Chicago, Are We Okay?
Let's kick this blog off with a few moments of zen to get in the right frame of mind
The talent is definitely there. Don't let any trolls get in your head. The Bears made the right move drafting Caleb. He's going to come good. Sunday was absolutely his best game so far. Still plenty of things for him to clean up, but he's improving every week.
We've never had a guy with this much talent. The excitement of that and the weapons perhaps clouded our judgement and our timeline. We saw a team with Caleb Williams, DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, Cole Kmet, Rome Odunze, Swift, and Everett and thought it'd be impossible to struggle offensively. Those names above aren't the problem. The problem is Jones-Jenkins-Shelton-Davis-Wright. The Bears have a ton of very good players on the perimeter. I am not sure they have a single above average player on the line and they definitely have a couple guys who are well below average so far this year. Jayden Daniels looks great to start the year and a big part of the reason for the difference between the two rookie QBs is summed up in one tweet
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You're never going to win with blocking like this. I think Jones is average, Jenkins is pretty average, and Wright has looked rough to start the year, but you'd think he'd eventually come good or average at RT. I'd KILL for average offensive line play from this group.
The last line of the tweet above is saying Poles is on borrowed time. I think that is extreme. He does have three MAJOR strikes against him right now though. In chronological order:
1) Claypool trade
2) sticking with Eberflus
3) this offensive line
It's to the point with this offensive line that Poles needs to be working the phones to get a bonafide starter in here via trade as soon as possible. In order for Caleb to take CJ Stroud's advice of "stop taking those hits" he's going to need a competent interior lineman. Nate Davis being a COMPLETE BUST is sinking this project. I actually thought the line had their best game of the year on sunday and it was still pathetic. You can't let Caleb's development be delayed or stunted because he's never seen a clean pocket. I mean look at how Daniels is getting protected in Washington
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He can just scan the field and pick apart the defense. He's looking great so far, but if he were in Chicago he'd probably already be on IR. Poles HAS to fix this asap. You've got three picks that'll likely be in the top 45 next draft. You've got draft capital beyond that. Go get a center and a guard who can play and then hope you eventually get something out of the 3rd round pick from Yale.
The biggest strike to me though is Eberflus. He's made mistakes in every game this year that puts his team in position to lose. The challenges, the timeouts, the basic things. Just totally unprepared for certain obvious situations like that 2pt conversion. His staff has been unimpressive and he's had to cycle through coordinators already in a short tenure for various reasons.
I do think this team will get better. I think the Bears will win games this year. I think Caleb is the franchise QB. Having said that…it feels like this coaching staff is always going to put a ceiling on this team. You could have a perfect 53 man roster and I think the staff will find ways to lose games with in-game management.
This blog became more doom and gloom than I intended. I do think this is a talented, but unbalanced and imperfect roster. I like that Cole Kmet and Roschon Johnson are featuring more than they had. Add in Keenan Allen soon and hopefully more cohesion overall on offense and this thing could come good. And by good I mean like 8 wins which I am not sure is the best thing for the organization in the long run, but here we are.