2021 NFL Season Thread

[southsider2k5]

 

[Panerista]

God I hope we're done with the Packers for the foreseeable future.

90% of organizations would win more than two Super Bowls with 31 years of Hall of Fame quarterbacking.

[StrangeSox]

 

 

 

[StrangeSox]

 

 

 

[StrangeSox]

 

 

 

[MexSoxFan#1]

36 minutes ago, Stinky Stanky said:

And have a nice day.

Thank you, you too

[SoxAce]

 

[Panerista]

 

[bmags]

7 hours ago, Vacheron said:

 

That is very good

[bmags]

This comes after a week where I was seeing a lot of decently convincing “debunking” of Brady, pointing out all of his top ten defenses compared to the other great QBs and hyping Rodgers. 
 

Brady has had some defensive carried games, but at some point our instincts are right- the last two possessions that got nowhere may have happened to Brees, may have happened to Manning or Mahomes as it did to Rodgers.

But it just wouldn’t have happened to Brady. The guy has beaten the doubt out of his biggest haters.

[StrangeSox]

 

 

 

[Panerista]

I feel like the GOAT quarterback should have more Super Bowl wins than Trent Dilfer.

[CentralChamps21]

Robbie Gould 20 for 20 in playoff FG. Is he a HOF?

[NWINFan]

1 hour ago, bmags said:

This comes after a week where I was seeing a lot of decently convincing “debunking” of Brady, pointing out all of his top ten defenses compared to the other great QBs and hyping Rodgers. 
 

Brady has had some defensive carried games, but at some point our instincts are right- the last two possessions that got nowhere may have happened to Brees, may have happened to Manning or Mahomes as it did to Rodgers.

But it just wouldn’t have happened to Brady. The guy has beaten the doubt out of his biggest haters.

Watching the Bucs last week, I reacted like a Bears fan would. Tampa had the ball inside their own ten with a little over a minute to go. I assumed the Bucs would run the ball into the middle of the line and head for halftime. But the Bucs have Brady. A little more than a minute later, Tampa has marched over 90 yards and are celebrating a touchdown.

I am no Brady fan, but he's the best ever. He rarely beats himself, and his team is always in it as long as he's on the field. After all these years, he's still a real competitor. I don't see anyone keeping the Bucs from repeating. Now, if Fields turns out to be just half as good as Brady, the Bears may win a few games.

[Chicago White Sox]

Really not sure who I’d want hired as GM or HC at this point.  Honestly, the fact that Ryan Poles is a finalist for two other teams probably pushes him above other candidates I’d be interested in.  For HC, I’d still want an offensive minded guy there.  Daboll would probably be my preference with Leftwich perhaps second on my list despite some obvious question marks.  Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that Harbaugh, Day, or Roman are in the mix and Caldwell is simply too old for what I’d be looking for.  Hackett simply doesn’t do it for me either.

If we go with a defensive minded HC, I’m not totally against Flores, but the rumors of him wanted more influence over personnel and potentially not liking Fields is concerning.  After him, I’d be pretty disappointed.  Frazier in particular would be a huge letdown and any type of GM-HC arranged marriage would be completely disastrous.  I’m hopeful that we just let Polian pick the GM and then let the GM pick the head coach.  However, a small part of me worries they go with a Brown-Eberflus pairing because that’s what Polian wants.

[Jerksticks]

39 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Really not sure who I’d want hired as GM or HC at this point.  Honestly, the fact that Ryan Poles is a finalist for two other teams probably pushes him above other candidates I’d be interested in.  For HC, I’d still want an offensive minded guy there.  Daboll would probably be my preference with Leftwich perhaps second on my list despite some obvious question marks.  Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that Harbaugh, Day, or Roman are in the mix and Caldwell is simply too old for what I’d be looking for.  Hackett simply doesn’t do it for me either.

If we go with a defensive minded HC, I’m not totally against Flores, but the rumors of him wanted more influence over personnel and potentially not liking Fields is concerning.  After him, I’d be pretty disappointed.  Frazier in particular would be a huge letdown and any type of GM-HC arranged marriage would be completely disastrous.  I’m hopeful that we just let Polian pick the GM and then let the GM pick the head coach.  However, a small part of me worries they go with a Brown-Eberflus pairing because that’s what Polian wants.

It’s tough being the new GM or HC here.  Are they forced to build around Fields?  Fields might suck and then your one shot at GM/HC is over.  
 

If I was interviewing for GM I’d want the option to trade Fields if I felt he wasn’t the right QB.  

[southsider2k5]

No

[bmags]

44 minutes ago, Jerksticks said:

It’s tough being the new GM or HC here.  Are they forced to build around Fields?  Fields might suck and then your one shot at GM/HC is over.  
 

If I was interviewing for GM I’d want the option to trade Fields if I felt he wasn’t the right QB.  

Pace just had like 5 shots at QB. If it wasn’t so clear he’d left the rest of the roster depleted with little room to address it he’d still be Gm

[bmags]

2 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Really not sure who I’d want hired as GM or HC at this point.  Honestly, the fact that Ryan Poles is a finalist for two other teams probably pushes him above other candidates I’d be interested in.  For HC, I’d still want an offensive minded guy there.  Daboll would probably be my preference with Leftwich perhaps second on my list despite some obvious question marks.  Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that Harbaugh, Day, or Roman are in the mix and Caldwell is simply too old for what I’d be looking for.  Hackett simply doesn’t do it for me either.

If we go with a defensive minded HC, I’m not totally against Flores, but the rumors of him wanted more influence over personnel and potentially not liking Fields is concerning.  After him, I’d be pretty disappointed.  Frazier in particular would be a huge letdown and any type of GM-HC arranged marriage would be completely disastrous.  I’m hopeful that we just let Polian pick the GM and then let the GM pick the head coach.  However, a small part of me worries they go with a Brown-Eberflus pairing because that’s what Polian wants.

I thought this was a good run down. Not a podcast I consistently listen to but this was good atuff

https://www.windycitygridiron.com/2022/1/23/22896784/t-formation-conversation-latest-chicago-bears-searches-head-coach-general-manager-brian-daboll-khan

For GM, My number one is Khan. But, I think Brown is a really good candidate - he’s been in multiple orgs and ran both pro and College scouting - and you can’t fault Indy’s scouting in the draft - and that’s when bears pro scouting esp OLine was quite good.

Poles is scary because he’s a lot of what I didn’t want. His youth and single org make it a huge unknown what kind of staff and scouting he can bring. And does he really know what is required to build a successful org when you remove a hall of fame coach? Pace knew how much Brees meant to NO and sacrificed the rest of the team to try and find him - and he was too focused on the leadership side of Brees.

BUT - KC made this guy VP so he can only leave to GM. He’s handled scouting AND contracts. Every team is impressed. That’s more than Pace.

For GM I’m not so concerned. This candidate pool is exciting.

For coach, I am more open to Eberflus than you. People really like him, his players respect him. He’s developed guys like crazy, and I think coaches will see how he stayed under Reich as a loyal coach where he won’t have a problem building a staff - for instance - I wouldn’t be shocked if Eberflus could get Caldwell as OC.

Schematically he seems flexible and smart.

However - yeah, I’d prefer Daboll and I have been sold on Leftwich.

Id also be very excited about Flores though, I think if the new GM liked him it is a sign Dolphins spin took the reins. Both GM and Flores would likely have a plan for OC like Joe Brady.

I won’t lie, Khan seems like a slam dunk. A guy 20 years in an incredible Org, managing the resources to make them consistently competitive. 

 

 

[Chicago White Sox]

1 hour ago, Jerksticks said:

It’s tough being the new GM or HC here.  Are they forced to build around Fields?  Fields might suck and then your one shot at GM/HC is over.  
 

If I was interviewing for GM I’d want the option to trade Fields if I felt he wasn’t the right QB.  

I don’t think our new GM has to be 100% committed to Fields, but I’d be against hiring someone eager to trade him.  This upcoming QB class is incredibly weak, so trading back into the draft doesn’t make any sense.  And outside of Watson, who would be a major risk, I don’t see a veteran QB worth trading for.  Honestly, we really don’t have the pieces to be aggressive on that front.  Realistically, giving Fields a year or two is a no-brainer, even if our new GM isn’t the biggest fan.

Also, my beef is with the rumors of Flores wanting to trade Fields.  Those might be bogus, but I really don’t like the idea of bringing in a coaching candidate who doesn’t believe in our young QB prospect.  And it doesn’t seem like he believed much in Tua and that impacted their relationship some.  Outside of Harbaugh, none of these HC candidates are good enough to warrant that much roster influence right out of the gate.

[Kyyle23]

35 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

I don’t think our new GM has to be 100% committed to Fields, but I’d be against hiring someone eager to trade him.  This upcoming QB class is incredibly weak, so trading back into the draft doesn’t make any sense.  And outside of Watson, who would be a major risk, I don’t see a veteran QB worth trading for.  Honestly, we really don’t have the pieces to be aggressive on that front.  Realistically, giving Fields a year or two is a no-brainer, even if our new GM isn’t the biggest fan.

Also, my beef is with the rumors of Flores wanting to trade Fields.  Those might be bogus, but I really don’t like the idea of bringing in a coaching candidate who doesn’t believe in our young QB prospect.  And it doesn’t seem like he believed much in Tua and that impacted their relationship some.  Outside of Harbaugh, none of these HC candidates are good enough to warrant that much roster influence right out of the gate.

Trading Fields and bringing in Watson would just feel so icky.  Apparently that is Flores guy

[Chicago White Sox]

Another random fact, but nine of the 14 playoff teams this year were led by offensive minded HCs.  The other five teams were the Patriots (Belichick), Steelers (Tomlin), Titans (Vrabel), & Bills (McDermott), all led by former DCs, plus the Raiders (Bisaccia).  I get that’s an incredibly small sample, but the league has been shifting towards more offense centric HCs over the past half decade and there is a reason for this.

Also, if you look at that list, two of defensive oriented guys had HoF QBs for much of their career (not trying to discredit them, but the point can’t be ignored either), one has lost two OCs to HC gigs in just four seasons, and the other guy is about to lose the OC that helped develop their young star QB.  Point is, everything comes down to the QB position and you should want a HC who gives you the best chance at developing one.  Again, give me Daboll or Leftwich to work with Fields and build a consistent offensive system rather than risk having turnover at the OC spot and it potentially stunting Justin’s development.  If we already had an established QB I’d potentially feel different about being a defensive minded HC, but obviously that’s not the case.

[bmags]

6 hours ago, bmags said:

This comes after a week where I was seeing a lot of decently convincing “debunking” of Brady, pointing out all of his top ten defenses compared to the other great QBs and hyping Rodgers. 
 

Brady has had some defensive carried games, but at some point our instincts are right- the last two possessions that got nowhere may have happened to Brees, may have happened to Manning or Mahomes as it did to Rodgers.

But it just wouldn’t have happened to Brady. The guy has beaten the doubt out of his biggest haters.

This was destined to lead to a terrible Brady game lol

[whitesoxfan99]

This taunting rule needs to go away.  Laughable call against Suh leads to a TD for the Rams. So dumb 

[Balta1701]

2 hours ago, Jerksticks said:

It’s tough being the new GM or HC here.  Are they forced to build around Fields?  Fields might suck and then your one shot at GM/HC is over.  
 

If I was interviewing for GM I’d want the option to trade Fields if I felt he wasn’t the right QB.  

I really don’t know why people think “you only get one shot at this” is the case in the NFL.

Ryan Pace was GM for 7 years. In that time, he inherited Cutler, acquired Glennon and Dalton as FAs, traded for Foles, and drafted Fields and Trubisky. For only getting one chance, he seems to have gotten 5. Plus, he had chances to draft QBs like Prescott and Hurts who are now starting other places.

A little more restrictive on coaches I will grant, but Trubisky, Dalton, and Foles we’re all given to Nagy, and if he had wanted someone different he could have worked with the GM on that.

Plus, these guys are paid very well for these jobs. And to top that off, these guys will likely land on their feet. Nagy can be a coordinator again, and if he has success there - we are seeing a few retreads who might get chances this year already. 

As long as your team doesn’t implode like under Trestman, the GM and coach have a number of chances to figure this out Ofer the next 3-4 years.