazie86]

I'll be very curious to see the route the new GM and HC choose going forward. I'm in the camp of ripping off the band-aid now, eating the dead cap money and building for 2023-2024 with an emphasis on 2022 being an evaluation season and trying to find as many positive contributors for 2023-2024 as you can and letting them play through growing pains. Regardless of which option chosen, I'd much rather have Fields than any of the QBs coming out in this year's draft.

 

[dennehy]

That doesn't make you contenders, not in my book anyways. Nobody thought the Steelers/Raiders/Eagles had a realistic shot of making it to the superbowl. A contender should be identified as a team capable of winning the conference.

Interesting post, thanks for sharing.

 

[Unannounced Fart]

And why the F*** are the Vikings unanimously seen as a better job than the Chicago Bears? Are you effing kidding me? We consistently play better than them despite our dysfunctional offense the last few years. They have Justin Jefferson and Dalvin Cook. Cool. I'm unimpressed with the overall roster. They hit their ceiling this last decade.

I don't disagree with you, but I think the people who rank the Vikings as a better job than the Bears cite to ownership as being patient, non-meddling, and supportive. Zimmer and their GM got a lot of time to prove themselves. They also have a new stadium and practice facilities. Just taking a guess at the rationale.

 

[Spitta Andretti]

Nobody does it without draft capital and cap space however, and the Bears have neither. Toss in the fact the possibly two of the best players on the Bears roster will be over-the-hill in a year or two (and need to be replaced) and your faced with a ho-hum roster without any resources to change it.

Add to that fact that the Bears seem to have gotten themselves into this mind numbingly stupid habit of drafting a QB, then the next year getting a new HC and GM (Pace and Nagy should have been gone last year).

Has everyone forgotten about Wilson and Watson possibly being available next year? I could see Denver taking a flyer on Jimmy G as well.

top 12ish in cap space but we dont have cap space

shut up moron

 

[westcoast bear fanatic]

If you look beyond the lack of draft capital the main reason the Bears are not considered the top destination is because there is a lack of commitment to winning. If I'm a top GM or HC candidate I feel like most of the other franchises have shown a greater commitment to wanting to win a championship. I think many outsiders view Bears ownership as content with mediocrity.

 

[nc0gnet0]

Not good enough to win a Superbowl. Sure he's an upgrade to what the Broncos had. But he's still not a good enough QB to take them to the promised land. What he's proven in relation to Fields is immaterial. Jimmy G isn't good enough. He's just slightly above Dak Prescott level.

Do the names Nick Foles, Brad Johnson, Joe Flacco, Trent Dilfor, or Eli Manning mean anything to you?

 

[Discus fish salesman]

Do the names Nick Foles, Brad Johnson, Joe Flacco, Trent Dilfor, or Eli Manning mean anything to you?

He probably doesn't remember garapollo almost won a super bowl against the unbeatable chiefs

 

[nc0gnet0]

top 12ish in cap space but we dont have cap space

shut up moron

You are a complete and clueless moron.

Here is a hint dufus, it's more than just looking the number up on a chart, you also have to look at the amount of players on the roster that attribute to that cap number.

 

[gilder121]

If you look beyond the lack of draft capital the main reason the Bears are not considered the top destination is because there is a lack of commitment to winning. If I'm a top GM or HC candidate I feel like most of the other franchises have shown a greater commitment to wanting to win a championship. I think many outsiders view Bears ownership as content with mediocrity.

The problem isn't that the McCaskey's don't care enough about winning, it's that they don't know how to do it. That's why they have been bringing in consultants. If they didn't care about winning, Pace would still be here. They loved that guy.

Here, the problem the Bears ownership has is one of perception. Ted Phillips is perceived to be a meddler. Whether he is or not, hiring the consultant, moving him out of the chain of command, are all good steps to counteract what appears to be the #1 issue the people surveyed seem to have with the Bears job.

Now, does that mean these hires will be right and George/Ted will actually stay out of football operations? That I don't know, but I promise you it isn't that they don't care about winning.

 

[nc0gnet0]

He probably doesn't remember garapollo almost won a super bowl against the unbeatable chiefs

Or that Brady threw a few costly interceptions against the Packers in their NFC Championship game.......

 

[Nelly]

top 12ish in cap space but we dont have cap space

shut up moron

Correct me if I'm wrong but that's before we bring any of our own FAs back?

About the only FA that we're unquestionably not bringing back is Dalton and it's probably safe to assume that Foles will be the #2. That's good as backup QB can cost as much as a solid starting lineman. But there's some other vacancies that are being created here. For one we need to re-sign Montgomery. Hicks and Robinson are a lot of money coming off the cap without anyone waiting to fill their places. Daniels and Nichols would cost a bit to retain (if we do). We're still missing a lot on the defensive back-end with needing at least one more starting caliber CB and safety. Trevathan being cut will save some more money but we need another ILB.

All that cap space could dry up rather quickly just to field some passable starters with all the holes we've got. We're not (and shouldn't be) in the market for more than maybe one major free agent acquisition.

 

[Nelly]

The problem isn't that the McCaskey's don't care enough about winning, it's that they don't know how to do it. That's why they have been bringing in consultants. If they didn't care about winning, Pace would still be here. They loved that guy.

Here, the problem the Bears ownership has is one of perception. Ted Phillips is perceived to be a meddler. Whether he is or not, hiring the consultant, moving him out of the chain of command, are all good steps to counteract what appears to be the #1 issue the people surveyed seem to have with the Bears job.

Now, does that mean these hires will be right and George/Ted will actually stay out of football operations? That I don't know, but I promise you it isn't that they don't care about winning.

Agreed mostly but the Bears are the McCaskey family business. I think there's an air of complacency there because Chicago is a Bears town first and foremost, so the McCaskeys have such a cash cow on their hands. There's no incentive really to step/think out of the box to put a perennial winner on the field because there's no negative consequences if they don't. On the contrary, as said it's a family business and they want to bring people in who they like. When the rubber meets the road, they'll lean toward the feel-good guy who talks a good game rather than bringing in a hard-ass who will get results (not that is has to be a black-and-white scenario like that you get the gist). Maybe that gets bucketed under "don't know how" like you said, or perhaps "don't care enough to make a hard/different decision."

 

[Les Grossman]

It’s crazy how many other teams fired their coaches and GMs are a bad season and how long CHI held into theirs bad season after bad season.

 

[gilder121]

It’s crazy how many other teams fired their coaches and GMs are a bad season and how long CHI held into theirs bad season after bad season.

Is that a good thing? A bad thing? When is the leash too short? Are we jealous of the Jaguars, Giants or Texans? Will Coaches/GMs hold it against a team with a trigger finger that is that short? How about if the team had a quick trigger twice in a row (Emery only had one hired coach).

I don't know for sure, but my gut tells me that outside of the Urban Meyers of the world, cycling through regimes after 1-2 years of substandard performance is not a good general strategy.

 

[Mighty Joe Young]

Do the names Nick Foles, Brad Johnson, Joe Flacco, Trent Dilfor, or Eli Manning mean anything to you?

Yeah, they mean quarterbacks who won a superbowl once about every 5 years between all of them and only one ever been to two.

So tell me, who won all the Superbowls in between the ones these football giants won?

 

[nc0gnet0]

Yeah, they mean quarterbacks who won a superbowl once about every 5 years between all of them and only one ever been to two.

So tell me, who won all the Superbowls in between the ones these football giants won?

All of them have won as many as Rodgers. Again, your point is? Yes, you need a good QB to win a SB, but you don't have to have an elite one.

 

[Discus fish salesman]

Yeah, they mean quarterbacks who won a superbowl once about every 5 years between all of them and only one ever been to two.

So tell me, who won all the Superbowls in between the ones these football giants won?

It's sad that even @nc0gnet0 makes you look like an idiot. At least you are laughing though...

 

[Krogoth]

The Cowboys, Raiders, 49ers, Eagles and Steelers all made the playoffs - and none of them were a serious threat to the real contenders.

The Bears could absolutely be in that grouping next year.

Next year wont be like this year.
The covid protocol made an absolute mess of things.

Once we are beyond that, things will level out.
Any given sunday and all that jazz, but there were WAY too many good teams getting slapped around by garbage teams this year. Much more than I ever remembered.

If Rodgers and Adams are back next year, Chicago will fight for a wildcard with Minnesota, Philly, Washington, New Orleans, Atlanta, And the entire NFC west.
Hell, might as well throw carolina and the Giant in there (giants with their pick bounty).

The Bears are going to need a few lucky breaks, some Josh Allen style improvement, and about 5 or 6 teams to fail miserably in the draft and get nothing but bad breaks to make the playoffs in 22.

If the new coach takes them to the post season, he deserves coach of the year. The bears are in just as rough a position as anyone with the handicap of not having picks or players to trade (they could trade, but they are thin- it would just create a new hole).

 

[Mighty Joe Young]

All of them have won as many as Rodgers. Again, your point is? Yes, you need a good QB to win a SB, but you don't have to have an elite one.

You need a historically great defense if you DON'T have an elite one. And those defenses are harder and harder to come by....