2022 Player movement rumors (Free agency / Trades)

[Dr LBC]

3 hours ago, Trentwannabe said:

This Bear regime doesn’t seem like it’s off to the best start 

These are the consequences of cultivating such a poor organizational culture as they have.  Honestly, Rivera was a bit of a godsend for Washington, otherwise I could easily see them being in a similar state - albeit Snyder, while being a terrible owner, hasn't played it as fast and loose as McCaskey enabled Ryan Pace to do.  I think Poles could dig them out, but it's looking like it's going to be a lot of bad - where the best hope is mediocrity - before there's much in the way of good, and even that I'm not certain is likely.

I like Eberflus and think he'll eventually come good as a HC, but I'm not convinced it will be in Chicago, because neither he or Poles have ever been in a situation where they had to rebuild a culture.  Poles always had the benefit of Andy Reid being the guy who set and dictated the culture, in both Philly and KC.  Eberflus is far more of an X's and O's guy to me, whose greatest success came where Frank Reich was dictating the culture (and had a reasonable culture to start with coming off of the Pagano years; 

[Dr LBC]

On 8/7/2022 at 8:55 PM, JAF-N72EX said:

For a staff who keeps preaching about culture change there's been more distractions and PR hits this offseason than I can remember in any recent year.

See, that's the problem.  I think they know what they need to do, they just don't know how to do it.  So they're throwing the proverbial brown stuff against the wall and seeing what sticks.  To me, the current new Bears regime feels like a bunch of guys trying to follow some sort of "How-To" guidebook (or "An Idiot's Guide to..." if you will) to changing culture.  And the thing with most of those guidebooks are they're great for presenting skeleton of steps to follow, but they never actually explain why you do it and when it comes to changing culture and establishing new paradigms, it's the why that's the most important thing to identify and know because that's what you're going to be selling to everyone else.

I'd contend that you had a pretty shoddy FA despite having a lot of money because all your staff could really sell was "we have a lot of money to spend."  Poles may well be able to succeed, but I would argue his best chance would have been with the rare kind of HC that's been there before and been part of strong winning cultures in the past.  Eberflus is a smart guy, but the best culture that he's come out of was Gary Pinkel's Missouri program.  The Garrett Cowboys teams weren't a strong winning culture.  The Mangini Browns definitely weren't that.  What the Bears needed at HC was a coach that, like I said, was rare; ideally someone like a Sean McDermott who had previously been with a strong winning culture in Philadelphia or, of who was available, maybe a Doug Pederson if they'd have acted quickly on the market.

[Soko]

2 hours ago, KingOfNewYork said:

If you're only good when things are good around you then you really aren't a good player. Everyone told me Sam Darnold needed protection and weapons, turns out he just isn't that good. 

A poor carpenter blames his tools. 

Good thing that’s not what’s being said then. I guess a student who goes to terrible schools their entire life, and then ends up being a bad student - must’ve been doomed at birth. 

You’re a developmental prospect that goes to a team with maybe the second worst coach in the league for 2021, an offensive line that sucks at blocking, decent at best running game (that also ends up sucking because of the OL), a bad WR room, no TEs, a defense you can’t rely on, and then what? You expect a young player to get better and develop in that environment? It’s a hilariously bad take. 

If you want to say that Fields deserves more of the blame and he doesn’t deserve as many excuses as he gets, sure, that’s a hot take, but it’s one you can probably come up with an explanation for. There is absolutely no logical justification for saying that the surrounding cast doesn’t matter. 

[KingOfNewYork]

1 hour ago, Yin-Yang said:

Good thing that’s not what’s being said then. I guess a student who goes to terrible schools their entire life, and then ends up being a bad student - must’ve been doomed at birth. 

You’re a developmental prospect that goes to a team with maybe the second worst coach in the league for 2021, an offensive line that sucks at blocking, decent at best running game (that also ends up sucking because of the OL), a bad WR room, no TEs, a defense you can’t rely on, and then what? You expect a young player to get better and develop in that environment? It’s a hilariously bad take. 

If you want to say that Fields deserves more of the blame and he doesn’t deserve as many excuses as he gets, sure, that’s a hot take, but it’s one you can probably come up with an explanation for. There is absolutely no logical justification for saying that the surrounding cast doesn’t matter. 

It's not a take, it's reality. I'm saying there are things Fields is in control of that have little to do with what's around him. I watched the coaches, offensive line, wide receivers, and everyone in between get blamed for Darnold not developing then he goes to a "better" situation and bomb there. 

I expect Fields to be accurate, smart, improve his footwork, make good decisions, be on time, and utilize his strengths. If you dont then you're building excuses for him not being prepared to be an NFL Quarterback.

[Soko]

34 minutes ago, KingOfNewYork said:

It's not a take, it's reality. I'm saying there are things Fields is in control of that have little to do with what's around him. I watched the coaches, offensive line, wide receivers, and everyone in between get blamed for Darnold not developing then he goes to a "better" situation and bomb there. 

I expect Fields to be accurate, smart, improve his footwork, make good decisions, be on time, and utilize his strengths. If you dont then you're building excuses for him not being prepared to be an NFL Quarterback.

It’s a take, and a bad one at that. All of those things you mentioned - accuracy, football IQ, footwork, good decision making, performing on time, utilizing strengths - how’s he expected to show that, improve upon it, and develop, with hot garbage everywhere around him? Seriously, explain to me how a raw, sophomore QB is expected to get his timing better when he’s got no time in the pocket. Or how he’s expected to be accurate when no one’s open. Or utilize his strengths when the freaking coach doesn’t even practice scramble drills. 

[incoming post about how he’s expected to do all that anyway, something something Sam Darnold, environment doesn’t matter]

[Forge]

One billion dollars

[KingOfNewYork]

5 minutes ago, Yin-Yang said:

It’s a take, and a bad one at that. All of those things you mentioned - accuracy, football IQ, footwork, good decision making, performing on time, utilizing strengths - how’s he expected to show that, improve upon it, and develop, with hot garbage everywhere around him? Seriously, explain to me how a raw, sophomore QB is expected to get his timing better when he’s got no time in the pocket. Or how he’s expected to be accurate when no one’s open. Or utilize his strengths when the freaking coach doesn’t even practice scramble drills. 

[incoming post about how he’s expected to do all that anyway, something something Sam Darnold, environment doesn’t matter]

It's a bad take because you have built in excuses for his potential poor performance. 

The exact reason my Darnold example is being ignored by you. It's okay Fields is amazing, if he's bad yall can blame Nagy again and if he's good then OMG Fields is so good. 

[KingOfNewYork]

Any time any player is bad I'm blaming the environment around them going forward. 

[Soko]

Just now, KingOfNewYork said:

It's a bad take because you have built in excuses for his potential poor performance. 

Whoosh. 

Just now, KingOfNewYork said:

The exact reason my Darnold example is being ignored by you. It's okay Fields is amazing, if he's bad yall can blame Nagy again and if he's good then OMG Fields is so good. 

Your Darnold example is being ignored because I’m not going to entertain that “welp, that was the case with Darnold, so it must be the case for every QB that will ever exist for the remainder of the National Football League”. 

Not at all similar to how you’re ignoring how a QB with no WRs, no playcalling, mediocre running backs, no offensive line, and no defense to lean on, is expected to display things like improved footwork and progressions through reads, lol. 

Guys can play well despite statistics and supporting casts. They also sometimes don’t. You’re pretending that nobody else matters but the QB - and that’s just blatantly wrong.

[KingOfNewYork]

3 minutes ago, Yin-Yang said:

Whoosh. 

Your Darnold example is being ignored because I’m not going to entertain that “welp, that was the case with Darnold, so it must be the case for every QB that will ever exist for the remainder of the National Football League”. 

Not at all similar to how you’re ignoring how a QB with no WRs, no playcalling, mediocre running backs, no offensive line, and no defense to lean on, is expected to display things like improved footwork and progressions through reads, lol. 

Guys can play well despite statistics and supporting casts. They also sometimes don’t. You’re pretending that nobody else matters but the QB - and that’s just blatantly wrong.

I never said no one else matters but the QB. I said Fields can still perform well regardless of what's around him and then I gave areas in which he can show improvements and quality play. If he's throwing bad interceptions and you're like OMG its (Blanks) fault then that an excuse when reality is he should know better then to throw into traffic or force a pass. 

But yeah its all on everyone else, he has no responsibility in any of this. 

[Soko]

36 minutes ago, KingOfNewYork said:

I never said no one else matters but the QB.

 

17 hours ago, KingOfNewYork said:

it doesn’t matter what’s around you

Good luck, dude.

[KingOfNewYork]

28 minutes ago, Yin-Yang said:

Good luck, dude.

It doesn't matter what's around you you can still play well =/= no one else matters but the QB. 

Would you blame a Receiver not being able to get separation on his Quarterback?

[SkippyX]

@KingOfNewYork you can't make people believe in Steve Young in Tampa if they don't want to believe in Steve Young in Tampa. Heck, even Testaverde won 2 playoff games when he got out of Tampa.

 

Its like Lev Bell behind the Steelers line vs the Jets line. Same mediocre to good dude, way different supporting cast.

The greats still separate based on talent but spitting on Nick Foles for 13 bad games on 3 crappy teams does not do much to explain this.

[KingOfNewYork]

15 minutes ago, SkippyX said:

@KingOfNewYork you can't make people believe in Steve Young in Tampa if they don't want to believe in Steve Young in Tampa. Heck, even Testaverde won 2 playoff games when he got out of Tampa.

 

Its like Lev Bell behind the Steelers line vs the Jets line. Same mediocre to good dude, way different supporting cast.

The greats still separate based on talent but spitting on Nick Foles for 13 bad games on 3 crappy teams does not do much to explain this.

You’re talking production. I’m talking about things related to QB play that are not impacted by surrounding talent. If Fields is getting sacked instantly because the line sucks that’s not on him. If Mooney is running open and his misses him wide or sails one over his head then that’s on him and that being Davante Adams or Cooper Kupp instead doesn’t change that. If a guy is open you gotta hit him. If nothing is there on 2nd and 7 you don’t force a pass, you use your legs to buy some time and either get a couple yards or dirt it/throw it away. 

These are the things HE controls. Beyond that the Bears will probably be a tough team to watch. 

[Dash]

6 hours ago, KingOfNewYork said:

I don't care about stats. If he's;

-Accurate

-Makes good decisions

-Protects the ball as much as he can

-Uses his strengths effectively

-Improves his mechanics

Then to me, that's a successful season for Fields. I don't expect a lot of winning or a ridiculous amount of production from him. 

But if he's throwing picks, sailing passes, missing open guys, etc...then that's an issue and requires some consideration as to whether or not he has it. 

Fair enough. Think if he shows all those things consistently against poor/average defenses this year (although there may not be many with the Bears schedule) then they have something there.